A Winter Break

Back a few months ago now, I decided that we were going to take a winter break. Be that at home or going away somewhere, it really didn't matter. I just knew that winter time, this year at least, is time to have a break. 

And I didn't think too much more about it. Well, that's not entirely true, as I did map out a trip for us to take. I still don't know if we will go away or stay home, and still believe it doesn't really matter that much either way. What matters is the break. 

So I am taking a break from blogging and it seems I've already been on that break for a few weeks now. Sometimes things just happen that way, you know.

In reality, I have had no break yet. Let's just say that sometimes life just hands you a great big pile of shit to deal with. Excuse my language but there really is no other word to describe the situation. My little dude and I moved house at very short notice, my usual support network (mum) disappeared from the scene and I had absolutely no idea how I was going to pull off our move. A most amazing friend stepped forward, having been there and done that, and quite literally made it happen for us. So I'm feeling completely humbled and grateful, and I know that one day when I get a chance to help someone out like that, I most certainly will. But right now I'm trying to sort out a new home and cull even more of our belongings. 

And in between all that, I try to stay as immersed as I can in my spiritual practice. My spiritual practice, strengthening my connection to energy, to source, has become such a driving force in my life. Since that kundalini thing I suppose. But the deeper I go, the deeper still I want to go. And I've learned amazing ways of doing so. Right now, I'm going back through my major past hurts - things like relationship breakups, dodgy teenage boyfriends, marriage failure - just those light sort of things... But attached to all those things is emotion, and where there is emotion there is energy. And I want my energy back. I want my energy to be flowing free so I can create the life I want now, without ties to any past events. It's a time consuming process! I write everything down, all those old hurts and things, in a special little book and I sit with them all, one by one, and feel them fully and let the energy be released, let the emotion go. It is incredibly effective. 

So for July at least, that is where I will be. Taking a break from most of my normal "stuff" and doing some big, big inner work. Be that in our new home or on the road. I would love to say I'm taking a break from Instagram but I know I'd be lying (I'm so addicted but I can justify it as being shop related!) so you can always find me there (@the.little.crystal). And otherwise, I'll see you in August. Have a beautiful month!

This and That

Winter officially starts in a couple of days. We've had a couple of frosty mornings already, and the fog is starting to sit. Life in this little home is mostly delightful; mornings, our outside time, the lunch hour, the outside jobs and the dinner and bed routine - the rhythm of our days. I watch the interruptions to our rhythm, and try to minimise them. I watch as my little boy's own rhythms change, creating changes to our day.

I've picked up a crochet hook again, which I've not touched in months. A blanket for my little boy is slowly taking form. With the yarns that I rushed out to buy about a year ago, for this purpose. I guess there wasn't such a rush after all.

Managing the animals here continues to take up much of my time and head space, on top of parenting a wonderfully bright toddler. Flo and Harmony have completely opposite needs - I'm trying to keep the weight on Harmony, and with not much feed coming through in the paddock I'm relying on hay, mostly oaten hay as that is what I can get. And with Flo, well she founders at the sight of oaten hay, so I've got to keep her away from it. So we fenced in her spring paddock in the trees again, my little one and I, and she's going to stay there for a little while and eat lucerne in peace. Plus the two roosters, Edward and Edward. One of them can stay, the other has to go. Anyone looking for an Australorp rooster?

Apples. We have a lot of apples to eat. I'm thinking up all the things I want to bake with William, so we can eat them warm with melted ice cream. Apple pie, apple crumble, maybe some apple muffins or apple scrolls. I will make at least one of those happen!

All of the images in this post are cropped from my Instagram account. I'm over there much more than I am here, simply because it's more accessible, and I could probably talk about crystals all day. I'm spending more time away from the computer than I have in years actually, and it's a nice change.

In The Garden… winter pretties

It's been a while since I last did an In The Garden post. Simone over at With Vintage And Me kept up the posts after I decided I couldn't keep up, so this week I'm linking up with her for another little look at what's in my garden.

First up, the beautiful climbing rose that I must take a cutting from before we move (in a week). I'm not a huge rose person but I have always been completely smitten with this climber. It is such a beautiful colour and climbs so high. It's quite old. The flowers are rarely low enough to pick, but wind themselves so beautifully through a nearby plum tree.

The first snowdrop. I planted a bunch of bulbs around a little quince tree that I planted a few years ago now. It's all enclosed by a little rock wall with the herb garden around the other side. I love this little space, and seeing the bulbs start to appear is wonderful. Tulips will be on their way soon enough. I'm quite sad I won't get to see it fully come to life. Maybe I will get a chance to sneak back for a look before new owners take possession. 

My angelic little boy. Wandering in the garden on a sunny afternoon, freshly harvested celery in hand. I'm realising how sad I find it to leave this garden, as this was the space I would put my little baby down before he could crawl. And now he wanders and waddles all around the place, examining this, picking that. Scattering food for the chooks and just having a good old time of it. So many memories for me in this little garden space.

I absolutely love the winter garden. It's different from the abundance and energy of a summer garden, it moves at a slower pace. The sun, when it shines, is surprisingly warming. And the grey clouds that sit low most days make me truly appreciate this season, in all it's beauty.

What's happening in your garden this week?

Catching Up On Life

I don't know where the days are going right now. It seems they are just whizzing by in a blur of washing taking forever to dry, wearing lots of layers of clothes, and vacuum cleaning. So much vacuum cleaning. My almost-16-month-old is pretty much obsessed with the vacuum cleaner right now. It's not bad really, every morning he demands that the vacuum cleaner be brought out from the laundry into the house, and we play vacuum, which invariably involves me doing some actual vacuuming (under instruction, of course). So the floor is staying fairly clean! And toddlers. How awesome are toddlers! I had no idea. I was sort of dreading the toddler stage, fearing it would be tantrum after tantrum. There are a few of those, granted, but on the whole, I just love this stage of parenting. Apart form the fact that my little boy is growing up way too fast. Where is the pause button?

Our little chookies are laying eggs again. We are back to having just two chickens, after a high of eight for a while there. We brought two across with us when we moved back into town. Then one died, I'm not sure what of but it may have involved a cat. So we had only one. Then we got two more little bantams at the market. Then our original hen got broody, again (this was all back in summer). So we got a dozen eggs for her to sit on. Then five chicks hatched. Of those, two were boys and three were girls. That was our eight chickens. Then we re-homed the boys. Then one of the bantams from the market flew over into next door's yard and their dog got her. So we were down to five. Then we realised that our small town backyard couldn't really support five chickens, two dogs, two cats, a toddler and two adults. So all the baby girls got re-homed too. Anyway one of the baby chickens was an Isa Brown, and all the rest of the flock were bantams, but this big girl started to peck the older chickens about quite a bit. And they stopped laying. And now finally, in the middle of winter, we're getting 1-2 eggs daily again. The tricky part now is trying to convince a toddler to hand over the eggs.

A little pram blanket is being crocheted and is not far off finished. It's only a small thing, my first go at granny squares (only eight years after I started to crochet..). I'm discovering the joy of weaving in lots and lots of ends. I started this months ago too. Things move slowly around here (slow living at it's best). I've been on somewhat of a mission to finish it this past week as I'm itching to start something new. A nice big heavy blanket for our bed. We already have one that I made years ago, which is still my favourite, but in years to come we'll need more than one big woollen blanket for beds in the house. Given how long it seems to take me, I'd better start now. I'm trying to branch out from my usual colour combination of olive green/mustard/orange into something else. It's hard! I'm very much a 'stick to my favourite colours and nothing else' kind of a person, so I'm learning.

I'm loving this winter season. Probably because I'm dressing more appropriately for cold weather these days, which makes all the difference. Eating warming foods, particularly for breakfast and lunch (dahl, with lots of yummy warming spices for breakfast - amazing). I love the rainy days. We woke up to a crisp, sunny morning a few days ago and I commented to my husband 'it's a pity it's not raining'. He looked at me like I had two heads. I'm just loving the grey rainy days at the moment, it's so wintery. And now we're halfway through the winter season already and I'm starting to remember that it will get hot again. Part of me looks forward to it, and to not having to wear so many layers, but part of me just doesn't want the winter to end. It's such a beautiful season.

And I'm so excited to be moving into a new house in a few weeks with a new garden to work in. First thing to go into the ground will be seed potatoes in mid-August. We'll have plenty of space to work with, possibly more space than I can handle right now. But I have dreams of so very many potatoes… Especially after last year when I planted out all my homegrown seed potatoes, watched them all come up and grow beautifully and then - move house and not get any. Well, I ended up planting more at our our current place and getting a reasonable harvest, but you know. Not the same. It will be nice to have a bit more space to stretch out again. 

I think I'm all caught up now. Blogging has been as slow as granny-square-blanket making lately. What's been happening in your life these days?

27/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week, every week, in 2014."

William, playing in the paddock at Nana's on a sunny winter day. How fascinating for a 15 month old - open the gate, close the gate. Open the gate, close the gate. Repeat. 

Linking up with Jodi's lovely 52 Project.

26/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week, every week, in 2014."

William, in a winter garden. Contemplating his next move, which turned out to be harvesting some rhubarb. Great choice, but not the best plant for a toddler to get his little hands on. My little garden helper...

This beautiful place is in the Talbot Community Garden, a wonderful place for a wander on a wintery afternoon. Or any afternoon, for that matter.

Linking up with Jodi's lovely 52 Project.

Wintery musings

I am loving these days of winter. We are keeping warm, rugging up, indulging in warm coats and beanies. I think I am starting to come to terms with winter in Central Victoria. Grey, heavy skies are the norm, sometimes with rain, sometimes not. Quite different to the Canberra winter I grew accustomed to for most of my life. I don't miss the super cold nights of a Canberra winter, but the brilliantly sunny days do more than make up for a chilly night. Still. There is something so beautiful about the heavy skies here, and wearing bright, cheerful, colourful clothes helps. Adding warmth and colour to a grey background. Ask me in late August, I may not be loving the grey skies quite so much. But right now I am.

I have been eating meat. I have been a vegetarian for some years now, and prior to actually making the vegetarian decision, I rarely ate meat anyway. When I was pregnant I started eating some fish again, and have kept that up. But this winter, I have had to start back on some meat. My body needs the nourishment. My reserves have been drained, with pregnancy, having a baby and sustained breastfeeding. I was feeling flat, cold, tired, with a fog in my body and my brain. So I heeded some sound advice (despite having ignored similar advice received earlier) and carefully, mindfully, I have added some meat to my diet. Making chicken stock with organic bones. Slow oven-cooked lamb chops, in tomatoes and red wine. Making sure I get meat with bones, and cooking slowly and gently, to draw out the most nourishment. My body is responding well, and where I thought I would have trouble with eating it, I have not. And the fog in my brain is lifting; I feel more like an earlier version of 'me' that I thought had gone.

Our afternoons always have a walk, a bundled-up-against-the-cold kind of walk. We take the pram, and William sits under a blanket. He holds the dog leads, or munches on an apple, and we head down to the local park. We walk near the lake and feed the ducks, or watch the kids at footy practice, or take a ball and bounce it around. Always William hops out to do some walking of his own, taking the dogs on their leads (he is getting so good at hanging on to them!), choosing the direction and setting off with purpose. Toddlerhood is an amazing thing to watch. It has it's frustrating moments, I am the first to admit that. But the balancing factor is the pure joy and amazement, watching this little person interact with his world. Seeing him engage, making things happen as he thinks they should, being his own independent little person. Exhausting and exhilarating, all in one.

And in the garden, there is an abundance of green. Broccoli heads grow large, weeds shoot up in an instant (or so it seems), broad beans tower over the rainbow chard, and the celery just grows and grows and grows. Bare leaves of the plum tree against these grey skies, reveal birds hopping around on the branches; in summer, we can only hear them but in the stillness of winter, we can see them too. Bulbs have been planted, and we wait and wonder if we will get to see them bloom. House moves are on the cards; our decision to move on from here has a domino effect and we make our house available for others to view, potentially as their new home. My work in the garden now, is just out of love for the process, and hoping that someone else will enjoy seeing flowers come to life in springtime. But I also plant in pots, to make sure I have something to take with me. And a cutting of the beautiful climbing rose, I will definitely take a cutting or three. 

How is winter looking in your neck of the woods? Or summer, if you're in the Northern parts?

25/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week, every week, in 2014."

William - staring intently at a puddle. Having a world of fun on a mound of stones. Getting dirty, getting muddy and loving every minute of it.

Linking up with Jodi's beautiful 52 Project.

The Pull of the Season

It is winter. The trees are mostly bare, the days are becoming grey and heavy, and the air is - well, not as cold as it should be. A little agapanthus flowers in my garden, the scent of wattle is heavy in the air. The seasons are strange right now.

Afternoon sun at the change in season, autumn gives way to winter.

For some years now, I have been shifting closer to living in tune with the season. It is not easy, when we live in a society that no longer relies on the seasons. Vegetables are grown all year round under lights and with hydroponic set-ups, street lights make the night into day, the work day is relentless as the economy must still grow (apparently, so we have been told).

But the earth is still the same. Humans are still creatures of the earth, and there is still the rhythm of the season, the beat of something more primal. Winter is a time of dormancy, of going within. Of spending less energy, of keeping warm, of sleeping longer with the longer hours of darkness. Spring signals the time of emergence, of coming to life again after the winter hibernation. Summer is expansive, the energy is high and productivity is too. The gardens bloom and provide much abundance. Autumn is a time for softening, easing off. Slowing the pace, in readiness for the coming cold. And for beauty in ageing. 

And yet our modern world seems so out of touch with the true nature of the seasons. Foods are no longer seasonal. I can walk into my local supermarket and buy tomatoes, if I want to. The shorter day is nowhere reflected in an adjustment to the typical working hours expected of employees, and shops remain open after dark, catering for people still out and about, when in earlier times, they would have been tucked up at home as the sun went down. 

I am stepping further and further towards living in tune with the season. My body has always known what to do. It wants more rest in winter, yet I have fought against it. It wants to keep me warm with a little extra weight for the colder months, yet I have always fought against it. It wants to go for walks outside, rugged up against the cold in warm clothes. I have forced it into much harder exercise, in much lighter clothes, and now pay the price with cold lodged in my bones. My body wants to  slow down, be warm, be nourished, and now I am going to let it.

I want for my son to know the seasons. I want him to grow up to appreciate the beauty of every season, and to experience and truly live, the changes in the season. Not the cricket season or the footy season. No. The true nature of the world around him. Of the leaves on the trees as they change colour and fall. And the vegetables we grow in the garden over summer, then go all year without, until we can grow them once again. I want him to know the joy of a warm home in winter, filled with the smells of hearty, earthy soups cooking on the stove. I want him to know the delight in a ripe, homegrown tomato in summer, and how that cannot be replaced by a tomato grown artificially, out of season. I want him to know that it is ok to slow down, to do less, sleep more, over winter. And he will only know these things because that is what we live.

Do you feel the pull of the seasons?

Garden Share Collective: Late Winter Happenings

Once again I'm joining in with Lizzie from Strayed from the Table and a bunch of other gardening bloggers to take part in the Garden Share Collective and share the latest happenings in my little corner of the world. Enjoy!

Keeping the chooks out. And adding some good karma?

Let me start this post by saying - jute webbing and prayer flags are a huge success at keeping our vegetable garden chicken-free. I'm stoked - my problem is solved and I'm happily pottering in the vegie garden without the worry my work will be undone by rogue chickens. The roll of jute webbing cost me about $11, a cheap and easy solution if you ask me [we already had a chook wire fence but they just hopped straight over it]. And it works because chickens don't like things that flap! After having it up for a month, I think they've already forgotten about going in the vegie garden at all. No wing clipping required. So that's one big job ticked off 'the list'.

Now that I'm back into it all, I've spent some time digging over a couple of the beds from last summer. I discovered that my soils have improved significantly from what they were a year ago [see this post] and I'm very happy about that! I've planted out seeds of broad beans, spinach, spring onions and lettuce. Goodness knows if they'll do anything but if nothing else, I'm confident the broad beans will come through. We've had a pretty mild winter, and no frosts since I planted them. We've also had a lot of rain lately, and some brilliant sunny days in between. So conditions are good. There's also some potato sprouting where I grew it last year. I'm leaving it to do it's thing!

Always plentiful, good old silverbeet.

Looking happy; sage and flat leaf parsley.

Growing well now is the silverbeet [from last summer!], flat leaf parsley, sage and the broccoli is still giving us lots of little heads. We're harvesting regularly from these, which is helping my motivation no end. And eating lots of silverbeet and lentil soup. The fruit trees are preparing to blossom, they'll be another month or two off at least. We've got a red delicious, a golden delicious, a fig and a white peach tree, all of which we planted last year. We were hoping to get another couple of fruit trees in this year, but so far, we haven't. The lucerne trees along our fence line are about to flower, which I'm looking forward to as they look really beautiful in full bloom.

The red delicious... getting ready to blossom.

The rain gauge that never gets emptied, on the corner post.

The plan for this month - dig, clean up and compost! I want to get the rest of our garden under control, by which I mean borders on beds, removal of the weeds that have taken over, digging over the rest of the beds from last summer and putting out some of our lovely looking compost. Maybe even some horse poo if we take a trip to visit my mother [keeper of the lovely horses that produce the poo]. I also want to get seed potatoes in the ground. My neighbour Wilma told me last year that potatoes need to be in by mid-August if you want new potatoes for Christmas. Which I do. I'm inclined to take Wilma's word for it as she's been growing vegies next door for 40-odd years.

The pretty beds; peas are planted along the trellis.

The not-so-pretty beds; shaming myself into action.

So that's pretty much where my vegie garden is at these days. I must acknowledge the assistance I've had from my mum who's been coming over once a week to mind William for an hour while I work like mad in the garden. Having a monthly blog to write also helps as I need to have something to write about! Thanks for reading, and be sure to head over to the Garden Share Collective and see what other bloggers are up to in their gardens. I can't wait for next month when I'll have a beautifully cleaned up vegie garden to show you!

Winter Walks - Snippets of Here

I snapped some images from our daily walk recently. With winter rain finally falling, everything has turned green once again. It's hard to imagine that we just had the driest summer in like 40 years. But we did.

These images are all taken standing at the same point, an intersection of some of the back roads of our town. This is where William and I, and the dogs Jock and Ralph, like to wander. And Charles too, if we go on the weekend. And sometimes Pepper the cat, but we have to walk so slowly when she comes, as she refuses to be hurried. And then she's likely to ditch us and make her own way home through the paddocks. That's cats for you.

Where we've come from. We walk this way from home, behind me is the T intersection. Such a pretty area with some of the oldest trees around still standing.

To the left. Our usual 'out and back' walk goes up this road. Scattered peppercorn trees suggest where houses once stood, in the town's earlier [busier] years. 

To the right. Looking back towards town and the hills of the Pyrenees ranges in the background.

A snippet of my daily life. Not much hustle and bustle going on here!

Have a great weekend, wherever you are in the world.