tomato seeds

Hello sweet peas!

Welcome back to the land of the daffodils. They certainly are putting on quite the show for us this year. And by some miracle, the cockatoos aren’t snapping too many of them off, and the kangaroos aren’t trampling all over them. For that I am definitely grateful.

Please enjoy another photo of me posing awkwardly. I think it looks like it’s becoming a strange regular series, until I get it right. Oh goodness.

Honestly I’m not feeling my best today, I have a bit of a headache and I just feel a bit achey, so I’m going to make this a speedy one.

How about we do 10 quick things? I know my dad will be happy, he loves it when I do numbered posts and it’s been ages.

Okay, let’s go!

One - the tee-shirt I’m wearing in the photos above has passed through all my three kids. I originally bought it for Indi and every time she wore it her grandfather John would tell her how much he loved it, so we started calling it the Zeida tee-shirt. Next it was handed down to Jazzy who had it at a time when all she wore was jeans and stripey tees. I think Pepper wore it over the past few years with jeans and platform docs. And then the other day I found it at the bottom of a box that was waiting to be donated to the op shop. There was a pair of black jeans in my size too. Score!

Two - how amazing are daffodils. Seriously. They pop up every year at the very end of winter when there haven’t been any flowers in the garden for months and we just feel desperate for a bit of colour to lift our spirits. Who ever knew that there are catalogues filled with all the fancy and frilly varieties. Once you plant them they naturalise and multiply from year to year. They aren’t fussy and don’t care where or in what type of soil they’re planted. And best of all, they don’t need any attention at all. We completely forget about ours from one season to the next. Hooray for the daffodils!!

three - hooray for the goats too!! They were having a well earned rest when I spotted them outside the hot house door and snapped this pic, but they’ve been so hard at work all winter eating blackberry and gorse and changing the landscape of our farm.

four - hooray for Bren for taking the huge mess I made of all the seed packets last season and turning it into a neat, organised, operation. Imagine opening a drawer and finding all the cucumber seeds in one place! Or the zinnias. Or the cauliflowers. I’m so excited. Not looking for things constantly is going to save me so much time.

five - is that we officially started planting seeds this week. I think we’re probably a bit late this year, but it’s been so cold and wet and dark here in the forest, I don’t think anything would have grown until now anyway. Tomatoes here we come!

six - is the progress on my little baby Esme sweater. One and a bit sleeves to go. I’m knitting the six month size so I’ve got a bit of time, but I’m pretty keen to finish it and get it to her while it’s till freezing cold here, and so I can start on my charcoal Bracken.

seven - I put a photo of this sweater on my instagram stories the other day and one of my friends replied asking who I was knitting it for, and if maybe one of my kids was pregnant. How strange to be in the season when we’re probably closer to being grandparents of babies than parents of babies. Actually probably not strange at all, just something I’ve never thought about before. I wonder what my future grandchildren will call me. Maybe I should start knitting for them after all.

eight - is Pepper’s leg warmers. Last semester Pepper learnt how to double crochet back and forth along a row in a club at school. A few days ago she decided she wanted to make a pair of leg warmers and asked me to buy her some white wool. As soon as we got home she went into her room, guessed how many stitches she’d need, taught herself how to crochet in the round, and proceeded to invent and hook herself the coolest pair of slouchy leg warmers I’ve ever seen. I don’t think there’s any feeling quite like wearing something you’ve dreamed up, designed and made yourself. I’m so proud and excited!!

nine - I just looked up from where I’m sitting to think about what number nine should be and saw a pair of undies hanging on the bedroom door knob. For a second I was so confused, until I remembered putting Pepper’s doona cover back on the bed last night and a pair of my undies falling out of it and not knowing what to do with them at the time, I hung them there. The photo is of the daffodils because they’re much prettier than the practical undies I wear.

ten - This morning, way too early, I finished reading The Plant Hunter by T.L. Mogford. A historical fiction novel set in 1867 that follows Harry Compton on a plant hunting journey from King’s Road Chelsea through to rural China and back again. It was a quick and easy read that felt a bit like an Indiana Jones type of adventure. Actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it did feel full of mishaps at times. I didn’t love it. I liked it but I definitely didn’t love it. The characters felt underdeveloped and emotionally disconnected and everything that happens is extreme and shocking. I do think it was a fascinating concept though and am interested to read more about the plant hunters of that period.

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs, another historical fiction novel set in 1800’s England is next on my list. I’ll let you know how I go.

Which brings me to now. Today. A few weeks ago Bren came in from the school run telling me that he’d heard a discussion about Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence on the radio saying that one of the ways you can work out if you’re living a happy life, is if you’d be willing to live your day today over and over again, like in Groundhog Day. I’ve thought about that concept every day since. And I think that every day (especially the days when it wasn’t raining), I’ve thought that I could. Until today. Even though Bren made me coffee in bed this morning, even though we went on a beautiful walk through the forest, picked daffodils, sat eating breakfast in the warm sunroom, and spent time with the goats, I just don’t feel well. I think it’s time to sign off and hope that I feel better tomorrow.

How about you? Tell me a couple of things that have been going on in your life. Would you be happy to live your today over and over again? I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Love, Kate x