The Ashland dress

I was needing a new dress, and came upon the ashland dress pattern, by Meg McElwee

It was fun to sew, funner choosing the fabrics (as always), and I very happy wearing it. If you would like to buy this pattern, I have them for sale(just not on my website yet) you can leave a comment:)

Jacaranda's in spring

This the tree that I look out to from my kitchen window.

This tree looks nothing the rest of the year, but come November, she put's her best dress on.

She is a grand old tree.

Every morning the children ride through the carpet of petals, singing "we were the first" to school.

Winter

We did the big drive back down to Ballarat to see friends and to tidy up the house.

On the way we went to Falls Creek for a ski, it was the first time Joe, Flynn and Alice had seen snow, they were so excited, all the way guessing what it might feel like.

A grueling 15 hr trip though.

 Alice and me taking a short cut through the village.

Back in Ballarat, Jim was so excited to see his friend Sven, sometimes I wonder why we moved, it's a bit heartbreaking to see such strong friendships, there was such stability here in Ballarat.

 The cubby the children made inside.

One thing I don't miss is the rainy bleak days of Ballarat. 

Bananas

We picked our first bunch of bananas, it was a family effort, Dan and Flynn chopped the stalk down, Joseph and Jim dragged the bunch up the hill with Alice bring up the rear.

The kids counted over 70 banana's on this bunch. Luckily they ripen in stages:)

My Joe LOVES passionfruit, so it certainly helped with all the changes, when he found a passionfruit vine on the property.

It's covered in passionfruit, they are big, heavy and sweet:) Joey has about 4 a day, and so do the others, so that's 16 passionfruit a day.
I'm glad I'm not paying $1 each for them in the shops.

Boy's Jumpers

I did originally knitted the orange jumper for Jim, but it was too tight. I knitted from the top down, and just increased every second row. I was telling the other half, how cool it was that I could try the jumper on the kids any time and get the perfect fit, just by increasing.
   Well my smugness went when it didn't fit Jim.

This is why you should have the same sex sibling next:)

The idea(pattern) came to me when reading Elizabeth Zimmerman Almanac. She said, "If you increase every second row, you will get a 45degree angle". How come I hadn't figured this on out in my years of knitting?
Maybe I don't have one of those minds:).
So I loved that there was no seams to sew up in the end. So just start with the neck stitches, how ever many goes over their head, and knit a neckband, and just keep increasing till the arms are deep enough, then the body in one piece, then the arms. Keep trying it on(cause that's the fun part).

 

Oh, the wool is from my lovely sheep, it's soft, spongy and has a touch of lanolin in it still. I love my sheep. Sigh, still trying to figure out how to get the sheep up to Thora. All the farmers say it's too humid up here, but I think if I build them a barn for summer out of the rain, with a fan, I'll be right.......

Muma & daughter beret's

I'm glad that even though Thora is sub-tropical, it still gets cold in winter, not freezing like Ballarat, but cold enough for the jumpers and beanies to come out.  I don't think I have ever not knitted.

Apparently when your four you have to jump when your photo is taken.

I knitted Alice's beret from a 1950's pattern book, and mine came from drops design, they have a amazing range of patterns and they are free:) The pattern is here

The wool is cashmere and superfine merino, and it is so so soft, I had knnitted lot's of hat's and cardigan's for my babies with this wool, it is super snugly.
I used to think, if ever you were having a bad day with the kids, just dress them in this wool and you'll want to smooch them all day long.

Alice took the photo's of me, not bad for a four year old!

First day of school

 The power of thought; when living in Castlemaine, my thoughts often went to the idea of living walking distance to school, I would drive around and around looking at houses, wishing I could find an old farmhouse with an orchard, but I never did.............not there.

The Steiner school is up in the mountains( worthy of it own post), and our track joins the school.

Loving the idea of the whole family walking to school.

Our first pineapple from the farm, it was the most delicious pineapple I have ever eaten, and we planted the top again, did you know they take three years to grow another one??
I can hardly wait.