Coal Valley View

First Day Back

2016-02-04T20:24:00.001+11:00

The Kids started back at school yesterday, four happy campers entering Years 2, 4, and 6, and therefore the final year my little gang of 4 will be together at the same school for a while before Eleanor heads off to High School next year. She is in the wars though - a bunged up knee from dancing, a sore mouth from having new wires on her braces the day before and not enough sleep thanks to a certain 3 year old visitor during the night who was no doubt feeding off all the new school year excitement and wanting to soak up as much time as possible before 'losing' his 4 playmates.

They all started nagging me as usual to get them to school at the earliest possible time to allow for maximum socialisation with their friends before the bell rings. "Come on Mum, we're going to be late!", they all chime in. I remind them that it's only 8.05, that they're re not even allowed to be at School until 8.10 and that School officially starts at 8,40. It's only a 3 minute drive to School so I stand at the kitchen sink and slowly pour milk into my second cup of beloved coffee. I think about the parents around the world that have to wake their children up in the mornings, who struggle to get them ready and out the door without being late. I can't even imagine. It has always been the other way around in this house. Maybe my Kids don't get out enough. "But Mum, George is on the gate on Wednesdays so we need to go now!"

Instead of lamenting the craziness of having the morning school run dictated by their desire to see their friends and scheduled down to the minute depending on whose turn it is to open and close the gate I can't help but marvel at their time management skills (obviously not from me!) and the way they have once again joined a caucus to sort an issue out and come up with their own plan where everyone is happy. "Who's on Friday then?", I ask. "There's 4 of you and 5 days in the school week so what happens on the 5th day?" "Anyone does it, we all take turns but mostly Charles does it because he's the last one in and closest to the door. We're just waiting for Flynn to grow up and take that day". They have it all sorted. I look at Flynn in the rearview mirror and figure he has another year before being destined for his new role. I also start fantasising about a week when every child takes turns cooking dinner.

I decide to abandon thoughts of drinking my coffee there and instead grab the good camera to take the obligatory first-day-of-school photo before piling the travelling circus into the car. We spend the first 10 seconds in the car flinching as school bags get chucked across the different rows to meet up with their rightful owners whilst I juggle my second cup of coffee in my right hand whilst sticking my head out the window and ordering the Whippets to 'stay'. The music gets turned up loud and "Fast Car" is playing. I say I love this song but prefer Tracy Chapman's original version that we listen to at home so much more. Eleanor agrees but insists the original is sung by a man and we have a heated debate. It doesn't often happen but I love it when I'm right. The second cup of coffee gets sipped on the way down the driveway in between dodging the potholes and then polished off while George negotiates the front gate. No Whippets escaped and no coffee was splashed on my clothes. Success.

After I dropped them off, I did what I always do. Coffee with the school mums before going home to stare out of the window for approximately two hours. I then take a deep breath and assess the post summer holiday carnage that surrounds me. It can all wait. Instead, I unwrap the new Calendar, rip off the first month and put it directly into the rubbish bin whilst wondering just what the heck happened to January. It appears my year starts on February 3. Every year. It's now 2.30 and the Whippets stand at the edge of the balcony signalling the imminent arrival of the school bus. I can't wait to hear all their first-day-back stories. I have a youtube video of the fabulous Tracy Chapman on my iphone on standby. 2016, let's go!

Hello from the other side...

2016-01-20T14:59:00.001+11:00

If normal life is punctuated by major life events then my timeline would resemble someone on the brink of a coronary - a series of peaks and troughs with barely a horizontal line amongst it. There's never a dull moment around here but it can be a tad tiring living in a constant state of flux.

I recently met up with a friend I hadn't seen for a while and when I asked him how his year had been he replied "too many life events this year!". I completely understood for I feel like I've been living that kind of year for the past couple of decades. There have just been so many life events and sharp deviations to my normal life path - some lengthy stints living overseas, 6 interstate moves, a few career changes, some major ups and downs, divorces and marriages within the family, more than a few babies welcomed into our own home, the losing of loved ones, and most recently the starting up of our own business. Just life I guess.

To cope with major life events I tend to temporarily "drop out" of ordinary life to focus on the new - to settle in, find my feet, adjust to the new normal and enjoy the new path and challenges before picking up where I left off. I've always had the philosophy that good friendships stand the test of time and that it doesn't matter how much time has passed from one conversation to the next. However, I realise not everyone feels the same. Sometimes I return from my physical or emotional absences to find that people have simply moved on, and fair enough I say. Sometimes I have moved on too. Sometimes a complete break from a daily or weekly routine is exactly what's needed to grow, to find out whether something is still important or whether you are doing it just for the sake of doing it. I've come to the conclusion that blogging and more importantly the connections I've made through blogging is important to me and is something I want to continue doing.

So here I am, back in that familiar territory of wanting to pick up where I left off but not knowing where I fit in anymore, apologising profusely for the lack of advance communique for my absence, feeling like it has only been a few weeks rather than 5 months since Coal River Farm happened and turned our lives upside down, and hoping that there are still a few of you left around who share the same philosophy as me. I have really missed this space and in spite of my lack of contact I have thought about you all often, berating myself for being so slack. I'm looking forward to jumping back in now that I'm coming out the other side of yet another major life event and have a bit more headspace to do so.....

Needless to say, my camera hasn't seen the light of day for months now. Thankfully, there has been someone behind the scenes capturing some moments for me. After a very teary farewell to Vanessa last weekend after 6 months of living with us as part of our family, she presented us with the most beautiful and thoughtful gift - a scrapbook of precious memories gathered over the time she spent with us. And since a blog post without photos just will not do, I've included a few pages of the album for you.

We will miss you too Vanessa!!! xxx

Cutting the red ribbon

2015-08-26T20:57:00.000+10:00

Hello friends. I am so excited to finally be able to say that our farm is open for business! The 3 year process from conception to construction has largely come to an end and two weeks ago we celebrated the milestone at our launch party with the Premier of Tasmania officially announcing the opening of Coal River Farm to the public. To say this process has been one of the most challenging things I have ever done is an understatement. Starting a new business is hard at the best of times but to build something from scratch adds a whole new layer of challenges. There were so many times that I doubted what we were doing and many more times I thought the whole thing would fall over completely but we got there in the end. Mostly I fantasised about how much easier it would have been to buy an already existing business but then again the rewards of watching our weed ridden paddock transform into something special and now to see people enjoy the food at the restaurant whilst admiring the view is the best reward you could ask for. I'm feeling pretty proud of what we have achieved and yes, I do think it was all worth the blood, sweat and tears.

And now the hard work really begins. So much for opening in the middle of winter and allowing ourselves time to find our feet before the busy Summer period begins. We have literally hit the ground running and our little restaurant has been running at capacity almost every single day over the lunch time period. I don't think I've worked harder in my life. I almost had my first day off today after 14 days straight until Daniel called me down to help out over lunch. We never expected it to start so strong and obviously couldn't be happier. The main shock to the system is for little old me who is having to get back into the swing of things after almost a decade off. I am coping, just :-)

Before I go reacquaint myself with my long lost blogging buddies, I just wanted to say a big thank you to my friend Natalie who captured our opening night so beautifully with her gorgeous images above.

Mel xxx

Interlude

2015-06-01T13:25:00.000+10:00

Hello friends. Long time, no blog.

I think the general consensus is that one announces a blog break in advance of their absence rather than upon their return but since I didn't exactly plan to have a blog break for quite so long I couldn't follow correct bloggy etiquette. And 6 weeks away? Yikes, I didn't even realise it had been that long or that I would need that long. Sorry about that. Rest assured all is well here and thank you for the e-mails of concern. I am neither at the bottom of a mineshaft nor am I sun-baking in the Bahamas, although right now I'd give my right arm to be doing the latter. I'm simply here at home, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy amongst the total utter chaos that comes with project managing our farm development and raising 5 children.

What that means is that instead of having the evenings while the kids are in bed to engage in my usual activities of reading, writing, blogging, knitting or staying abreast of important affairs of the world ~~binge-watching House of Cards, Homeland, Outlander, Game of Thrones and Eurovision,~~ I've been spending that time thinking. Just sitting on the sofa thinking. Thinking about how to organise the home life when the business opens, planning how best to go about it and talking about all the daily issues that need to be resolved with this project as it's being built. It has taken a long time, all this thinking, planning and talking. I simply haven't had the headspace for anything else. We've also made the decision to have an au pair join our family and are super excited to welcome Vanessa from Germany here in just a few weeks time. This process has involved lots of late night skype interviews with potential candidates not to mention some mammoth cleaning frenzies to particular areas of the home. If only she was here already to help me organise the house for her arrival.

So, in a nutshell, I've had an interlude of sorts to deal with the backlog and prepare for the next phase and I'm planning on keeping up with this space more regularly now. I thought I'd share some photos of the build process so far (although I needed a more serene image to start the post off and get those first words on the page). Of course it has been very exciting watching it all unfold day by day but it has also been an all-encompassing roller-coaster ride with lots of unexpected twists and turns and hairy moments. It has been a huge challenge for me personally, to keep it all together and not lose the plot entirely. I could have blogged through all the ups and downs but that's not really my style. I prefer to stay super focussed and just get the job done and then debrief afterwards. Unfortunately the debrief on this one will be a 4000 page novel which I predict I'll only have time to write in about 20 years time when the children have flown the nest. Or not. Consider yourselves spared :-)

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So, here's how things are shaping up for Coal River Farm with the next phase of the project - the cheese and chocolate making facility along with farm kitchen/restaurant.

Everyone loves Marcus

2015-04-22T21:20:00.000+10:00

I spent a year in Germany as an exchange student when I was 15 and lived with a host family who had 2 little boys aged 5 and 2. That was 22 years ago. My youngest host brother, Marcus, is now 24 and currently studying in Queensland for a Semester. He decided to visit us during his University break after first hiking his way around Tasmania. We had such a fun time with him. The Kids warmed to him instantly, a total stranger to them, other than the stories I had told them about he and his lovely family. I used to play Cowboys and Indians with him and push him around in the stroller and now he was doing the exact same with our 5 Kids. It made me feel very old indeed. Everyone thought Marcus was the Bees-knees. He played games with the Kids, swung them around by the ankles and enjoyed being indoctrinated into the world of Minecraft. He offered to help around the farm, demolished all of my lame meals and let me practice my German on him. He was always happy, never got cross and was excellent company whilst I carried on with the mundane chores around the house. If anyone resisted brushing their teeth before bed Marcus just had to make the suggestion and they were straight in the bathroom. Everyone loved Marcus. The Kids wanted Marcus to stay forever and ever and cried when he left. Disneyland is now off the bucket list. They are all saving their pennies to visit Marcus in Munich.

Marcus had a pretty strenuous time hiking around Tasmania, sometimes doing 9 hr hikes each day and sleeping in a $20 tent in freezing cold conditions and eating tuna out of a can so he was quite happy to relax and hang out at home by the time he got to us. However, we managed to tick off the 2 things we do with interstate or international visitors - a trip to Zoodoo down the road and a day trip to Port Arthur Historic Site. Everyone loves to see the real Tasmania Devils at Zoodoo and the new additions there are the beautiful Zebras. Apparently it is the only place in Australia where you can actually pat a Zebra. It seriously made my day. And did you know that Zebras are black with white stripes rather than white with black stripes? Incredible.

We've been pondering for some time the prospect of having an au pair live with us as an extra pair of hands when the business opens up in June. It seems to be the only option that allows the flexibility that we'll need - a couple of hours in the morning to watch Flynn while I'm down at the Cafe and a few hours on the weekends whilst we are doing the markets. Have any of you had experience with a longer term house guest, au pair or exchange student? Daniel has already been receiving all manner of e-mails of potential candidates, "here's a girl from Sweden who sounds perfect" or "Amelie from France looks nice and has just been with a family with 6 Kids!". I've been a bit hesitant at the idea for many reasons but mostly because I am worried it would be more work having an extra person in the home when we are already such a big family and things are crazy enough. However, after having Marcus here I can see how great this option could be. Sitting on the Sofa last night midway through a row of knitting, I paused and pushed my reading glasses up the bridge of my nose and said "Darling, about this au pair business, I think I'm warming to the idea. Yes, I think a 24 year old energetic male with a European accent would be perfect don't you? Someone just like Marcus". I'm not sure we are on the same page yet.

Germany 1992 - Me and Marcus and Thomas

In defense of the land of "Dregs, Bogans and 3rd generation morons"

2015-04-11T17:29:00.001+10:00

We took advantage of having our first Sunday off from the Market all year and drove 2 and a half hours away to the end of a road which brings you to Strathgordon in the remote South West Wilderness Area. There's absolutely nothing there, only one place to stay and it's nothing salubrious but perfect for our purpose which was to be able to relax without having to keep the kids on a tight leash. There's no shops, no people, no internet connection or mobile reception and it was exactly what we needed for 3 nights to feel human again. Disconnecting to feel connected. We brought everything with us - the kayak, the bikes, the fishing rods and the built-in entertainment system that comes from having 5 kids. We all had an excellent time. We saw 4 other people one night and no one could believe we could have such a place all to ourselves to which we replied "shh, don't tell anyone!'. The accommodation managers hadn't seen any kids for weeks so our kids happily played with theirs and they even opened up the indoor swimming pool that belongs to the town for us to use and offered to drive half an hour to their house to get some swimming costumes for the kids but with no one around they weren't necessary in the end!

We returned home to learn that high profile creative arts icon Mr Schofield had left our shores but not before unleashing a tirade against our beautiful State and people calling Tasmania a land of "dregs, bogans and third generation morons". After our few days away and the last 15 years of living here I couldn't think of a less apt way to describe our experience of Tasmania. Most of us laughed off the petty remarks, taking the derogatory comments for what they were, a frustrated man who left in a huff because the government only offered him $300,000 to run his 3rd consecutive Baroque Festival, the exact same amount they gave him the year before. He finally apologised yesterday for his offensive comments and I guess allowances can be made for him not being in "a good place" mentally. But still, those 3 little words publicly shaming an entire State hit a nerve and left a lot of people rightly miffed. The brain is wired to be more sensitive to negative comments and since it apparently takes 9 positive comments to dilute one little negative I offer the following points just off the top of my head in defense of the State I proudly call home:

1. Best boutique Hotel in the world - Saffire, Freycinet
2. Winner of the Man Booker Prize this year - Richard Flanagan for "The Narrow Road to the Deep North"
3. Cleanest air in the world with the most friendly, down to earth people I've ever met.
4. Named by Lonely Planet as the 4th best destinations in the world to visit in 2015.
5. Best Single Malt Whisky in the world this year - Sullivans Cove Single Malt.
6. Over 40% of our State is either National Park or World Heritage Area, not a bad playground.
7. Oldest everything in the country - oldest Pub, Bridge, Church, Gaol.
8. Tasmania is close to being 100% powered by renewable energy, with the largest renewable energy business in the country.
9. Last night at the Australian Tourism Awards, Tasmania won 10 out of the 29 categories, and more than any other state in Australia, awesome Tasmanians doing awesome things.

As you were, Tasmania.

Getting there

2015-04-02T21:20:00.003+11:00

We limped our way to the end of Term 1 and I think we are all looking forward to a couple of weeks break from the school routine. We experienced the modern day version of "the dog ate my homework" the other day, otherwise known as "Mum put my USB through the wash". It's a sign of tiredness if ever there was one. Just so you know, putting a USB through the wash on a 30 minute cycle and cold wash only does not harm the information stored on it. Who knew?

I'm loving the change of seasons and especially my favourite season of Autumn - the season of pink sunrises, golden light and in just a few days the hope that the kids will finally stop waking us up before 7 when the clocks go forward an hour.

As I sit here with a glass of red on my left and a guilty Whippet on my right (don't ask!) I'm quite glad there are some photographic evidence of the blur that has been these past few weeks. It's been a blur of markets, Easter chocolate frenzy, Athletics carnivals (x3) and end of term tiredness. There has also been a lot of progress on the outside around the farm. Inside the home there appears to have been quite a bit of knitting going on in the evenings but not much else on my behalf quite frankly.

The walls of the building aren't up yet but there has been an enormous amount of ground work done on the building site in terms of retaining walls, drainage, and under-slab plumbing. Weather permitting, the slab will be poured next week. It's all starting to feel very real now. We're now getting down to the smaller details like staff uniforms, cafe furniture and menu planning.

We've had an amazing season with our Strawberries, selling out at the markets within the first hour or 2 and we're looking forward to our first raspberry harvest next Summer. The boys have been working hard planting out the Vineyard. The Chardonnay grapes are almost all in and the Pinot grapes will be planted in October, a Coal River Farm Pinot Noir and crisp Sparkling are just a few short years away.

Thanks to your comments a few posts ago in relation to that list, I promptly went out the next day and bought myself 5 skeins of yarn and cast on my very first jumper. I've been spending evenings bingeing on Seasons 1 and 2 of House of Cards with the body of the jumper and 1 sleeve now finished. Are you a fan of the series? My Dad said I must watch it and I am a huge fan of political dramas like The West Wing so House of Cards was completely up my alley. The cast is phenomenal. If only Season 3 was available already to get me through the second sleeve as it appears I suffer from the "Second Sleeve Syndrome" and haven't been inspired to tackle the second sleeve yet. Any suggestions for a new series? The only other thing on the list that I'm doing is reading the 3 middle boys Harry Potter and we are having a lovely time doing that before bed each night. One chapter a night seems to be just right before they get restless or I start nodding off myself.

Also pictured above are my first ever pair of socks that I started 8 months ago but never got further after finishing the first sock. It appears I also suffer from the "second sock syndrome". You may recall I started these after being inspired by Marta in The Sound of Music when she says "My name is Marta and I'm going to be 7 on Tuesday and I'd like a pink pair of socks". Except, when someone commented on that post that they didn't remember that bit of the movie I looked into it and it appears I've mistaken these words for 30 years. It seems Marta didn't want a pair of pink socks after all. She wanted a pink parasol. What 7 year old wants a pink parasol I'd like to know.

I also finished off Flynn's 2nd birthday present (just 4 months late), the super cute Mochi Trout Fish. This brings my total unfinished projects to just 3, including the jumper which I hope to finish off over Easter.

On that note, I wish you all a wonderful Easter and apologise profusely for neglecting all of your blogs these past couple of weeks. I'm on holidays now and looking forward to a bit more leisure time. I might even move the yarn winder from the entryway :-)

Joining in with other readers and knitters here.

Mel x

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

2015-03-19T19:41:00.001+11:00

Dear Mr Zuckerberg,

As a customer of your Facebook and Instagram services I wish to provide you with the following feedback and possible improvements to your services.

Whilst Facebook is far from perfect and your recent changes are particularly irritating (and already well documented everywhere) I still thank you for this service which enables me to keep in contact with relatives and friends all around the world. Admittedly, there is more of a tendency to share distressing world news or other people's stories nowadays instead of the preferable 2006-style model of updating statuses with the riveting details of ones day such as "Melanie is now eating a lobster and enjoying it very much". However, since joining "The Whippet Appreciation Society" facebook page, the emotional distress incurred as a result of bad news bombardment has been alleviated substantially. Sandwiched between inflammatory political rants and the horrific stories of children in detention centres are now cute photos of Whippets which really takes the edge off all of the bad news and has elevated my Facebook experience enormously.

Image by Paul Croes

It puts a smile on your face doesn't it?

Whilst I would never want to be blind to the atrocities of the world, I feel the old fashioned practice of popping on the TV for the 6.30 pm news or a quick read through a reputable news source just once a day is enough, although the latter is fast becoming a thing of fiction too is it not?

Suffice to say, I am happy to continue utilising Facebook at my leisure. Each of my 346 Friends are indeed friends and people I know in real life, except for 5 bloggers that I have not met yet but let's face it, after 4 years of reading their blogs I feel like I know them more intimately than that girl I went to school with in Year 1. My main point here is that I know all of these people and the practice of "unfollowing" or "unfriending" either doesn't happen or there is a perfectly acceptable reason for the "unfriending" such as the ex-husband of a girlfriend running off with the secretary and wishing to cut ties with his ex-wife and all of her friends. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Which brings me to Instagram and the main reason for my letter. Despite Instagram being an overall enjoyable and positive experience, this one pesky business of "unfollowing" has been the source of some minor distress over the years but I think I've found an easy solution which may help the more sensitive souls of the world - "the Exit Survey".

The Exit Survey is similar to the ones you go through with an employer upon leaving a job in an attempt to leave both sides feeling all warm and fuzzy regardless of whether you have been sacked for misconduct or decided to throw in the towel in a disgruntled huff. I'm sure you are familiar with this practice Mr Zuckerberg being the CEO of some 70,000 employees.

The "Exit Survey" will give the Instagram user a multiple choice list of reasons they are about to unfollow someone, which will then be sent to the person unfollowed. Whilst this may be unpleasant, it would be preferable to the moments of life wasted wondering why you have been unfollowed - "have I done something to upset them?", "was it that photo of the gumtree that tipped them over the edge?" or "was I absent from Instagram for too long?". Upon pressing the "unfollow" button there would first be a prompt that says "are you sure you wish to unfollow X?" which would at the outset prevent 2-year olds from mindlessly unfollowing half of your followers by accident, a situation that has been known to happen around these parts. If you confirm "yes" to the prompt then you would be directed to a series of multiple choice reasons for unfollowing.

To assist, I have made a start on your survey following a brief conversation with 2 girlfriends over coffee this morning as to possible reasons one would want to unfollow someone:

"I have unfollowed you because:

a) I have left the world of Instagram and deleted my account.
b) You unfollowed me.
c) I followed you but you never bothered to follow me back and I prefer my social media exchanges to be based on mutually beneficial friendships, except if you are Sam Heughan. Sam does not need to follow back.
d) I no longer have an interest in taxidermy/antique lace/hermit crabs [insert former hobby here].
e) You are a robot and not a real person. I only want to be social with humans.
f) I used to find you inspiring but if I see another photo of your Sunset/Rose/Offspring/House/Lifestyle [insert object of beauty here] I'm going to poke my eyes out with a fork. I'm insanely jealous and can't bear to see another photo of that again. It's me, not you.
g) Your curated life and the hours you spent arranging your raisins on the plate with that whimsical caption was verging on the ridiculous. It's you, not me.
h) I only want to see beautiful photos with horizons that are horizontal. I'm sure you're a wonderful person. Let's still have coffee.
i)You are now posting too many photos a day and clogging up my feed so that in the 2 minutes I allow for scrolling I can't see the photos of everyone else's breakfast or laundry drying on the line. I still love you.
j) You have bought followers and I find this action a bit weird and I no longer feel the same about you.
k) I followed you because of that photo you posted of the Sloth eating the Strawberry but ever since that photo all you post are photos of stairwells. I wanted more sloth.
l) You haven't "liked" or "commented" enough on my photos and I need more interaction from you.
m) You are "liking" and "commenting" too much and too soon on every single one of my photos and I find this behaviour a little stalkerish and needy. I can't cope with it anymore.
n) I followed you when you displayed an interest in my product/workshop/service etc but once you handed over your hard-earned cash I didn't need to follow you anymore. That's business, sorry.
n) You unfollowed me after taking my money and I have an ethical problem with you now. That's a very odd business strategy if ever there was so I need to unfollow you.
o) None of the above. I have no idea why I want to unfollow you. I follow and unfollow willy nilly without any thought or emotional attachment to the person behind the photos. It's just Instagram. Harden up Princess.
p) Your comments and responses on each of your photos are the length of a novel and clogging up my feed. You seem very chatty, have you thought about blogging?

What do you think Mr Zuckerberg? This new era of social media is a tricksy thing to navigate. Perhaps it's only natural to feel a bit cynical about it as the years go on.

I still remain your loyal customer,

Sincerely,

Me.

PS: Here is someone else with some interesting thoughts on technology, AKA "who pleases me today, who shall I delete"

You can do anything in 12 weeks......or not.

2015-03-11T21:03:00.000+11:00

I finished the Exploration Station pattern by the fabulous Stephen West over Summer and as far as knitting experiences go it was a truly enjoyable one. Lots of soothing garter stitch rows to begin with followed by some new-to-me knitting techniques and interesting stitch combinations to keep things interesting. I stretched the thing to oblivion during the blocking process as I do like an oversized shawl but it may not have been the best idea as the Brioche section looks a little too stretched now. The more eagle-eyed knitters out there will also spot the mistakes - the first row of yarn-overs in the white edging is a bit off and the stripy section before that is much shorter than it should have been thanks to the Whippet destroying the remaining navy blue yarn. The i-cord bind-off took forever and a day but all can be forgiven because it did create the loveliest finished edge. I really love how it turned out and I wore it for the first time tonight at the local Village Association drinks.

I also just recently finished reading "The Light Between Oceans" by M. L. Stedman. It is the story of a Lighthouse Keeper and his wife living on a remote island off Western Australia. It is a heartbreaking story about love and loss and about right and wrong. I had to check my own morality a few times along the way, often siding with the wrongdoers, or at least empathising with them. It's apparently going to be turned into a feature film but filmed here in Tasmania instead of Western Australia. It will definitely make for some compelling viewing.

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In other news, we are getting to the pointy end of the farm development with just 12 weeks to go until we open. Life is going to change in a way that I can't really imagine but I do know that whenever there is a 12 week period before a deadline or a life-changing event my brain goes into overdrive compiling a list of things that need to be done. Because everyone knows that 12 weeks is the magic number. A shorter length of time isn't long enough to achieve the goal and any longer than 12 weeks then one loses motivation. This is what I plan to do in the next 12 weeks:

1) Knit myself my first jumper.

2) Lose those few kilos that have been hanging around these past few years

3) Do a crash course in self love and accept the fact that I have been putting off 1) until 2) has been achieved and that maybe I just need to embrace this new body shape of mine as my new 'normal'

4) Embark on a complete house declutter.

5) Train the puppy entirely and wean him off book spines, shoes and wooden toys

6) Finish painting the kitchen

7) Read the 4 novels that are sitting on my bedside table.

8) Do a course in Floral Arranging and Bee-keeping, a Barrista course, a course in small business management, MYOB accounting, a course in time-management skills, a course in 'getting back into the workforce after a decade of child-rearing" and a course in "fitting it all in" but only if I have time.

9) Read the entire Harry Potter series to the boys at bedtime

10) Be a fabulous wife, mother, dance mum, soccer mum, friend. Heck, just be fabulous all the time.

And pigs may fly.

You may be able to do anything in 12 weeks, but surely not everything. The fact that I couldn't recall any previous goals successfully reached within a 12 week period should have sent alarm bells off but it was the look on my Husband's face that alerted me to my insanity as I rattled off all of the things I felt I had to get done.

Or not.

Perhaps instead I might just carry on as normal. Do less rather than more. I think I'm going to spend this time recovering from this stressful development period and just focus on doing one thing at a time, finishing what I've started, resting when I can and staring out the window at the view as much as I like. I'm not going to do anymore lists. Things will get done when they get done.

I'm joining Ginny and all the other knitters and readers over here today.

Shawl notes ravelled here.

A Smile of Sunflowers

2015-03-04T20:48:00.000+11:00

I have a confession. I don't really like yellow flowers. However, show me a field of glorious yellow Sunflowers and I will profess my love for them in a thousand different languages. I love them so much I walk down to them everyday and just stare at them for ages. It may be a case of 'housework aversion" but I'd rather call it "choosing to put myself in the way of beauty" as said by Laura Dern in the movie "Wild". I think there's something in that.

It was my only non negotiable request with the farm project. "Can we please just set aside a patch for some Sunflowers?". Although we are trying to use every square meter of land for productive uses who can argue against the value of a beautiful field of Sunflowers? No one. As it turned out, there were two wedges of land between the 3 sections of Orchard and it had "Mel's Sunflowers" written all over them. Flynn calls them "pretties" and everyday he says "more pretties t'day" as the number of yellow happy faces increases in the paddock.

Sunflower fields are in the photo albums of my childhood, stemming from visits to my Great Grandparent's home in Idaho where there were fields of Sunflowers and Black-eyed Susans dotted around the countryside. And then there was Anne of Green Gables, my favourite childhood book which was then turned into one of my favourite childhood TV series. When I lived in Canada I took a trip to Prince Edward Island specifically to visit Green Gables and walk the fields that Megan Follows had done in the series. There were Sunflowers all through the garden of "Anne's" cottage which left a lasting impression on me. One day, I thought, I will have a garden with Sunflowers.

I was trying to find the collective noun for Sunflowers but had no such luck. A "chorus of Sunflowers" or a "happiness of Sunflowers" perhaps? Watching their sunny heads bob from side to side in the breeze made me think a "jive of Sunflowers" would be a pretty apt noun for them until I spotted "A thousand splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini sitting on the bookshelf and thought "a splendour of sunflowers" would describe them even better. I then went back to how they make you feel when you see them and decided it would have to be a "smile of Sunflowers" for the title of this Post. It was either that or "Are you sick of my Sunflowers yet?". If anyone is following me on Instagram, I truly apologise for the Sunflower spam. I'm ready to move on now.

Whatever the collective noun may be, I love Sunflowers. A lot.

Notes to self

2015-02-16T16:13:00.001+11:00

Note #1 Practice sales pitch before every market.

"Would you like to taste my nuts?"
Oh dear.
"Er, would you like to sample our nuts?"
Not much better.
"Care to try some tasty nuts. We have 2 nuts available. Er, Hazelnuts and Almonds. They're roasted and then caramelised......"
A bit too long.
"Nuts. Nuts. We're nuts over here! I mean we have nuts over here"
Good grief!
"Would you like to try...(commence hand gestures to tasting plate)"

Note #2 Pay special attention to seemingly mundane conversations with children in the car.

Eleanor: Mum are you wearing that skirt again today?
Me: Yes, why?
Eleanor: It's got a split up the back of it.
Me: It's part of the design honey, it's meant to be there.
Eleanor: Really? I only just noticed it yesterday afternoon.
Me: Yes, well it has been there forever.
Eleanor: Oh ok.

Upon my return home from running errands some 6 hours later I was mortified to catch a glimpse of my skirt in the bathroom mirror. Of course I was wearing hot pink underwear that day.

oh THAT split!

Note #3 Be prepared to discuss the male anatomy and correct terms for reproduction to children and friends of children at any moment.

Upon collecting Rocket from the vet the following conversation was overheard in the car

Friend: Why do we need to be gentle with Rocket?
Son: He had his penis cut off to stop him from spawning*.

Note #4 Asking your child if their friend liked the birthday present they gave them and getting a reply in the affirmative doesn't necessarily mean the friend actually received the present.

I opened the child's school bag this morning and found the birthday present that was meant to be given to his friend last Friday. Apparently he thought he did give it to his friend. We are still trying to get to the bottom of this one.

Note #5 Don't put car-parking dockets in your mouth, especially if parked above level 12.

Upon paying for my parking and retrieving the docket from the machine I always place it in my mouth between my lips whilst I drive down the levels of the parking lot to the exit where I hand it to the man and continue on with the rest of the day. If I don't put the docket in this spot it gets lost in the car or left on the roof of the car. It was a particularly warm and dry day when I was parked on the top level of the parking lot so when I finally got to the exit and ripped the ticket out of my mouth to give to the man, half the skin of my lips came off as well. There was an unsavoury word uttered along with blood dripping all down my front. It was very embarrassing but it looked like I brightened up the man's day. It reminded me of that one time I licked an ice tray.....

Note #6 Do not lick ice trays.

When I was 8 I was playing at my friend's house and it was so hot that I opened their freezer and licked the ice tray whereby half my tongue got stuck to the ice. I then had the embarrassing job of explaining to my friend's family how I cut my tongue and why there was blood all over the kitchen floor. But I digress. Back to other items this week...

Note #7 Shopping for toilets is quite awkward and toddlers should be left at home.

I was toilet shopping recently and was completely taken aback when the salesman told me to "have a seat and try them all out. See which one you like the feel of best". Sitting on toilets with fellow customers walking by, despite being fully clothed, was a less than fabulous experience. Having Flynn yelling out "Mummy wee, mummy poo" every 5 seconds added to the mortification nicely.

Happy Monday! I hope I don't collect too many notes to self this week :-)

* "spawning" is a term regularly used in Minecraft and is well known by parents of 8 year olds.

2015, let's do this thing!

2015-02-10T21:37:00.001+11:00

The year never really starts for me until the children start the new school year, which was last Wednesday for us in Tasmania. They've all settled in well into Years 1, 3, and 5 with the only difference this year being that we put the Twins into separate classes. We did this purely as we had the option to do so and we thought it would be awesome for them to be able to be identified without everyone having to look at the colour of their shoes first. So far they are loving having their 'own' classes and, well, they are pretty much joined at the hip for the other 20 hours a day that they are not in class so it's really no hardship.

The beginning of the school term is also the time I feel a tremendous urge to get the house in order after the school holiday chaos but I usually give myself a week or two to get my head into gear before the cleaning frenzy commences. To that end, I decided to make another of Alicia Paulson’s Miss Maggie Rabbits. These Rabbit's are so cute with their knitted capelets, boots and rosy cheeks that I just want to sit and make them all day long. It’s the same one I made two years ago for Eleanor but this time I bought my own materials and used a vintage apron from my stash for her frock (see, I knew those 40 vintage aprons would come in handy one day!). I finished her in record time – 3 evenings and 3 nap times - so that Daniel could take her up to Sydney with him yesterday and deliver it personally to our new baby niece, Frankie.

In other news, our building application was approved last Friday, yippee!!!!! This means the builders can finally get on with building the project. 2014 was a very frustrating year with all the delays, amendments to applications and then whole new applications needing to be submitted and I didn't cope so well with all of the stress. I finally feel that things are moving ahead and feel all the more lighter for it. We’re told it will be 16 weeks until we are open and after waiting for what seems like an eternity to get this show on the road suddenly the prospect of opening a business in just 16 weeks fills me with total fear and excitement in equal measures. Breath. A lot of the ground preparation was done over the Summer and the kids have loved living in a real life Tonka world, watching all the machinery in action and using the site as a playground when the machines weren’t in use.

We had a lovely visit from Dad and Diane. I’ve seen them a lot these past few months with my trips to Sydney for the School Reunion, Ballet Weekend and the funeral last month but it was great to have them here to show them all of the work that has been going on around the farm. It was also nice to have the extra pair of hands on deck with the kids, the markets (we are doing 2-3 every weekend) and to have someone go through the house fixing things, thanks Dad! On one of our walks I just happened to have my camera with me and was able to capture Rocket chasing a Hare. It’s always thrilling to see a Whippet racing at full stretch and I think we all held our breath wondering what he’d do if he actually caught the Hare. Luckily for the Hare, Rocket lost him in the apple orchard.

And so, with the Kids settled into the new school year, a building application approved and a completely finished Rabbit, I’m feeling refreshed and positive and ready for whatever 2015 has in store for me, just as soon as I make a dent in Mt Washmore. How are you feeling about 2015?

Road Trip In Pictures

2015-01-29T18:26:00.002+11:00

I'm back from our road trip and slowly finding my way back to this neglected online space of mine. It's always hard to find the words after an extended break but even more so when the break involves a round trip of some 3200km as a solo parent with 5 Kids including around 20 hours on a Ferry. It's almost equivalent to driving from LA to New York and back. I'm still recovering! It was a wonderful trip though and the journey was quite cathartic if I'm honest. It involved lots of thinking time whilst driving, lots of time with the kids, with relatives, cousins, and lots of time visiting the places of my childhood. My Grandfather's funeral, which was the reason for the trip in the first place, was lovely. A Bugler played "The Last Post" and I think he would have been very happy to have all of his family together and hearing everyone recount their favourite stories. Thank you for all of your sweet comments on my last post - they were really appreciated.

The rest of the two weeks were spent at my Dad's farm, at my sisters place, on my cousin's sofa, a few nights in a caravan park and there may have been quite a bit of op-shop trawling in the little country towns between Melbourne and Sydney. The Kids travelled well but I did offer an incentive for if we could all manage the long car trip in a civilised manner - a day at thrill-seeking adventure at Jamberoo Action Park. This park has come along way since I last visited as a child and is now a fully fledged water theme park offering a multitude of water-slides as well as the new terrifying Funnel Web which involves a bit of free-falling and catapulting into a funnel. I don't remember much about that ride but I have the terrifying photos to prove that I was on board. The best bit is getting the chairlift up to the top of the mountain and then bobsledding/tobogganing down whilst taking in the picturesque views of the countryside and ocean beyond. I also loved showing the Kids around Canberra, our nation's Capital and where I lived whilst attending University. I couldn't believe how much this place had changed in the years since my last visit. We visited the Australian Wall memorial, Parliament House, walked around the lake, had dinner with old friends and the kids got a kick out of seeing the Irish Pub where Mummy and Daddy met and fell in love. On the last day of our trip we received the most wonderful news. My Brother-In-Law and his wife had welcomed their first precious baby into the world. A beautiful little girl. There really is no better news than the birth of a baby is there? We are all thrilled to bits.

There's lots happening around the farm here too and I'm also really looking forward to catching up on all of your news. I've missed you guys!

Toodle Pip

2015-01-07T21:51:00.002+11:00

Hello Friends.

It is with a heavy heart that as we welcome in a new year our family must bid farewell to our beloved Grandfather, who passed away peacefully a couple of days ago at the age of 97. To live such a long, healthy and happy life and to be surrounded by so many loved ones is a fortunate life indeed and a life to be celebrated. I am grateful for this. And he will be sorely missed.

Two years ago, an 8 year old Eleanor came home from school after a day of completing the national school exams (NAPLAN). She said the written exam was to "Nominate someone who should be a hero and explain why". In a exam where most kids wrote about their Mums, Dads, a cricket legend or a superhero, she said she wrote about her Great Grandfather. I couldn't have been prouder. When asked what she wrote about she said she wrote about how he was a soldier in World War II fighting to protect our country, how he still marched in the ANZAC parade in Sydney every year and about when the Japanese Submarines entered Sydney harbour he was at the hospital putting mattresses over the windows of the maternity wards. Many people don't realise how close we came to War in this country. A hero indeed.

He was the gentlest of souls, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather and a role model for all of us to work hard, enjoy life, travel, and have hobbies. A true gentleman. He was a fan of beginning a visit with "Elevenses", "Oneses", or "Fiveses" depending on the time of day you arrived and finishing a visit with a "Toodle Pip!" on the front balcony. I will always remember the way he used to hold my hand and my earliest memory is of me bouncing on his knee with him saying he was "clickety click 66". I asked him on one of our visits last year whether he had any advice on life for me and he simply said "Look after yourself. And look after other people". Wise words. So friends, there will be no resolutions for me this year. I will simply be taking my Grandfather's advice and trying my best to do just that.

Toodle Pip Uppy, may you now rest in peace, together again with our beloved Grandmother.

Things may be quiet for the next few days as I begin the journey by car from Hobart to Sydney with the 5 children on my own. It's a big trip but you know I love a good road trip and I will do anything to have as many of us with the rest of the family in Sydney for the funeral on Tuesday. We're heading off at 3.30am to catch the Ferry across to Melbourne so I best get some rest.

I really need to start thinking about Christmas

2014-12-22T21:44:00.000+11:00

At what point is it deemed too late to put up the Christmas Tree I wonder? We still haven't got ours up but with 3 days to go I have high hopes that tonight will still be acceptable. I have it all planned in my head. It's just a matter of going outside with the little saw and finding that perfect She-oak to cut down. We'll then sip champagne and delight in the sultry sounds of Diana Krall whilst gazing at our adoring offspring working harmoniously together to decorate the tree in a slow and careful manner. The smell of the pudding on the stove with the brandy infused fruit that I lovingly prepared days earlier will be wafting through to the lounge room as I delight in placing the presents I bought in July under the tree.

In reality, Daniel will get lost in the messy shed before he manages to find the saw, there are still no presents under the non-existent tree and no pudding either. When the saw is finally found, marital relations will be brought to a head as a passionate debate over the height of the living room ceilings ensues. As always we will come to a compromise and cut the tree to the size I suggest. It will be too tall. Whilst I retrieve the box of decorations from the spot I left them temporarily a year ago the dutiful Husband in his wisdom will cut off the top of the tree instead of the bottom leaving the tree with an unexpected flat top that I won't roll my eyes over because it's Christmas. The offspring will be having their own lively debate and negotiations over who gets to put the 'good' decorations on the tree whilst Flynn sees his first Christmas bauble (a glass one of course) which he thinks is a ball and therefore flings it across the room where it will smash to a million pieces (this happens every year we have a male toddler in the house at Christmas). Precautionary socks will be retrieved from the sock mountain and the dust-buster will now have to make an appearance drowning out Diana's soulful tunes and thus bringing the Christmas cheer that began so promisingly only 5 minutes earlier to an all time low. There will eventually be tears, probably mine, and to top things off the dog will eat the pompom off the Christmas Bear's hat (it's made of wool you understand) and when one of the kids lets off a squeal of alarm the dog will drop the bear and then nick off with any remaining baubles and take them to his secret stash at the side of the house. We will go and retrieve said baubles and find our missing shoes. The innersoles will be chewed to oblivion but the shoes will be mostly in tact. There's always a silver lining isn't there? At least we don't have to look too far from the source to find the remnants of our comic books.

So what's the cause of the extra Christmas tardiness? We've been flat out dealing with the Strawberry Situation. Those Sweet Annes truly are the gift that keeps on giving. Just when we think we've picked them all, merely a few days later they are back again in all their glory. No one here in the family is complaining about the lack of Christmas cheer within the home. I think it's because Christmas 2014 marks the beginning of a new Christmas tradition for us, one that involves a busy mum and dad dealing with the Strawberry Situation, but one that also involves an abundance of the most delicious fresh berries and a home that smells like the strawberry shortcake doll I had in the 80's. We're celebrating in a different way and very happy to do so.

To keep up with the oversupply of strawberries while at the same time dealing with the annoying rain of last week that would have ruined them all we spent a day stripping the rows, cleaning, hulling and packing them into vacuum sealed bags for the deep freezer to use for jamming over the winter months. If I had the foresight to know what a hit the vacuum sealer machine would be with the kids I'd have wrapped it in a red bow for Christmas. They would have been thrilled. Here is a 10th of the amount of Strawberries that occupied our kitchen the day we picked 350kg of Strawberries. I stole myself away from the vacuum sealer to snap the sight of not one, but 3 gorgeous men working away at my kitchen bench, it would have been rude not to.

To further ensure not a single Strawberry goes to waste we have also signed up for 2 markets a week - the Twilight Market on Friday nights at Sandy Bay and the Farm Gate Market in Hobart on Sundays. We have done 4 markets in the past 10 days and they have been so much fun but my goodness they are a huge amount of work in the 12 hours prior to each market to ensure the strawberries are picked fresh and packaged to perfection, not to mention juggling all of this with the 5 kids. At least the Teachers gifts were easy this year - Strawberries for all!

This has all coincided with my annual weekend away with Eleanor in Sydney. This is a trip we do every year, just the two of us, and it is something very special that we do regardless of how busy things are at home. It is our early Christmas present. We go to the Ballet at the Opera House. This year was the "Nutcracker" and it was absolutely beautiful. We went to just one shop, preferring to see another live show instead of buying clothes and so we saw the musical "Wicked". I had seen it 5 years ago and knew she would love it given we listened to the DVD ad nauseum on our caravan trip around Australia. It was just as fabulous as I remembered.

I think I've created a monster.

The weekend also saw my Grandfather turning an incredible 97 years old. Sadly, just a few days before his birthday he was admitted to the hospital with an infection and too unwell to attend his own birthday party. He was still in reasonably good spirits when we visited him in hospital and it is hoped he will be out of this week. But he is 97 and it is really hard to see him so frail. With family members coming from all corners of the country to see him on his special day, we made the decision to visit him in hospital individually and then come together at my Aunty's house to celebrate his birthday even though he couldn't be there to blow out his candles. As hard as it was to not have him with us, he would have loved the fact we were all together in his honour.

Finally, this busy time of year has also culminated in the final day of school for the year with wonderful reports coming home for all of the kids, a Presentation Day, and 3 dance concerts in the last 2 days. Aren't these Tutus beautiful?

So that's what has been keeping me away from the computer these past few weeks. I am not kidding when I said to Daniel today "I just need to have a little lie down before I start thinking about Christmas". There's still 2 days left, plenty of time. Anyone else having a slow start to Christmas or am I creating a new record on tardiness?

The Boss turns 2.

2014-11-30T21:51:00.002+11:00

Good Morning Mum, where's my breakfast?

The dog is scratching at the door, you better get onto that before you-know-what happens. We don't want a repeat of yesterday morning's performance.

I'm watching a Thomas clip on your iphone while the porridge is cooking. Oh no, he is about to go off the rails!

Seriously Mum, he's going to crash and Gordon's deep, scary voice is on and I can't look down now

Yay! Henry saved the day, all is right with the world again.

Dear Flynn, you may not say much yet, and why would you with 6 other family members anticipating your every whim, but your expressions speak volumes. If your 3rd year around the sun is at least as riveting as the 3 minute Thomas The Tank Engine clip you watched while I took these photos then I think you're in for another good year. Happy 2nd Birthday mate, I can't believe how fast it has gone. As your older siblings always say, you are such a happy little legend! xxx

The Strawberry Game-Changer

2014-11-26T22:09:00.001+11:00

It's Strawberry Fever around here with the 13,500 Strawberry plants we planted 12 weeks ago fruiting in all of their anticipatory glory. Most impressive are the Sweet Anne's, those huge delicious morsels pictured above. They are quite spectacular. I photographed them in a line above our other traditional varieties - the Cambridge Rivals, Hokowase and Kunowase -so you can see just how they compare in size.

After we gorged ourselves senseless on them in the first week we decided we needed to get serious about the Strawberries so embarked on making jam. A lot of jam. This lead to thinking about selling the Strawberries and the jam at some markets as well as opening our farm up to some pick-your-own berry activity prior to the building being finished (or started for that matter but let's not go there right now).

So last Sunday we invited some friends over for a few hours of pick-your-own fun as a bit of a practice run and to celebrate this new venture we've embarked upon. I only put the call out on my personal facebook page but ended up getting 70 friends through the gates and the 12-3pm time-slot quickly went out the door and we finished up the day well after 9pm. It was all a rip-roaring success and I'm so grateful for the support of our friends for making it such a special day.

The following day I dropped off some punnets to a couple of people at school who couldn't make it and ended up leaving the school with more orders for the following day. Soon word got around and I've been run off my feet keeping up with demand. I've been up at the crack of dawn picking strawberries and then trading them at the school gate at drop-off and pick-up time like a naughty school kid trading illicit substances. I've suddenly found myself working well in advance of the March time-frame I was mentally working towards.

It has been fantastic though. The Strawberries have been a game-changer in 2 respects. Firstly, for the first time in 10 years I'm ~~bouncing~~ getting out of bed without the need for 2 strong lattes and the cries of the offspring searching for a school top. I now only need 1 cup and am getting out of bed quite cheerfully. Naomi Campbell may not get out of bed for $10,000 but I'm more than happy to do it for a punnet of Strawberries. Things may look a little different by the end of the season but for now it's cheerful Mel in the mornings with a marginally sore back by evening but who has no trouble sleeping anymore. Secondly, I'm baking again. The 30 year old oven went kaputt last Summer and every baking episode since has been an epic disaster. The new oven was installed this week and I've made 3 Pavlovas in 3 days, the one above was tonight's dessert. Daniel is thrilled beyond measure. It's been a Strawberry Game-Changer.

A few other exciting things have happened this week like meeting fellow bloggers Stacey and Rachel in real life. What a treat. More about that next time.

PS. I almost forgot, Congratulations to CJ who won the little giveaway in my last Post!

Chaos, Frivolity and a little something for you.

2014-11-06T14:30:00.003+11:00

Hello. How are you? Pardon the mess. I'm just snatching a few quiet moments here while Flynn is napping and hoping the deafening sound of the jackhammer doesn't wake him up. I can barely hear Radiohead playing on my headphones and my desk is vibrating but I'll persevere and take this tiny window of time while I can.

It has been a tad chaotic here this past week. There are lots of balls in the air and we added a few more when we decided to tart up the kitchen/dining area and replace the 30 year old oven that doesn't work before the real chaos starts when we open for business in the New Year. There's also been dealings with local Council and Government Departments, headaches here, hiccups here, product development, selecting all the seeds for my cut flower patch and finalising our business logo only to find that an almost exact copy has found its way into the market place so back to the drawing board with that- grrr! An exploded Fire Hydrant is a picture that springs to mind to describe how I'm feeling right now. I've flipped my lid more than a few times this week, the exhaustion pouring out in a spectacular fashion yet not really accomplishing anything in terms of putting out all the little spot-fires around me.

Breathe.

There have been some nice moments amongst the chaos. Halloween was a hit. I know some people have very strong views on celebrating Halloween in this country and I dislike the commercialisation of these holidays as much as the next person but you have to pick your battles and this is one I'm not inclined to get my knickers in a knot over. The kids love dressing up and we head down to the beachside suburb down the road every year where treat-or-treating has become a 'thing' and we spend a lovely evening walking around the suburb mingling with our friends and eating fish and chips on the beach. It's at the very least a community-building activity, a lovely way to spend the evening and besides, there's not enough Frivolity in the world.

To cope with all of the above I've joined another Knit Along - Stephen West's Exploration Station. Completely uninspired by my current knitting project for the obvious reason (I'm seeing a lot of green in the photo above), I chose some soothing neutrals and a bolt of electric blue (above right). It's not outrageous but at least it's not green. I did a quick search on Ravelry and decided I needed some Stephen West in my life to get me out of my knitting slump. I watched his little video tutorial and he had me at "swooshity swoosh" so I signed right up. It's so far proving to be a very interesting and fun knit, as one would expect.

Images from here

Is anyone joining in? It's not too late, I started on Tuesday night and have finished the first clue already.

Finally, we had a fantastic day at the Tasmanian Craft Fair in Deloraine on the weekend and were completely inspired by all the wonderful craftsmanship. I bought a couple of little things for you too. There's a sweet brooch on the left by Sarah Millicent Elliot and a print "A Riot of Kookaburras" by Red Parka Design on the right. I love collective nouns and when I saw the Kookaburra print it reminded me instantly of blogging, all of us chatting to each other throughout the blogosphere like a riot of Kookaburras. If you'd like these lovely Tasmanian creations just leave me a comment and I'll draw a name out of the hat on Sunday. Good luck and have a great weekend!

20 Year High School Reunion

2014-10-29T17:13:00.003+11:00

Blink and suddenly 20 years have whooshed by.

It had been a long time between drinks so I flew back to my hometown for my 20 Year High School Reunion, an opportunity to spend a few days away on my own and catch up with old friends and family and to see just how little sleep I could function on - apparently 3 hours a night for 4 nights in a row is doable but then I need another 3 nights at home to recover. It was all worth it.

I grew up in Wollongong, a big industrial city just south of Sydney which boasts beautiful beaches,a relaxed lifestyle and a sort of gritty edge that I loved. It's a predominantly working class city thanks to the BHP Steel Works hovering in the distance. Your parents were either in some way connected to the Steel Works or were part of the professions that supported this community which made it a close knit city and it was a great place to grow up.

I attended the local co-ed public high school down the road from home. I walked to and from school every day for 6 years, 13 if you include Primary School. I'd pick up my friends along street on the way and wait for them to finish their piano lessons or homework or clean their teeth before heading off. The school was a melting pot in terms of cultural diversity with a multitude of nationalities thrown in together and kids coming from all walks of life. With over 1000 students we all bunked in together in a kind of 'sink or swim' fashion. Parents had minimal involvement in High School back then and there didn't seem to be the mollycoddling that's around these days. It was free public education at its best and I am so grateful for the experience.

Needless to say I have the fondest memories of High School. Our year group was a 'good' one in that everyone generally got along despite having their own little groups of friends. Since I left home straight after school finished to go off to University I was super keen to see everyone again. I'd lost touch with many friends due to the tyranny of distance and although I had kept in contact with some, there were many I hadn't seen for 5, 10, 20 years. Love it or loathe it, Facebook has been a saving grace in terms of keeping in touch with friends and resulted in the Reunion being a massive success with over 100 of us from our year group attending.

Nothing beats a good face to face contact and the friends you grow up with in your formative years are super special. You know these people really well. They know you. You see them every day, spend huge amounts of time in their homes and know the intricacies of their home life and their family dynamics. You know their issues and they know yours. I particularly have a soft spot for the friends I went through Primary School with, having known them for around 30 years now. We always have a ball when we catch up.

Onto the Reunion itself, it was exactly as I thought it would be. Lots of "OMG you haven't changed a bit!", "remember when?" and "I can't believe you have 5 kids, that's crazy!!!". No one had 5 Kids except me. Everyone was essentially the same, in a good way. There was a lot of openness and honesty. I loved hearing how everyone has been spending their time. After 20 years, everyone was now fairly set on their designated path. There had been marriages, children, divorces and mid-life crises. If you weren't following your passion or didn't know what that was after High School you now did and were on your destined path. If your relationships weren't working out, you had either divorced or had come to some kind of acceptance. No one had been immune to struggles although there were some truly heartbreaking stories. There really are no guarantees in life when you see the randomness in some of the stories. Some of our class mates were no longer with us through accident, illness and suicide, a sobering reminder to be kind.

The general consensus by the end of the night:

Life is short.
Marriage and Children are hard but great.
No one is doing exactly what they thought they would be doing after High School and that's OK.
Apparently I need to get a Thermomix.
We should have a Reunion every year because it was just so much fun.
Aside from genuine curiosity, no one cares overly much what you do for a living, they are more interested in what sort of person you have become.
Good friends are those where you can pick up where you left off 20 years ago as if no time has passed at all.

There were lots of photos at the Reunion that I had never seen before, reminders of good times I had forgotten about.

and times I never would have thought existed without some form of photographic evidence. I spent weekends at our farm in Braidwood and apparently I used to ride my horse in a bikini.

By the end of the night my cheeks were sore from laughing so much and I had lost my voice. Sometime after 2am we called it a night, the Responsible Lad that was always there 20 years ago to drive the inebriated home safely was there again. After being dropped off I fumbled around for the lone spare key, dropping it a few times in the long grass before tripping down some stairs in my heels to collapse on my sister's sofa fully clothed. Just like old times.

Spring growth

2014-10-19T21:20:00.000+11:00

There's a whole lot of Spring growth going on around here. The flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing and look at how big our Whippet pup "Rocket" is getting. If only he was as serene at midnight when he gallops onto our bed and takes up his new sleeping position on our heads.

The recently planted trees that looked like sad little sticks poking out of the ground are now either in blossom or covered in leaves. The Strawberries are looking sensational and have fruited and now just needing to ripen. A good number of them are a lovely new variety not widely available and I can't wait to get them into some recipes. I've been inspired in advance of the glut we'll have of Strawberries before the building is ready and have been baking up lots of Strawberry muffins - I popped a couple of choc chips on the top of this batch and they came out looking like faces which thrilled me no end. The fruit hanging off the branches in the photo are the Currants which are coming along nicely and will bush out over time to become an edible hedge along the front boundary.

The shipping containers are multiplying. Five have now been delivered here and will be used as part of the building, more on that later. In the meantime, it provided a nice backdrop for my latest shawl fresh off the needles and dry after overnight blocking. It's my second Follow Your Arrow Shawl by Ysolda Teague which I started 9 months ago as part of the Mystery Knit Along. It was made using the alternate clues I didn't use for the first shawl except for the final clue which was doing my head in and is the reason I set this one aside for 8 months. It feels good to have finished something around here I'm really happy with how it turned out and have realised I have a very strong preference for wearing asymmetrical shawls as this one can be thrown on and wrapped around like a scarf - no gaffing required.

Speaking of growth, all the Kids have had a massive growth spurt lately. They're all legs and arms and Eleanor is wearing size 6 shoes now! Flynn will be 2 next month and is eating as much as the boys, which is an obscene amount. He has joined the others rolling down the hill by the Bridge in Richmond, a tradition that has been going on for almost a decade.

And just to make me feel really old, we now have a kid with Braces. Just how did that happen? Eleanor has the teeth of a 12 year old instead of a 10 year old and so got them earlier than most which is just as well as back in my day the event was accompanied with a training bra, a new nickname - 'Braceface" anyone? - and a warning to be careful kissing boys who also had braces on in case you got stuck together - a rather scary thought if you're the daughter of a Dentist. I don't think I'm quite ready for all that stuff just yet - jeepers!

Happy Campers

2014-10-05T21:07:00.000+11:00

Well, I know I said taking a family holiday outside of school holidays was a good idea, but returning from a trip with just 5 days of the school term left is not recommended, trust me! In hindsight we should have travelled a week later so we came home during school holidays where we could have leisurely got back to normal. Instead, we had to launch straight back into a busy final week of term with all that that entails and by the end of the week I really started to wonder whether we had gone away at all. "Re-entry Syndrome" was coming on thick and fast. However, our friends then decided they needed to get the 'heck out of dodge' as soon as school was out and that we of course should join them on their impromptu camp trip - a mini holiday to get over the post holiday blues. You can't argue with that logic.

So we packed our little bags again and crammed into the car, with bikes and kayaks attached to any available surface and headed to Fortescue Bay where we camped back in January. We spent the whole time shaking our heads as we couldn't believe the whole place was empty - our own private beach and the entire camp ground completely to ourselves. Even the campsite manager left after the first night. "Did we miss the memo on the Tsunami or something?". No, apparently it only gets busy in Summer. We did the hike around to the Shipwreck again and enjoyed the beautiful colours of the native flowers. There were a few Beer and Bocci sessions, Night Fishing, Bike Riding and Kayaking. It was so nice to spend some quality time with good friends, chatting into the wee hours of the night in front of the campfire.

There's one week left of school holidays and with the in-laws arriving from Alice Springs last night and I'm looking forward to some slow and leisurely days at home with them this week.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Mel x

Fiji

2014-09-22T14:51:00.003+10:00

Hello.

We slipped away to Fiji for a much needed family holiday.

With all the plants in the ground and the promise of a very busy Summer awaiting us here at home we decided now was a good time to recharge the batteries and digest all that has happened over the past year.

It was amazing - gorgeous weather, white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, snorkelling with Nemo, Dory and all the other Sweetlips, and being looked after by the friendliest folk on the planet.

We stayed out on Plantation Island, a solid 3-star resort - nothing fancy, a bit "tired" if you want to chime in with the negative nellies on Tripadvisor, but perfect for families with kids in our age bracket. There was so much to do yet you could do absolutely nothing too. The resort is really spread out and we had our own private 3 room Bure which was quite secluded. I think travelling outside of school holidays was a very good idea.

The ocean water park was a hit with the Kids. We could supervise whilst sipping on our Pina Coladas from the deck chairs. The 4 older Kids enjoyed the freedom of cavorting around the island on their own for small amounts of time too. Flynn slept for a good 2-3 hours every day so that was when I got to sit in the hammock and truly relax.

I was totally strung out by the time we arrived in Fiji and I think it took 8 days to really hit that "zen" mode. I managed to read an entire book during my hammock time - Tim Winton's "Eyrie" which I thoroughly enjoyed but I'm waiting for Daniel to finish it so we can "workshop" the abrupt ending.

A great time was had by all and not even the 5 hour flight home with Flynn using our thighs as trampolines could completely undo the relaxation brought on by all that "Fiji-time".

I've had quite a few breaks from technology lately, which has been good but I'd like to spend more time in this space. I've tarted up the blog a little to re-spark my enthusiasm, enlisting the help of Katrina to tweak some of the formatting that has been annoying me for only 3 years. Perhaps I'll get round to the "About Me" page soon as well.

Thank you so much for sticking around and for all your lovely comments of late. I'm looking forward to catching up on all your news!

Have a great week!

Grow you good things!

2014-09-12T20:21:00.000+10:00

Tis done! All 2000 trees, 10,000 cane berries and 13,500 strawberries are in the ground. It was a massive job but of the most satisfying kind with new buds swelling and the first leaves appearing already. We expect the strawberries to be ready by Summer and even though we have a long way to go before we are ready to be open to the public it has been an absolute thrill to get to this point and see the transformation from bare paddock to future orchard brimming with so many varieties of delicious fruit. It is a dream come true really. To get this far in such a tight time frame we had lots of help, so along with Jamie we had a team of 6 people help with the planting, with the final 7 trees saved for the Kids to plant out on Sunday to celebrate the beginnings of our new family venture.

End of Season Recap

2014-09-11T19:44:00.000+10:00

Recent events have led me to sift through old photographs more often than I normally do and I've been feeling very nostalgic as a result. In fact, I've never felt the pinch of time marching on so quickly as I have these past couple of weeks.

For starters, our first-born Child turned 10. Double-Digits! How on earth could a decade of parenthood fly by so fast? It would be an understatement to say it feels like yesterday that Eleanor used to prance around the living room pretending to be a Ballerina in all her uncoordinated 3 year old gorgeousness. Yet on Friday night she performed in the The Nutcracker donning a Tutu for the first time and looked every bit the mature 10 year old that she is. It was a beautiful evening of Ballet with Costumes on loan from The Australian Ballet in Sydney being an added bonus. The following day her dance school put on an equally spectacular show for their annual concert. I didn't manage to get any photos of her with all the chaos going on backstage, but I did snap this one of her leaping through the air down at the wharf while we were having a quick bite to eat between the Matinee and Evening Performances.

The boys also turned 6, an age which always feels like a giant step up from age 5. They have grown up a lot this year and have settled into their first year of full-time school beautifully. We kept them in the same class this year as there was no reason to separate them but we'll reassess next year. The main reason to separate them next year is the fact that they are identical and I think it would be nice for them to be seen more as individuals instead of their classmates and Teacher having to look at the colour of their shoes before addressing them as George or Noah to their faces, poor lads.

The same weekend saw the end of the 2014 Soccer season. All 3 boys love their sports and had a great season of Soccer - winning games, losing games and above all exhibiting excellent sportsmanship. Have you noticed the growing trend in children's sports to not keep score during their games? I saw a photo on Instagram recently showing a sign that had to be placed at their Children's netball game reminding parents and players that "it is just a game". How sad that this needs to be spelled out these days.

I'm finding this "everyone is a winner" mentality as it relates to games both disappointing and annoying in the same way I find "everyone gets a chocolate frog" in Pass-The-Parcel at birthday parties annoying. I feel like it takes the joy out of the experience for the team that does win a match as well as denying the losing team the opportunity to congratulate the winner which fosters humility, good sportsmanship and resilience. Whilst there are no formal score-keeping during the games our Children play, the players on the field know exactly how many goals each side has scored. They seem to love the competition and understand that it's just a game. I feel like this preoccupation on NOT keeping score only serves to over-emphasis the importance of winning rather than it simply being the fun game that it is.

As far as I'm aware neither myself or my friends have been mentally scarred from losing a game as a child. Are there really some parts of the country where the parents are so heavily invested in the outcome of their child's game or extreme pressure is put on a child to win that the child is then unable to cope if they don't win? I'm digressing but I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Finally, some sad news and the main reason I've been sifting through 12 years of photographs....deep breath in...we sadly had to bid farewell to our beloved Whippet Remy after almost 12 years together.

Losing our 4 legged family member has been very very hard on everyone. Harder than I thought. He was our first 'baby', joining Daniel and I as an 8 week old Pup who then witnessed the arrival of each of the 5 Children. He literally came with us on all of our adventures - the camp trips, boat trips, aeroplanes, and we squished him into that tiny caravan on our trip around Australia. He was there for all the big moments, the good times and the sad times, our constant companion who will be greatly missed. Although they didn't get to spend as much time together as we had hoped, it seems Remy was still able to pass a few tricks onto our new pup "Rocket" and we like to think his legacy lives on a little bit through him too.

Farmageddon

2014-08-18T13:55:00.001+10:00

It's all happening! Exactly 3 weeks ago today we secured funding for Stage 1 of our Farm Project to go ahead. Stage 1 is all of the Orchard and Berry plantings along with the Vineyard and a smaller Farm-Gate building at the bottom of the site near the road. I think elsewhere in the world it would be referred to as a Farm Shop of sorts but it will essentially encompass the Chocolatier, the retail/fresh produce outlet as well as a gorgeous Cafe.

It has been the cause of much celebration to finally see our little dream turn into a reality. It has also been 3 weeks of enormous activity and pressure as we are racing against the clock to get everything prepared and in the ground before Spring, less than 2 weeks away!

We immediately welcomed Jamie to the team, a Farmer who has worked in the area for a long time and has been an absolute legend and has embraced the concept of a family business with open arms. He arrives at 7am into our chaotic kitchen and we try and have a coffee and a morning chat about work as Flynn climbs up his legs for a cuddle whilst we deal with the everyday interruptions of spilt milk at the breakfast table, school lunches and the search for missing socks, books and whatever the new puppy has found to chew up that morning.

Things are moving so fast that I'm running the risk of not having any "before' shots, so this is just a little update of what's been going on.

Old fences have been removed, new fences put in and all the of dreaded Box Thorn has been removed from the top of the paddocks.

We have a new road at the top of the Project site (below) which will provide a safe turning circle for the tractor as it reaches the top of each row as well as being a nice flat viewing platform for visitors picking their own fruit from the Orchard to look out over the Coal River Valley. The road will have another pass over with the bulldozer and smoothed off at the edges and grass planted over the top.

All of the trees and berries have been ordered and delivered. There are over 2000 trees with numerous varieties of each type of fruit, 15 000 Strawberries, 10,000 other Berry canes, 10,000 grape vines and a large flower bed. We have a portable fridge on the driveway to house the plants and we cleared out the shed for the ones that didn't fit.

Aside from the grapes which will be planted in Summer, all of the above will need to be planted over the next couple of weeks. That's a lot of plants! It is going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, there is no time for luxuriating under the stars in the outside bath but it is still being put to good use bathing the roots of the trees in a special solution before planting.

The paddocks have been worked over, fertilised and deep ripped.

The first 300 Apricot trees were planted on the weekend. The cherries will go in tomorrow.

Looking north, the Strawberry bed is ready to be planted out on the left and the other berries on the right.

Looking south, the bed to the left will be more Strawberries and the one on the right that I'm most excited about is the Flower bed.

These upper grassy slopes will be where the Vineyard will go and tomorrow it will all be ploughed over and sown with Oats until ready to be planted out in Summer.

And because I am a glutton for punishment and fell head over heels for his little Whippet puppy eyes, here is our new addition to the circus, "Rocket".

As an aside, apologies for falling off the blog without notice. I didn't anticipate it. The start of this Project has brought about two rather conflicting revelations. The first is that there doesn't seem to be much time available in the evenings to dedicate to blogging anymore - the older children are now staying up a bit later and Daniel and I are needing the evenings to chat about work things now too. An obvious solution seemed to be what I hear other people doing and that is to squeeze some time out of the mornings before the children wake up. However, the second revelation I've had, as highlighted by the arrival of Jamie at the crack of dawn, is that I'm not at my conversational best in the mornings or at least in the first hour before the 2 coffees have worked their magic. This will no doubt translate to my blog writing so please bear with me as I embark on this new phase of life I'm going to call "Mel gets cheerful in the mornings". I wrote this Post this morning and it was hard and did feel very strange. I'm hoping it won't take too long to find my morning groove.