Enjoying Simple Pleasures

Today has been one of those lovely hot late spring days, the kind of day which fill you with anticipation of the summer to come. I made the most of the beautiful weather to enjoy an impromptu ice cream in town with my girls, followed by picking wild flowers down by the river. Simple pleasures that make for a very happy day with my girls. 

4 Seasons

Summer

We have spent this morning cutting all our lavender to dry. The littlies love this task, Muma cutting, Holly bunching and the little one generally just having a blast running round with sprigs of lavender. By the end, we have quite a few good bunches. Which when dry, will I am sure, find many uses in our home. And as an added bonus, we all smell like lavender today, gotta love that.

If you have a seasonal post of your own, please link up.

4 Seasons

Summer

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I love christmas, I really do, I love every thing about it. Christmas though is a little different under the southern sky, mostly because it falls in the heart of summer. None of the traditional trimming apply- no warm fires, falling snow or turkeys here. Rather christmas is all about getting outdoors. When I think of christmas, I think of BBQs, of warm balmy days, of sitting out in the sunshine with those I love. And, I would not have it any other way- this is my christmas. 

So in line with this. Yesterday, Holly and I sat out in the garden in singlets and skirts and made a wreath from our garden to hang upon our front door this festive season. And because we are doing it southern hemisphere style, we adorned it with all the beautiful summer flowers. 

Now we have a little bit of summer to greet us at our door.

Whats happening in your corner of the world? Why not link up with a seasonal post?

Advent- Celebrating The Nature Kingdom

The second week of advent has drawn to a close. This week passed celebrated the nature kingdom, the plants that nourish us, providing us with food and oxygen. And so for us, we have spent this week learning and enjoying elements from nature.

Together, Holly and I made these clove scented oranges. Inspired by Bending Birches. Holly chose to use her favorite 'baby oranges', otherwise known as mandarins. This was such a fun, festive little project to do with my girl. So much so, that she has been asking too do it every day since. They are lovely though, they give the whole house a beautiful mulled wine kind of smell- divine.

We have done a lot of cooking this week, talking about a lot of the ingredients such as legumes and nuts. Discussing what they are and where they come from. Trying to instill in them that food does not just come from a shop but is grown in and from the earth.

Both my little girls LOVE flowers, most days we go out to collect fresh flowers to bring back to our home. Isla adores twirling them around in the air, singing sweet little tunes as she does so. Holly, is fascinated by all the different types of flowers, always asking me "whats that one?". Often the answer is "I don't know sweetheart",  her response- "It is a Holly Iris flower mummy". What a sweet little girl she is.

Happy advent.

4 Seasons

Spring

The most obvious sign of spring in our house is the nature table, which takes pride of place in our living area. It is here that Miss Holly puts all her special finds. At the moment the table is full of little flowers. Whenever we go for a walk, she loves to collect flowers along the way. Our rule of thumb is, if it is overhanging the footpath or planted on the roadside, it is fair game.

Everything on the table is organized by Holly except the large vase of flowers which were a gift. Each time when we come home with new flowers, she carefully arranges them, adding them into one or other of her little vases. Her shells, from our frequent beach trips, she likes to arrange in circles. At the moment they have created a 'fairy circle'.

A couple of weeks ago, a blackbird found it's way into our house. Which actually really scared both my girls but after we got him back outside, we discovered several of his feathers in the house. I told Holly that the bird had left them as a gift to say thank you for helping him outside. They quickly took up residence on the nature table. Because cats like to chase feathers, he is up there too, with his little play friend Mr Mouse.

The painting is one of Holly's own watercolors, which I thought looked lovely and bright, much like her sweet flowers.

What is happening at your place that reflects the current season?

Would love you to link up.

A good reason to not mow your lawn

Mowing is not something I enjoy, in fact it is something I actively avoid. But, since Simon hurt his hip, it has been falling on me to do and I am less than enthusiastic about it. Anyway, I have come up with one very good reason not to... the little one is loving picking all the little daisies that have appeared. 

A gift from my girl

Miss Holly picked me this little flower from the garden. She loves flowers, this girl of mine. 

For the love of her sister

We have been making the most of these balmy autumn days in the garden. The little one was lying in the shade watching the leaves move gently above her, while Miss Holly was being busy as toddlers do. Then, Holly came over  to where Isla lay, and quietly placed a gift beside her sister. 

A kind gesture from one sister to another. Such a special sweet moment for a mother. 

30 days of beauty

Some of you may have noticed the little '30 days of beauty' button on the side of my blog and the pictures below changing daily. It is for a lovely little project I am taking part in that has been organised by bluebirdbaby. The idea behind the project is to capture a little bit of beauty in your life for 30 days. It is something I am having a lot of fun with, my camera has become a constant companion as of late. I thought I would post a few of my favourites from this week, if you want to check out my other photos you can do so here. If you want to check out shots from the rest of the group, you can do so here, there are some stunning shots!

Where the flowers grow

At the bottom of my parents property there is a river bed. Most of the year it is dry, rocky and barren. For a few months of the year when the snow on the mountains melts, it fills with fast flowing water. But, at the start of summer, it fills with something else, something far more beautiful.

On one of the long days while we awaited the impending birth of the wee girl we would call Isla, we took a trip to the riverbed. Holly was filled with wonder as she stood looking at the orange flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see.

We picked a bunch to take home and put in a vase, they lasted a few days before they died. But the memory of her wee face as she wondered amongst the flowers will be forever in my memory.