Hello lovely ones,

How are you? How has your week been? Has it really been a week? Gosh, even though we are in the depths of the deep, dark, winter, the days seem to be flying by.

There’s not really all that much to report from here. We’ve passed through the winter solstice, it’s the last day of term 2 at school for Pepper, and generally it’s been raining a lot so we’ve been spending time inside, and making a dash for the outside whenever the rain clears for a minute.

I’m about halfway through the bottom rib of my Bracken sweater. I’m hoping to cast off the body and make a start on a sleeve this weekend. I’m in such a hurry to wear it. The Great Ocean Road yarn is so soft and it will be lovely on.

There’s not a lot that we can harvest from the garden at this time of the year, but that definitely makes what we do have all the more delicious. We’ve been picking beetroot to bake, lettuces, parsley and silverbeet. Sometimes I think about becoming a beetroot farm, they’re so easy to grow. Look how glorious they are, and they’re so incredibly good for you; leaves and globes both.

There’s not much that we can plant from seed at the moment in the freezing cold ground with hardly any daylight hours, but thankfully rocket grows. And we love rocket. So that’s a pretty good thing.

A few days ago we moved the goats from the duck paddock, down the alley-way and into the tractor paddock. They’ll stay there for the next few days and then on Sunday we’ll round them up, clip their toe-nails, vaccinate them, and then move them into a new paddock. I’ll never tire of being thrilled with the fact that they live to eat our weeds.

We’re about half way through digging up and storing the dahlia tubers. I had thought to photograph the process, but I was covered in mud and couldn’t feel my fingers they were so cold, so I decided against it. Hopefully they’ll rest peacefully in their boxes full of Bren’s wood-shavings, grow lots of eyes, and be ready to divide and replant in November. I can hardly wait.

I took this photo of Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads because I like to document the books I’m reading here, but I’ve only read 86 of it’s 580 pages and haven’t really formed much of an opinion yet. It’s funny, I often see Franzen’s books in op shops and free side-of-the-road libraries, but have never read one myself. They always seem huge and like such a commitment. But my mum just finished this one and really loved it, so I hope I do too. Have you read it? Are you a Franzen fan?

And here’s a wonky self-timer photo I took before we went out last weekend. We had such a great night. It was amazing to be off the farm and out at night. It was wonderful catching up with old friends and sharing a meal, some drinks and lots of stories. And it was really special celebrating the beautiful birthday girl. It warmed my heart.

It reminded me that I never got to celebrate my big birthday last year because of Covid and that maybe I should start planning something small.

Oh yeah, and I met someone who read my blog for the very first time last week. I don’t know why, but that felt a little bit odd to me. I don’t think I see each post as a seperate entity, more like a continuation of the story. I can’t work out if my posts stand alone. When I write I think I expect that the people who end up reading, you, will know me. Will have some background and understand where I’m going. But I guess I’ve been blogging for a long time now and everyone was new here at some stage.

Hello if you’re new! And if you’ve been here for a while, when did you start reading my blog? And how did you find me? I’m so pleased you’re here. Thank you for spending your precious time with me each week.

And that’s it I think.

Oh one more thing before you go, do you have a tv series to recommend? We just finished season 3 of Sex Education and have watched a few episodes of Home, and would love something to get stuck into this weekend.

Big love to you, I hope this weekend brings you something that warms your heart and makes you smile.

Love,

Kate xx