Lately...

I've been...

playing with lego
washing and folding
nature walking
fretting
dreaming
baking zucchini slice
posting
kid-wrangling
photographing
making soup
snuggling

and buying a house!

Words and Pictures - School Lunches

Joining in on Pip's little task, I had a flashback to the feeling I got when I'd open my (brown) lunchbox at primary school on a day when Mum had decided to give me a little brown treat in my sandwich. The bread was always wholemeal (brown again) and following the colour theme of the seventies, so was the milo inside my sandwich!!! I think it was even sprinkled onto cream cheese instead of butter. (Is that right Mum?)

I always felt a pang of love for my mum when I tucked into lunch, no matter what was on the menu, but on a day when a milo sandwich surfaced, the lovegush was a little bittersweet (ahem) as milo on wholemeal really wasn't to my taste. I love a bit of milo everynow and then but usually in a glass of milk, preferably with less milk than milo so it's really chocolatey. An occasional variation on the theme was with added walnuts. Mum, what were you thinking? xx

Happiness Tree

Several weeks back the lovely Amber tagged me for the Happiness Tree award. Fitting really, as Amber's blog always reminds me to notice the beauty in my day to day life and be thankful for it. So here are 6 little branches of my tree.



1. Daylight in Autumn. There's something about the light at this time of year. A clarity and crispness combined with the chill of the mornings and change of colour in the leaves as they prepare to drop.



2. My little family. My folks. My peeps. Those who(m)? I share my home with. They make me laugh, they drive me crazy and are the main trunk of my happiness tree.

3. Morning coffee. A vice. A necessity. It makes me happy. Image from here.


4. Interiors Magazines. I spend way too much time reading/devouring them and way too much money buying them but I justify this addiction by telling myself I am building up a reference library for our future renovation projects. (Hehe) The above image from Toast. I reel in horror at the thought of desecrating a mag by ripping out a page so instead I have been a total geek and scanned favourite pages into my computer instead (as demonstrated by my dodgy scanning skills). Most images here are from InsideOut Magazine. Probably my favourite and my best.

(See how difficult I'm finding this keeping to only 6 things that bring me happiness?!)



Image from Isophotography but I've totally lost the link.





4a. Beautiful Photography of pretty things. I can't get enough of it. (See no 4) Beautiful images are soul-soothing and uplifting. The ones above are all from InsideOut magazine- I think! If I have swiped one from your blog I apologize in advance and am happy to credit you. My labelling and record-taking skills are up there with my scanning skills...

5. I have always had a thing for an earthy, ethnic aesthetic but am pretty particular about it. Think tribal kilim rugs, Indian woodblock printed fabric, old Chinese elm sideboards, French country kitchen tables, collected stones and driftwood and other organicky, natural things. Handcrafted, earthy, simple, lovely.


6. Vegie Gardens - organic, creative, chooky ones. With fruit trees.

7. My friends, particularly my other mum friends - none of whom even know about this blog. In this phase of my life they help show me that I'm not doing it all wrong. Or maybe I am, but then they possibly are too. That's comforting. A bit.



8. Yoga. I've let my practice slip and I miss it. My body's missing it more. It's time to get back to class.

Ok that's 8 not 6 but that must just mean there are lots of things that make me happy. Lucky, because there's also a lot of things that make me cranky. If you've made it this far though, you probably won't keep reading if I start that list...

At risk of breaking blogger bounds, I'm not going to directly tag anyone but if you'd like to share your own tree of happiness, please do.
xx

Who Woulda Thunk...

...this is about 5kms from the city?


Our morning walk today turned into a big play in the park, a duck feeding session, a 'chino' and a 40 cent ride! Must be the cheapest in Melbourne.


One satisfied customer.
Just as we are planning a move further out of town, I am becoming more attached to our suburb, our street, our community. This labour day weekend has been filled with jobs done, feasts consumed, children running amok through the house and garden and earthquakes.

How many of the neighbour's kids can we squeeze into one teeny little cubby? Uh, there's four in there.

Market Wednesday

In lieu of living our (my) Agrarian dreams my little girls and I regularly visit this place - a hub of community activity, organic fruit and vegies from the Wednesday and Saturday market, permaculture, chooks, sandpits, lunch and unfortunately pretty crap hot drinks. Regardless, CERES in Brunswick East rocks it for us and today, being carless, I packed up the girls and overcame my public transport hesitancy, and bussed it on over. Not that hard really, considering the bus stop is close to home, has some kind of fancy wheelchair and pram low-riding facility, and dropped us off at the doorstep of our destination. Said hesitancy has something to do with my control issues but that's another story. PT is important to reduce avoidable car trips and the bus ride was fun with excited 3 year old and (temporarily) mellow baby.

The 'fwod' pond.

For urban children, and parents for that matter, this place is a gem in our twinkling city.

It's past midnight and I can't think of a title.

I've had trouble getting a post out this week as a smoky haze in the air and in my lungs constantly reminds me of the bushfires that have been raging through the Victorian landscape this week. I'm feeling somewhat traumatised by the stories of suffering experienced by people and animals, as are so many bloggers.

I'm also a little spooked by the changed fire behaviour seen and the so-called 'mega fires' that we are starting to experience. This excerpt from an article in The Guardian doesn't help that feeling.

"Despite the political rhetoric, the scientific warnings, the media headlines and the corporate promises, he would say, carbon emissions were soaring way out of control - far above even the bleak scenarios considered by last year's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern review. The battle against dangerous climate change had been lost, and the world needed to prepare for things to get very, very bad."


I won't post fire pictures or links to appeals, as just about everyone I'm reading has it covered so I'm sure you're onto it. Instead, I'll give you a butterfly.


The lovely Amber has tagged me for the 'tree of happiness' meme which is all about gratitude and contentment. While I'm so grateful and happy that I didn't lose any loved ones or my home in the fires, i'll work on a list that includes some other things that help my tree of happiness grow.
xx

Mmm

A hot day drink as suggested by Victoria. Icy, fruity, nutritious yumminess.

Could've had a bit longer in the whizzer though.

I wonder if my kids will grow up and think I was a bit weird the way I would often stop them from consuming their meal or drink for a minute so I could take a few snaps first. Hmm.