My Little Light

Just dreamy the garden was this afternoon.  The shards of soft light appearing through the tree's - laying a dappled effect on my girls face.  Obviously not the best light for photography but the golden warmth enticed us and drew us into it's midst and we sought out the shade where we could.

 There is nothing hard about this child (and my heart skips a beat when I use the word child, because I know that I won't be saying it for much longer), approaching 16, she's just as she looks......sweet and ethereal.

And extremely capable.  I would trust this little one with my heart in her hands - her very caring, loving, small but strong little hands.

Oh she can be determined and unmovable.  When she thinks she's right, she's not easily swayed.  A stubborn little mule, who can hold a grudge like nobody else I know - so very loyal to all she loves.  I'd certainly rather have her in my corner, where she'd fight until she couldn't breath anymore.  I've just realised, she's more like her Mama then she knows...:)

But, oh please let there be so many more golden warm happy days like these, where the weather makes me feel I am capable of anything and everything.  Where beauty and nature surrounds me. Where I can see that the brightest lights in the garden, are the ones standing right in front of me.

To a Young Lady Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng: With gentle yet prevailing force, Intent upon her destined course; Graceful and useful all she does, Blessing and blest where'er she goes; Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass, And Heaven reflected in her face. William Cowper

Almost 19 Months

Nothing screams summer in Oz like a brand new hat.  With temperatures rising and those golden rays hitting my babys new pale skin, I have to do what I can to keep her healthy.  Try as I might, for as long as I've known her,  I could not get anything resting on those blond curls for longer then a few seconds...so on to plan B.  A hat with a very secure fastening under the chin.

OK, it doesn't completely stop her from whipping it off and Frisbee-ing it across the garden, but it does make her think twice about it, and sometimes she doesn't attempt bonnet discus at all.

Oh, the trials and tribulations of living in sub-tropical climates...sigh!  If my lovely Husband wasn't constantly going away, I wasn't looking after a netball team of children on my own, (now that Auntie Ginny has gone back home to Kansas), and I wasn't thousands of miles away from my family, I'd almost have nothing to complain about....

Well I had to make you all feel better somehow! :)

Also..I don't know if you can get the general vibe from this one...but she's kinda naughty, in a very nice, decadent and wicked sort of way...

And yes, I might have 'had' to get a new frock to go with it...but I what else could I do when it was just staring at me from the rack...  Lucy wouldn't let me leave without it anyway.  She would have totally punished me and made me get up in the night with her, 3 times instead of the usual 2 - no way was I chancing that!

Yep, extremely naughty!

Learning Curve

Just a couple of pictures that I took of Poppy today, they're not particularly special, (well they are to me obviously).  But I'm a 'little' bit proud of them, even though they aren't the worlds best pictures. You see, they are my very first attempt at shooting RAW on a manual setting.  I loved doing it, and I know that I'll look back and think them very rough, but I wanted them in here to compare for reference, just in case I get good one day!

And a few more of my crazy curly girl...bouncing away like a Tigger.  These next ones are not RAW but they are all manual.

Still a long way to go, and so much to learn, but I'm having the best fun discovering new things every day.

Girls can be Scary too!

Nothing gets you in the Halloween mood like hanging out with friends, sharing a few laughs and watching your little one gut the insides out of the middle of a pumpkin.   Yesterday was a day like this.  And of course, it did make a difference that my lovely friend is American, born and bred....and had all the pumpkin carving equipment....

Start off with one HUGE pumpkin... Preferably one that your Auntie has bought in town then carted all the way home on the bus, along with enmormous cushions and bagfulls of halloween sweeties - which then result in her arms being stretched so long they're almost dragging on the ground.  We love you Auntie Ginny - you are good to us!

Find one of your (many) daughters to cut the top into a lid, at an angle of course so the whole thing doesn't collapse into the middle!

And then find another one of your (many) Daughters, preferably not a squeamish one, to pull out all the pumpkin pulp and seeds!

Checking carefully that you've got every last bit out...

Of course, some of them might not be so keen to get themselves dirty, and just might need a bit of convincing.

Choosing the pattern and stenciling it on comes next.  It's a good idea to pick your more artistic Daughters for this part..

Or even your friends Daughters...

And after much eating of roasted salted pumpkin seeds, playing and creating.. 

You might end up with something like this...

Ok, it's hardly a masterpiece - but not too shabby for a first attempt! :)

Happy Halloween Everyone! 

Lifes Laundry

Oh how I wish I had my Mothers old mangle.

I remember it moving with us from one Military house to another when I was a girl.  In the cellar in Rheindahlen, my sister and I used to put everything we could find through that thing.  Clothes, dolls, sandwiches...the lots...and yep, it all came out flat as a pancake!  It was soo very hard to turn the heavy metal handle and strangely, so much fun.  Weird kids we were.

Another bizarre memory that's just come to mind...  In that same cellar, with the steep concrete steps that led down to the dark depths of the earth (so it seemed), my Dad used to practice his pistol shooting.  So whenever Kate and I wanted to reach our playroom, (at the very end of the looooong dark concrete corridor), we had to shout down the steps to make sure that he wasn't standing at the other end of the passage way, pointing his gun at the target, which was positioned where our heads would appear as we got to the bottom.  Pretty scary when you think that he was almost always probably wearing great big sound-proof headphones, and would have no idea of our 'calling to see if he was there' or our footsteps on the stairway.  I do have a vague memory of my Mother shouting from the kitchen on occasion to remind us that he was getting in some shooting practice - it must have been enough times to teach us to be cautious - since happily, neither one of us has a hole in our heads.

But back to the mangle - this is why I wanted it today.

Take one laundry bucket full of dolls clothes...

Two enthusiastic little scrubbers....

A lot of soapy bubbles...

And a wooden clothes horse...

It's a recipe for success, as any housewife would tell you! ;)

And start em young I say...

Just don't forget to remove clothing first, before your child turns into one big soggy mess...

That Auntie Ginny is a bit of a minx, I think!

Not since my Mother regularly got my sister and I to wash by hand, have I seen a bunch of girls get so excited about laundry...

 
The irony is killing me, this is the most fun that they had all day..hehee.  I wonder what they will think 20yrs down the line....

And I'll let you in on a little secret....I'm still obsessed with laundry powder.  Sad really, and something else that I blame my Mother for, that and the fact that I still love the smell of freshly fired pistol caps - although maybe that's one for my Dad.