roses in wooden vases

Before I started writing my blog again, around the same time that I was having my pre-birthday crisis of confidence, I thought a lot about my relevance in this space. (I know, I overthink everything - that’s just my thing). I don’t have cute little kids to take on cute little outings anymore. I don’t spend my days making patchwork dresses, I don’t bake cookies for school lunches and I don’t throw elaborate birthday parties. Time has moved on and my interests have changed.

But then as your feedback rolled in over the past few weeks it became abundantly clear that so many of you have moved on along with me: Your kids have grown too, your relationships have matured, your hormones are all over the place.

It feels really clear to me now that if my old blog was the early family years, then this blog must be the middle. I feel really happy about that now that it’s clarified. I know exactly what to do with that.

So let’s get on with it.

We’ve had a really busy and intense week. We had a birthday, we finished year 12 exams, we had a trip to Melbourne for a beautiful dinner, we drank cocktails on a rooftop, we had the coldest and wettest November days I can remember, I hardly slept, I felt overwhelmed and anxious for an entire day, everyone in the house seemed to be dealing with really intense things, so many feelings were felt, so many tears were shed, Indi came home for a visit, we worked in the garden and got it ready for very late planting, we picked jars full of roses, we had some trees cut down that were too close to the house, I mowed, I exercised, I wished for sunshine.

And Bren spent hours in his shed turning trees that have fallen in the last few storms into vases (see photo above), candlesticks and bowls. Two years ago, before Covid, we had starting planning for an open studio for his woodwork and my ceramics. Maybe it’s time to revisit that idea, especially now that we just got the news that my kiln is being fired as I write this and will be shipped in two weeks time.

I pulled the ranunculus out of the garden to make space for the summer annuals. I didn’t have such a great season because the weeds went crazy in this hot-wet-hot-wet spring we’ve been having and I’m pretty sure I lost a whole lot in the digging, but I kind of like it when random things pop up in the garden and they will be a fun next spring surprise.

Speaking of spring surprises, the Icelandic poppies I planted in the garden years ago have been popping up all over the place and generally being delightful.

I read A LOT between 2am and 6am each morning. I finished Severance, the post-apocalyptic book I mentioned last week on my blog. I liked it, I definitely didn’t love it. It was split into three parts and I found the pandemic part really interesting and engaging and could have left the other two parts behind.

I read Perfect On Paper by Sophie Gonzales, a YA book which felt a lot like the tv show Sex Education. There is so much queer representation in this book and it just felt like a great exploration of sexual identity and contemporary teen relationships. I love reading the books my kids are reading and I feel like I learnt so much from this one as well as it being a lot of fun too.

And then last night I started Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) by Anita Heiss, a historical novel set in the mid 1800’s that tells the story of white settlement in Australia from a First Nations point of view. I’ve only read 67 pages but I can’t stop thinking about this book today, it’s flowing through me like the Marrambidya Bila river. This story is beautifully told and includes so much Wiradyuri language that Anita had to include a glossary at the back. The book feels important and timely and I really look forward to following Wagadhaany as her story moves on and develops.

I cast off my last knitting project, which is waiting patiently to be photographed, and cast on my next. This is going to be The Cloudberry Tee by Fiber Tales and I’m using Great Ocean Road Henrietta which I think is my absolute favourite yarn to work with.

The roses on the inside of the hot-house started to fade and the ones on the outside started to bloom. I am endlessly enamoured with how my farmer-boy trained the same rose bush to grow in both places at once.

Which reminds me that as well as being on this blog right now, I am also on a podcast you can listen to if you’d like to. Way back in August, Jade of the wonderful Futuresteading podcast interviewed me, and because I didn’t have a blog at the time I didn’t get a chance to tell you. So you can search for the Futuresteading podcast on your podcast app of choice (here’s the Spotify link) and scroll until you find the episode that came out on August 1st 2021. While you’re there, Jade has a beautiful book that’s worth a look at too.

And lastly, a bit of house-keeping. If you’d like to get my blog as an email, please click on subscribe and enter your details. We haven’t yet worked out how to add an RSS feed so I don’t think it works on bloglovin’ just yet. The other thing we haven’t worked out yet is how to notify you when you get a reply to your comment. So for now, if you’ve written to me, just pop back to the comment section and scroll until you find yours and my response will be beneath it. Hopefully we’ll work that one out soon.

So yay, there’s another Friday foxslane for you!

Before you go I’d love you to let me know where you’re reading from. It gives me such a kick to see how far this little blog travels from our small farm In Daylesford at the bottom of mainland Australia.

Have a beautiful week until I see you next.

Love,

Kate x