Farewell May.

My grade two-er is having the busiest school term to date. Sports festivals, class projects and family assembly's and there is still a whole long list to come before the school term comes to a close. I am trying to keep up with it all and have to take a step back, every so often, and feel very thankful that this time around there is only one small one to completely and obsessively dote on while in state of pudding brain. I seem to be blessed with the perfect spacing between each of my boys and now starseed.

Josh is still very much in study mode though he had taken this past weekend off to head coastal and spend it with Tristan. I sent him off with bakes for his older brother and flat mates - in vain hope that I will not be forgotten in it all. oh, the woes of a mother of much older children. Lets hold thumbs, shall we, that said bakes made their way to destination without sticky fingers finding them first. There were stern orders, but you know how teenage boys are. For our close friends and family the boys will be sending out their news on a monthly basis too. I had hoped to help them start it sooner, but you know how it goes…. I suppose better late than never? If you want to be added to that mailing list let me know.

On the home front - the girls have started laying an egg each again. Thank you girls! I had no idea how lost I would feel without these little treasures and how expensive and totally tasteless supermarket eggs have become to me while in waiting for them to give up on being broody. The bigger forest veggie patch is growing in leaps and bounds, so much so that, Rob has had to construct a bamboo teepee for the climbing purple beans. I had given up hope on the colourful carrots but on closer inspection they are there growing through all that rough African soil. We are still harvesting homegrowns from our backyard veggie patch. There isn’t much left in there except for spinach, celery and Oupie’s Chillies. I'm raising the likes of Pop-Eye men and boys around here, so there can never be enough of the green leafy goodness on their dinner plates.

The month is rapidly coming to a close and I have been working on my first Acornkids newsletter that will be sent out in the first week of the new month. I’ve tried to en-capture all the specials and relevant information needed in links in the one email without over doing the whole layout and then ending with something that is way to busy and disorientating. I hope my dear customers will be pleased with it. I will also announce the winner of Garren’s facebook Giveaway in it too. I am hoping to try and keep most of the marketing and business updates to email. I have hope that I will have my small business more organised before our new arrival’s earth landing come October. The email is a work in progress and I do hope you will reply with constructive feed back. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so by clicking HERE. Please note this is for South African residents. We have not yet ventured out to distant shores.

On the homemade front - my lippy love is a much loved winter commodity around these parts, who would have thought? I haven't added it to the store as it really is so much cheaper than actual postage. But, for those who would still like kissable lips this winter let me know *insert-wink-here*. AND… well, you will still be finding me in the kids school parking lot in the early mornings and late afternoons clinking away at them needles - if you see me there come on over and say hi!

I hope your new month ahead is blessed with all that you need.

Quiet time.

Ive been trying to catch my breath. The week gone by seems to be a blur of school activities, late nights and not much sleep.

Garren had his Day and Night Soccer Festival on Wednesday evening and I’ve become one of those Mums who “run” the side field with camera phone in hand yelling happiness at my team. Who would have thought? The evening ended late and trying to get smelly dirty boys cleaned up afterwards when we were without water, yet again, has become tiresome. The novelty may be slowly wearing off. This has continued on and off through the week. There is also the start of our very first grade 2 project about frogs – more about that in a later post when we are done. And, Joshua is almost non existence, he appears only for snack breaks. This is sure sign that exams are just around the corner. This time of the term my home is very quiet - you would think by now that I would be used to that? I got message from Tristan, all is well in Durban and he is still loving student life away from home with his friends in his digs. There were plans for him to be home this weekend, but as per the life of a young student, something has come up and so we may only see him again the following weekend? Rob finally completed the foundation for our water tank. He has been obsessed with this little project for months, so its good to see him use up some of that pent up obsessed energy. The foundation looks quite professional. He really has a knack for home improvements and maintenance. The extended veggie garden is growing beautifully, I must admit I wasn't sure the seeds would take being that we started so late, and strangely I was happy with that. BUT the seeds are all growing and happy and I am so pleased. Watering is Rob’s job at the moment. It is just too dark by the time we get home from our day out that it really does shorten our day by a good couple of hours which does make me miss the Summer months.

I haven't started on any new reading. Sadly my e-reader broke. The strangest thing really, I have never seen anything like it. I went to get it in the study to find a pattern I had saved and the battery had popped! Not really an explosion but it popped up and broke the front half off the reader from the back half and well… now it will never work again. I wish I had backed up the hard drive, but alas not, so I will be starting a fresh with my collection. So, for now, I am still flipping through the pages and making notes from a “real book” Home Herbal by Penelope Ody. I have finally found where I can get my grubby little paws on Wood Betony for my collection and I hope to go coastal to collect rather than have it posted. I may just add a few other herbs and oils to my list to really make it worth our while. I suppose, I should prepare Rob now for the bill?

The Starseed Sleep Sack is coming along I have changed the original pattern a little. I got the idea while reading Elizabeth’s Farmer’s Market Hat pattern (its next on my hat to make list). Instead of just flowing from one colour to another I’ve just been knitting one and purling one in the first row of the new colour. I thought it quite pretty.

There were so many moments in pictures I could have shared here – but this one just spoke to me. “Sunday quiet time with growing belly, godchild and knitting….” was the title for this instagram share. It was the most restful moment of the week.

joining dear Ginny and Nicole

Last of Autumn’s Gardening

We have spoken about starting a new vegetable garden for years. One were we can experiment and grow veggies that ramble wild and climb high but of course for that one needs space. This we have, not acres but somewhere slightly bigger and a special area where all that goodness can be left to do it’s thing.

This empty space was completely overgrown with high shooting Bamboo and rambling thickets of weeds just before the beginning of the deep darkness of the dense forest to the side of our home. Its perfect, and besides sharing the land with a porcupine, I am still yet to actually see with my own eyes, and a troop of very naughty noisy teenagery Vervet monkeys, the land is there to be cultivated for just that.

I cant say that I have done much to help these past couple of months with the beginning process of clearing out (trust me there is still plenty more to be done) but the moral support has been there. I presume this part of the property was once used as a construction site for when the previous owner built the Lapa, added on to the house and fitted the pool - because the stones buried in the beautiful dark delicious soil are in abundance. For those in the area looking for stones, they are yours for free, you just need to come and help us dig them out! I suppose with the rest that will be left we can reuse them, maybe in the laying of the concrete slab for our water tanks? It could take years before all the stones are cleared and the bits and pieces of rubble will be completely gone for the land to be picture perfect.

So far we have grown Spinache, Butternut and Beans from seed and Rob saved a couple of sprouting Potatoes from the veggie rack that have been dug into the soil as well. They all seem to be growing beautifully and I am pleased with the progress. Rob has plans to sell bunches of his Spinache to our neighbours, he is known around these parts for his luscious green leaf growing antics and I have dreams of stiring up big pots of steaming creamy Butternut Soup and slicing up fresh warm homemade bread to serve at the Urban Farm Stall for our customers.

Come Spring we will have cleared a little more and will add a few tepees of Cucumbers and bunches of Salad Herbs amoungst a few other normals that are added to our backyard veggie patch. I cant wait to see just how it will all turn out.

But, for now, we all will be slowing our pace and be patient with the soil and let it rest and hibernate through the colder months. And, I will live vicariously through all of you, my friends from distant shores, who are now planting and harvesting the first fruits of your labour now that you are in the warmer Season.