World Upon World

 

The morning seed children and gumnut babies creep out to greet,

as a pair of shining eyes delight.

 

Strong and held in silent limbo,

 

in a chorus with crafting beings below,

sings the rich glow of life amidst world upon world.

Spikey haired dune gnomes sit alert in the sun -

 

poised as whispering spectators to the mermaid's softly folding sport,

 

while weary limpet babe clings to her warm rock,

spying an angel's feathered wave...

A Summer Afternoon and Very Special Evening

Another photo heavy post... but I think a picture says so much...

Here we are preparing Aunty Holly's birthday gift on a very hot late summer afternoon. We got some more herbs for her herb garden which was started as a beautiful christmas gift by her husband, Lucas. Aria was quite engrossed in all the different shaped leaves, and she also loved splashing paint onto brown paper which we used as padding for the plants. Hopefully soon, we'll have our own homegrown organic herbs to offer!

Such hot weather has made for some wonderful water play in the back yard. Aria has also been runnig around with my handbag over her shoulder lately. She won't take her eyes off it and nearly falls over every time!

Yesterday was the anniversary of Mama and Dadda's first date! We always celegbrate this every year as it holds such siginificance for us. Michael and I met on a blind date on 22/02/02 (very much a match making date with all those 2's) which was facilitated by my sister (and doesn't she now feel so proud!). Michael had a spare ticket to a ball and needed an emergency date at the last minute... Kirsty (my sister) was friends with Michael and suggested me (and then managed to convince me to go along - I actually took a bit of coaxing. A blind date was definitely not my idea of fun - I was looking forward to curling up with my latest healing with the angels book!). So later that night my ball gown clad self was whisked up by a very gorgeous looking young man. We danced the waltz and talked like we'd always known each other. Such ease and joy filled the air. So there you have it - that's how Michael and I met. Needless to say it was a truly magical evening and we've not looked back!

As a special surprise for Daddy, Aria and I squeezed some oranges and made his favourite treat... sorbet. Yum!

Aria enjoyed the left over bits of orange... skin and all!

Not looking so hapy with that orange peel now!

We collected some greenery on our walk for a special wreath to adorn the centre of the romantically lit dinner table.

Our orange and cocnut milk sorbet was a hit!

Another enchanting and love-filled 22/02/02 evening was had by all.

Gardening joy

This week Aria and I have spent some fantastic hours out in our sunny back yard garden. As I've mentioned before, the earth is so 'grounding' for her and she always seems to feel quite soothed by simply having the opportunity to play in the dirt. We've been greatly enjoying our time outside at our new home - it is such a large contrast to our previous abode that had no back yard at all. How wonderful it is to see this child relishing in the freedom of being able to roam around and create her own little world in nature. Mumma and Bubba have both been taking some long deep breaths!

I've really been able to see her imitative urges at work while we're outdoors, (She loved pulling out the flowers while Mama pulled out the weeds and pulling out the lavender that had just been planted!).

This garden Faerie was fascinated by the little things. It's so amazing to look at things from a child's perspective... when was the last time I really studied a clump of dirt?

After we raked and broke up the earth, Aria became utterly absorbed in planting lettuce seeds. She would open up her hand and say 'see, see' - asking me to sprinkle some seeds on her palm. After dropping them into the spot I'd prepared for each group of seeds she let out this little chipmunk giggle and dusted off her hand in an extremely satisfied kind of way. Now we are watering the 'sees' every day. I can't wait for her to actually see the magic that is yet to happen to these little seeds!

In our garden we also have our chicken, "bukbuk", who has been roaming around freely side by side with us. After the recent death of our cat (Aria's best friend - their relationship was just beautiful and we were all so sad to see morpheus go so suddenly) I thought we'd need to get another fluffly little pal soon. Surprisingly, this chook has completely filled the gap! Aria chats away while "bukbuk" follows her around. She loves feeding her and is always looking for her new friend. It's quite amazing just how fascinating this chook actually is! We love watching her scratching around the place creating little nests, pecking away and the funny way she walks and jerks her head around. I never thought chooks had such personality! She even puts herself to bed at night (which is such a relief as Michael and I are both kind of freaked out by birds and there's no way we could pick her up right now!)

What a joy our little 'bukbuk' is turning out to be!

Our gardening has also been talking place in doors. We have been sprouting alfalpha seeds, and because they change and sprout so quickly Aria is fascinated to see the difference each morning.

Elsewhere, some new window stars have brightened up our living space.

And lastly, on our morning walk today a neighbour pointed out that Aria looked like an adapted version of red riding hood. I guess so! It looks like the big bad wolf is chasing her in this shot though!

xx

Gratitude Sunday

We have so much to be grateful for this week yet again! I'm constantly in awe of my magical little family and how beautiful life is while sharing it with those you love. Here are some things that I'm especially grateful for this Sunday...

A blank canvas... the possibilities!

Sunday afternoon in the garden

 Our newest family member... "Buk Buk"

 

A new little friend for Aria. So many gasps, wide eyed stares and 'buk buk' noises today!

Our Faerie Garden is taking shape... some flowers are just so enchanting!

Dada and Bubba time. They share such a beautiful relationship, it's very touching...

 
Second hand stores that sell the most gorgeous little wooden dishes, and the local sunday market where precious little girls dresses abound!

Valentines day festivities, red, and a thoughtful husband who treated Mama to her favourite dessert :)

I'm also extremely grateful this week for a new sense of peace that has entered our lives since we have moved to our new nest. I'm thriving in our new environment - taking Aria for walks in the Koala reserve, saying hello to the cows, horses, sheeps. ducks, dogs and birds - chasing a certain little one along the beach (she loves it SO much!) and meeting friendly, kind people every day who I am gradually getting to know as time goes by.

I could go on and on about all the things I am grateful for, but I thought I'd just write about what is foremost in my heart today. A lovely valentines day with a beautiful family - what more could you ask for?

Single Word Saturday

Images from our week with just a single word...

Mischief

 

Boundless 

 

Alive

   

Challenges

 

Perspective

Morning

Journey

 

Intrigue

Balance

 

Rest

Love & Peace 

xx

New Autumn Bum Soakers

Today I finished some new bum soakers for Aria in autumny colours.  I have absolutely fallen in love with warm colours lately for the very first time. (This may be to do with the fact that I'm living far more 'seasonally' these days.)

The cool breeze of march is slowly inching it's way into our days and Aria is fast outgrowing all of my previous bum soaker experiments.

She is loving imitating everything I do at the moment, so I whipped out a falied experiment and a large plastic needle for her to play with as I sewed up her new woolen undies. She had to climb up and sit on the sofa just like Mama before proceeding to examine the task at hand.

We have been putting on a pair of woollens over all of Aria's nappies as they have recently started to leak a fair bit. I invested in a number of 'itti bitti' snappy nappies not long after Aria was born and they have been wonderful. No bulk like the pocket ones, lovely and soft hemp/bamboo inserts and very easy to wash and dry. However, as she has gotten older and bigger they haven't been absorbent enough - so to prevent leaks these little pants are wonderful. You only have to wash them once every three weeks or so (you also need to air them out after every nappy change and soak them in a lanolin mixture every once in a while to restore the natural protective coating), they don't smell at all (make sure they're completely 100% untreated wool though), they breathe in the heat and are warm in the cooler months, they are so soft, all natural and they hold up to 40% of their weight in moisture before feeling damp.

This is the pattern I have ended up using over and over. I have a number of other patterns, but this is the one I keep coming back too as it's so easy and quick.

No doubt I'll need to knit many more if today is anything to go by... I thought we'd walk home along the beach after we did our daily mail pick-up from the general store. I totally underestimated just how much this child loves the "seeeeeeeeeeeeaa". She went bounding straight for the water complete with shoes, woollen tights/dress/bum soakers and all!! (Much to the amusement of an elderly couple walking by - her joy was completely contagious). So even though they absorb a seemingly endless amount of liquid - I'm afraid they just didn't cut it today! Both Mama and Bubba were completely soaked, but later on this made for some scrumptiously cosy cuddles after climbing into dry warm clothes.

Beyond the Rainbow Bridge

Just a quick post to 'pass on the love' as Hillary puts it :) Healing Hillary is generously giving away a copy of 'beyond the rainbow bridge' on her blog. Please pop over to her page and have a look at another Waldorf inspired Mama's journey and enter your name in the comments section to join the giveaway. Such a lovely idea from such an inspiring person :)

xx

A Muddy Afternoon

A friend of mine recently described the wonders of mud on a forum I'm involved in and I was thoroughly inspired to have some muddy fun of our own. Boy am I glad we got out there and down and dirty in the earth! Aria tends to be very 'heady' - always thinking, very wordy and obsessed with books. I've been trying to focus a wee bit lately on encouraging her to be more grounded and in her body (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, this is a Waldorf (Steiner) kind of outllook. Waldorf parents speak of the child 'growing down' in a sense as they come fully into their bodies. This is considered to be basically the main 'task' of early childhood. There's a lot more to it than this, but as I'm only just starting to study Anthroposophy I won't attempt to give a more detailed explanation. Donna Simmons from the Christopherus site has written a great post about it on the Christopherus blog). Playing around in mud is such a wonderful way to do this! She let out her trademark little Ooohs and Aaaaahs of pure glee as we patty-caked, stirred and squished. I think this grounding and getting out of the head by using the body was also fantastic for Mumma too!! What a clear-minded feeling. It brought back many memories of 'baking pies' under the house where I grew up in New Zealand as well.

Patty cake Patty cake...

"Dirty Mama"... um, yes!!

One content little Bubba

Aria's plate of food later became a hat

I also thought I'd just add a pic of the latest bit of knitting I've completed. I've been meaning to post about it for a while, but always seem to forget! A rainbow knitted Kimono for my Rainbow baby. I used this pattern and adapted it slightly (I needed to pick up all the stitches from around the bottom after I'd finished as it kept rolling up. A few rows of garter stitch fised the problem). I also knitted a little pixie cap using the same wool (I love this wool) earlier in the spring (you'll see this in photos on earlier posts).

She was such a busy bee this day, I was lucky to get a shot of her in frame!