First weeks of Winter

The upside of doing an on call weekend with clinic duty: you get the following Friday off.

With all the kids at (pre)school we made the most of it and spend a day at Red Rock, with it’s glorious walking tracks along the beach and Corindi River it's a great way to recharge the batteries.

Namesake 

Traffic jam, 

(just a friendly, rather sleepy python)

Cold mornings,
4 degrees demands rugging up, a novelty for our kids...

My friend Erin send us one of her daughters, to babysit, we got to have a night out!

Tullara is such an amazing talent, grateful to have seen her live.

Sunday morning walks...

Life is so much better with mud...

Checking out the waterholes

And the fences

Our teddy bear horse, so fluffy in her winter coat.

Sophie is thriving at the moment, she has started drum lessons, a dream come true for her. 

The reading bug has bitten her, something that makes my heart sing. 

Even caught her doing the book walk (read and walk while you go to the toilet, get a drink,... too enthralled to put the book away). 

With increased alertness and energy she’s making the most of it, even took up aikido again!

We’re letting her set the pace, we never know how long this period will last.

Alex his turning 5 next year, that means he could start school. 

However, he’ll only be just turning 5 when the school year starts, which gives us the option to hold him back another year. It has been going around and around in my head, what is best for him?

Kindergarten is hard, with the curriculum demanding so much of these still very young children. Reading, writing and maths, including homework and sitting still for long periods is a lot for them. 

I hesitate. But have seen with Tim (also from February) that he needed that challenge and now in year 4 is still thriving on it. 

For now, we’ve decided to take the middle road. Next week, Alex is going to start the pre-kinder program, that our school offers for one school day a week. While keeping with preschool which is all play based. We’ll decide at the end of the year what we think he’ll need: another year of play, or “big school”.

Morning with warm porridge (and pappa).

Tim’s creation

The Grafton bridge, the only crossing for cars, pedestrians and trains over the Clarence River. 

Traffic has been increasing for years, to the point that it has become a huge bottleneck, while the bridge quickly deteriorates under the strain.

Work on a second bridge has recently started, working from both sides of the the river, country town Grafton has now the novelty experience of four cranes and a barge at work. 

Our kids are mesmerised and closely following the progress.

Climbing wall in action, some people just don’t seem to be hindered with gravity...

Rain, rain, rain, the garden is looking like a bedraggled jungle. 

Even though the surrounding area has had frost, our veggie garden doesn’t, I’m still picking chillies, while the king parrots feast on a sunflower, very surreal for a winter garden!

Another Full Moon Gathering. With countless weather and flash flood warnings it was a small one, the kids didn’t seemed to be bothered too much with the rain. Getting a couple of hour of spotlight in, only to shelter in the treehouse when the rain picked up to torrential again.

The quince trifle was a hit.

David got bitten again, the last time that ended with surgery after two horrific weeks. Not knowing what bit him, we were on high alert straight away. The swelling has come down, no raging fevers, so it has probably “just” been a bull ant, opposed to the overnight spider bite in our previous episode. 

Having a cuppa at Big Oma’s Coffee House, where they serve many Dutch specialties (kroketten!), taking a break from running errands in Coffs Harbour. Managed to stock up on (real) liquorice as well...

Wet Spotted Gum Tree

Welcome to the jungle... (without Roses)

Wondering if this rain is ever going to stop, the rivers are coming up, roads are going under.
It has given “a long weekend", a whole new meaning... ;-)

Our house, serene on the outside

 Chaos on the inside

The pool filter split a seam and needed to be replaced (under warranty), the new filter has different connections and heights so Sander has been holed away in the pump shed playing with cutters and glue.

The upside, with all this rain we can use rainwater galore to refill the pool and clean the new filter medium.

All baked out, I’m hogging the best place in the house, 

right next to the fire.

Making great progress with my quilt (and blogging). While Sander is playing with his new mitre saw,   Tim’s build-in-wardrobe coming up soon.
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This week: Autumn Holidays

The last week of the Autumn Holidays, (the eldest two went back to school again today), they made the most of it. Involving many playovers.
(Can you spot them with their bikes?)

With the weather so sublime, they were to be found outside.
And collecting sticks for the evening fire pit session.

Getting orders ready for Mothers Day.
And with only a week to go until the Valley Made Markets, the pressure is on!

School is back, so are the extracurricular activities.
David’s first “big boy” swimming lesson. No more sing-a-long baby swimming lessons!
I love that huge grin!

 Finishing touches on a table runner

Trying to keep up with her brothers. So tired all the time, working out if the epilepsy or medications are to blame.

Doing some maintenance under the watchful eye of our puppy.

Making power smoothies with the boys,
they’re now ready to rule the world...

Lotte’s Baby Quilt

This is my new niece, Lotte, my sisters second child. 

My sister Janneke lives in Belgium. Since I can’t be there to give my new niece a cuddle, I’ve send her a little quilt instead, made with love and wishes.

 Colourful, suitable for a girl were the instructions.

I’ve made it as a strip quilt, using a quilt-as-you-go technique.
This type as quilt is often done as a jelly-roll quilt. But I don’t like pre-cut and matched up fabrics.

Instead I’ve used fabrics that have meaning for me or my sister. Using fabrics I’ve bought for the occasion. Like the Bambi fabric (my sister loved this movie) and the little bicycles for the Dutch connection. The baking fabric, for what we both love to do.

Teamed up with scraps from quilts I’ve made before, giving them a family connection.
Using the last scrap of fairy fabric that Sophie loves so much, the Miffy/Nijntje fabric, a leftover from my other sisters sewing project. The green that her big brother, Jip, has in his quilt. The flowers that her niece Vera has in her quilt. The white daisies from my parents quilt. The purples from Sophie’s quilt. And more greens from her nephews quilts.

 The binding is my sisters favourite colour.
“ For Lotte. Made with Love, Auntie Marijke, Australia 2017.”

The result is an eclectic mess mix of fabrics. One that will feel like a warm hug, for sweet dreams and fabrics that will inspire her to explore.

After the rain...

After all the rain we’ve had last week, we were hoping for a couple of dry(ish) days. Didn’t happen.

Washing took a week to dry resulting in kids dancing in puddles without it. 

The mighty Clarence went up for a day to a minor flood, back to normal the following day. The Orara River behind us went for a moderate flood, cutting off many people for days. School was rather quiet.

Fungi and flowers are popping up everywhere. Tim finds it hard to sleep with the ruckus the frogs are making. And more to come I’d say, just going by the frog eggs, turning the dam into a fluffy merengue...

Laura aka Casper the friendly ghost.

Just like 4 years ago, the prolonged rain gave way to horrendous swarms of biting flies. It drives everyone absolutely bonkers, washing gets hung up inside, collecting eggs becomes and egg run, weeds get out of hand but you just don’t want to be outside. The copious flies and mozzies might be bad, but this is the stuff for horror movies. Especially when you’re a horse... I couldn’t get her rug on fast enough, while both horses are marinated in insect repellant...

Hopefully all those frogs get their act together soon...

All the citrus trees are heavy with flowers. Fascinating how they can have fruit on them while blossoming for the next run.

After a couple of weeks with sick kids, countless trips to school for Sophie and bad nights. Last week I could hardly keep my eyes open. A virus knocked me down too. With grey, drizzly weather, bed was a nice place to be. I’m back on my feet again, too much to do. 

With the exception of granola, cooking and baking has been on low for the last couple of months, too hot, just didn’t feel like it either. Since the weather has started to cool (still 30 degrees today though!) and the nights are getting considerably longer I’m tentatively putting the oven on a bit more often. 

Last weekend that meant cooking with Quinces: a bunch of rock hard, inedible, fuzzy, pear like creatures.

That magically transform into these soft, ruby red, delicious and aromatic beauties wanting to be bottled for the winter months to come. They go well with just a little yoghurt, but also with salads and roasted meat.
5 hours in the oven on 160 degrees, with vanilla sugar, covered with water and aluminium foil to minimise evaporation.

Quilting is also back on the menu. The reason I got into quilting 6 years ago were all the beautiful fabrics with gorgeous colours and patterns. They tempted me enough, for me to want to learn how to sew. I picked this fabric up months ago, the print is as pretty as a painting and I couldn’t resist it. I’m turning it into a table runner for my mum, it suits her so well.
The baby quilt for my niece is ready to post, just waiting for her safe arrival.

A friend’s 40th turned into a 3 day music festival. We had a wonderfull time listening to many different bands and styles, while the kids had a ball with glow sticks. At least they were easy to find!

The veggie garden is loving all this rain, especially since its now combined with sunny, 30 degree days. Many plants and trees are going for an extra flush. More asparagus, I’m not complaining and I’m loving all these fresh herbs! 

The focus stays mostly on permanent plants, with salvias for colour, strawberries, capsicums and chillies while I’m contemplating if I could squeeze more fruit trees in.

Cyclone Debbie is creating havoc in Queensland. She’s a category 4, nearly to be upgraded to a category 5 ,which is as bad as they come.

Thinking of all of our friends and old colleagues that are still in Mackay and Sarina. 

From the years and cyclones we did encounter while living in Sarina, we do know one thing: they grow them tough in Queensland...

Meanwhile friends in NSW are becoming a little worried if Debbie comes down. She would be downgraded to a Tropical Low way before she reaches us, but another 300mm of rain is just not what we need right now! With dams and waterways already at maximum capacity, they’ve started uttering the F-word (Fl**d), and getting their pantries and medicine cabinets stocked.

Sander has been working on a plan for the front deck, when we couldn’t find the (pebblecrete) tiles we had in mind. 

Having made one himself, we now know how much time (months) and money goes into every tile (we would need about 100). It’s now doing a time and cost calculation, while considering a quote to get a concrete truck delivery.

Since Alex has been using the still wet setup as an obstacle course with his bike, twice, (%#$&*@), getting some quotes (and some duck-tape) is becoming a mighty fine idea...

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