Waking up to…

Waking up to…
Lily quietly tidying house, making beds and making fruit salad for breakfast!!
(last night we had a talk about helping out, working together and chores as I was noticing she was playing helpless or whinging when asked to contribute)
An un expected gift in her response to the reminder yesterday!
I am always appreciative when she lifts her game and is motivated from herself to do extra tasks and notice she is always very self pleased and energized! She was proud about how spic and span the bus was and expressed when it’s tidy it feels peaceful and bigger and when it’s messy it feels like chaos. ( yep me too!)
Within five minutes of us all being up, Lily was noticing how quickly it gets messed up again after all her attentive work! Mutual gratitude went between us as she understood this process of home love.
Everyone needs to eat, everyone uses things, everyone makes a mess and everyone helps clean up!

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She then volunteered to cook us pancakes! Yay!!
The children had honey and Brie or blueberry jam and the bigs had savory, mmm

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The following is not edible…

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After eating ( and more cleaning up)
We got into wax play, as i had got it out to make her a little ta Lily wax note and heart decoration by her plate ( see above) We use stockmar knetwachs which you can find in most Steiner inspired shops or online. We found our latest batch at Southern Swan in Cygnet southern Tasmania for $2.30 per color.
We keep the colors in one plastic box and the makings in another. It’s beautiful to feel the wax soften in your hands and become something to admire. I like it as much as the smalls do! Sometimes we’ve left the wax land on the dash and have had a sad melted occasion!! Droopy trees and mermaids melting into the sea…

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And then out out out for some running and flying!
We are camped at Lagoons beach on the east coast. The sea is rumbling in with a clean right hand break, perfect tubes and offshore breeze… Why no surfers? Too cold?
I know all that because my first love story was with a gorgeous surfer in my teens…

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After more snacking, i am inspired with the anniversary of our bus purchase in 2005 approaching ( valentines day) I could make a fingerknit wreath as decoration! Lily gave me a lesson and away I went. You can find great finger knitting tutorials at Flax & Twine

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Well that was fun… What next?
Cedar goes to sleep, Lily plays on the trapeze so tired mama can put on a few more rows…

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Beautiful handspun, nature dyed alpaca from the Salamanca markets, soothing for my fingers and mind..
What else can the day hold I wonder?
Xx
What are you
Making, cooking, eating, planning, reading these days??

Ps I can’t seem to make all that text un italic??..

where did she go?

Excuse me

Have you seen January?

I seem to have misplaced her

While i

Neglected the blog/boggle

Spent a lot of time in the moment

Travelled as far south as we could go

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Caught the sky from the bridge

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fished unsuccessfully

Fossicked for shellfish and feasted

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she sang

cockles and mussels alive alive oh…

Wondered about the history of the place

Now called Cockle Creek

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Abundance food and wildlife

Whispers of grand old trees

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And strong people watching

Wails of whales as they where massacred in the bay

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A sad sad history to learn about

From humorous informative rangers

Learnt about our magnificent giants of the sea

And how to rescue a beached one or many

{remember, call for help, keep warm,  don’t breath in their blowhole, pilot whales are the most commonly beached in Tasmania, put a stick in the ground infront of live ones, keep their tails to the sea until you are ready to release them all at the same time, shade them}

felt impressed that my girl has this appreciation for whales and dolphins, experience and knowledge for the rest of her life now

felt on the right path of life

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Took a classic portrait of men and bones

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had a whale of a time!

IMG_0326 three month old southern right whale lifesize sculpture!

Enjoyed the sea air and the shelter from it

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i Got cold but

Jesse finally took the plunge

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while Lily had a nature drawing sessionIMG_0341 IMG_0348

I lounged in triggerplant bliss

My head amongst a million pink helpers

the medicine of rejuvenation and restoration

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Met young old friends

And had a date up a giant tree

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Lily had a lock on

Then we

Grudgingly left

Coaxed on by a berry  good carrot

Drove north

While I processed a myriad of thoughts emotions and responses

And gave thanks for a time of respite

Amidst the chaos of full days

Mostly joyful

With berry/cherry stained lips

Noticed the tiredness.depression link

And went to bed

xxx

 

Waking up to…

Early morning craftings
A little one joins in with big stitches
A big one guides (and bosses)
Together creating a new day of play and friendship
(and a lot of mama love and gladness)
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Cedar is making his first stitches on big weave hessian with tapestry wool and a big blunt needle, held on a little wooden embroidery hoop. Everything cost less than $10 from second hand shops except the needle! Kids up to about 12 like this pleasing art of free embroidery or drawing a picture first then stitching it. Actually even I still like this craft…
We sing
up up up I sew,
then down down down I go

To the up down stitching motion, so Cedar now has added up and down to his little vocabulary!

Narawntapu National Park

On the windy northern coast of Tasmania

is found Narawntapu NP

the first NP to adopt the original indigenous name in Tasmania (previously Asbestos NP)

I couldn’t quite fathom the vast sky and vista

the golden glowing grass and wind whipped waterways

with mountains framing the blowing landscape

scrubby bush and swampy grass hillocky plains

i simply circled the sky with my eyes and mind wide

and my goodness

in the long golden sunset

the wombats!

i had made a wish on the journey over to please please

let me see a wombat, a live healthy wombat please, even just one please!

for the first time in the wild.

well lady! not one but many

including a mama and baby who waddled past our bus!

the baby comically bumped into mothers buttocks when it got surprised by our presence!

we heard from jackie french the way to approach is slowly and singing

as they are so short sighted if they can hear you they will not run in surprise

we where able to get very close to some of these lovely big land koalas

joy for us all

the birdlife and the wetlands and the tiger snake! are also stunning

Lily and I had a date with our visual diaries in the bird hide

I so enjoying drawing simple black ink water plants and landscape

an exulting multitude of wildlife

a very special sanctuary to visit
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Waking up to…

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Lily is often seen whittling away at sticks with her little opinel knife
A safe mimic for Cedar is this cheap pink potato peeler! He happily spends hours peeling sticks. It’s kept in the cutlery drawer so he can get it at will.
Aside from sticks, peeling the edges of cardboard boxes amuses him…
He carefully strips the outer bark off sticks and presents them to me.
We extended the play/work this morning with a bit of sand paper to finish the wood.
Beautiful to observe his satisfaction and encouraging others to feel how smooth it is or convince them to sand the wood for him!!

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I feel pleased as a peacock when I find a happy safe solution to creative play!

this moment…

this moment

{a friday ritual}

a special moment from my week

i want to savour it and cherish it and paste it in the pages of my memory

a simple sweet moment to share with you

IMG_0088joining soulemama and many others

with this moment

please leave a link or a story of a special moment from your week

in the comments

{which you can access by opening the little

speech bubble up the top of this post}

xxx

birthday

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My birthday on the 4 th
Simply hot
Simply swimming
Simply surviving
Simply eating
Pancakes for dinner
Lily still talks about it
” did we really have pancakes for dinner? Really?”
Two beautiful gifts for me
All perked up once sun went to bed
Skipping playing giggling swimming more
Grateful for the Yarra river and a friends tip
Grateful for the night
Grateful there was no fire nearby
Grateful for shade
Grateful for a 15 minute one foot massage
Grateful it was over
Xx