Welcome Autumn 2010

I LOVE AUTUMN.

All my favorite fruit and vege are ready for harvest and it's not too hot to get things done. "Skatey" told me this weekend is the last of summer, though for me it's felt like autumn for a few weeks already.

When I go out to feed the chooks in the morning I get covered in dew from the lemon verbena plant, also I'm not so keen to go to the school pool for an evening swim these days, firewood needs to be collected and stacked and bottling on the stove starts in earnest. Scoffing blackberries also signals autumn, as does the influx of seasonal workers to our town to pick apples, pears and kiwifruit.

However my shin is bruised from kicking myself!

I haven't planted enough pumpkins and am already craving pumpkin soup. The soup pot is not idle thank goodness, tonight it brews young rooster soup with corn, shallots, celery and carrots from the garden. There are already several containers of tomato soup in the freezer, as well as a good batch of tomato sauce in bottles. I added about a pound of redcurrants that were still hanging on the bushes, they were lovely and ripe, I just had to wait for the earwigs to run away before I put them in the pot . I'll need to pick more tomatoes this weekend before the stink bugs suck them to death .

My garden is about neck high in weeds, mainly fat hen and pas pallum grass, I'm surprisingly not bothered. I can find fresh food and herbs every night even if they are hiding. I've noted where the Elecampane and Echinecea are so I can harvest their roots for winter ailments. I probably should be venturing into beer making as well with the hop plant trying to take over the neighbourhood!

We're eating the Nashi today after noticing the neighbours chooks have started eating them through the fence. Willow the Jack Russell is getting the hang of chasing them off which I don't mind, though she's been a bit naughty lately going to the school to look for "skatey" almost every day, she knows he's not there I'm sure. How do you explain to a Jack Russel that he's OK he's just at High School now. I'm sure the teachers are getting fed up at sending PJ home with Willow. She's never been tied up in her life, so I don't know what to do?

Lastly my favorite plant stall has closed down for the season so I may have missed my flip on a whole lot of winter vege plants. I'm hoping that amongst the weeds that are seeding all over the garden that there's a few parsnip, kale, celery, coriander, leek and lettuce to tide us over. I do have some yams , leek, potatoes and broad beans to look forward to, as well as three trees of black boy peaches dripping with fruit...

Black boy fruit chutney, jam, dried- anyone?

Suede, Brain

The teen is getting quite good at juggling, but I'm sick of hearing the four of them fight over the juggling set so I made a trio out of suede. I sort of traced the pattern from a tennis ball, that turned out too big so the red head scored the first one. I made it smaller, tracing round the bottom of a glass. Very fiddly to sew but stuffed with sushi rice they are "spot on " according to the teen.
It's nice to see him juggling while he waits for the dial up to load. Good for his brain I'm sure.

Speaking of good for brains,
You'll recognise me in the supermarket because my kids, especially the red head will be saying "mum coke's not good for your brain eh? Are rice crackers good for your brain?
I probably refer to what I think is good for their brain a little too often, do you think?

Head cold

Lemon, honey, ginger, garlic and thyme tea. Plus two good books and a comfy chair, because I feel like I'm allergic to myself.

Surrounded by a family embrace

Well they say something about how you can't choose your family. I'm glad you can't because I couldn't have picked better myself.

I've got two little brothers. Apparently I was a terrible older sister when I was small, if you believe the stories the "Fabulous Aunt's" tell. I can't remember having tantrums like Pj does, or being separated from my young cousins for their own safety! I do remember chasing them with Wetas and telling stories of ghosts in my Grandma's house and of course how we told the youngest brother that the ugly painting in the hallway was "the big Eughh" and could scare the living daylights out of him at the mere mention of the fictional monster. Dad use to warn me though when I was scratching and pulling at the boys hair to be careful that one day they'd grow up bigger than me. He's not wrong, my two little brothers stand now at 6ft2in and 6ft4in. Lucky for me they both grew up to love their big (short) sister.

My littlest brother is visiting from Adelaide with his wife and two adorable little boys. It's brilliant having two extra adults around who care for my kids almost as much as I do. The big boys have adored having their Uncle, who's a big kid at heart, to play sport and swim with, while I appreciate a sister in law or Auntie to my kids who's much cooler than me but tells one of them not to moan "just get off your butt and get a job if you want something"

I watch their two wee boys for glimpses of my little brother and admire how gentile, sweet and full of mischief they are.

The extended family came for a shared meal to celebrate their arrival. It's just magic how three generations of brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, Mums, Dads, cousins, friends and a few second cousins once removed, create a joy full energy when gathered together. Shared food from many gardeners, meat grown ethically by family, fish from the neighbour, blackberries discovered around our garden with a promise of potting up some cuttings, tall tales and reminiscences all create a picture of "family" in early Autumn here tonight.

From my garden:

I harvested Maori potatoes for my contribution, making a completely sustainable, organic potato salad. The end result tasted better than it photographed.

Cheeky muffin

Someone has recently hit me over the head with the "happy homemaker stick". This is quite possibly the culprit: Doesn't eat his dinner but slyly whips off with the biggest muffin before the others even know they're out of the oven.
I'm actually not often this domesticated, but was inspired by a large harvest of poppy seeds when I went out to finally tackle the garden yesterday. I made 3 dozen muffins with lemon and poppy seeds to go in the freezer for school lunches. Perhaps being in the kitchen was a good way to avoid the garden where there is so much work to do I don't know where to start.

Got the gherkins bottled and made sauce as well.

Picked an armload of cucumbers, I'm struggling to know what to do with them all. There are still "bread and butter pickles" in the cupboard from last season. Anyone who visits has been sent home with them, the pet rat likes them. I think maybe I'll slice some up and rest my eyes awhile.

Anyone else have any good cosmetic recipes for them?

Family creativity

I know I didn't knit this enthusiastically when I was 8 years old. PJ caught the knitting bug in the last week of the school holidays and worked for three days to create a jersey for Willow and blankets for her favorite soft toys. I kind of bungled away nearby trying to set a good example and to be on hand to help while trying myself to perfect my Continental style knitting.

It was OK on these simple singlets:

I found the pattern for these after advice from Melissa who pointed me in the direction of Soule Mama whose archives I searched until I found this from The thrifty knitter , perfect for a newborn and a new knitter.

This:

was a little more difficult, I've been doing it on and off for about three weeks. I found myself switching back to the English style knitting that I learned around 8 years old myself, because the weight on the left hand needle made it harder to get into the swing of Continental style. Knitting two stitches together for the pattern slowed me down to a pain full beginners pace, though it did make me appreciate PJ's efforts alot more, but not enough to ignore my impatient streak. Back to English style to get it finished, both she and I are really pleased with the result. She helped me sort through some light weight fabrics to choose the blue floral which tones in beautifully with the cotton knit. I got the pattern from a book which I have since returned to the library, I think it was this one. I've put it on my wish list now because it's full of similar delights.

The paua shells I used as props with the singlets are from skatey's trip over the bay, his creative streak lead him to borrowing a grinder from the neighbour to grind off the grey shell to reveal the beautiful colours beneath. Then he varnished it to make the colour "pop". He gave me some to have in my bedroom. I treasure them as an expression of his creativity.

Faries Dance Here

A nice thing about the holidays has been that PJ hasn't had the influence of other girls telling her how she should be. I've finished a couple of dresses for her that have been half done for several months. She's been through her dress up box and added her Granny's apron over the top of them, then quietly acted out the stories she has made up, including her little brother when he is in a co-operative mood. It's a little sad that this week she will go back to school and start stressing about the outfit to put together so she doesn't get called a baby. Sad too that those other little 8 year old girls want to wear short shorts and tops instead of the lovely dresses I'm sure they'd all prefer. We're working on confidence so Pj can be a leader instead of a follower.

Oh I wish I had a WOOFER

I know, I'm repeating myself. It's just that time of year where a pair of extra hands would be helpful. I've picked a lot of huge tomatoes which need to be made into sauce. I'm not sure how many more I will get as I think the plants have blight. The symptoms are browning leaves and fruit browning before it goes ripe. A Woofer could pull out the affected plants and burn them, plant some seeds for winter crops, turn compost, summer prune fruit trees, pick gherkins and bottle them, dig the rest of the garlic and clean it up, pull the shallots and string them up, pick the last of the currants and preserve them, clean the chookhouse, weed and water, then mow the lawn. They'd deserve a good dinner and a swim after that.
You'd think two teenage boys would be pretty useful around the house wouldn't you? I haven't got the knack of how to get them motivated to help. Skatey has gone off adventuring again anyway, over to Anatori to collect Paua from the sea over there. One last adventure before school starts. Can't believe I'll have two at High School, I'm really hoping Skatey will find a lot to inspire him there. The teen is looking forward to going back now that we've sorted out his timetable clashes and bought the new uniform and supplies for school. He's doing English, Math, Physics, Computer Studies, P.E and Outdoor Education so I reckon he's in for an awesome year.

Tracks

Last week I packed up all the children for a journey over the nearby Takaka hill. It is not a trip I have done often despite living in this area for much of my life. Stopping me has been fear. It's not a particularly treacherous drive but I do hold onto a quite irrational fear of edges of hills from childhood.

Our destination was through winding roads to beautiful beaches beyond, in the Golden Bay. Summer camping spots full to the brim with tents don't hold much appeal to me though the beaches, wildlife, galleries and roadside stalls will now I'm sure tempt me back again. We past Pohara, Tata and Wainui at which point I wondered why I'd waited so long to go back to the area. We thought of their Dad and how much he loves adventure, a contrast to my homebodyness, as I willed myself through the fear to set a good example to my children.

We arrived at Totarnui and spent awhile on the beach watching the waterskiiers at full tide. A girl fell off and was knocked out. It was comforting to watch the rescue helicopter arrive what seemed like about 20minutes later. Skatey found a bike park where he attracted a crowd of adoring 8- 10 year old boys to watch his unicycle stunts.

The event that bought us to the bay started at 1pm. We were there to farewell the teen on his rite of passage to manhood. We didn't know what to expect really, though the course had come highly recommended. As his mother I can't explain the experience but from my perspective it was a very powerful and spiritual journey. Boys leave their mothers for the rite of passage with their fathers or mentors, other returning "trackers" and a group of Elders, for their week long rites. As a mother you say goodbye to the boy in a ceremony and welcome back a young man as we did yesterday. It seems all involved including the fathers gained so much spiritually from the experience that I would recommend it to families with teenage boys. Our extended family and even one of the teen's teachers was there to welcome him back as a young man. The love and support was almost overwhelming. We were also very touched to see the impression it had made on the other young men involved.

For me personally it was a joy to see respectful, spiritual, kind, caring, strong men are for real.

I applaud Tracks Trust for the experience they gave our family.

Using Rotten eggs

So it goes along with hatching eggs that a few may not hatch for one reason or another. The kids now view these as quite a treat, we collect them ever so carefully so as not to crack them and get covered in the stench of rotten egg, and go for an evening stroll down to a small stream nearby.

We had a "real" farm kid staying with us this week and he certainly showed us what separates the farm kids from the townies.

You can just see the farm kid in the stream, while a former farmers daughter sits on the bank wishing she still jumped in streams, climbed trees and chased other kids with weta's and hu hu grubs.

We waited and watched for eels coming upstream attracted by the smell of the eggs, while he just waded on in bare toes only covered by orange "crocks" and broke the couple of eggs that hadn't exploded when they hit the water. Though instead of high -tailing it out of the water quickly, he stayed in to look for koura or fresh water crayfish. It was nice to see that our stream is so healthy with wildlife, he found 5 in a matter of minutes. He also informed me their Maori name was "koura" as in "Kaikoura" on the South Island East coast, renowned for it's lovely sea crayfish and whale watching. We spied about 3 eels (in Maori tuna )make their way upstream to our eggs, but they weren't as big as the ones we saw last summer. We also discussed the New Zealand place names we know which include the words Kai (food) Koura (crayfish) and tuna (eel) and came up with quite a few from the areas we had lived and visited. These give a good clue to the history of an area. We deciphered another Maori place name we know. The road where we live translates to: dog oven!! So we speculated that probably this area may have been known in olden times for eating dog. For the boys especially our evening excursion in cooperated some great lessons that they just wouldn't get if traditionally stuck in a classroom to learn local history and ecology. Parents, never underestimate the value of family life and what kids can learn by"living"

We all came home glad to have taken the time to do it.

"Stuck to the computer boy" formally know as the "teen" sadly didn't join us.

Though at least I could also refer to him as "passed NCEA, stuck to the computer boy". Exam results came through yesterday.

Or to be specific, I should describe as: "often grouchy with mother, doesn't want to work, obsessed with a nice girl, talks to her online, thankfully passed NCEA, stuck to the computer, teen, lovely,boy"