field journal

Entry Five:  Summer in our garden

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The last few days have been scorchers 36℃ 48℃ and today 29℃.

In the midst of this heat, I find myself in the garden... picking fruit,

weeding beds, watering vegetables and am about to spend the day

bent over the stove, preserving. I'm hoping to find the time today to 

make jams, pickles and relish from the ever-growing Summer harvest.

I'm also hoping to take a trip to the seaside this Summer. Perhaps, 

spend a day collecting sea grasses, pebbles, shells and wildflowers. 

Maybe that'll be my next entry....

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

field journal

Entry Four:  Succulents in our garden

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Life has been rather hectic! Ari collected these a while ago 

and arranged them for me to photograph. I only just got

around to uploading them yesterday. Aren't they beautiful? 

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

The Summer break is coming up... only one more week of school!

We'll try to be a bit more regular with these posts over the holidays

and see if we can't collect a few specimens a bit father afield... all of

these  beauties were found in the potted garden by our back door.

xoxox

the secret life of insects

I made paella for dinner tonight, and when I sliced through the 

middle of the capsicum and looked inside, there was a little green 

caterpillar (and about a thousand little green caterpillar eggs). 

It just managed to miss the knife somehow. Phew!

It was like a scene from this cute little french animation series....

Ari and I have been watching these together after school lately. 

I think the caterpillar's my favourite of the Minuscule creatures.

Ari calls it 'The Secret Life of Insects'.  Hehe.... so cute! More here.

field journal

Entry Three:  Flowers in our garden

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Ari collected these beautiful flowers from around the 

garden earlier today and arranged them to photograph.

There is such a wonderful parade of colourful blooms

outside his window, just now.  It's truly a lovely sight. 

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

xoxox

These are a few of my...

favourite things. 

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Friends are like flowers, beautiful flowers

Friends are like flowers in the garden of life.

Are you a Daisy? Are you a Rose? Are you a Dandelion?

You can be what you are and I willl be what I am

We can be friends in the garden of life.


I have vivid memories of gleefully belting out this 
little number on my guitar in the church choir when I was 
a child... the hippy undertones resonating in my soul.

If I were a flower, I think I'd want to be one of the strange 
and beautiful creations above. I can quite imagine the 
Dr Seuss-like gardenscape they'd call home.


plaques by herman marie, pillows by colette bream

field journal

Entry Two:  Edibles in our garden

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Ari and I have started keeping a weekly field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

Feel free to create your own and link to it in the comments. 

You can view all our entries here.

today

Looking for something wonderful to do this Saturday?

Fun and festivities in celebration of the ongoing regeneration

 of the Merri Creek and 30 years of CERES. The festival celebrates 

the return of the Sacred Kingfisher to the banks of creek.

For more informaton visit the CERES website here

field journal

Entry One:  Springtime in our garden

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Ari and I have decided to start keeping a field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

We'll try to make this a weekly feature.... please join us.

We'd love to see glimpses of nature from around the globe,

flora and natural objects that you (and perhaps your little ones)

might find in your garden or when you're out walking. 

No rules, just be as creative as you like. Each time we

post one of our field journal entries here, feel free to create 

your own and link to it in the comments section below. 

If you don't have a blog, you could set up a flickr account for 

this activity and link to that.  I'd be happy to tell you how. 

We look forward to sharing your discoveries!

xoxox

in the garden

The weather's still a bit chilly, but we've been getting

stuck into the vegie garden none the less.  Last week we 

planted out onions (red and gold), leeks, carrots, beets,

spring onions, tomatoes, more salad varieties and beans. 

We collected and stored beans from last Summers crop and I'm 

planting some new varieties too this year, including soy beans 

(we are big fans of edamame round here).  I think the scarlet 

runners are my favourite though. The flowers are very pretty (in 

amongst all that green) the dried beans are a lovely shade of 

blush pink, and fresh from the garden, they taste divine!

I've planted out some radishes, rainbow chard, and early Spring 

varieties of cauliflower, brocolli and cabbage too. I'm hoping 

we'll get a late crop of brassicas before Summer hits us.

And, this year it looks like we'll have apricots as well as plums!

The apple tree is in full blossom, but coddling moth destroyed

last year's crop, so I'm not sure we'll have apples. The raspberries 

and strawberries are thriving in their new patches though (we 

transplanted them this year) and we planted blueberries and 

non-suckering blackberries, though they won't fruit yet.

Our herb garden is well stocked and also coming along nicely.

Ah, it's all so exciting!  It's our 2nd year with a big garden, after 

years of inner-city living. I am loving teaching Ari how to grow 

his own food and learning more about the art myself. 

If you live in Australia and you're keen to get a garden going this 

Spring, I'd recommend this book. And if you live in Melbourne, a trip 

to CERES is definitely in order!  We get most of our seedlings there

and our seeds from Greenpatch, Eden Seeds or The Diggers Club.

nature play

love these illustrated playing cards by Hanna Krajni,

wasn't able to find much information on this artist

Sabine Timm via virginhoney on flickr

more illustrated playing cards by Hanna Krajni

nature patterns via botanicals and curios on Pinterest

walnut boats via art and children on Pinterest

 Mortéza Esmaîli Sohi via Atelier Pour Enfants

A few of my favourite nature craft inspirations.

Some kooky 70s nature craft ideas in this book.

nature studies

the eucalyptus is always greener

birds in flight 

field journal 

all via wild goose chase on flickr

The beautiful work of artist Fiona Watson.

I have been thinking about keeping a nature diary with Ari.

Documenting the seasons and the bits and bobs we collect

on our many trips around the countryside, beach and city.

Fiona's photographs are a beautiful source of inspiration 

for such a project. It would be fun to create such 

works with children, don't you think?

Snippets

We've had the Flu. Ari's been home all week. In bed. Mostly.

Watching movies, reading books, drawing pictures, practising

his writing. Sleeping and keeping warm. It's been pretty cold.

We had a couple of beautiful sunny weeks this Winter but it's

 quite dismal now. Still, leaves are budding, bulbs are showing,

and blossom is blooming on the fruit trees. Spring is not so far. 

a winter wedding

We've just returned from a mid-winter hiatus in Van Diemens Land,

where we attended a wonderful wedding in a lovely winter garden.

It was a really lovely wedding.  All homegrown and handmade.

Guests were asked to bring plates of food rather than gifts and a 

most delectable feast of homemade goodies was bestowed upon 

tables decorated with vintage cloths, tea cup candles and jars of

 dried hydrangea flowers, gathered from the garden last summer
and arranged with brilliant bursts of turquoise peacock feathers.

The pegola had been purpose-built for the occasion by the groom and 

hand-stitched bunting, lovingly crafted (from old books, blankets and

sheets) by the bride and her mother-in-law, was strewn from it's eaves.

The bridal bouquets were made from old buttons and the couple's 

garden was dotted with lace and coloured hand-crocheted flowers.

The bridesmaid dyed her hair turquoise to match the colour theme. 

I had the pleasure of creating the bride's elaborate hairpiece...

my past occupation being costumery and theatrical millinery. 

An Opera Singer... the bride treated us all to a surprise performance 

mid-ceremony when she sang a beautiful love song to the groom and

during the reception a mother/daughter duo belted out old time tunes 

 on a most whimsical hand-crafted electric piano and an old washboard.

Ari, J and I danced up a storm in the beautifully decorated hallway. 

It was one beautiful day in one very beautiful corner of the world.
You can take a closer peek at the hairpiece on my other blog. xox

whirligig.

I love these eclectic creations by Hutch Studios

 I have a wee bit of a thing for whirligigs and the like.

A bit of whimsy like this would look lovely amongst 

the wild strawberries & winter blooms in our garden.

'Artist and designer Chris Theiss repurposes old junk to hand 

make extraordinarily fun and whimsical creations.Every fence post 

in front of Hutch spins with one of these clever contraptions.'

...in the artists own words

It would be fun to attend one of these workshops and 

La Conner looks like a very pretty little town to visit.

If only I wasn't half the world away here in Australia.

xox