2lb elephant

its just me and my heater

in my sudio

working all hours

early in the morning til late into the night

why...

my two girls keep walking around the house,
sitting on the toilet and
riding to the shops singing,
the national anthem...

yes you know that tune, australians all let us rejoice....
blaa blaa blaa
at first it made me giggle....
not any more.

in fact today as they were hanging from the clothes line,
sing it again,
i had to stop myself from screaming out to STOP....
the neighbours were outside.

why...
well one word ..school...
i tell you brainwashing works,
and to top it off...
i was cycling down the street the other day
and guess what i was humming.....

the first book that i have illustrated was put on the shelves
this week.
the princess and the frozen packet of peas  by tony wilson.
go and have a look.

oh you know how it goes

plant
grow
wait
wait a bit longer
then pick.

so a little catch up.

yes as i thought one of those girls was a boy.
so he went back to thomastown, cultural hub of the western suburbs.
and we came back with 2 more.
so 4 in all they have taken over the back yard and a corner of my vegie patch.
i threatened them today, mumbling something about gaffa tape and their beaks.
but they are in bed now, fox proof, hopefully.

we went camping, real camping where you had to take in your water for the week,
different to my sisters camping where she plugs in her microwave...
i never thought i would say it but i think im getting the hang of this camping thing.

travelled up to sydney, and walked the dirty old streets of a city i thought was heaven,
i was 20 and i had come from adelaide....understandable.

read 'the slap' christos tsiolkas
and if you have ever been to india then you should definately read
'the white tiger' aravind adiga. india wants nothing to do with him....

otherwise ive been laying low in a house that reached 43 degrees inside 3 days in a row,
it was cooler outside.....

oh and i had a birthday.

but the date of my birthday clashed with our travelling plans
so we lied to our children and just chose another day to eat cake and blow out candles.

it was nice, i should lie more often

im the kind of mother....

im the kind of mother who remembers my child
has a birthday party to go to,
15 mins after it has already started...
and this isnt the first time.

and then there is the present thing.
what is it with 5 yr olds and presents.

along with the time and address
birthday invites for children should include:

and please no presents.
we live in a first world country.
my child has everything they could ever need...

so in the end we convinced marta that her presence
would be more than enough, and of course through
the excitment of it all no one noticed.
but maybe the next time we see this little friend,
we could hand over all the stamps we have steamed
of our mail and encourage her to start a stamp collection.

wholesome hey

things with fur

hello hello little chickens.
three new girls, although going on past luck
im sure one will prove to be a rooster....

they have been named, tucker, bel and elma.
and the best part is when im sitting
having my cup of tea they come up and peck
my feet. they think im there mum.
maybe its cause i tuck them into bed at night and
wipe their beaks after breakfast.......

we went walking along the edge of australia today

it was windy and magnificant.

this morning in my garden i did

harvested the end of the broadbeans.
chopped up the stalks and put them back on the garden
as green manure.

added another layer of hay and compost...
thanks worms, to my ever growing potatoe patch.

added a sprinkle of lime to the worm farms.

collected slugs and realised there were no chickens'to gobble them up.
we are yet to fox proof their sleeping dorm.

and the guinea pig....gone.
yep we were cleared out of all our domestic animals.
and might i say our lawn mower, that being the
guinea pig and its movable cage.

but once we have proofed our back yard,
including a - no foxes - sign.
then we will back to our same old noise filled,
busy pecking, happily grub hunting backyard.

 

shes apples

oh yes now i understand why people love their overlockers.
ive always just view mine as a very painful and time consuming
white good.
time consuming cause of all the rethreading
and a white good cause...
its white.

but ive gone all zen on myself
and ended up with 4 tshirts for my effort.
for the girls that is

you cant trust a fox

we live in the inner city,
lots of cement and very few trees.

but this moring i woke up to find a fox
had got into the chicken house.

ive spent the morning digging holes.

and feeling sad.

we loved those girls. the kind of chickens
that you could tuck under you arm and drink a
cup of tea with.

you cant trust a fox.

reflecting on

this beautiful ugly city.