Belinda Moore

Brrrr! Winter crept right up on us before it was due! May was chilly and busy…

AT HOME: Our very slow renos have not picked up pace. I finally finished the exterior painting and have been procrastinating about finishing off about an hour’s worth of interior painting which was hinted to be my job! If not busy with the kids or the business, I seem to be in the garden or the kitchen. Or at the sewing machine. Or on the phone. Or laying on my bed reading a book. Okay, I detest renovating. What were we thinking with our one-year goal? Maybe by the time half the kids have left home, the house will have enough bedrooms for everyone. And then I’ll grumble about too much housework, no doubt…

AT WORK: A couple of my articles will be in next month’s Warm Earth magazine. If I fulfill my commitments, readers should see a number of my articles in that magazine over the coming year or so.

My column in Natural Child magazine will be transferred to Natural Life magazine, which is going to be an integrated publication containing material from Life Learning, Natural Child and Natural Life. Subscriptions are available here. And a sneak preview of the first combined issue can be found here.

I have been working with Chrissy Butler who will release her second picture book in 2008. Because of her amazing talent, it is always a pleasure to help Chrissy with her projects.

Spiral Garden continues to grow. I just love discovering new artists’ work or creating new products to share with my customers. I feel blessed to be doing something I love whilst at home with my family. And with the first year in any business being trying, I of course value every order. Thank you to my customers and supporters.

ON THE FARM: Most of the stone fruit trees look okay now, but I’ve noticed spots and other imperfections on some other trees. Part of me wants them to work through it themselves, in order to be strong trees who can overcome bugs and disease, and part of me wants to discover a magic remedy. I think the trees would like me to find my large shears and trim that pesky grass away from them… I would like whoever last used my garden shears to help me find them! But of course no one used them. In fact no one has ever used them, seen them, heard of them or has any faint idea of what I’m searching for. Sigh…

Jackie French has advised me at least once (through her articles and books) to just keep planting. Can you hear that in the style of Dory in Finding Nemo? Well, that’s my chant at the moment. So every couple of days I head out and transplant seedlings, pop new seeds into the ground or punnets, plant another tree or five, pop another sprouting choko somewhere and hope it’ll survive long enough to climb to its full glory… At the times my garden has been its most abundant, I’ve used this method. The more I plant, the more I harvest. And the more often I plant, the more I’m out there keeping an eye on things, maybe watering or weeding or otherwise tending the garden… For me, it works.

The newest chicks are now very tall. It seems we have three pullets and a cockerel, which is pretty good. And a friend gave us some Brown Leghorn’s eggs which are sitting snugly under the cutest bantam/silky cross ‘mother’ right now, with a Bantam Black Leghorn egg for variety. So the flock should continue to grow. Sadly, we did have one loss in May, which we think might be due to a ‘chicken hawk’ which I believe is some kind of Kite. Let’s hope it doesn’t hang around…

I have been busily preserving others’ harvests, since mine is minimal. I made cumquat jelly and cordial. I wanted to make marmalade too, but didn’t get enough fruit this time. I also made rosella cordial with fruit from Jayne’s, because her bushes (which I gave her as seedlings) are huge and laden. Then I made some jelly from Davidson’s Plums. And now the pantry is full. There may be room in there for another batch of rosella jam and maybe some marmalade too…

Do you think pumpkin jam would taste very nice? I have dozens of pumpkins, and a few spare jars, and a recipe here somewhere…

HOME ED.: Beach Camp was wonderful. The weather was great, time spent relaxing was appreciated and meeting new people was a joy. We were thinking of changing venues for 2009, but the consensus is that Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort is ideal in so many ways.

The ATHENS outings have had fewer families join in this term, but we’ve had some fun! The sports day had us Mums trying to remember the rules of ball games, and the trip to Mareeba Heritage Museum was fantastic! It’s a great museum with helpful staff and the fee is by donation. Highly recommended. This month we have a Clay Day at our place, followed by a trip to Innot Hot Springs, then it’s time to break for the holidays once again.

It’s been lovely to hear the girls progressing with their musical instruments this past month. In a matter of weeks I can really hear the difference. What a joy to hear violins, guitar and sweet singing as I go about my daily tasks.

Drawing has also been quite popular, with some amazing pieces turned out on the spur of the moment. I wonder if it’s their Art Class (currently learning the principles of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) or just a natural progression of skills and interest.

Things are going well at drama, with lots of friendships being forged, confidence growing and plenty of laughs and good times.

‘School’ otherwise is going along as usual. Sporadic read-aloud sessions, spates of documentary watching, daily bookwork and plenty of learning by doing…

Board and card games and old toys have made a comeback here. Heath has learned to play snap. He also plays Uno but insists we let him win, so we all get tired of playing of course! Chess, Mindtrap, various other card games (including Living Landscapes, which always sucks me in!), magnet play, felt boards and baby dolls have been keeping everyone occupied and the house messy! It will be fun when we finally finish the new room and move all these items across. In our experience, as soon as we rearrange any of the children’s items, they’re right in there rediscovering them. Even if I move them at night whilst they’re sleeping…