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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Enjoying the view at Whites Hill Reserve...

We made a quick visit to Brisbane because my brother was coming up. He'd planned it a while ago, and then cancelled, but a few days out it turned out that he was actually visiting from Melbourne – yay! We had fun and it was lovely to hang out with him, even if only for a few hours.

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Drinking tea with Mummy...

We were at playgroup (it's new, at my old school, and unfortunately will not run over the summer holidays) and Jimmy wanted to 'have tea' and so we did and he loved it. (Plus, eyelashes and he's looking so grown up!) The badge? It's Granny's, but human rights are important and he wanted to wear it. At playgroup, the general response to it was positive, which was not surprising but nonetheless heartening, given recent (international) events. 

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Driving a prime mover...

Not a truck, but a prime mover. Trust the 3 year old, and don't suggest that the designers had other ideas - it's a prime mover. And this prime mover drove us to the Kansas City airport, from Warwick, and then later drove us from Manhattan, KS, to Warwick via Samoa (parental input...). I love his imagination, expressiveness, and how he grasps some concepts (like travel and moving from one place to another) but misses some of the finer points (like how does one drive through the Pacific Ocean?). I love this kid.

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: A happy fossicker...

We went to the Toowoomba Gemfest and Jimmy tried his hand at fossicking. He had a blast sifting the sand to find little rocks, thanks to the Toowoomba Lapidary Club. One day, he'll be big enough to go to some other Gemfests with Granny.

Spring in Pop's garden

Ok, so it's not just Pop's garden at the back of the house - there's also the back of a friends property (1/2 acre block or something). I should clarify that over the years my parents have contributed to both the garden in the front yard (now mostly "Granny's garden") and garden in the backyard (now mostly "Pop's garden") and, as a family, we all benefit from both gardens. The biggest thing this spring is that I have never seen so much produce coming from gardens in this area.

It could be the spring rains (or climate change?), because I do not remember spring being as wet and productive as this back when I was in high school. Granted, that was more than 15 years ago (and that makes me feel old!), so my memory of spring around here might be wrong.

But it's hard to shake the memory of years of drought, water restrictions, and vegetable gardens let go because of the dry conditions. I would never have guessed that there would be so much flat leaf parsley growing in our friends garden that we could have massive bowls of tabouli week after week after week.

And then there are the sugar snaps! With about 8-10 plants between the two gardens we're able to snack to our stomachs content AND bring home plenty for lunch or dinner. (Since writing this sentence, the sugar snaps in Pop's garden have been pulled up, because they producing fewer pea pods and were developing a white fungus-type thing on the older leaves. Their removal now makes way for something new.)

The weeds are pretty too... Abundant because of the rain and warm weather, and some cause problems for people prone to hay fever, but the purples and yellows, whites and blues... All with a rich green background... (these yellow ones (turnip weed) are all over the place and I really like them, even if they might be the worst offenders for allergy suffers.) So, yes, the weeds are doing well, but so are the sugar snaps, carrots, cabbages, spinach, and parsley.

Then there are Pop's chickens - he has three Australorps. Worthy of their own post, they are excited to see us every morning when we go down to let them out of their hutch and when we arrive in the evenings, they run towards us, half expecting a treat, which they often get before being safely locked up in their hutch. They are good egg layers, laying 2 or 3 eggs most days, which is perfect for us so long as we're not eating eggs every day. 

The eggs are pretty, with each chook laying a distinctive size and shape (that pale one was a one-off and before we were able to identify which chook laid which egg).  A little while ago, Pop, Daddy and Jimmy moved the chicken coop and as I may have mentioned, Jimmy really enjoyed helping with the move - he generally enjoys taking part in whatever activity is happening in the garden.

One thing Jimmy wants to help with, but has trouble doing so, is hanging out the washing. The hills hoist is just too high and handing out pegs loses its novelty pretty quickly. I don't mind. He has years of doing his own washing ahead of him, but he may not have a set of navel orange trees providing an intoxicating aromatic experience a few weeks a year. The smell of orange blossoms is part of my childhood and spring in Warwick, along with wisteria, jasmine, and honeysuckle. (Can you spot the cute little spider?)

Currently I am looking forward to the broad beans (they're just starting to produce pods and I'm hanging out for enough to make this for breakfast soon), tomatoes, zucchinis, and the coming crop of basil that will become (a year's worth of) pesto, while still enjoying carrots, parsley, and more lettuce and spinach than I have eaten in a very long time. I'll post some photos of Granny's garden some time soon.

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Stomping in a creek, in the wrong boots, his PJ's, an awesome jumper, Granny's badge, and a bandaid covering some self-inflicted carpet burn.

And if you ask, he'll demonstrate how he had his hands on the carpet and how he was dragging his face on the carpet. We hardly noticed it until about 30 minutes after he had done it, even though we had seen him in action, and by the time this photo was taken the scab was starting to come off, so the bandaid was there to stop the scab coming off before it was all healed. Michael took these lovely photo - thanks!

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Feeding the chooks!

There is an art to it. There really is. It's about getting the cous cous or rice or whatever chicken appropriate leftovers out of the tub and onto the ground without getting it on the chickens themselves. Jimmy has been getting plenty of practice - it's basically his job, along with carrying the eggs home (and yes, he has broken some but only two in three months).

On the needles: EVERYTHING!

 

And by that I mean both knitting needles AND the sewing machine AND possible hand sewing of a hem...

Currently I am knitting a little baby cardigan out of handspun wool, using a pattern from What to Knit When You're Expecting (I bought it while expecting Jimmy), but it's proving to be a bit of a challenge because the amount of yarn was unknown and the weight of the yarn varies not just with a ball but between the different balls (of the same colour). The amount of yarn that is relatively close in thickness was (and still is) unknown and I've had to redo the sleeves and am working my way to the collar but am not sure how it's all going to end. I may have to undo some of the yoke and use a slightly thicker ball of yarn to finish the cardigan off. And no, it's not for any baby #2, it's for a cousin and his wife who have recently become parents to a little girl.

Then there's a quilt for Jimmy. As the seasons change from winter to spring proper and the night are no longer cold enough for heavy doonas but still cool enough for a wool blanket or two and a light quilt, I have realised that Jimmy needs a such a quilt. It was always on the cards - before having him, we bought fabric that we intended to use in a quilt and that's just what I'm doing.

I'm using a combination of leftovers from clothes we've made for ourselves, quilting flats bought at various times, and fabric bought with Jimmy in mind. I've been cutting and sewing and cutting some more, and after sewing some more fabric together (not shown), I've decided I need a little more fabric before I can sew all the pieces together. And yes, I'm using my Mum's sewing machine - I cannot hand sew quickly enough to race the coming summer and nights when sheets are not really needed.

The hand sewing is sitting on the sidelines, waiting for me to have the time and energy to address it, because hems and mending merino wool tops requires more of both than I can manage right now, between applying for jobs and the cardigan and the quilt.

And now for something completely different: Frogs!

This is a scarlet-sided pobblebonk. A native Australian frog, which Michael found in our backyard when he was doing some digging. We've all been busy gardening in the front- and backyards, getting gardens ready for spring (which is truly here) and summer, and it's wonderful to be able to find these frogs around the house. The sounds of the pobblebonks is something from my childhood, when frogs around here start up their chorus after periods of rain. Based on the noise, there are a lot of frogs around here.

We've also been finding these burrowing frogs, which are most likely ornate burrowing frogs, which are also native to Australia. As children, my friends and I would find in the local sandpit when we would dig up the sand and make trenches deep enough to go almost over our heads if we were sitting down. Michael and I were playing in my childhood sandpit and we dug up this little one.

Jimmy was keen to hold it and very gentle but firm, once he got over the initial shock of it jumping away on a few occasions. We found another one this morning, buried in pile of sand at a friends place where he, Michael, and Pop are building a pizza oven (!!).

Once I had taken photos of this frog at the sandpit, Jimmy let it go and it started burying itself in the sand. I'm glad that the burrowing frogs are still in the old sandpit. And it will be safe in the sandpit, safe from predators and dehydration, but we will have to remember to be careful when digging up the garden - so we don't hurt members of either frog species.

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a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2016

Jimmy: Helping to move the chickens.

We moved Pop's chicken's during the week and Jimmy helped as best he could. He has always loved being in the thick of whatever we're doing, and, if he can't be in the thick of it, he still wants to feel like he's helping out. He also had fun walking inside the chicken coop when it was on its side and we were removing the grass/wheat/sorghum roots and dirt from the base of the coop. The chicken coop was moved and the chickens were checking it out (to make sure that it was still their coop) and enjoying some chicken feed in their newly cleaned feeder, only to rush out again.

Also, his outfit reminds me of this one - he's still rocking prints-on-prints-on-prints.

A historic location and a magical place...

Last weekend we headed to Glengallan for the seasonal markets (and some Geocaching) because it was Father's Day and we wanted to get out of Warwick.

We checked out the markets and the grounds. The building has been worked on since I last visited over 15 years ago, which lovely to see.

The sky was being very impressive and the weather pleasant. The market stalls were full of locally made things from soap to wooden toys, knitwear to artwork.

These two. Always these two. Jimmy tired of looking at stalls pretty quickly, but was really good and only started running around towards the end of our time walking and looking.

Jimmy makes me think of Christopher Robin - a little boy enjoying his own little world, boldly heading out into the wild. Jimmy was pretty attached to that stick that day AND determined not to have his photo taken.

We stopped for coffees at the Glengallan cafe. It's completely run by volunteers and the coffees were good. So was Jimmy's strawberry milkshake. Refueled, we set off to start Geocaching.

The sky was still amazing while we were out getting our first Geocache. And while we were logging the cache, a man drove up, asked about what we were doing - this is country Queensland - and after we told him, he told us about a spot that might be suitable: the site of a new Landcare project that he is involved with. So, we thought we'd check it out once we'd done all our Geocaching. Keep reading to see the photos.