Picnic in the Park

On a shady patch of cool grass, in a little local park just a short walk from home, we spread out our red checked blanket and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the long weekend sunshine.

A packed picnic basket.

Homemade banana bread & homegrown mandarins among our picnic treats.

Sitting on our blanket in the quiet park, just us with the whole park to ourselves, was a happy indulgence over a long weekend where restrictions eased here somewhat and we could relax in the outdoors together.

The quiet little park not far from home.

Sir Steve dog came along too, ever so keen on at least the crust of someone's toasted sandwich and perhaps a corner of  shortbread if it could be spared. (Who could resist those deep brown Labrador eyes? Not me!)

 An enthusiastic picnicker.

We soaked up the warm sunshine, the soft grass on which we laid our blanket, the sharing of our simple lunch and the leafy greens of the trees that edge this little local park.

The leafy greens of the park's trees. 

We plan on having a barbecue lunch up at this same park sometime soon. There is a little barbecue hotplate to use under the wooden picnic shelter. I'm sure Sir Steve dog would be very keen on a sizzling sausage or two! 

It was lovely to have the long weekend, and that little bit more freedom, to make the most of the outdoors in our own little neighbourhood. 

Meg

Lately

We are spending all our days at home now like so many others all around the world.  There is work and school to do from home throughout Monday to Friday. Our old wooden table is set with schoolbooks and our study is, for now, a makeshift office. Around and in between this different way of working and learning, there is much that is happily and reassuringly the same about home.

 Homemade pumpkin scones with jam & a dollop of thick cream.


  Fresh, spray-free fruit & veg in my custom-order box.

Crunchy cornflake crackles.

As always, there's much home cooking cooling on the kitchen bench. This nourishes us, sustains us and, in the case of these cornflake crackles, indulges us in a little childhood nostalgia when days did indeed seem more carefree than they do just now. While this refined-sugar free version of these honey joys, is far less sweet than those I remember from my girlhood days, they are every bit as yummy and the bottom still sticks to the patty paper case! 🙂

The first eggplant flower.

A delicate little snow pea flower too.

In the veggie patch, the seedlings I planted weeks ago are growing taller and leafier and the first flowers on the eggplant and snow peas have emerged. The buzz of honeybees, blue-banded bees and teddy bear bees, begins early in this north-facing part of our garden. Our own teeny-tiny little native bees are there among the flowers too but they are just quieter. I am harvesting homegrown lettuce, spring onion, herbs, mandarins and spinach and can't wait to pick the first snow peas to munch on!

A novel & one of those cornflake crackles.

Everyday, I find myself with a book (or three) in my lap which is not that unusual in less extraordinary times either. The pile of books I borrowed before the libraries closed is dwindling. Some of the novels have been ho-hum but I am very much enjoying In Love with George Eliot by Kathy O'Shaughnessy.  It's been quite fascinating to learn more about the life of Marian Evans, who wrote under the nom de plume of George Eliot. Perhaps, when there are no library books left on my bedside table, I will seek out one of George Eliot's Victorian novels to read. 

Little blue & cream drawstring bag.

While my bedside table is emptying of novels, my sewing table has a growing pile of old linens from which I am making little drawstring bags. These are my favoured project right now. Each finished bag is tucked into my present box for later gifting. They are perfect for holding a washcloth and bar of soap or a few packets of flower seeds and a card. While I am often 'distracted' by sewing up these bags, I have made some progress on a couple of unfinished garments too. (If I ever finish them, I'll show you! 😄)

Early morning light along the path.

Each and every day too, there are early morning and late afternoon walks, with each other and our lovely Sir Steve dog, along the winding paths of our leafy neighbourhood. The Autumn light at these times of day is gentle and soft. Quite a way along one path, nestled safely into the fork of a tall gum's branches, there is a precious koala. With a handpainted sign at the bottom of 'her' tree, letting us all know she's up there, this fluffy native has become quite a neighbourhood celebrity! Can you see her way up high in these branches?

A fluffy koala in a gum along a neighbourhood path.

Just as this koala is settled and snug in her tree, so too are we in our home. In these uncertain times, I would not want to be anywhere else. 

Meg

A Quiet Easter Sunday

So much of our Easter Sunday passed as it always does but so much of it was different too.  

A soft felted bunny in a basket.

Tiny sweet eggs and a chocolatey bunny or two nestled themselves into little handmade baskets that I put out, along with our other Easter treasures, atop our old wooden table. This is where our sleepy-eyed son always finds his bounty upon waking and remembering it's Easter Sunday. 

A little woven basket filled with spotty eggs.

After coming in from the garden, where we spent time watering and weeding while our teenage son slumbered on (as they do), we three had breakfast together out on our verandah. Leftovers on toast in the warm sunshine! In other years, our verandah would have seen us sitting and sharing a lovely Easter lunch with my husband's family but this year it's not to be. 

A tiny rabbit on a tiny plate.

Instead, for the Grandma who lives close by, we nestled another chocolate bunny, a handmade washcloth and some soap into a little basket and drove to leave it outside her door. We wished her a Happy Easter from a socially-distant afar which is all we can do right now. For the Grandma and Poppy who live so far away, on a peaceful pocket of land in the far north, we set up a Skype session and were able to see them and talk with them from this distance we all now have to endure. While Skype can't replace the hugs I so wish I could give them, it was something in these surreal times.

A drawstring bag for gathering.

We three had our hot cross buns for morning tea (I did indeed make another batch on Saturday) and a simple lunch of toasted sandwiches which were warm and cheesy and just right for this year's Easter. The afternoon saw each of us absorbed in our own pursuits. While my others completed a jigsaw puzzle, read books, rode bikes and kicked footballs, I gladly curled up and watched Gardening Australia's Easter Special on ABC iview, walked Sir Steve dog and did some more sewing with lovely vintage linens. Perhaps the little drawstring bags I made could hold some of next Easter's eggs.

Three little Easter Bunnies.

In the evening, we shared a meal up at our old wooden table, with its display of little Easter bunnies and baskets beside us. Somehow those little baskets weren't holding quite as many chocolatey eggs as they had been in the morning. Hmmm... I'm pretty sure Sir Steve dog didn't steal any for he knows chocolate is not for dogs! 

This year, it was just the three of us but next year I hope wider family will gather here and we'll be truly together again. How are you spending your Easter time?

Meg

Gorgeous Ginger Flowers

Last Sunday, we took ourselves off on a family outing. We drove up to the sunny Sunshine Coast, our new-to-us ute loaded with a basket of swimming togs and beach towels and an esky packed with picnic food and lots of cold water. One of the places we visited was The Ginger Factory. We took a ride on the old sugarcane train, spotted turtles in the little lake, had a picnic lunch of salad rolls, homemade slice and fruit and wandered the beautiful tropical gardens. Of course, at a Ginger Factory they grow lots of different gingers which means many gorgeous ginger flowers. Here are photos of my favourites:

'Cream Shell' Ginger

A vibrant Heliconia.

The little 119 year old 'Moreton' train.

A beautiful Beehive Ginger.

Pretty 'Red Stem' Ginger

I particularly loved the 'Red Stem' Ginger (Cheilocostus speciosus), in the photo above, for its tall red stems and frilly white flowers. I would love to grow it in our garden here for I think it's quite stunning. 

We drove on, after our time at The Ginger Factory, to Noosa where we watched the annual Surfing Dogs Spectacular, swam in the calm waters of Little Bay and saw a beautifully-patterned goanna (and quite a few scrub turkeys) while finishing off the last of our packed picnic in the Noosa National Park. 

Such a contented way to spend a Sunday visiting places we haven't been for a while.  I hope your upcoming weekend offers you some contentment too.

Meg

Birthday Cake

It began thirteen years ago now, with a little caterpillar cupcake cake for a tiny boy turning just one year old. This year, it was a 13 cake for a much older boy who is now, officially, a teenager. I'm not quite sure where all the years in between one and thirteen years old have gone but I know that every year we celebrate the day he was born with a homemade birthday cake. It's tradition!

There has been a ladybug cake, complete with freckly dots, and an echidna ice-cream cake with chocolatey spikes and a sleepy moon cake for a boy who loved the moon when he was two. Here are some of the special cakes that have held my boy's birthday candles over his years so far ...

 The very first birthday cake I made for my boy.

 For a boy who loved the moon!

 A rather red ladybug with freckly dots!

 An ice-creamy echidna with chocolatey spikes.

 A photo cake for seven!

A simple 11!


12 candles to blow out on this cake.

My smaller boy would happily leaf through the pages of our batter-splattered birthday cake book, the ever-reliable Women's Weekly Kids' Birthday Cakes, and take his time choosing the cake for his happy birthday day. He'd then ask, "Can you make this one?" Now he is older though, he presents me with his own hand-drawn cake plans and asks the same question. I usually respond with a question of my own along the lines of "Just how many Kit-Kats do you want me to fit on this cake?"

This year's birthday cake plan.

A cake for a brand new teenager.

Once the candles were blown out, it took very little time for the cake to be demolished. Whether to have a slice with white chocolate or darker chocolate icing was quite the choice! The birthday boy himself requested a slice with both! 

It does take time to make a birthday cake, to cream that butter and sugar and fold in that flour and melt that chocolate, but a homemade cake also has that one very special extra ingredient...love. 

Meg

Dipping My Toes in the Ocean

We're here! We're not much more than an hour from our home in the suburbs but we've made our traditional holiday "escape", across the magnificent Moreton Bay (see these beautiful photos from Moreton Bay Foundation photo gallery), to our beloved Straddie island, and it feels a world away really from this December and from this year.

A Straddie jetty.

Such true words!

We left home on a scorching 38C day; a smoky haze, from the devastating bushfires that have set the east of our country on fire, thickening the air in and around our city. No rain on the forecast; a dire outlook for an extra dry and extra hot Summer ahead. We filled our car boot with a pared-back load of the essentials. (Our trusty old ute didn't make the trip this year; we no longer fit with any ease across its bench seat, thanks to the seemingly unlimited growth of our almost-teenage son.) There's never been any room for what a lot of shops are "flogging" at this time of year; happy to leave all that behind on the shelves. We have everything we need.

Beach Lagoon.

We so look forward to returning here year after year  (everyone needs something to look forward to, don't they) to all that is familiar about this special place and to see what shifts the sand has made since we were here last. This year, there is a low-tide lagoon on one of the beaches, where we swim in the day-warmed water until it's almost sunset, and a wall of sand along another windswept beach that's been carved out by the power of the waves. Nature shapes the island.

Straddie Sandbank.

This year, I've longed for these Straddie days even more so than other years. Just one glimpse of her as the barge draws near, one afternoon of her cooling afternoon breezes, one dip of my toes in her greeny-blue ocean and I feel at peace.  I love to float upon her gentler waves, my face turned skyward to the azure blue above, and clear my mind.

 

Late Afternoon Waves.

Our fortnight of days on this island has taken us a world away from the searing heat, the smoky skies, the parched landscapes of our tinder-dry country and the Christmas commercialism and reminded us, as it does each year, that life can be very relaxed and simple. We are lucky indeed to have this time here and to know we will always come back.

Meg

Catching Up

Catching up ... like these two kookaburras meeting atop my back garden fence... there's a lot I could natter on about, a fair bit I could tell you with the tilt of my head and a hearty chortle at how life twists and turns out sometimes. Of course, as there is with kookaburras, there would be also that quiet lull of shared silence for things of more thought.

Kookaburras are regular visitors to our garden.

Life changed at the beginning of this year, as I returned to part-time work, then changed again when I left that role mid-year. It was both an easy and a difficult decision; for me a bit like jumping without a proverbial parachute. I felt this leap inevitable not long after I began working within a huge system again but certain things happened, including the ill health of a dearly loved one, that saw me taking that step earlier than I anticipated. I remain very grateful that I had a choice. While my time at home will again not be forever, I am going to relish it for however long it lasts. As Ghandi once wisely said,  "There is more to life than increasing its speed." 

 Mulberries ripening on our little tree. 

 An impossible pie made with spring onion, silverbeet and parsley from our garden.

 Homemade jam drops cooling in the kitchen.

The first tiny yellow tomatoes from our garden.

Here, behind our blue gates, life has slowed down again. While I am currently doing the odd relief teaching day, at a little school I love, I am enjoying the freedom that more time at home brings. My simple days are filled with much loving, parenting, housework, home cooking, gardening, reading and chatting with friends and neighbours and, of course, the highly anticipated daily walks with our elderly Sir Steve dog. I have taken to calling these strolls around our neighbourhood his la passeggiata for their leisurely pace and all the familiar folk we 'bump' into and chat to along the way. It's amazing how many free pats this wonderful Labrador elicits from everyone!

 My new top made from gifted & gorgeous fabric.

What I found disappeared completely when I returned to work, besides writing here that is,  was crafting. I managed to knit half a washcloth in half a year! While I am now almost finished that washcloth, I have recently and happily sewn a lovely top with a gorgeous fabric that was gifted to me by a fellow sewer and new friend. It's been a joy to make things again.  I missed it very much. 

What would you miss the most if it disappeared from your simple life?

Meg

A Quiet Start

Last night, while the skies over Sydney's iconic harbour exploded with all the razzle dazzle of a massive fireworks display, the celebrations here were much more low key. A simple and happy dinner with friends, shared out on the verandah in the cool of the evening, and a sparkler to twirl, as it burned and fizzled in the midnight air, was the extent of our revelry. 

Last year's calendar was promptly taken down, a responsibility our punctual son takes rather seriously, and replaced by a new one for the new 2019. Each new month of this coming year will see us flip the page to a beautiful photo taken of our beloved Straddie. If this year goes as quickly as the last one felt like it did, then we'll be back there again soon!

Sand and sea and sky on Straddie.

The colours inside a shell.

The first of these new year days has passed rather quietly. There was the bustle of breakfast and packing up after the sleepover of our boy's friends, but all fell quiet once they headed off to the cricket. It's a quiet I've thoroughly enjoyed just doing ordinary things. I scattered some parsley seeds in the garden from the flower heads up the back, knitted a bit more of a washcloth, watched two episodes of a dvd I borrowed from the library (such indulgence) and decluttered a few more boxes of old teaching materials in our study. I ate leftovers for lunch and I'll have them again for dinner. My 'boys' won't be home 'til late from the cricket, as it's all the way down at the Gold Coast, so Sir Steve dog and I will be in bed early.  I'll be catching some zzzzs well before midnight tonight. 😴

Happy New Year to you!
Meg

Just In Time for Christmas

We are home just in time for Christmas. There's been rain while we've been away, the grass is long and green and the Poinciana trees in our little pocket of suburbia are covered in their showy red flowers. I think I will pick a spray of them for our Christmas table. So gorgeous and festive!

A Poinciana tree in glorious bloom decorates our neighbourhood.

As I write, a fluffy pavlova is baking slowly in our oven, dollops of meringue dotted around a circle to make a wreath shape. I made it the way Fiona, over at Stay Home Instead does. I can't wait to decorate it tomorrow with lashings of thick cream and slices of fresh fruits.  In many hours time, when I can take that pavlova out of the oven, I'll roast the chicken and the root vegetables for the salads that we'll share with our family for Christmas lunch tomorrow. It's simple, homemade food made with lots of love, baked with plenty of time and seasoned with much gratitude. There'll be leftovers too!

A cluster of Poinciana flowers.

I am looking forward to setting the table out on our verandah tomorrow, with a spray of those Poinciana flowers in the centre, and then sitting down to share the delicious meal we've made along with all the laughter, storytelling, memories and joy that comes with being together.

Wherever you are, and whether or not it is a day of celebration for you, I hope you can spend time tomorrow with the ones you love and that love you.

Merry Christmas to you.

Meg Xx

Where I'll Be

It's a cloudy, overcast morning here so my view, out to the East's horizon, is obscured. A sliver of sea and our glimpse of today's destination, our beloved Straddie island, waits behind that cloudy cloak. By late afternoon, we'll be there.

Where I'll be is not that far away from home but it is a world away from city life, from work and school routines and from bustling Christmas crowds. We'll while away our time surrounded by Straddie's beauty and absorbed in her nature. The mainland will be far from my mind.

I'll catch up with you all again in a few weeks. Until then, I wish you many happy moments as your days unfold.

Meg