Fina's Farmyard Birthday

Seraphina came bounding into our room, eyes wide and sparkling at 6 am.
She was so exited that it was her birthday, and she was finally 5!






Then we made our way to a local farm.
The birthday boy or girl always gets to choose a special breakfast and a birthday trip.
Fina wanted butterfly cookies and fruit kebabs for breakfast.
Matilda and Boo helped me make the kebabs the evening before.
We used her favourite fruit Strawberries, pineapple and blueberries.

We all wanted to take the goats home.
Goats have such personality. Even though they try to eat your sleeves too, along with the handfuls of cereal.





All my girls have a deep affinity with animals.
I love how they talk to the animals like friends and say "goodbye friend! See you later"



Bujana has become quite obsessed with finding nests and eggs.





Nola was fascinated with the chickens, offering them her whole cheese sandwich. One particularly confident bird run off with it in her beck, and soon a whole tribe of chickens were flapping and clucking behind her.



Thank you Tani dear for the photographic evidence that I am, in fact, still a kid.

My Birthday Girl

My little bird.

You are the most emotionally honest person I know.
If you think it, you'll say it.
If you feel it, you'll holler it.

I want to be as fearless and open as you, girl of the kiss curls and the pixie eyes.
Oh what thoughts swim in those unfathomable waters?

When we were sowing our Spring greens you dug up my viola's with a kind of earnest care.
Then you lovingly replanted the bindweed I'd spent a morning grappling with.

You said it was your special plant.

The plant with the pure white shell flowers that could almost, almost be mistaken for lilies and the strong, fibrous, unyielding roots.

You spend most of your days happily playing in the garden or painting your hands.

You know you were born almost 10 pounds and Eskimo-like.

I met my own reflection within your beautiful brown eyes that day.
There was something sacred in their deep pools.

High cheek boned, heart shaped faced, beauty.
I stared at you in wonder for hours into the dark, murmuring quiet of that mid-May night.

The day Daddy and I came home from the hospital , fish and chips wrapped tight under one arm your car seat hooked on the other, Matilda stared, wide eyes swimming across your little face for hours.
She wouldn't leave your side.
She would try to stroke your soft velveteen forehead and press her cheek close to yours to feel your warmth.

I had know idea what incredible, sacred, elemental lessons you would teach me.
I had no idea that you would break my delicate porcelain life apart and remould it into something, truer, more useful, more authentic and indeed, more beautiful.

You make me thankful for every small precious act of kindness, every shard of reflected light, every swilled rainbow in every muddy puddle.

My lovely girl today, you were five.

Seraphina, I hope you will always fly free.

{Yarn Along}

"I think one of the greatest gifts that we can give anybody is the gift of one more honest adult in that person's life - whether [the recipient] be a child or an adult.

"And so, for me, being quiet and slow is being myself, and that is my gift."

 The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth...

I began this lovely, gentle book about a lovely, gentle man named Mister Rogers yesterday.

Now you lovely American readers probably know exactly who Mister Rogers is but English me is only just discovering his wonderfully calming screen presence and wise soul.

Thank you Tonia for the book recommendation.

I particularly interested in the idea of embracing slowness and carefulness in all things.

Mister Roger's seemed to be very much about relationships, simple honesty and kindness.

Also slowness, connectedness and the gentle narrative thread that works story through process and conversation.

"Mister Rogers knew that the same principle {taking time} applies to a child's emotional development, to a child's soul."

Hurriedness causes it to be hard and resistant. 

But taking time and going slow nurtures, or as he liked to say "nourishes."

 (The adult soul needs this kind of nourishment as well.)

Here is a beautiful speech Mr. Rogers made in 2001. I encourage you to take some time to read it.

Weekending

Joining Amanda @ The Habit of Being today for weekending.

sunlight, lakeside, collecting tadpoles and pond weed in jars.

Finding our blackbird nest abandoned, hoping the babies fledged early.

Watching baby rabbits gather close to our picnic, and staying still and quiet enough to watch them play.

Feeding a crushed cream cake from the bakery to a wild brown duck by hand. Fina crying because she scared "Mr. Mallard" away with her squealing delight.

Tricks that keep a teething babe from tears.

Daddy always knows the best ones.

Emmy, growing up. So.Fast.

Tree climbers that scramble so high, sometimes, I feel giddy.

These two are becoming quite the comedy duo. They stick together like glue despite the age gap.

More weekending highlights...

• The scramble for tutu's, bolero's hair nets and elusive hair pins before ballet.
• The silence that pools when the door closes and I know they are in the safe and capable hands of their Daddy.
• The joy of stitching and knitting in the calm and gentle waters of that silence.
• Lunch bought from the bakery.
• Floury crumbs all over the floor as baby digs in too. She eats everything at the moment so long as she is given the chance to dig into it herself and make a mighty happy mess.
• A poor, sad, squirmy, teething girlie that needs lots of attention both day and night at the moment.
• This post.
• Playing in sunlight after weeks of rain.
• The shimmering greenness of the grass.
•  The sticks, stones, grass and feathers that little one seems so fascinated with.
• Buying organic rhubarb, wild rocket, and courgette seeds to sow into our little veggie patch.

 

Keeping it Real

We need both rainfall and sunlight to grow.

Sharing my doses of both with "Ink and Chai" today...

"For me, the best times are always going to be the most intense,
the ones with the highest highs and the lowest lows."

Fiona Apple

Rainfall

Feeling like it was just too much and too muddy to take the kids to the park this
afternoon, then feeling like I failed when bickering fills the space instead.

Wishing we had family close by, the kind where you can just stop by, call, have a chat, a cry and feel better again for doing so.

little miss baby's first tantrum (flailing arms and legs and everything)
...

Deciding to blow two years of a saved deposit on the holiday we haven't had for 9 years.


Sunlight

Friends returning from months away.

Play-dates with, the kind of friends that don't judge the bigness, the loudness, the spirited-ness nor equally the quietness of our family

A quiet sense of peace in my soul

A creative project coming slowly to fruition (More on this another time)


Curled up beside him with some wine, cheese and bread once the house lulls
into quiet

Having some proper giggles and connectedness with my free spirited 5 year old
...

Deciding to blow two years of a saved deposit on the holiday we haven't had for 9 years :)

{Yarn Along} ...messiness and the french lessons that never happen :)

Oh it's been so long since I last joined in with Yarn Along!
It is nice to be back :)
I have started knitting up some Autumn wool longins for Nola!
I love the greens in this lovely Crofter yarn. They remind me of moss, hillsides, meadows and pebbles.


I received my new book of poetry through the post this morning!!!
There is something a little bit magical about paper and ink even though I have grown to value the convenience of a kindle.



Here is snap of Nola looking a little pensive. She has quite the pensive look about her sometimes.
Earnest almost.

She loves her Emmy.

A friend crocheted and stitched the beautiful lilac hued frock for her. I'm hoping for lots of warm weather so that she can wear it every - single - day :)

Today I am quite "worn to a raveling" as the Tailor of Gloucester would say :)

This morning was a whirlwind, even though I really truly tried to stall it into some quiet French stories and songs in hope for a quiet lull in activity since our full weekend.

It quickly became apparent that many more exciting ideas were brewing.

Before long, the kitchen was littered with origami.
Both successful attempts and the jumble of crumpled paper that was not quite so successful.
 Then there was the brown paper, string, stamps, ink pads and homemade cards and envelopes all to be ready and wrapped for a friends birthday party this afternoon.

I stealthily managed to stew some lovely rhubarb stalks for pudding this evening. Before lunch and everything.

I was rather impressed with that accomplishment.

The final straw might have been the muddy footprints brought in by a random water hole digger, which is the new name for the small child made pond in the dip where the swing used to be.

Oh happy days!!!

I shall miss them one day shan't I.

When my carpets are fluffed up and my counter tops minimalistic and void of all but the odd quaintly placed wooden spoon and shiny, un-bitten fruit.

The thing with being odd and Unschooling is that you never know what kind you are going to have.

Still a balance must be sought between what each individual would like to do and how those things can be best facilitated in a communal context.

Like so much in life, it all comes down to give and take.

Sometimes it is my turn to give, sometimes it is theirs.

Sometimes we all need to give in a little for the sake of the whole.

Sometimes older ones must accept that the needs of younger ones must take precedence.

Sometimes littles must learn to respect the boundaries of the bigger ones.

Sometimes the group has to be divided so that individual needs can be met.

Tight rope walking would be good training for this job.

As the girls grow older and more independent, they often get carried away and forget to tidy up before moving on to the next thing.

I'm sure that much of this is just being young and exuberant.

Being in a bigger - than - your - average - family means the house can get messy quick.

I could easily get over stressed about mess as I am the kind of person that needs a measure of order, harmony visually to feel an inner sense of equilibrium.

I know that a certain level of homely mess is also something that is very healthy for me to embrace as I could become far to hung up on things like dusty skirting boards and fingerprinted windows.

However, it would take 24 hour surveillance with a soapy sponge to prevent fingerprinted windows in this house.

Mess VS sanity and mess wins.

But onto partyness.

Nola had such a happy time waving at the other babies at the party this afternoon.

She loves to wave at the moment.
 Wave and squint and wrinkle her nose a lot.

Matilda had a lovely time at the party too.
She is so quiet that people often wonder if she is okay. But she is very much like me. Often seemingly in her own world, yet actually quite engaged and content with her own quietness.

She did become impossibly overwhelmed however, before bed, when one of the little plastic toys in her party bag broke.
My girls get silly over plastic as it is a bit of a forbidden fruit in our house.
Sad though it was, when it breaks so easily ....well you know.

It's funny though because they never ask for plastic.

They never really ask for anything which is probably unusual.

They get most excited over streams and trees and pebbles and stones and mud and paper and ink stamps and string.

I have a lot to be thankful for.


And even though I'm bone tired at the end of the day.
 
Je suis tres content.

Maybe we'll do French tommorrow :)

Sharing this post with Ginny today for "Yarn Along"

Weekending

On Satuarday we attended a friend's lovely wedding. I drank far to much champagne.

...Had a wonderful time.

My favorite parts were watching a lovely elderly couple jiving on the dance floor to some 50's rock 'n' roll.

I love how us reserved English people really let their hair down at weddings!

Another very beautiful moment was when we went out into the garden to light chinese lanterns.



Watching the lanterns we lit twinkle into the inky blue distance was very poignant and moving.

Small glowing carriers of hopes, dreams and wishes.

 Up, Up to the stars and beyond.

Sunday needed to be chilled and stilled.

We broke open the scrap fabric stash :)

Matilda learned chain stitch and french knots. Two most perfect flower making stitches.





We have the kindest friends you know. Friends who bring us big baskets of lovely fresh greens from their allotments and gardens!!!



There is almost nothing more refreshing than mint leaf tea.



Tani took the girls for a run on the grass.



These two are building a really special bond.



Good friends.

Sisters.




Belatedly joining Amanda @ "the habit of being" for weekending.