This week I noticed that the self seeded tomatoes in the garden are starting to come up, so my green-house seeded tomatoes are right on schedule.

The first of my cucumbers are up which got me very excited about pickle season but also a tiny bit nervous about growing without a poly tunnel this year. Fingers crossed for a frost free summer.



This week the green-house extension began. Or rather the green-rooms. Building on to the sunny side of the house, we're planning a beautiful, bright area with lots of greenery and a big old kitchen table and chairs, a mud room, and a wood shed/room. I've already bought some rope to start macrame-ing up some hanging baskets to dangle down from the roof.

When our friend Annabel the architect came over the other day to pick me up for gym she said she feels like our house is transitioning from the house you see and think - oh wow do Kate and Bren really live here? To the house that looks like our dream home. That makes me happy.

The farm we bought 16 years ago had a house on it that we never loved. We always planned to build another but the children and the business sort of got in the way. Now that we finally do have the time and the head space to do something about it, we're freshening her up to our taste, fixing her up instead of starting again, I think she's going to love it as much as we are.



After deciding last weekend that it was time to cut my losses and pull apart the cardigan I was knitting because it looked like it was never going to fit Miss Pepper properly, I changed my mind and thought I'd do the i-cord bind off up the button band and around the neck and see what it looked like then. After I knitted the i-cord bind off I still couldn't decide (and my model was at school camp and couldn't try it on for size) so I started to knit the sleeves, both at the same time, until she comes home. I'm assuming she'll be too tired tonight to try it, so tomorrow is the day. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it worked!

Ravelry details here.



I particularly love how the Waratahs start out looking so faded until it rains on them and they turn up the colour to bright.

I've loved listening to this podcast about the sports bra,  and this podcast about periods and menstrual taboos.

And I'm half way through and loving Brigid Delaney's book Wellmania.


See that asparagus and spring garlic, just picked by those hands? Well as we speak it's being cooked in some butter with some herbs and tossed over a piece of toast and is the reason I have to love you and leave you now.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Do you have something fun planned?
What are you planting in your garden at the moment?
What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch?
Can you imagine life without a sports bra!! Ouch!

Bye bye!

Love Kate xx

I think we only went to the movies once to see The Nowhere Boys.


I listened to this podcast and became obsessed with fermenting.


I knitted Indi a Peter Pan collar, a shawl, bits of my memory blanket, a beanie and a doll's cardigan that I haven't taken photos of yet.

And of course I blogged on 28 of the 31 days. Mostly very late at night, mostly just snippets of things going on that day, and mostly I loved it and remembered how fabulous blogging is for me.

I ended last year feeling a bit uncomfortable and negative about myself. I can't pinpoint the time when it began but I wasn't feeling very confident and I didn't really like the conversations that were going on inside my head a lot of the time. I feel like the blogging changed that. Something about the writing and photographing and expressing myself and getting your feedback shifted my mental state and I noticed after only a few days that I was feeling so much more positive and sure and kinder to myself.

It is possible of course that it was something else that caused the shift but I am a long time believer in the creativity cure so I'll stick to that.

And this is where I thank you guys. I always like to think that I'd write this blog no matter what, but I'm not so certain that that's true. You read my words and that's brilliant but you also inspire me, and teach me, and help me, and challenge me, and guide me, and that means the world to me. We really are a community. You guys really are the best and my life is so much richer with you in it.

And lastly, I read every single comment on my last post and as much as I'd love to give each of you the prize, and as much as I was looking forward to writing all of your names on little bits of paper and then randomly selecting one - I just realised that I have to send it to Sarah of Say Little Hen who has left me an insightful comment on every single post I have written this month. Thank you so much Sarah please email me your postal details and I'll get your package in the mail this week.

So here we go into February, the month I've been excited for and dreading for ages. Pepper starts school tomorrow and the big girls start their new school on Tuesday. Fingers crossed for a smooth transition.

And as far as blogging goes, I hope to post once but hopefully twice a week from here on in.


Wishing you guys a fabulous and creative and love filled Feb.

With love,

Kate
xoxo


PS the photos were randomly snapped this afternoon.

And then finally, after months and months of deep, dark winter, true signs of spring start appearing in our veggie garden and on our farm. Everywhere you looks there are blossoms, new leaves, shoots and growth. Plants and trees that have sat still for a whole season look like they are finally waking up, stretching out and preparing for the warm days to come.

Asparagus is one of the first and truest signs of spring, after the daffodils.

Every year when spring-time comes I stop my car half way down the driveway most days to check for the green spears. Every year I walk up and down the asparagus row and carefully examine the mounds for any green shoots. I curse myself for not remembering to clear it of weeds better and inevitably snag myself or my clothing on the blackberry thorns.

By the time spring comes along, I am desperate for new flavours. I am grateful for the leafy greens and broccoli that have kept us going for the past few months over the hungry gap, but am keen for something new.

This year I got distracted and after careful searching for days, I didn't get back to the asparagus patch for a week. In this time I had seen localish asparagus at the fruit and veg shop in town and was confident ours wouldn't be too far behind.

And then one fine afternoon I grabbed the girls in between farm chores and together we went to survey the scene. And we were rewarded big time!

With fists full of the glorious green spears.

We wandered up and down the row cheering and picking and tasting and dreaming of the feast we were going to cook up for lunch.

My farmer boy cooked it.

He heated up a knob of butter and a dash of olive oil in a hot pan.
He placed the asparagus in the pan and cracked some black pepper and some rock salt on top.
And then he shook the pan occasionally to coat the asparagus and turn them.
We like ours a bit charred so he cooked them for a few minutes and then tipped them out onto some sour dough and then drizzled the rest of the juice over the top.
And lastly, a squeeze of lemon.

Simple. Seasonal. Scrumptious!!

Asparagus is one of those vegetables that practically grows before your eyes and needs to be picked each day. So over the first few weeks of spring we'll prepare it in every way we can think of. Old recipes and new faves.

Until just like that, we'll get a bit sick of eating it and asparagus season will be over again for another year. Seasonal growing and eating is clever like that.


Do you love asparagus?
What's your fave way to dish it up?

Happy weekend peeps!

xx

Oh springtime, I have fallen head over heels in love with you all over again.

The smell of your sweet pollen filled air, the way you make the farm chores fun, the smiley, playful Maremmas, the fields of daisies, the busy buzzy bees, the shoes instead of gumboots and the tights instead of leggings.

Oh springtime, I love the warmth of your sun on our backs as we fill the wheel-barrow with weeds and cut back the green manure crops and fertilise and plant out the spring vegies in the kitchen garden. There is nothing quite like the planning for the abundant seasons to come after the hungry winter.

I love the way the quantity of eggs we collect seem to multiply by the day in spring and I adore watching our feathered friends find little pockets of sunlight to dust bathe and gossip with their hen friends.

I love watching Jo-Jo run and climb and play without the constant worry about his muddy locks. And that blue, blue sky...swoon.

And I love only keeping one fire going. I am a bit over the constant shlepping and splitting of the wood, I am.

But I think my very favourite part of spring is that feeling of the world opening up again. There are endless possibilities and choices and ways. Like a spontaneous icy-pole and walk around the lake after school. Holding hands and telling stories and joking and laughing. And smelling the sweetest, yellowest wattle and bumping into friends and being in love.

I'm happy.

I hope you are too and that you've had the most bright sunshiney start to your week.
Do you love springtime?
Or is autumn where you're at?
Have you got anything exciting planned for the next few days?
Do tell.

Bye!