Thank You February.

It is dark this morning as I type this.

It is on the cold side too and although there is only a slow pitter patter now there was a heavy downpour through the night.

I also know that when the weather is so I will not be able to connect in any means or form ~ and that is alright. I am at utter peace with this. Strange how in days gone past this would have been so very frustrating and this frustration would have led to obscene curse words and an irritation beyond words could describe. Strange how things were then. It is very liberating to say the very least.

This month has been such an exciting time. Not only have we learnt a whole lot from our new Homeschooling lifestyle but we have also learnt what it means to start living a more frugal simple lifestyle. We are now a one income family with Rob trying hard to keep us afloat while I knit you all up one hat at a time to contribute to it all. It has also been a difficult month emotionally. Tristan leaves next week for China and I have spent the month watching him finalise his visa, sell off all his furniture from his bachelor/student year down the coast and now we finalise all the last bits with the bank. It is exciting and worrisome and the anxiety... well, I am sure you can imagine. But, I am pleased for him - this new life he will build for himself away from the tribe. It is going to be mighty interesting to see how the month to come will be for our home without the eldest child here.



FEBRUARY ROUND UP

Knitting ; I finished off Danika's Pullover, 2 Beanies for Tristan in Variegated colours, 1 purple (barney purple) with heart motifs for Danika and 1 gorgeous green with diamond shapes (crystals to be exact) for Garren. Joshua wants one in white with bright pink. I don't have white at the moment and know he is just being sassy. So, I have suggested he think about what he wants first and then let me know. I have also added a plain purple toddler beanie to the Shop. After a number of DM on Instagram as to whether I would be willing to sell my hats I decided to give it a bash. I will knit one up every so often and add it to my online store. I will still be taking on commissions - so email me. The prices will be on the shop to give you an idea of what they will be sold.

Reading ; there hasn't been much reading happening. Besides that of lesson planning and the occasional swipe of the finger as I go through my RSS news feed or Instagram feed. I had hoped that we would have found our way to the library. But, not yet. I cannot venture there on my own with the children. I have to wait on Rob to get us there. It isn't in the safest area of town. So, we will just keep reading what we have on the shelf. Which is Charlie & The Chocolate Factory for Garren and a line or two for me from Jane's Delicious Gardening by Jane Griffiths. I am looking for the Anne of Green Gables series to reread. I love them as a teenager. And I would love to get Dicey's Song for Garren to try out too, it was another one of my favourites when I was his age.

Gardening ; I posted a garden update HERE a week or so ago. Since then we harvested a couple of Shu-shus for Friday night homemade take-out night. It was a great success. The hedge is bursting with fruit - what we don't use up soon will be heading home with guests from Tristan's farewell supper on Saturday. Otherwise, in garden news, I am heading off to harvest more Thyme for the dehydrator later this morning.




Watching ; from the beginning of the year we disconnected our DSTV and invested in Openview (which wants expensive at all). It offers the basics - a couple of movie channels, a learning channel, a kiddies channel, our usual SABC 1 2 3 and of course the ETV channel. It also offers a good couple of radio stations, especially the one we love. LMradio, a Mozambican station that plays good oldies. Even the jingles are set to dates before our time. Rob and I are smitten with it. But, in saying all this we don't really get to watch much. LMradio blares beautifully through the day and then gets switched over to BBC news from around six in the evening. If there is a good movie on over the weekend we will turn over to it. Otherwise we don't screen time too much. What I did do this month though, is order a few good old dvds from Takealot. The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, The Secret Garden, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins and Charlotte's Web to be exact. They are still in transit. I have plans to choose one of them each week and let the small (and big ones) get to know a little of my childhood. I cant wait, it is no secret. I do hope they arrive soon so we can get started. Do you have a favourite golden oldie to suggest for us to get?





Cooking ; this month I added a new Zulu / South African traditional dish to our Saturday night supper. I started off with good old faithful Putu-pap, which I had never known how to make but sure knew how to devour in bowl fulls every time Rob's Mama made it. So that was a huge accomplishment for me. I then proceeded to add Samp & Beans which started off a little dry but by this weekend gone I was able to accomplish a little more gravy to stick around after standing for a bit. Cabbage was on special last week! Can you believe that buying a Cabbage is ridiculously expensive around these parts. I got it for R6.99 and was pleased as punch to add it to our meal this weekend. Curried Cabbage with a little soya bean. Did you see it on Instagram? It was a good food weekend to say the very least. I ended it off on Sunday with homemade custard slice and I think that earned a whole galaxy of twinkly star points with all the boys (especially Rob) and even with our little Danika. Speaking of which, She has taken it upon herself to only eat if fed by herself with a grown up metal teaspoon otherwise don't even worry about it. What new meals have you got planned for the week? Jennifer over at Thistlebear posted a delicious looking Slow cooker shredded chicken + easy enchiladas recipe which, of course, I am dying to try out. I have been slow cooking my chicken for weeks now - as there is almost zero wastage. The meat just falls from the bones and is delicious in my Chicken & mushroom pie and chicken a la king nights. Cooking up a whole chicken works out so much cheaper than buying pieces. That's how we roll these days.


Homeschooling ; we have completed our third week of homeschooling. Well, first month. We did informal assessments at the end of week three and it seems we are on track. We are still placing our footing as to how we want lessons to go. The layout and times that are set up as a guideline are not really working for us. We are finding that just as we get started on subject and it all gets super interesting we have to move on to the next one. We started lessons a little different this week. The mornings start with Math and English and then go through one subject a day for the rest of the week. With reading out loud in both English & Afrikaans in the afternoons while Danika naps or I prepare supper. I will let you know how our new lesson plans fare as we go along. Do you home school? How do you work out your lesson plans?



Hoping : for this new month for Tristan to be happy and find peace in this new country and city that he will be flying to. I also hope that we can slow down a little more. I am still training myself to stop and breathe and remember that this new lifestyle was indeed for us to do just that. SLOW down and enjoy the small things. I also hope that this silly little stye in my eye decides to heal up soon, I have never had one before and I would not wish it on my enemy. I also hope that this new month - the month that brings in the tweaking of Autumn and Mabon, my most favourite season - brings you all happiness and just enough of everything your heart desires.

cheers to February, hello there March.

Love always, Angela XOX

Welcome February

Thank you ever so much dearest longest January. 

You were kind yet oh so very long. You gave us bountiful harvests from the veggie garden, plenty of outside time in the cooler afternoons and near the end of the month a magnificent downpour to wash away all that heat and dryness. 

And, you finished it all off with the most magickal Blue Blood Full Moon in Leo. 

That was quite something to experience even if we could not see it for all the cloud cover.

Welcome the month of February. 

The month that begins our first harvest, known as Lughnasadh. The month of Valentine and all the commercialism that comes with said day. Welcome the month that has been anticipated for such a long time. The month that starts our adventure in homeschooling Garren and this Mama seriously working on a more minimalist life for her whole Tribe. 

February also brings a trip for the day to the coast to collect Tristan's Visa to head off to China in March and with that the final month before he departs on that big plane in the sky to start his life on another continent of the world. 

Bless you January!...  

February please be ever so kind to this Mama Bear and her Tribe.

BEing

it seems like a lifetime has passed since I was able to log on…

it is the strangest of weather we have been experiencing. Grey days filled with all the same shades that are our clouds and where even my moods have been mirroring the same feels. So very unusual for this time of the year. When the clouds linger longer – all sleepy, covering the tips of the pines – there is absolutely no connection technologically with the “outside” world. It’s wonderful and frustrating all at once and in days gone by this may have been my own personal tragedy, but I’m finding the older I get the more I am at peace with just BEing and eventually catching up again when the time is right. When it is all meant to BE. And this old newness of BEing is utterly liberating.

my home, is alive. Alive with sounds of children playing (even in the fine mist drizzle), weavers busying twittering about their new nests, cricket orchestras slowly beginning their tunes earlier every day. It is alive with the sounds of Summer. Albeit a grey one.

 school is done for the year and we are counting sleeps until Midsummer’s Eve. When the longest day of the year is celebrated in remembrance of the light that has been and a time to reflect on the darker days to come. A cycle within a cycle within another. As always proving that all things are connected.

day jobs away from the Cottage are done until the new calendar year begins and a celebration in the home and of the home has began. Twinkly lights flicker through the branches of the ol man-made tree we were gifted umpteen years ago and alarm bells have been placed on silent for the next wee bit of the seasoned holiday. Thoughts are on days of festivities, on feasts, on togetherness with those we hold close to our hearts. It is a time of BEing, in the moment, in the present, in the home with what makes our hearts beat in rhythm.

In News.

 

.. this will be my catch up post ..

I haven’t updated for a bit now, it seems I may still be on a slow and steady recovery and self healing from my stint in the hospital a week or so ago. I am absolutely fine, really. You go in for a certain thing and come out knowing a whole lot more about yourself in other things.. things that you didn’t actually go in for, yes it was one of those kind of visits. I dont like hospitals and my stay was not a happy one.

I am trying to find my footing again and this weeks’ temps seem to have dragged us back into the chill of winter. I was just chatting with my bff Drisana, from Eternal Bloom Farm, saying that I may have conjured up Winter again here in Africa by dreamily gazing into her beautiful white snowed moments captured on her farm. But the chill wont last for long, according to Rob, we have wicked highs approaching from Sunday again. The boys will be able to get their daily splash fix in soon again.

Witchling Update: Tristan is gathering information about teaching in China (yes, you read right!). Joshua is studying for his year end exams (may the end of it come soon – I beg). Garren is drawing and colouring and planning his first penpal letter (it’s a process, so I am told). And, Danika has taken her first few unaided steps in life. This is all marvelous and wonderful and all emotional, this thing of growing small medium and large beings so that they can one day fly the coop.

I’m trying to take it all in every inch and every second of it but it seems to be going by ever so quickly and I am battling to catch my breath along the way.

Woolen Wips Update: I cast on for a Tunic for Danika after frogging the last one 5 or so rows in. I struggled to knit it in the round on dpns and the dk skein I cast on in wasn’t soft enough for me. Rob then treated me to a new set of circulars and a couple of pretty skeins in mixed pinks for me to work with. I love this and it feels so right even the gull stitch is so much easier than I thought it to be. This tunic may end up being lovely after all. I will keep adding updates to my ravelry account – Are you a raveler – lets link up?

Kitchen Garden Update: There hasn’t been a whole lot of sunshine this past week. It almost feels like my wildlings have paused for a moment. (like their mami, to breathe and regain some strength again) But, in saying this I must add that bold shoots of bamboo have been cut for the 4th and final raised bed. It has been a long messy road and I cant wait until it is finally in so that I can pretty it all up with new fresh wildlings. I am sure Rob cant wait either, he has put the patio on hold to get this complete and I know he is itching to get back to adding the last beams and roof and the end of the tile work. It is going to be so magickal. How are your gardens fairing thus far this season?

 I got mail today… and in the mail was the perfect trio of witchy happiness for this ol’ Witch Mami’s heart! Thank you to a very special old crone who contributed and I was able to get the whole set. (she is my fairy crone mother) AND, of course, Thank you Anna Hoffman for the words I am about to devour. To you all, I wish you a peace and love for the weekend ahead. I will see you all on the very last word on the very last page of my new reads.

 ps. belated beltane blessings my friends. I was released from hospital just in the nick of time to do a little lighting up of the sky with my tribe. you can see our small clip here.

Earth-ing.

we have been spending a whole lot more time outside thanks to the seasonal weather..

Although there are days were a tie-dye of grey covers the sky the temps are still pretty warm right into the evening. we are in for a good Summer ahead. Our pool pump has gone to the workshop for a service and it always amazes me how fast it can change from brilliant clear sparkles to a luminous green. But it will be worth it once the pump is all happy again and the pool all clear again just before the heat sets in for the December holiday.

It is the last stretch of the school year for the young men folk here at the Cottage. I watch on and see that they are all weary from the year that has been and that they are mustering the last strands of energy they have to just get through this last lunar cycle. We see Josh only on occasion as he takes impromptu breaks from his studies in his cave, to join us, and I try to make sure there is ample amount of earthing and love when he does.

how are the seasons fairing your side of the world?

His Seventeenth.

and then we celebrated another special day. his 17th...

His is always the last celebration of the birthday year for us. When he was so small he always would say that we loved him last because he had to wait until everyone else got to have their special day first. I always said it because we saving the best until last. (and that I may want him to stay my little boy for just a little while longer.)

Dearest Joshua, may the next 17 spins around our Sun here earth side be just as wonderful crazy and incredibly marvelous just as you are my dearest boy. Thank you, thank you for choosing me!

Saving The Bees

I can go for days without picking up the newspaper or switching on the television news. 

Really!! Who wants to see that kind of doom and gloom? 

I leave that reading and watching up to Rob and if there is anything of concern that needs to shatter my perfect little world of raising my boys, collecting eggs, clinking up a woolen project or watching the timer for my bakes in the oven he will be sure to let me know.

My little world has been all perfect and filled with the rays of summery sunshine until dearest Betty had asked if I had flipped to page 3 on Tuesday mornings paper.

We have been planning on 'raising' bees for, lets just say, "quite some time now". It's a little on-the-side-line-passion I have had for years. We need bees for food (in a nutshell) thus without the love of the bee we would die!! Although very vague and dramatic as I am  it is still true. Bees are needed for pollination thus the farmers of fruits and vegetables rely on these beautiful buzzers in order to grow luscious crops to feed us. 

Not only that but they are also the makers of my most sort after beeswax and honey that I covet!

So now, can you imagine my gasps brought forth as I read page 3 with headlines 

"Disease Threat For Bee Farmers"

Let me elaborate a little more ~ The story line goes like this.

The disease (AFB aka The America Foulbrood Disease) that has taken out the buzzers in parts of the Western Cape is threatening to descend upon us here in little Kwa Zulu Natal.  Now for those of you who are unaware of this disease... Its ugly! It is a bacteria that infects the bee larvae which results in their death. The bacteria then releases billions of these nasty spores into the the environment. There is no treatment for this and it is so highly contagious. So contagious in fact that the bacteria is carried in the honey products, your bee farming equipment and on other bees too.

"This disease has the potential to wipe out all the bees in South Africa." ~~~ I sob!!

So... now... what can I do?

I know that our little natural hive of buzzers that we have in the thicket of our bamboo forest will have to be moved into a man-made hive. Thanks to Betty's husband who will be aiding us in this. We will  then have to register our new hive!! And our new hive will have to be monitored on a regular basis. 

By who? At this point in time I am not a hundred percent sure.

This will be a project we will have to grow and nurture not for ourselves as our thoughts were in the past but rather as our place on Mother Earth to help save Bees.

Angie xxx

Welcoming the warmth

 

 

In days long gone the people of the old ways would welcome in the beginning of the warmer half of the year by driving their cattle into summer pastures. Special bonfires were kindled and the smoke and ash from these bonfires would be used to protect their cattle and homes.

This year we celebrated the welcoming in of Summer by lighting beautiful lanterns and sending them off into the beautiful night sky. 

Bright beautiful warm blessings from our home to yours for the new Season.

Love

Angie xxx