forgive me. i have been so negligent here at RosaLindenTree. {gotta change the name one day, too long, any suggestions?}

so here i am banished out of the bus today for being too grumpy and crotchety {yes it’s not all love and coconuts.}

and i find happy refuge with a friends internet connection! yay. hours and hours of electricity. not a bad punishment.

so here comes a massive catch up with lots of photos and words! awesome.

get yourself a cuppa it’s really loooong…. but good!

a day after flying into Cairns, we are guided to Stoney Creek just north of the city, a beautiful cool place to land and have my first QLD freshwater dunk for the year and then take quiet grounding time to balance stones and add to the growing collection in the creek bed. i am so happy, jesse is so happy, the children are so happy scrambling about and crushing ochre stones. it feels good it feels right and i remember exactly why i am committed to this crazy lifestyle! and i am quickly recovering from my ten day solo pack up and leave Bellingen stint while sick and overwhelmed. thankyou dear friends who helped us and fed and housed us… right back to happy…

another favorite camp north of Port Douglas, we often come to the creek here for swimming and picnics, today a good ole spaghetti ragu with local produce for lush salad… maybe a week into the trip and we are still all getting on!! yay

and then another day beaching at Four mile Beach in Port Douglas, if you head to the central or southern end you can completely avoid the holiday crowd…

ah my boy, 

ah my girl,

i think the above two shots could qualify for  the 52 week portraits (a year of portraits of my children

from Che & Fidel)

the colours of coconut palm and sky

Lily begins to find her old favorite trees…

The best forest bath at our friends home…

happiness! look at the patch of dirt he has worn clear from spinning…

Our gorgeous friends from Sacred Oz have their incredible Message Stick Vehicle at home this week. I love closely looking at all the diverse Indigenous artworks from all around Australia and often find myself with heart swelling tears. Look here to find out more about this remarkable icon of Australian Reconciliation

a very rare photograph of Jesse and I {thankyou Michael} and it’s even a genuine joy moment! hooray

and then to Davies Creek for a week of camping. it was trully blissful even though we arrived on a monday like last year, even though we postphoned the mondayitis to saturdayitis when we left the camp, even though it rained pretty constantly all week, even though i didn’t sleep so well by the rushing water, even though even though… these precious times i hold fast to as reminders of what is possible to experience in our family, remember this Rosi when the reality is far removed from this, remember to connect, remember to have hope, remember that it is not always so, remember to have gratitude, remember to give those little ones lots of hugs… remember, renember, rember, ember

the trees, the creek, the stones, the hairyman in the forest with a hollow stick…

serious rain business to dress up for, making channels for the smaller streams, floating things dowstream, splashing and getting the hangof the balance bike… and getting nearly all your clothes wet numerous times a day! aaarh 

above you see a variety of phases of coconut, in the silver bowl fresh water from a yellow nut as on the left. on the far right an opened young yellow nut with jelly flesh, above an older brown nut whose thick white meat we grate as you can see in the centre and the empty shell can be used as a handy vessel.. mmmm below you see a young nut with a drinking hole deftly cut open…{not my work, i am more savage…}

monkeying around with slippery coconut jelly meat

campfire buckwheat pancakes… mmm

here i used buckwheat flour, but my favorite recipe using whole groats is from my friend Carly over at

What Baby (and Boy) Ate

noticing i didn’t photograph the rain moments so it looks so dry and fun…

we cope by making delicious food, playing games, reading, letting the kids play in the mud and water, eating something else yummy, going walking and splashing and adventuring, being patient, keeping the interior of the bus as tidy as possible while it’s a laundry site, allowing space and solo moments despite being so confined, making a bush treasure hint, crafting, knitting, writing, sleeping, listening to the water, singing…

had a little coconut frond weaving and made up this little flag fan… ahh it’s soooo hot… not, but it will be soon.

and this beautiful fruit bowl. more on weaving soon… maybe even a tutorial

inside crafting… the discovery of the one dot holepunch brings hours of amusement. poor deprived kids.

then this bear gets completely re outfitted by Lily lovingly.. 

Just before departure we finalised this upstairs canvas cot for Lily, we had been dreaming it up for years and now it’s manifest and is awesome! keeps the floor space clear and Cedar has Lily’s up front bed  even though his little old cot was so cute…. Thankyou Marty for the help. It is two bamboo poles with a canvas cot slung between them. clever. good. smart. simple

i’ve had a jaffle maker for a few years and finally christened it! yum. childhood goodness. {basically took so long because i am so uptight i refused to buy square sliced bread! i let go a little when i found some organic spelt loaf.. so neurotic. but admitting it freely xxx {i trully don’t care if you eat square sliced bread by the way, i will eat it with you happily i just love love love sturdy loaves of bread with hard crusts and chewy centres! i also have a few ridiculously stupid high expectations on myself}  ahhh liberation it was soooo yummy!

more good camp food. Babaganusch {spelling?} guacamole, vegies and roast spuds!

can you tell we kept our spirits up by focusing on the meals all week….

Lily’s early birthday present appeared one morning… a slack line which has brought alot of fun and challenge to us all!!