Princess Irene, SpaceShips and Mandalas

Princess Irene version 1- by Willow



Version 2-also by Willow



Spaceship for the Storm Troopers by Gabriel

And my own Mandala

Activities

We've been very active round here the last week with all sorts being planned and happening round here.

Willow and Gabriel's cousin Dale came for a sleepover last week, so there was much excitement and late night chatting for that. Whilst that was going on I managed to finish making Gabriel's felt slippers, and I was really happy with them, since it was my first try. Willow wants a pair now too.

We celebrated the Spring Equinox last night with a lovely dinner, and a candle making ceremony. We had collected and pressed flowers for it months ago which we pressed into the wax. The candles were melted in hot water for a minute, the flowers were pressed in, and the candles were put back in the hot water again. We're probably in need of practise to get a really nice finish, but we were satisfied with our results.

This week there are some interesting things to try, so we've booked in for the Butterfly Plants session at the Botanic Gardens, and the Art Gallery is doing a workshop on Screen printing, so that should be good too. We were thinking of trying Cirkids this term, but everyone now is keen to try Young Adelaide Voices, so we're off to their trial evening before making a decision. Willow would like to try horse riding, but that may have to wait til next year, if we do the singing. And finally we're all planning to give Scottish dancing another try, we really enjoyed it before, but I was anaemic for part of Arden's pregnancy, so we only did it for a little while before stopping. So many things to do!

Plus presently we've been weaving and learning about fabric's and making fabrics, and clothes, in our current homeschooling activities. The weaving projects are quite simple at this stage, and for our first sewing project we're going to handsew Willow a pair of pyjamas- still early days in the pattern but it should be very interesting!

Baby Hugs

Plus! Yesterday it was so funny watching Arden, who is now 9 months, and his nearly12month old cousin, Fern, yesterday. They crawled up to each other, had a hug and a kiss! It was quite a sight, and they did it three times. We all laughed and laughed over how cute they looked.

Abundance in the Air

Over the last week, Damien and I have been taking Christmas Bell, one of the Australian Bush Flower Essences. The essence itself relates to manifesting abundance, and I've been curious to see what sort of abundance we would start to manifest.

Well some little things had been shifting here and there, but today was full of events. This morning the kids had soccer at the Life Be In It centre, so we headed for the bus. We were late for the first, so jumped on the second. Damien realised we needed two tickets, and mentioned that to the driver, who asked how many of us were travelling. After abit of discussion the driver said, to just get one ticket and used it as a family pass, and if we were questioned later to pick up a second ticket. So that was that and we went to soccer.

After soccer we chatted with some friends, and headed off to get the train to our niece's birthday party. Along the walk we bumped into a lady we met last year, that we'd not seen since I was pregnant last year. We chatted for a while, and she offered us a plant from her garden. We were now a little late for the train and rushing to make it, which we luckily did. Just as we approached the station, that gates went down for the cars, and we ran up in time.

We had a nice time at our niece's 1st birthday party, eating cake, playing,etc until it was time to catch a train back. At the platform there was a Sheikh gently singing- it was very beautiful, though I didn't understand a word. When the train arrived we sat next to a group of noisy men from Penola, who were off to see Judas Priest. They were really friendly and lovely so we chatted to them the whole way, with one giving Willow advice on how to deal with mean people at school- they had been discussing why she was homeschooling. There was also a big sing-a-long of the Tigers theme song with the train driver participating by pulling the horn! It was hugely funny. When we got off the train, everyone waved to the guys, and the driver who waited for the kids to finish saying goodbye.

So at this point it's a bit late and we're off at Goodwood station, and we decide to wander up Goodwood Rd, to see if there's anywhere good for takeaway. After a bit of a walk we decide to get pizza at Savelli Brothers. We'd meant to try them before as the idea of quality made pizza to bake at home appealed to us. We ordered two, and were chatting away to the guy about quality of food, diet and ingredients whilst he prepared our dinner. It was quite entertaining and relaxing. At one stage he went off to get some oil, and was telling us about his truffle oil he'd been infusing, and that it was a secret recipe. Damien and I were both amused as we'd recently watched French Leave and there was an episode with truffles, so we'd been thinking about using them in food.

By now we were heading home with our pizza, and I remembered that there was $5 in my pocket left over from the show. I was thinking about what an interesting and amazing day we had when I thought I should offer the universe my $5, so I gave it to someone's letterbox. I hope it brightens their day.

And just to finish....................Thankyou!

The Magic Fig Tree

Forgot to add in my last posts, our wonderful local magic fig tree. It lives in the parklands near us, and we often walk past it and look to see what's happening in its world. Today we decided to stop under it for a short rest on the way home, and we were fortunate enough to see a tiny possum curled up asleep in its roots! We were very lucky indeed! We were all quite surprised, had a quiet peep, and then left it to continue its sleep.

Show day and Lemon Cake

We headed out to the Royal Adelaide Show yesterday, for a very long and very busy day.

We had a number of activities planned and did almost all of them. We watched the farriers, the woodchopping, the sheaf throwing, the shearing and the wool spinning. We had a look for Willow and Gabriel's art entries- Gabriel received two Merits for his work. We also watched the cars, motor bikes and fireworks in the stadium in the evening. It was a very long day.

Willow and Gabriel were both allowed to pick one lolly and one toy showbag, so there was quite a bit of discussion over the bags. Since we infrequently buy mainstream lollies (usually at the show, or a friend's party) we needed to discuss what some of the items were in the bags. Willow came home with My Little Pony and Violet Crumble, and Gabriel bought Hot Wheels and Sunny Boy. Usually the last few years I've bought Fruchocs, but since we are healthier now, and the Fruchocs bag is very large I went for a very small Freddo Frog. Definately enough for me, those few frogs were satisfying, but sweet enough to remind me why these days we buy good quality chocolate.

On that topic, we mostly brought our own food this year. I made baked beans and Damien made bread, and we bought some salad. Usually I get a really nice avocado boat for lunch, but apparently the avocado people didn't have a good crop this year, so no boat for me! The boat just involves half and avocado scooped out, mushed up, and put back in with a couple of corn chips for sails- very simple and very tasty! Overall the show has a reasonable choice of food these days, though it's still a bit lacking on the fresh side of the diet.

Anyhow the lemon cake I made for the day is as follows....

Lemon Cake (too busy and tasty to photograph)

125g butter
100g rapadura sugar
2 large eggs
200g spelt flour
1 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghourt
1 teaspoon baking powder


Cream the butter and sugar, gradually beat in the eggs alternating with the flour until completely mixed.

Grate the rind from 1 lemon, and squeeze the juice from the lemon, add both to cake mix. Also add tablespoon of yoghourt. Cover and leave to sit overnight.

Heat oven to 130.

Grease loaf tin.

Add baking powder to mixture, mix well. Pour mixture into tin, and bake for 1 1/2hrs. Test with skewer for readiness. Cool on wire rack.

Bon appetit!

Repairs and Catch-up

This week has been hectically busy with repair work, and getting through some neglected crafts. I had a pile of clothes and bits, that almost seemed to be breeding, and with the busyness of homeschool and baby had been ignored for many months. So since we had a week of doing nothing planned, I used it to get through my pile.

The first half a dozen things were pants needing elastic repairs. Mostly this involved using my crochet hook to catch the elastic, from in the waist band, pull it back out and hook it over the button, to hold it in place. To be honest I'm rather feed up with these sorts of pants, so last week I also bought Gabriel a belt.

The rest of the pile was an assortment of toys and clothes, and now I'm nearly at the stage of being finished it's quite a relief to see it gone. There's still a doll, a jacket and a skirt, but I need to buy some thread for the doll, ribbon for the jacket and make a decision about the skirt.

I had also started making Gabriel some slippers out of felt a while ago, so I've been catching up on them, as well as Damien's jumper which has been rather neglected recently. I'm now over half way through the front, so definately heading in the right direction! Hopefully the slippers will be done by Monday, and the jumper will be done soon.

Soaked Orange Poppy Seed Cake

3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1 cup flour
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 cup yoghourt
200g butter
1/2 cup sugar
rind from 1 orange
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Juice oranges, and place orange juice in large bowl.

Pour in almond meal and poppy seeds and half the flour, top with a layer of yoghourt, another layer of flour and remaining yoghourt. Mix together and leave to sit overnight.

Grease a loaf tin, set oven to 150celsius.

Beat butter, sugar and rind, until fluffy. Add eggs beat well whilst adding dollops of the preprepared mixture. Mix all the remaining mixture with baking soda.

Pour mixture into tin, and bake for 1 hr 20mins.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in tin before removing.

Spring and Frogs

Well Spring is definately here, and the weather is warmer, and since we had a real winter this year (cold and rainy) there are allsorts of beautiful flowers around that I haven't seen for the last two Springs.

These beautiful Snowdrops have been a lovely surprise, adjacent to the creek in the Parklands.I didn't know Snowdrops til we lived in Scotland, so it was a lovely surprise to see them. So now we've been singing the Snowdrop song for Springtime....it didn't seem at all appropriate to do it the last two Springs, as there were no Snowdrops near us, they were only in the hills where it's colder.

Also a couple of weekends ago we headed to the hills and visited our nearest Steiner children's shop- Head, Heart and Hands for the kids to have a craft session there with the lovely Luci. The workshop was for The Frog Prince, which we read first, so Willow and Gabriel would be familiar with it. I must admit I liked the ending when the Prince's assistant's bonds around his heart are free. It very much resonated with me, and a feeling of opening the heart! And how so many people need to do that after grieving, but unlike his assistant they keep their bonds. It's quite an inspiring story.

The kids made lovely puppets, and really enjoyed the session.

Here's the puddings

So here it is.....though unfortunately a bit fuzzy!
Must be fuzzy chocolatey love.