majikfaerie

Rain, rain, rain; Flood!

2012-01-25T23:44:00.001+11:00

Just to add a little déjà vu from this time last year when all the world around me went under water, it’s been raining again. Wait, raining doesn’t really describe what’s going on – we’ve been in a torrential deluge – 420mm (16.5”) in the last two days! This is coming on top of a whole load of rain over the last week or two.

Yesterday, we got flood warnings, I drove out to visit my beloved Ocean, and already some low-lying areas were under water.

But the roads were mostly clear, and the bridges passable, so we weren’t too worried… until we woke up to find over 100mm (4”) had fallen overnight, and the roof was leaking terribly, and the roads were all impassable, with rapidly rising waters.

Then the crawlspace under the house filled up with water – it got to be about knee-deep before it started seeping through the cracks in the wall and flooding the flat downstairs where Wind and Coola live.

Rushing around with towels and buckets, and in-between dealing with a sick Littletree (who fortuitously came down with a case of gastro in the night), I managed to get down into the muck of the crawlspace and set up a garden hose to siphon water out. At some point the electricity cut out, but it’s back on now. I hope that, at least lasts!

Phew!

In the afternoon, the rain eased a little, and we donned wet-weather gear and went for a walk down the hill, only to find half of the village under water, and all of the roads impassable.

Here’s some scenes from the highway and the back road out of the village – this is actually the bridge over a normally very small creek that resides about ten metres under the bridge it is now totally over the top of. The main river that runs through the village was a massive torrent, about 6 metres over its banks!

Well, at least we’re mostly dry and we have enough food to last a few days. I hope everyone out there is staying dry and has plenty of wine stocked up!

Water Dragon

2012-01-24T18:05:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year of the Water Dragon

There has been such a constant stream of so many beautiful people flowing through my house recently, with Wind and Coola living in the flat downstairs, and our good friends Belle and Anasho have been staying, since they are temporarily homeless, as well as frequent visits from an assortment of random hippies and my beloved Ocean.

As group of us got together yesterday for a sacred ceremony to honour the new moon and the start of the Chinese New Year.

We all wrote out pages of our intentions and manifestations for the coming year, I chopped some wood,

We lit a sacred fire, ringed with the surprise rose apples we found growing in the back of our rainforest.

Then we said some prayers and set our intentions before giving the pages to the fire

Then we sat around playing music and dancing and singing before having a yummy feast.

Awesome start to the year!

Create Mystery

2012-01-19T22:00:00.001+11:00

Life has been very interesting lately – all sorts of wonderful and amazing things happening. New lessons, opening, expanding… increasing awareness and bliss.

Some of the lessons are challenging, but all are rewarding.

One of my good friends, Wind, and her unschooled daughter Coola moved in to the flat under our house, so there’s been a massive influx of people in and out of the house, lots of friends, and lots of love. And more unschooled kids hanging around :)

One day down in the village I finally ran into Hellena Post – it was so awesome to get to meet her and her crew, and see her fresh kidlet earthside.

Littletree connected immediately with Hellena’s daughter Tiger Lily, the two of them played with all the kids for ages.

While hanging out with Hellena, I noticed a flyer up on the wall that said “Are You Creating History Today?” Luckily, I had a black marker on hand to fix it:

ARE YOU CREATING MYSTERY TODAY?

Well? Are you?

Snakes in the Night

2012-01-14T11:37:00.001+11:00

Late the other night, I keep hearing odd clattering noises... on investigation, we discovered a smallish carpet python knocking stuff off my bathroom vanity. The shock! The horror! My bathroom vanity is cluttered, and the mirror needs cleaning! [gasp]

And what does any warrior goddess do when there's a snake upsetting order on her bathroom vanity? go for the broom, pick up the snake, and take it outside!

I was even clever enough to put on my knee-high boots, just for safety's sake... but in my hurry, I didn't shake my boots out first - I always shake out my boots, and nothing ever falls out - this time, I didn't, and lo! A great big spider crawled out and up my leg! Eeep!

No problems, all in the line of duty for a majik faerie.
(and yes, I do hang around the house late at night dressed like that – thanks to Purple for taking photos!)

The snake was released outside, hopefully the little guy is now cavorting freely with other snakes, and eating mice from around the house.

The Piano Girl; Reloaded

2012-01-11T23:04:00.001+11:00

Remember three weeks ago Littletree said she wants an electric keyboard for Christmas and to learn to play piano?

Well, my super-awesome friend Ammonite put some time into trawling Gumtree.com.au (an Australian classifieds site similar to craigslist), and she found a local listing for a Casio LK100 electric keyboard for only $80.

It's perfect - cheap enough, and it's a "teaching piano" that has a feature where the keys light up to show you which keys to play with a corresponding LCD screen that shows which fingers to use.

Oh the awesomeness!!! She’s been playing on it several times every day since we got it (3 days ago), and making some progress already. I’m sure we’ll be having videos of amazing music before too long :)

Homemade Harvest

2012-01-06T21:13:00.001+11:00

The past month has been such a frenzy of homemade awesomeness. Harvesting yummy veggies from our garden

Including cassava so we can make our own cassava chips (as well as so many amazing delicacies)

Amazing, delectable, organic, home made cherry liqueur, which tastes like an explosion of fluffy bliss bubbles in your brain

Hannukah Sufganiot

Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream made from local, raw, organic cream, and served with my organic, raw macadamia and honey ice cream

Gingerbread yoni cookies made by my neighbour

And last, but not least, a local farm stall gave us a massive box of “seconds” tomatoes for only $2! What to do with such a tomatoey abundance?

Tomato Chutney!

In between the moments of madness, there’s been SO MUCH AWESOME!

I love eating locally, I love eating food that we grew ourselves, I love making from scratch all the things that even our grandmothers have forgotten how to make :)

Spoons

2012-01-03T17:19:00.001+11:00

I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sprinkled with chronic depression and anxiety. Today, I really wanted to write something about that, but was struggling to find the words, and to find the courage to share something so raw.

Just when I was sitting here, starting to write, deleting, pondering, writing, deleting again, my good friend Catherine posted this article about The Spoon Theory. Perfect article, perfect timing.

A lot of times, I simply can't do things. Sometimes, I get badly triggered. Triggered can mean I get flashbacks; it can mean I'm no longer present in whatever is happening for me in the moment; it can mean I have extreme reactions to things that aren't, to the outside observer, even there. Sometimes I become violent towards myself.

I'm very aware that sometimes the multitude of steps it takes to do basic tasks - like eating breakfast - steps that most people aren't even aware of, is simply too much. A lot of days, I just don't eat at all, because I can't get myself around the number of steps required, just starting with choose what to eat.

I don't always manage. I don't always get it together. Most of my 'spoons' are reserved for taking care of Littletree. She, at least, gets food every day (some days it's just instant noodles - when I have more energy, I make up batches of stock to add to the instant noodles, so at least they have some nutritional value).

Some days, like this evening, I don't see the warning signs in time. Then it hits me, and I'm in spoon deficit. That's when I get really triggered, and it's terrible. Today, I totally lost it.

This is something totally inexplicable to most people, and even to myself. For the most part, people don’t realise I have any problem, and I often get comments along the lines of “oh, you’re one of the most together people I know”

I'm learning to get better. I'm learning to notice the triggers and avoid them, or take measures to alleviate the damage. I take some supplements, which helps a lot. I am learning to not take on too much. I tend to spend a lot of time avoiding reality when I need to (hello internet post count). And when things get really bad, I recognise the triggers and take a Valium.

Most of the time.

And sometimes, it just plain SUCKS. But it's good to know I'm not alone.

Which brings me to another post I've been meaning to write for a while... about the Matzav Kapit מצב כפית or teaspoon state.

It's an Israeli cultural thing (well, possibly exists in other places too) - the situation when one is laughing hysterically, to the point where one can't stop laughing. And then you manage to stop laughing. But if someone holds up a teaspoon, you fall to laughing again. It seems to work, even just saying "teaspoon"

A few weeks ago, at the Rainbow Gathering, one of my good friends, to whom I had introduced the concept of Matzav Kapit, noticed that I was feeling a bit down, so she spent the day hand-carving a tiny little teaspoon, because she knew it would make me laugh.

And it did! I laughed and laughed, and everyone I showed it to laughed. Only now, after reading the article about The Spoon Theory I realise just how incredibly apt it is.

Even in this moment, after I've been terribly triggered, and had an awful episode from which I am now bruised and have a massive egg swelling on my head, I can pull out my tiny teaspoon, and feel better.

Hannukah

2011-12-31T17:54:00.001+11:00

Hannukah overview…

I do love the doughnuts and the pretty candles ;)

Gezellig Christmas

2011-12-29T00:23:00.001+11:00

Gezellig: “A perfect example of untranslatability is seen in the Dutch language through the word gezellig, which does not have an English equivalent. Literally, it means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness.” - Wikipedia

I learned the word Gezellig some years ago while I was living in Holland. Actually, Littetree was conceived in Holland; Purple and I were living on a yacht in Amsterdam, preparing to sail to Brazil when Littetree came into existence.

I don't celebrate Christmas; I'm not a Christian, nor do I go in for mass consumerism gifting and such. In any case, I don't have any relatives with whom to celebrate. To exacerbate matters, Littletree asked if she could have a sleepover at a friend’s house, and be, being quite ignorant of the date, said “sure”. Only after it was too late did I realise it was Christmas Eve.

So I woke up Christmas morning feeling a little flat, like any other day. Purple came in to my room for a morning lie-in and we decided to invite my ladyfriend over for brunch.

Pancakes with alcohol-soaked cherries (a fortunate by-product of our amazing homemade organic cherry liqueur), drizzled in maple syrup, coffee, and two of the people I love most in the world. Tipsy laughs, listening to good music and then lying down to watch The Beatles movie Help!

We didn’t have a tree, we didn’t have any decorations or presents, just love and presence.

So very Gezellig and entirely the best Christmas Ever.

And of course, Littletree came home in the afternoon, friend in tow, for another sleepover.

Trolling Google+

2011-12-27T21:29:00.001+11:00

I’m making an evil laugh especially for my amazing friend Samantha.

(picture source unknown)

First Candle

2011-12-20T23:21:00.000+11:00

Guess what today is?

That’s right! I’m making sufganiot – jam-filled doughnuts. Which means it’s Channukah!

Home-made organic doughnuts from scratch:

Step 1: create a universe in which the following ingredients are available: Wheat flour, yeast, salt, sugar, cinnamon, milk, water, jam, oil.

Step 2: make up a basic yeast dough with a little milk and sugar, lets say, 4 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, a packet instant yeast, pinch salt, teaspoon cinnamon. mix it up and slowly pour in about a cup of warm milk and water (half-half). Keep adding in the milky water till you have a dough you can knead. Might need a tad more than a cup.

Step 3: knead the dough. (Baker’s secret: Make sure you taste some. Eating dough is vital to the process). Then cover it in a bowl and leave to rise for an hour or two (longer for colder temperatures).

Step 4: tear off and roll up small balls of the dough, flatten them into rounds, make a depression in the middle (almost as if you’re starting to make a bowl). Plop in a spoonful of jam – careful to get jam only in the centre of the dough bowl – and top it with another round of dough. Press the edges together carefully to make a nice seal (so jam wont leak out when cooking), roll the whole thing a little into a nice shape, and leave to rise more. Repeat till you run out of dough.

Step 5: Heat oil in a pot and deep fry the doughnuts till golden outside and cooked all the way through. Baker’s tip: don’t have a tantrum and throw boiling oil all over yourself.

Option: instead of a dollop of jam, put a square of chocolate in the middle.

Enjoy!

The Piano Girl

2011-12-16T22:16:00.001+11:00

Littletree came and said she wants to get an electric keyboard for Christmas, and to learn to play piano. I said an electric keyboard might be a bit out of our budget at the moment, but we can save up for it.

She shrugged at that, and flounced off… An hour later, I found her set up in the living room, having made herself an electric keyboard, practising her piano skills.

Apparently it’s got all the best features and she’s been playing some awesome music on it already! ;)

Giant Perspective

2011-12-15T00:20:00.001+11:00

I was just putting Littletree to bed and giving her a snuggle, and she said "Mama, can we talk about Stereotypes?"

"Okay", I said.

"Well, I think it's really mean that so many people make stereotypes. Like they say that Giants are mean and nasty. But Giants are people just like everyone else, except that they're really big. Like, really, really big. But they're nice, and kind. It's so insulting to stereotype them! I just don't understand why people keep making mean stereotypes about all different kinds of people."

When I thought about it, I realised that to a child, everyone is a giant. It's all about perspective.

Total eclipse of the moon

2011-12-11T23:41:00.001+11:00

For those who have been living under a rock, there was a total lunar eclipse yesterday, visible from Australia, most of Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.

Littletree, being obsessed with astronomy, was very keen to see it, but she barely managed to wake up for the 1am totality!

It had been raining all day, and I’d given up hope of getting to see anything, but right when the first shadow was falling over the moon, it cleared up and we had great viewing!

So we set the telescope up

Waited patiently, watching as the Earth’s shadow slowly covered the full moon.

Definitely worthwhile having the telescope as well! Though technically one is not supposed to be able to take photos through a telescope, and clearly these ones didn’t come out so well, you get the idea:

And I’m reminded of 2006 when we went to Turkey to see a total eclipse of the sun at a Rainbow Gathering.

Littletree was terrified of the sun disappearing! She cried through the whole first part, hid in my lap and refused to look at it until the totality was over. And then she was happy again!

Flashback Friday–Victoria Falls

2011-12-09T21:44:00.001+11:00

Time for another flashback post :) I was reminded lately of the time I spent in Africa – I travelled and lived for a year and a half in Africa, including a Cape-to-Cairo journey. Looking through some old photos I have scanned in, I came across this gorgeous set that were taken at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, regarded as one of the top three waterfalls in the world.

In 2001 I attended a World Rainbow Gathering in Zimbabwe, which was incredibly amazing. After the gathering, a small group of my friends and I decided that we should go see the sunrise at Victoria Falls on full moon night

The only catch with this plan was that one has to pay to get in to the Victoria Falls Park and go with a guided tour. So we thought better to sneak in and go about by ourselves.

So we waited till it was late night and we embarked into the bush some distance from the official entry gate and climbed over the fence. What fun to be sneaking around in the African wilderness! At night!

At some point, one of my friends came around some trees to find himself face-to-face with an elephant. Another friend got caught by security, and managed to run off and get out, though totally scratched up from running wildly through the jungle and finally jumping a barbed wire fence.

Those of us who stayed for the sunrise were treated to spectacular circular night-time rainbows around the full moon, and then the stunning views of the sunrise, while the full moon was setting and rainbows in the mist of the falls.

It was a truly amazing moment, I will remember always.

These three photos were taken all at the same time, at sunrise on the full moon, July 2001. The first view is looking east, to the sunrise, the second is looking north directly at the falls, with me posing and the third is facing west, to the full moon setting behind a rainbow. All taken with a Kodak disposable camera.

Magnetic Family

2011-12-08T00:31:00.000+11:00

Littletree came up to me the other night and asked me to stand up. She held my hand, looked me up and down, and then walked off. Minutes later she went up to Purple and did the same thing.

Odd...

Turned out she was trying to make a picture of the three of us using alphabet fridge magnets; she wanted to get the relative heights, arm lengths and arm angles as accurate as she could.

Yep, we really look like this:

A good friend pointed out to me that Littletree is lucky to have sets of magnetic letters in two alphabets – she wouldn’t have been able to make this (at least, not so easily) if she had only the Latin letters, or only the Hebrew set.

And there I was thinking the benefits in raising a multi-lingual child would be in communication, linguistic ability and neurological function – I never would have guessed it would open up her artistic possibilities as well!

Goodbye Leafy Green Brick Road

2011-12-05T23:17:00.001+11:00

It has been brought to my attention that on slow internet connections, the white background on this blog loads slowly (weird), just leaving the green text on the green leaf wallpaper, which is unreadable.

It’s good to get this kind of feedback – my computer runs pretty fast and I’m usually at home with my top-speed wifi, so I’m largely unaware of this kind of thing.

And I felt like a bit of a change. But at the same time, I was also feeling a little lazy, so I just took the leafy wallpaper out and left it all white.

Believe it or not, sometimes there can be such a thing as too much green! Shocking, I know.

So, what do you all think?

This is how it was:

And this is how it is now (I’ll post a picture for posterity lest I change it and then this post looks random)

I could possibly make it all new and I’m open to suggestions.

Everyone please let me know what you think in the comments! Do you like the new, fresh look? Miss the greeny-green? Have a better idea?

Gingerbread

2011-12-04T19:15:00.001+11:00

Littletree decided to make a Gingerbread House with her friend.

Was loads of fun, and a lot easier than I’d anticipated. And now we have loads of gingerbread to eat!

Back in the Swim

2011-11-29T17:43:00.001+11:00

Just getting settled back at home again, and we’re off to home school group. The last meet up was at this awesome place called Island Quarry, which is a sustainable living arts centre formed around a lake in an old bluestone quarry that was abandoned in 1980.

It was really cool, and well worth a visit if you’re heading into Byron Bay for any reason.

The kids had a great time exploring the surrounds, swimming, kayaking and jumping off the cliffs.

There were even some crazy backpackers jumping off the high 20-metre cliffs, I managed to capture some video.

And this all counts as educational… just a study on the practical applications of gravity, right?

Home from Rainbow Land

2011-11-23T23:17:00.001+11:00

Just got home from the Australian Rainbow Gathering, which was all kinds of awesome!

We packed up my trusty van, Sunshine with all the gear and tipi poles on the roof and hit the road! On the way we stopped at the Coroborree Land out at Tabulam to pick up the big communal pots – was nice to break the journey and have a nice swim in the river on a hot day!

It took most of two days to drive down to the Blue Mountains, but it was great to arrive at Home and get the tipi set up… right before we all moved to a better site, 2 hours away. Exhaustion much!?

Aaaand then it was time to drive down to Sydney to pick Littletree up from the airport.

Honestly, I have no idea how people manage to live there, I was so wiped out from being in the city for one day, and all we did was drive in to the airport and drive out again!

So it took us a whole week to get down, get set up, move again, set up again and settle in! Phew! But it was really nice to be in the tipi once more, and to be in nature and at rainbow, after a year without gathering on the land.

I Loved being able to go for circles every day, singing and Aumming and eating communally under the big tree

And Food Circle around the sacred fire in the evening

There were so many awesome workshops – someone bought a bucket of avocado seeds and some carving tools, and some people got together to carve an avocado chess-set

Juggling, capoeira and Hula Hooping

I held my usual water-bottle-holder crochet workshop

Random acts of group massage

Face Painting in silence by the creek

Making signs for the kitchen

Fire Twirling

Dress-ups for the production of Alice in RainbowLand, and for the Cabaret

And so much more!

I worked in the kitchen (as I do), but was pretty good at stepping back and not getting burned out

And spent a lot of time lying on a rock in the river, or in my hammock. It was wonderful to catch up with old friends and to make new connections. Great to be back in the bush, watching the stars and the moon, falling asleep at night to the sounds of the drums, making chapatis and doughnuts on an open fire, feeling the rain on my skin.

But not too much rain!

And now it’s good to be home!

More photos can be found on my flickr page HERE

Holding the Space

2011-10-22T23:05:00.001+11:00

To the casual observer, it may appear that things are a little dull around here. My blogging has lagged into “filler” posts. And it’s true: I simply don’t have as much time, space, or energy to put into it at the moment. So I’m reduced to the level of “oh my, I haven’t blogged lately… what can I think of? Meh, just post some photos of something cute Littletree did lately”.

Since this is my website and I can say anything I darned well please, and let’s be honest, my life has been interesting enough to fulfil more Chinese curses than one could possibly wish on one’s worst enemy, I’m allowed to post fillers once in a while.

Even the greatest of TV series has a “flashback” episode every few seasons. So I will flash back to a year ago, when I drove down to the Blue Mountains Rainbow Gathering with Littletree.

This particular flashback is apt, because I am currently planning and packing for the next Australian Rainbow Family Gathering, which will be, again, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney (though not in the exact same location again).

Double Yay and all kinds of excitingness!

I shall even – wonder of wonders – be driving down without Littletree! She will be staying home with Purple, and flying down after Hallowe’en, for which she has many plans. Even though only for a week, this will be the first time I’ve been at a rainbow gathering without Littletree since she was born (since even before that, if you count the three gatherings I was at while pregnant).

So though life is in stasis at the moment – or maybe it’s in flux… hard to tell, since my flux capacitor is on the blink again, I shall soon be relaxing in my hammock by my tipi, enjoying the sun.

Hangin’ with the girls

2011-10-16T18:23:00.001+11:00

Life has been a little crazy hectic lately, since Purple came back from Israel and we’re dealing with the re-shuffling of our lives and living arrangements. Our friendship has been a little strained, and the plan to stay sharing the house together… well, it’s not always flowing gracefully.

I’ve been living downstairs in the basement-converted-flat, and staying with my girlfriend a lot, while Purple has been in a deep jet-lagged funk.

But still, we’re doing our best to make things work for Littletree, making sure she gets to her social engagements, Spanish group, Homeschool group, tutoring session, Circus class, Dance class, the library, the beach…

I’ve been making extra effort to spend time with her, just hanging out, working on her Altered Book, various craft and science projects. And of course, her favourite activity: hanging out down at the village pub for dinner with friends.

The best part being, of course, enjoying the cool night air in the beer garden and pretending that the ground is lava while jumping from table to table and along the garden wall. The even better best part is salad-eating contests!

Because who cares for calamari and chips when there’s a salad?!

Plasma Globe

2011-10-14T16:33:00.001+11:00

Littletree, being the science-geek that she is, got a plasma globe.

Which is very cool and she’s getting hours of entertainment out of playing with it, trying out cool stuff, learning how it works, and pretending to be a fortune teller.

Hooray for science – it works!

Levitation

2011-10-10T15:14:00.001+11:00

Looks like those years spent meditating are finally paying off!

Littletree’s been playing a lot on the trampoline lately, now that the weather is warmer.

Experiment wildly. Have fun.

2011-10-06T23:50:00.000+11:00

I received in the mail this week *drumroll please* a handwritten letter from the always-fabulous, Lady Demelza. I shall proceed to copy it out word-for-word, so that the world might bask in her words of wisdom. And people interested in the world of Altered Books might benefit.

Lady Demelza’s hints, tips, thoughts, suggestions, ideas for encouraging a child with an Altered Book

(Mostly in general, some are more specifically Littletree-oriented)

The most basic tools are scissors and a glue stick. Both are small fiddly things likely to be lost in black holes or become damaged. I find it’s best to have lots of extra spares all over the house. Cheapest, good quality glue sticks are to found in bulk packs at Officeworks.
Whenever there is something happening involving an interesting piece of paper or similar glueable object, suggest it could be stuck in The Book.
If she’s complaining that she’s bored, or wants ‘something to do’, put the book and/or magazines and/or papers in front of her. Small starting suggestions -
- find a picture, shape, colour or word you would like in a magazine and cut it out. Can always be saved to continue with At a Later Time…
- prepare a page by covering it with a blank or patterned piece of paper, or by painting it or colouring it in, for future work.
Print out photos for her to include in the Book – favourite pictures, photos of friends and family – to really personalise it. Maybe photos of people cooking or in the kitchen to go with the cook-book theme?…
Encourage writing out favourite household recipes into the book. It doesn’t have to be a ‘recipe’ as such, it could be a description of the cooking process more generally. Include accompanying photos??
Her science experiments could be documented. Write up the hypothesis or idea, take photos to document her carrying out the experiment, write up the results. Draw a picture of the results.
How about a record of the weekend market bakery business? Note recipe used, take photos of finished product or process, record profits. Write down costs of ingredients, etc. to work out accurate profits!
Learn about the structure of books. Maybe you’ll find an old hardcover book with a missing spine and let her see the stitches holding the book together and deconstruct it. Discuss types of paper and covers, styles of bookmaking over time. Discuss what makes a book suitable to become and Altered Book; the strength of the spine/ pages, how likely it is to last a long time or fall apart quickly.
eg – stick pages together to make a heavier base for heavier stuck-in things. Cut a niche in the pages to allow for 3-D stuck-in objects.
- different kinds of glue and paint used with different kinds of paper – how does the paper or insert hold up?
Cut out shapes from scraps of fabric as well as paper. Check how glues hold up with different fabrics. Small bits of fabric usually go well in Altered Books.
You may want to find a kind of tray-shaped box or basket that the Book can go in, along with a manageable quantity of materials, to travel around to different parts of the house, be used and tidied away.
If she produces a page that she’s not happy with, there are a few options.
- Continue altering the page until it becomes something different.
- Remove the page.
Stick it to the next page to make a stronger, double-thick page for more sturdy embellishments.
- Stick a piece of plain or patterned paper or a picture over the whole thing.
This is meant to make it feel safe to experiment wildly.
Keep an eye out for second-hand magazines with good colours and visual style in the photography and advertising (if not content!)
A quick trip to the oppy would quickly provide enough variety to give her something to get going on… you don’t need a big pile of magazines, but a variety of styles is good. New ones coming in now and ten are exciting and inspiring. Throw out the old ones if they’ve been hanging around a while
Experiment wildly. Have fun.

Holy Cows

2011-10-02T22:50:00.001+11:00

Our friend and neighbour, Elf, who takes Littletree every week to help her with reading and writing, also takes care of a cow who birthed a calf recently.

Littletree just loves the calf to bits, and the calf seems to like Littletree just as much.

It’s just the sweetest thing. Awwwww

Shana Tovah

2011-09-28T15:04:00.000+10:00

Littletree’s Shana Tovah greeting

Happy Jewish New Year :)

Littletree’s been brushing up on her Hebrew…

Green Kitchen

2011-09-27T12:45:00.001+10:00

Due to the overwhelming numbers of requests, I’ve uploaded some photos of the new kitchen – long-time readers might remember my occasional outbursts of stress around the design and planning of the new kitchen.

I had to search around for ages to find photos of how it was before – seems I totally spaced out taking “before” shots; very unlike me! But finally I found some – ones I took of the house before we first moved in!

So here’s before:

And After:

So you can see we knocked out the ‘stupid’ wall that created a useless, dark corridor to the front door, opened everything up, ripped out the old lino and saggy particle-board subfloor and put in timber boards.

It’s not *completely* finished – I still have to do the tiling/ splashback on the wall above the benchtop, but I haven’t decided exactly what it’s going to be (it will, of course, be green), and the hanging light fixtures need to be moved to be above the island. But It’s all essentially finished, and I’m LOVING IT!

Here’s the view you see from entering the front door:

And a view of the island from the other side:

I have my laundry machine installed in the kitchen, in the place most people would put a dishwasher. But I don’t like dishwashers, and I got used to the washing-machine-in-the-kitchen style in Europe – makes sense to me, and I figure any possible future inhabitants of the house can still put a dishwasher in the space should they so desire.

Little features I love are: the Kids’ Cooking Space – one cupboard opens out horizontally to create a bench-top at small-person height, with the little mini toaster-oven stowed inside. Littletree loves this space, and she often opens it up when preparing food for herself. Makes sense, since I frequently have many small people in my kitchen!

And the semi walk-in pantry with masses of storage space fits all our food :) Yay!

I love love love the white quartz crystal bench tops, we very nearly went for a green marble top, but in the end, it was a lot more expensive, and this looks so much brighter and cleaner. Since we saved so much on the labour (getting friends to do it in return for living in our basement), and we were lucky enough to get all the cabinets and materials at trade cost, we splurged on custom-made hardwood doors from the most local, sustainably-grown timber we could source. They came up looking fantastic :)

We have an awesome, deep double sink, which I actually enjoy washing up in! And the extra little sink on the corner of the island was a fantastic idea. I also got a shiny stainless steel gas cooktop and new oven. Which means I’m cooking up a storm of decadent delights!

Little Surfer Chick

2011-09-24T23:17:00.000+10:00

It’s the Vernal Equinox! Which means Spring, and warmer weather! I know I complain about the cold a lot, but really, it’s not like we weren’t at the beach all winter, but now it’s getting warm enough to actually swim again.

This week at home school group, the day was sunny, the weather warm, the surf up, and Littletree had her first try at catching waves with her boogie board

She had an awesome time, and I think has totally caught the surfing bug, so we might be down at the beach more often.

Dolphin earrings

2011-09-20T23:30:00.001+10:00

Remember Littletree got her ears pierced a few weeks ago?

Well, it was finally enough time since she had them done that she could change the earrings! She’s been counting down the days in anticipation of the big moment.

Since they seemed well-healed, I said she could put in new ones; she’d found a gorgeous pair of silver dolphin earrings last time we went to The Channon market and bought them with her hard-saved pocket money, so we gave them a good cleaning, took out the captured-bead rings she had in, and voila!

So gorgeous :)

Of course, the dolphins are being kept for special occasions, and she has a simple pair of silver sleepers in for now, but she’s already plotting an extensive earring collection! At least I know what to get her for Rosh Hashanah that’s coming up next week.

Life After Lady D

2011-09-19T22:34:00.001+10:00

Littletree and I are settling back into life in the house with just the two of us. We’ve started elaborate plans for building a treehouse, made a new bed in the veggie garden with loads of radishes, and done a lot of cleaning up around the place.

Littletree is enjoying her new SodaStream, one of the main benefits of which is it seems sufficiently less wasteful to let her go crazy with shaking up the soda bottles and letting them spray out all over the place. Which counts as science education, right?

But still, I miss having Lady Demelza around, pottering with me in the kitchen (don’t we look awesome in our colour-coordinated aprons!)

And I miss the beautiful contrast of Lady Demelza’s maroon laundry on my gorgeous greenness

But of course, life goes on :) We have all sorts to keep us busy, Spanish classes, homeschool group, dance class, capoeira group, circus class, Littletree’s bakery business, treehouses, village markets, dances, friends, parties, gardening…

Farewell Lady D

2011-09-16T23:43:00.000+10:00

The ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza and her partner Uncle CJ left us this morning, off on the journey back down south.

*sniff*

They did leave us with a parting gift, so that we’ll always have a bit of their awesomeness around: a shiny new SodaStream machine! Littletree was ecstatic!

Once Lady Demelza got it all unpacked and set up, she gave Littletree a demo of how it works, and away she goes! So now we have plenty of soda water with which to make bubbly drinks. I suppose I shall have to start making my own cordials to go with it now.

So last night we had a farewell feast, Uncle CJ cooked a yummy roast dinner, which is now all eaten… but we still have the happy memories of Lady Demelza plying us with Pink Champagne

And the ultimate proof that Real Men do Drink Pink:

Happy journeys, Lady D :) and thanks for everything!

Altered Reality

2011-09-15T23:09:00.001+10:00

Lady Demelza, being the artistic goddess that she is, makes Altered Books. Her current main project is an awesome 1960s Margaret Fulton cookbook that she’s transforming into a thing of beauty.

Some pages get removed, some get improved, new things are added in.

It’s really quite inspiring art, and being created by Lady Demelza, quite impressive

So impressive, in fact, that Littletree started working on a few pages with her

Littletree got so involved in it, the ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza decided to indulge in her passion for Op-Shopping and take Litteltree in search of her own vintage cookbook to alter. Didn’t take them long to find a Gretta Anna cookbook, circa 1987.

The two of them have been avidly working at their respective books, Littletree is quite enthused with her newest project!

I’ll post updates for sure!

¿Hablas español?

2011-09-13T17:56:00.001+10:00

¡Hola! Littletree has been loving the homeschool Spanish-language group that started in our village :)

Since Spanish was essentially her first language (we were living in Central America when she first started talking and she spent the first 15 months of her life in Latin America, but it’s since fallen into disuse), she’s picking it up faster than the other kids, but it looks like they’re all having fun.

The teacher is from Spain, so it’s interesting to get the differences between the Spanish and the South American accents – apparently I have a funny Argentinean accent!

The kids have a great time, it’s very casual and “unschooly”.

They play a lot of games, like card games to learn numbers, playing with differently-coloured stones to learn colours…

And the classic Twister – colours and body parts!

Today we learned to sing “Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes”, played “Animal Families” to practice numbers and learn animals, and practiced basic small-talk. Then we sat together for lunch – a great way to learn food words :)

Yay for friends

2011-09-11T21:15:00.001+10:00

I’ve been slowly coming out of my shell a bit more in the past week, getting out and seeing friends and doing fun stuff.

Last weekend was Rinka’s 40th birthday party, so I made myself get out of the house and go socialise. It was great to see friends and have a catch-up

Also great to see some old clients and see how their babies are growing

And how young love blooms in two of the babies I’ve caught.

And best of all, just awesome to be out in the bush, around a campfire and having a laugh :)

All in all, I’m feeling much better after the last weeks of gloom.

Lady D to the Rescue!

2011-09-09T23:56:00.000+10:00

My awesome friend Lady Demelza has come up for a visit, with her partner Uncle CJ. It’s great to have her around, the two of them have inhabited the flat that’s under our house and are enjoying the warm weather and peaceful nature.

We’ve been having a lovely time showing them around the village, and getting them well acquainted with the area and the local folks. We went for a little excursion down to the creek yesterday, and they’ve been making trips to Nimbin and the Gold Coast and just enjoying the view from our deck.

Littletree loves having Lady Demelza around, who is, apparently, a fantastic godmother. They’ve been hanging out, discussing philosophy, engaging in elaborate art projects and raiding all the local Op-Shops.

And I’m so happy to have someone loving and supportive around to help out while things are a bit rough. It’s nice to have a little maroon about the place to compliment all my green :)

Transitions

2011-09-05T23:18:00.000+10:00

Apparently Mercury has been in retrograde, and as we all know, mercury is poisonous. So weird things happen.

Purple and I have separated, which is one big change. Actually, it’s a huge change! It’s been eight weeks now since he came home from vacation at the Rainbow Gathering in Washington State and told me he wants to break up.

We’ve been married for eight years, and despite a lot of ups and downs, it all seemed to be going well. I do get a lot of questions about the nature of our relationship – yes, we were polyamorous, and no, that’s not the reason we broke up.

It’s been a rough couple of months for me, going through teh dramaz with Purple moving out, and then not moving out, he wasn’t talking to me for a while and shut himself in his bedroom. I also (unrelatedly) broke up with my girlfriend; my beloved, who broke my heart. So I’m entirely single for the first time in many years. It’s been a very depressing couple of months, and really feeling like I’m barely hanging on at times.

Now that we’ve had a bit of time to work things out and a little space, Purple and I have decided to stay living together, at least for the time being. We are, after all, still best friends, and we’re still parents to Littletree.

We have our own bedrooms and it makes a lot of sense in many ways to be housemates. We’ve started the process of subdividing our block of land, with future plans for Purple to build a house on the other half. Who knows what the future will bring!

In the meantime, I’m feeling very “wrung out”, and coping as best I can. Littletree is a total champ. She told me one day: ‘no offence, mama, but when you and Aba argue, it’s your fault. Because even though it seems like he always starts it by saying something that’s mean, you have to remember that he’s too stupid to start fights!’ LOL

She’s a resilient kid, and very pragmatic. I can’t believe how much she’s growing up.

So tomorrow Purple goes back to Israel for a while, and who knows what will happen. Meanwhile, life goes on :)

Bananana

2011-08-27T16:36:00.001+10:00

Littletree’s circus troupe performed at the Tweed Valley Banana Festival last week. She had a great time, getting to see the Banana Festival Parade, and the crowning of the Banana Princesses and Queen.

The Banana Festival is kind of funny. They have a parade with floats, and a great big banana drives down the main street, and people throw bananas around at each other.

Only this year, there’s a banana shortage, and while we are able to get local bananas from farm stalls in the area for around $4-$6/kg (still expensive for this time of year, when they’re usually under a dollar), most folk in Australia are going banana-less and unable to get bananas for under $13/kg. So while we’re lucky in that respect, bananas weren’t really abundant enough to throw around willy-nilly.

I used to live in a town a few hours from here called Grafton where they celebrate the Jacaranda Festival every year. It’s much the same festival as the Banana Festival, only substitute for Jacarandas. There’s a big parade through the town, they crown the Jacaranda Princesses and Jacaranda Queen, and everyone gets drunk and throws jacaranda flowers at each other. Roughly halfway between the Tweed and Grafton is a town called Casino, where they hold a yearly Beef Festival. They have a parade and crown the Beef Princess and Beef Queen. I’ve not been to Casino’s festival, but I imagine getting drunk and throwing steaks around isn’t my cup of tea.

Anyway, Littletree’s performance was awesome and she had a great time

Crystal Castle

2011-08-25T10:00:00.001+10:00

Last week Homeschool group went on another adventure to Crystal Castle, where Gyoto Monks were building a new stupa. The kids got to make prayer wheels, join in meditation classes, and roll up sheets of prayers to go into the stupa

We finally had some real winter weather – it was only 15 degrees Celsius (59F) and cold rain! But the kids still had loads of fun exploring around the beautiful gardens and soaking up crystal energy

Our homeschool group has also started a few extra activities – a craft group for older kids, as well as weekly French and Spanish classes :) So Littletree is brushing up on her Spanish!

Meet May

2011-08-22T16:10:00.001+10:00

The newest member to join the majikfaerie family – May. She’s a home-schooled girl, also eight years old, just like Littletree. May came to live with us for a while because her parents are on a three-month long seminar cruise in Hawaii, which is really boring for kids.

May and Littletree are getting on great. May’s parents are incredibly rich, so she doesn’t know much about living in a normal house, but we’ve been showing her how everything in the kitchen works, and how to do things like sweeping the floor and getting the fire started.

May is exactly the same size as Littletree, which is great, because May’s luggage didn’t arrive yet, so they’re sharing clothes and accessories. Littletree is totally ecstatic to have a kid her age staying with us; the two of them are getting along so well, making up songs and dances together, playing games, trying on clothes, building cubby houses… it’s loads of fun!

Yay for new best friends!

Ear piercing

2011-08-18T16:48:00.001+10:00

Littletree got her ears pierced. She’s been *begging* to have it done for a verrrry long time. Being as she’s Brazilian, this probably means she’s finally a “real” girl. In Brazil, pretty much every baby girl has her ears pierced in the first day or two after birth, often before even coming home from the hospital. I was constantly complimented on my beautiful baby boy, and on correcting people, they insisted she can’t be a girl, because she didn’t have earrings. After all; how else can one tell boys from girls?!

Anyway, I insisted that we do the piercing with a proper piercing needle, rather than taking her to a shop where they use a piercing gun. I think the main reason people prefer to have piercing done with a gun is they get scared by the word “needle” (which we’re all sure is going to hurt), and for the most part, people don’t know any better. But talk to piercers and it’s fairly unanimous.

The gun is more painful, and less safe. You’re basically looking at the difference between the gun, which uses force to push a blunt stud through the earlobe, essentially ripping a hole in the flesh. Ouch! This means poorer healing, more pain and more chance of infection. It’s also very likely the piercing will create hard scar tissue and can create skin tags, lead to abscesses and other nasties. What’s more, the piercing gun can’t be properly sterilised between customers.

Piercing with a proper needle is quick and relatively painless. The needle is surgically sharp and hollow, just slides right through. If you’ve ever had an IV line put in, imagine having that done, and then imagine comparing it to putting the line in not with a sharp needle, but just punching in a blunt stud. Yikes! Proper piercing equipment is either sterilised (usually with an autoclave) or disposed of immediately. Healing is faster and cleaner.

Personally, I’ve had a lot of piercings done, my early ear piercings were all done with the gun by shop assistants in malls. Those ones, even 20 years on, and some of them that haven’t had any jewellery in them for 12 years, still have hard lumps in them that have a tendency to get infecty. The ones I’ve had done with a needle were significantly less painful, and all healed nicely – barely a sign of them now, years after I’ve taken them out.

Anyway, there’s a strong movement amongst serious piercers to have the gun banned, but that’s enough of a rant from me.

Littletree is very happy with the result; she looks so grown up now!

Whale of a time

2011-08-16T22:56:00.001+10:00

Yes, it’s been a while. I am going through some personal stuff that’s… well, challenging. Haven’t felt like blogging, but life goes on.

it’s been a long, bitterly cold winter. Two weeks ago we went over to Byron Bay with homeschool group to go whale watching. Frrrrreezing!

Okay, well, the sun was out, and nice to bask in, so it wasn’t *that* cold

And everyone went in swimming without getting hypothermia! But still, it’s the depths of winter, I swear!

The kids drew in the sand, wrote messages, and played hopscotch

And we all hiked up to the lighthouse to see whales

Loads of fun, and entirely edumacational!

Here is an amazing picture of the ocean, where a whale had just breached, but I was too slow to snap a photo. So, yeah; just a boring picture of the water.

Still, it was very cool to see whales, and the kids had a super-awesome time

We even got a glimpse of the famed Byron Lighthouse Goat!

Trust

2011-07-31T23:01:00.001+10:00

Littletree has gone on a self-imposed screen-free and sugar-free break, she asked me to hide her computer for a week and to put away her pocket-money so she can’t get sweets and asked me to get extra fruit and veggies.

All this came about while Purple was away in San Francisco for a couple of weeks earlier in the month. I think she just missed him a lot, and turned to spending a lot of time watching DVDs and eating “junk” food to fill in time. After about a week of watching rather a lot of movies, she announced that her head wasn’t feeling good and she was having trouble sleeping, and not feeling good in her body. She identified that it was because of spending too much time in front of a screen, and not eating well enough, and set about making a plan to get better.

Well, it’s been three weeks now, Purple is back, but Littletree is still avoiding sweets, and goes days at a time without turning her computer on. Today was the first time in ages she bought herself chocolates and sat down to watch a DVD. Then she begged me to make a hearty veggie soup for dinner, with extra kale and garlic.

I’m so impressed with the way Littletree makes healthy choices for herself. She knows her body and is able to recognise what she needs, on her own. I firmly believe this is because she has a 100% unhindered, self-regulated diet. And most of all, because she is trusted.

Without going into the details of how it works, what it comes down to is having an intrinsic trust of the child. It's sub-consciously saying to the child: ‘Of course you'll make healthy choices and I absolutely trust you to do so’. From that, the child gets the message that she is trusted, and therefore trustworthy, and thus, can trust in herself to make the right choices - as all children will, given the right support.

I’ve been talking about this kind of trust all week, and struggling to really define it – it’s a kind of trust that’s bigger than ‘trust’; it’s something so intrinsic and whole-spirit. Then someone sent me this quote from Dr Jeremy Hayward:

"In order to communicate very openly with the world, you need to develop fundamental trust. This kind of trust is not trusting “in” something, but simply trusting. It is very much like your breath. You do not consciously hold on to your breath, or trust in your breath, yet breathing is your very nature. In the same way, to be trusting is your very nature. To be trusting means you are fundamentally free from doubt about your goodness and about the goodness of others."

While the prevailing cultural belief in our society is that children are inherently bad; that they won’t behave “properly” and that if given the slightest chance, they’ll only get up to no good, be spoiled, or worse. Children are treated based on the notion that they need to be trained, restricted and restrained to ensure that they can’t act on their inherent “badness”. Any parent or educator who isn’t constantly vigilant to reign in the inherent unruliness of children will be seen as negligent.

Trusting in children is about coming from an intrinsic belief that children are inherently good. And they *are*. Children truly are good, and they will behave in the manner they are expected to – not necessarily in the way we tell them to with words, but in they way we show them they are supposed to act. For the most part, we show them that they’re bad and going to get up to mischief. We show them that they are going to fall and hurt themselves, that they will eat nothing but sweets and junk if given half the chance.

But with true trust, in an environment that models respectful behaviour, children are perfectly wonderful, social beings. They do the right thing. They learn from their mistakes, rather than being protected from making them.

I trust Littletree. I trust her to go exploring in the candy aisle at the supermarket. I trust her to know how high she can safely climb. I trust her to behave like a sane, healthy, respectful human being. And she does.

(Littletree on a climbing wall)

14% Green

2011-07-24T17:29:00.001+10:00

I’m branching out!

Anyone who’s known me for any length of time quickly realises that I like green. A lot.

I am frequently dubbed “green lady” or “green faerie”. Because, for the past ten years or so, I’ve worn exclusively clothes that are green.

All my clothes are green – everything, right down to my bras and knickers. Well, I shouldn’t exaggerate; I don’t wear *only* green, I also wear Forest and Hunter and Sage and Emerald and Kelly green. Asparagus, Fern, Jungle, Moss, Pine, Shamrock, Bottle green, and occasionally Lime and Khaki.

My closet is a pleasing assortment of greens, it makes me happy to see all the shades, and feel like I’m in a lush forest.

People frequently give me green things; just because they’re green. Or they assume some random lost object they’ve found *must* me mine, because it’s green.

So when I went around the village on the weekend sporting a new pair of brightly-striped rainbow socks, it caused quite a stir! I love my new socks, and they are, in fact, only 14.28% green!

This could be the start of a revolution!

Science on the Beach

2011-07-21T23:31:00.001+10:00

We had a super awesome homeschool group this week! We met down at our usual beach; it was a gorgeous sunny day with clear, blue skies. It was actually warm enough to take off all the layers and bask in the sun.

And there were dolphins swimming in the water, just a few metres from us!

There was a much bigger turnout than we’ve been having lately; lots of old faces came along as well as some recently-joined members, so we had eight families.

Bella organised a bunch of science experiments for the kids to do, which was great. Science is, of course, hilarious fun!

The kids learned about air pressure

And surface tension and heat. You can’t pop a filled water balloon with a lit match

Chemical reactions – so much fun that can be had with bicarb soda and vinegar!

How oils and detergents react

And made awesome swirly patterns in milk

Once all the organised experiments had been demonstrated and tried out, the kids went crazy having a great time trying out random ideas, messing with the leftover bicarb, vinegar, food colouring, milk and balloons.

The best part was seeing how a group of about 18 kids ranging in ages from 3 – 12 were all collaborating together. There was no need to remind anyone to share, no squabbles to sort out. The bigger kids helped the little kids, the little kids learned from the older ones. None of them felt they couldn’t or shouldn’t interact with anyone else simply because they were different ages or genders or levels of learning and understanding. It was just a group of kids having fun, and learning was purely incidental.

Eventually, they all ran off to build cubbies in the bushes, and whittle sticks, and build sandcastles, and fill balloons with sand to make “eggs” to put in “nests”, and splash in the water, and watch the dolphins, and run around enjoying the sun…

Hooray for unschooling!

Wet and Wild Winter

2011-07-18T17:37:00.001+10:00

I know I recently complained about how impossibly freezing it was on Winter Solstice, but as the days have started getting longer, it’s just getting colder and colder. Brrrr!

So what do we do around here in the dark depths of winter when the days have been occasionally as cold as 18^oC (65^oF)?

We went to Wet’n’Wild Water Park. As you do!

(Photos on this post courtesy of Littetree’s cell phone)

It’s lovely to go on weekdays in winter – hardly any people brave the cold so there’s no queues at all to get on the slides!

Littletree and her friend Anasho spend hours racing up the stairs, sliding down

Apparently the water on the slides is heated, but still, little green faeries aren’t game enough to try.

They do have a whole lot of large whirlpool spas with hot water for those of us that don’t tolerate cold.

Now I’m just hanging out for spring!

The Goddess of Op-Shopping

2011-07-11T12:41:00.001+10:00

The ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza has become Littetree’s self-proclaimed personal shopper. Since Lady Demelza ~~has~~ ~~an addiction to~~ very much enjoys shopping at Op Shops (charity thrift stores), and has no daughters of her own, many awesome "oppie” finds that would otherwise have gone to waste on less-appreciative folk get bought up and sent to Littetree.

After all, what else are unofficial godmothers for?!

Littletree was super ecstatic to receive the latest care package in the mail – it’s always awesome to get stuff in the mail!

She eagerly opened up the package, to discover some cool books, a special silver necklace, and a fabulous assortment of really funky clothes.

Naturally, she then had to try them all on, and do about a million model-shoot poses.

Apparently these new outfits will be vital in the costume design for the video clip of the upcoming hit single Littletree plans on releasing soon, and perfect for filling all the space we just cleared out of her closet when we went through and gave away all the old clothes she’s grown out of.

Because really, everyone should have their own personal op-shop goddess. Just make sure you remember to honour her as a true deity deserves; with gifts of maroon brocade and creamy chocolate.

When Life Gives You Lemons…

2011-07-09T21:21:00.000+10:00

Make lemon meringue pie!

Even though my own poor little lemon tree has been attacked by a wasp blight and hasn’t grown much in the two years since I planted it, it seems all my friends and neighbours have lemons in abundance, and my fruit bowl has turned into a lemon bowl!

What else could I do?

Start with making a shortcrust pastry (I’m generally pretty random with pastries – just chuck some flour and stuff in a bowl, knead it up and roll it out), press it into a pie dish and pre-bake the base.

Juice and zest two large lemons.

Then whisk together 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 3 tbsp cornstarch, a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 cups water. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest and cook over a medium heat till just boiling. Then add in 2 tbsp butter.

While the butter is melting, beat 4 egg yolks and slowly add in a scoop of the hot mixture, then pour the whole lot back into the pot, and keep whisking over a low heat until it’s thick.

Pour the filling into the pie crust.

Now the fun part: we make meringue! Start by beating the 4 egg whites in a bowl. Best to use an antique SwiftWhip for this!

Once the egg-whites start looking frothy, slowly add in a few tablespoons of sugar – keep whipping!

At some point your arm starts getting tired, but you probably have to whip some more

Keep whipping till the eggwhite mixture has about 5 Tbsp sugar, and is forming stiff peaks, like this:

Then you can splop the mixture onto the lemon filling in the pie crust and put it in a (pre-heated) oven.

Bake at 175C (350F) for about 10 minutes, decide it needs to be turned and left another 2 minutes… and then: voila!

Ready to serve

Best enjoyed with friends, and a little of my organic home-made strawberry liqueur.

Yum! Now I just have to work out a gluten-free variation so I can make this for Ariad.

Flashback Friday–Travel Money

2011-07-08T17:22:00.001+10:00

Here’s the next instalment in my Flashback series. One of the most frequent questions I get asked about travel is about money; how did I afford to travel?

When I started out travelling, I was driving around Australia in a 1979 Ford Cortina, and I was on disability pension, so as long as I lived frugally, I could get by day-to-day and I busked for extra cash. When I first decided to go overseas, I had a broken leg, and no money, but I did have an oven and a love of baking… so I spent a few months freezing in Hobart, Tasmania, baking organic goodies and selling stuff in Salamanca Markets. Didn’t take long before I had enough to fly to Germany…

Only once I’d forked out for the plane ticket, I found myself hobbling around Frankfurt (still recovering from the broken leg), with only $200 to my name, nowhere to stay, not knowing anyone, and not really speaking any German. And I’d left my trusty guitar back in Australia, so I couldn't even busk!

Just as I was feeling I’d made a terrible mistake, a funky-looking young woman came up to me handing out fliers for a party. I explained that I couldn’t speak German, and she asked me about my dreadlocks. Once we got to talking, and she realised I was essentially homeless, she invited me back to stay at a squat-house she lived in. Awesome!

So I had somewhere to stay, and for people who know how to live very simply, food isn’t hard to come by in a rich country. And for crafty mamas like myself (I had been blessed by a gift of some yarn from my aunt before I left Oz), hand-crafts are always an option.

I set to work crocheting like mad and I made up about a dozen water-bottle holders to sell, like this one

Then I sat on the main shopping street in the city, crocheting more, and hoping people would buy some. I had a little sign that advertised 5Deutschmarks for each one (about US$3 at the time). I sat there most of the day, and no one bought any. Just as I was about to give up hope, a smartly-dressed businessman came up and asked me about them. He told me they were too cheap, and he’d buy one for 10DM, but only if I promised to change my sign to 10. I thought that was insane – way too expensive… But I did what he said. Within an hour I’d sold 7 more! And I learned a valuable lesson about economics.

So I made enough to get by. My main form of transport was hitch hiking, which is generally free, and in Germany, often results in free food, money, and accommodation as well as transportation. I never paid for accommodation; always “couch surfing” with people I met, or else camping out in forests or under bridges. Yep, I was 20, free, and a little crazy!

At some point, I was given an amazing gift: a backpacker guitar! It was in bad condition, but I rebuilt it, cut a new soundboard, made it good as new, and painted it all pretty. So I was back in the busking business!

I busked my way all across Asia with my funky guitar, hitchhiking, camping, and living very simply on a budget of around $3-$5/day. Overland travel meant I didn’t need to spend on expensive airfares and I got to see the world along the way.

(Playing my funky guitar in Nepal, Age 21)

Sadly, my awesome guitar was stolen in India, and I didn’t have enough money to replace it. But I was blessed again – an awesome friend went around at the rainbow gathering I was at asking for donations to raise money for me to get a new guitar! It ended up not being enough for a guitar, but I could get a mandolin! And thus, I learned a new instrument, and travelled with that busking around India and Africa.

(Playing Mandolin in Lesotho, age 22)

I did stop for a while in a few places here and there working, but not really earning much. After I got pregnant with Littletree, Purple went to Israel for a few months, working like a mad thing to save money, and we lived off that (again, living very frugally) travelling around Latin America till Littletree was a year old. I think our budget then was around $15/day for the whole family.

In Peru, I spent a large chunk of the last of our savings on buying hand-made silver jewellery, which I then sold for a tidy profit in northern California, which sustained me through the expenses of traveling in the US and Canada. Littletree and I also teamed up with a group driving from Mexico to British Colombia, and we’d do group busking.

Our best effort was an afternoon playing music at the Grand Canyon – we got about $50 in half an hour.

Now I make money through my writing, and birthwork. I write articles for Essence of Life, which brings in a bit, and when I travel to births, the tickets and expenses are generally covered by my clients, so while I don’t really make money out of it, our travel is paid.

In general, we live pretty simply, we stay in cheap places, we eat local food, we camp a lot. It’s mostly about living with less, prioritising the truly important things, and trusting that the universe will provide everything that we need.

Adventures in Brisbane

2011-07-07T17:44:00.001+10:00

Littletree and I went to a SameSame LGBTIQ meet-up picnic in Brisbane on the weekend, it was so much fun!

It was great to connect with people, and meet internet-friends in real life.

(Photo from Chad)

I made Guinness muffins and goji truffles, and a few dips to share; super yum! The sweets went down so well!

(photo from Hazy)

Someone brought a badminton set, and Littletree got into playing with some of the guys

Littletree made friends with the other little girl; the two of them had loads of fun getting up to crazy antics

Until her new friend bet Littletree that she couldn’t climb to the top of a light pole. Of course, Littletree easily and quickly scaled the pole, touched the top and slid down again.

(Photo from Chad)

Grinning after her winning attempt, Littletree said she felt guilty taking his money, saying “he made that bet, but he didn’t know I could do it, and I knew.” Too cute! We convinced her that she’d earned her $5 fair and square, it was hilarious!

(photo from Hazy)

In the end, Littletree didn’t want to leave, so we’ll definitely try to get to the next one :)

Loren–Who Walked This Path

2011-07-05T00:24:00.001+10:00

Last week one of my friends needed people to be in his new music video, so I went along to help out.

I love this song, Loren used to come to the village life drawing classes and play his music for us while we were drawing; it was awesome! So it was nice to come out and support him in making his art, and great to hang out with everyone down by the river :)

Check it out:

Who Walked this Path–Loren

Edited to add a link to Loren’s website: http://www.loren.com.au/loren.php

Capoeira Class

2011-07-03T00:29:00.001+10:00

A capoeira group has started up in our village, which is super awesome! All three of us have been going, well Purple is in San Francisco at the moment, so just Littletree and I went this week.

It’s loads of fun, and I’m so glad to be getting back into training; I’ve been badly out of practice, so it’s great to have a proper mestre again to teach me.

I first started playing capoeira just after Littletree was born – I wanted to get fit again after being pregnant, and living in Brazil, it was the thing to do! Only being an attached parent, I could rarely put Littletree down, and she really loved the movement of capoeira… so i would train with her in one hand! I got really good at one-handed movements.

So she has the rhythm in her body since birth and she picks it up really easily. I remember when she was two and we’d play together on the beach in Tel Aviv. She’s also out of practice, but really loving the class!

She even showed everyone up getting in the roda against the mestre

Truly Blessed

2011-06-27T14:11:00.001+10:00

I came down sick over the weekend; I got a nasty sore throat, totally lost my voice and felt like crap.

Thankfully, Purple was here to take care of me. He spent the day making sure I was warm enough, taking care of Littletree and making me loads of cups of ginger-lemon tea and soups.

Best soup ever – greens, broccoli, sweet potato all fresh from our own garden and home made organic chicken stock, with loads of garlic. He also made an amazingly delicious fermented spelt bread (actually, he made that for Ariad, who is gluten intolerant, but she couldn’t come over in the end so I had to eat it!). Mmmm spelt bread dipped in home made soup!

Actually, it was so tasty and nourishing I didn’t stop between mouthfuls to take a photo of the finished soup. But it did make me feel a lot better.

I am truly blessed to have someone so awesome in my life. Someone to share parenting with, and a house, and to look out for each other. Someone who really gets me and supports me exactly as I am (and puts up with all my crazy).

Blue Room

2011-06-23T11:44:00.001+10:00

When we arrived home from our recent trip, Littletree went into her room and announced “My room is a total disaster MESS!” I pointed out that her room was relatively tidy, just that she has an awful lot of stuff. Most of which she’s grown out of.

So she set to work, filling up 2 massive bags of ~~junk~~ stuff that was still perfectly good, but that she didn’t want or need any more. Clothes she’d grown out of, toys she doesn’t play with any more, and about a billion pink dresses (she absolutely will not, under any circumstances, wear anything pink or a dress, which is odd, because many wise people assured me that if I allow her to don a pink dress, she will surely grow up to be a brainless airhead hooker, completely oppressed by the dominant male patriarchy.)

She took all this stuff to sell at the village market on the weekend, and being the ~~lazy~~ industrious girl that she is, decided to not actually man her stall, but just leave all her wares lying out with an “honour box”. No one stole anything and she made $15.35 :)

Littletree announced that she doesn’t get to spend enough time with Purple, so she proposed a “daddy-daughter-day”. The premise being that the two of them would spend the whole day together doing fun, cool things.

They played card games, went for a walk together, had lunch at the cafe… and then Littletree decided to do something with her now totally bare room.

I came home to see this

Purple and Littletree making great use of the left over paint from our bathroom.

Littletree wants to re-create something like the kitchen we had when we lived in Tel Aviv – I painted it with a blue sky and sunflower scene

(Littletree aged 2)

And the finished product, a tidy, clean, fresh room!

Now I just have to paint the sunflowers!

Beach Schooling

2011-06-20T13:52:00.000+10:00

We’re now heading into the depths of winter, and it’s FREEZING! Little green faeries weren’t meant to live in this kind of cold. I mean, it’s practically sub-zero! All this week the temperatures have been hovering at a max of around 20^oC (68^oF)!

Admittedly it’s beautifully sunny, and during the day we’re going around in t-shirts, but honestly; it’s far too cold for any sane person to survive. (Lucky I’m fairly crazy)!

It’s been so miserably cold we went to the beach for home school group last week. While us mamas were all basking in the sun, the kids were playing elastics

And hanging out on the rocks

Brrrr!

Is it okay to get kiss-marks on a cell phone?

2011-06-16T18:23:00.000+10:00

Littletree, awesome-saver that she is, has been saving up to get herself an MP3 player. The particular one she wanted was $75, and she’d worked really hard to save enough for it. Then we happened to notice in the Post Office one can get pre-pay cell phones with MP3 players built-in for much cheaper than just buying a simple MP3.

My goodness cell phones are ridonkulously cheap these days! And I discovered that if Littletree has a pre-pay phone on the same network as I’m on, I can transfer credit from my phone to hers in increments as little as $1, so if she’s out and about, I can give her some emergency call money without having to fork out for a whole recharge card (but if she wants to have credit for making calls or texting, she has to buy that herself). Littletree was ecstatic with the idea!

That sealed the deal and we went into the shop to get one! Well, after an evening of Purple and I discussing it – I had this mental block that went something along the lines of “but she’s only 8, that’s far too young for a cell phone. if she has a phone, she’ll look like a spoiled kid, and what does she even need a phone for”. Purple wisely pointed out that if she’s buying it herself with her own saved pocket money, then it’s not spoiling. And she is of an age to start going out with friends around the village; having an emergency phone to use is a wise idea. and it’s cheaper than the MP3 player she was going to buy anyway.

We went back into the Telstra shop to check out all the available models.

So we got a Sony Ericsson Cedar (I thought the model name was entirely appropriate for Littletree). Plusses of this phone were that it takes standard 3.5mm headphone jacks (so Littletree can use any headphones she likes and not have to fork out for specialised ones); it has expandable memory with a MicroSD slot that takes up to 16GB; It’s got great rural coverage (important where we live); a 2MP camera; and it’s partly made from recycled plastic… all for $59, with $10 included credit.

In our local Telstra Dealer they are having a special this week that includes a $30 recharge voucher in addition to the $10 that comes with the phone – since I needed to recharge my phone credit anyway and I usually buy a $30 voucher, that meant I could put the credit on my phone and Littletree could get the phone essentially for $19. Bargain!

So she’s all set up now with her own cell phone. Good Lord Love a Duck! I’ve become one of *those* mothers.

So far, this phone is perfect for a kid’s first phone, or for anyone wanting a cheap phone as a back-up or whatever. The MP3 player works well, the camera is better than I expected it to be. Two-thumbs-up. And Littletree’s literacy is improving now that she’s learning how to text, so it’s educational… right?

Well, she is learning how to use a cell phone, at least. And her first cell-phone-usage-related question?

“Mama, is it bad for my phone if I get spit on it?”

“What??? Why would you spit on your phone?”

“Well, I gave it a kiss, and there’s a kiss-mark on the screen now. Is it okay to kiss the phone?”

LOL

Gluten-Free Pizza

2011-06-15T18:14:00.000+10:00

Ariad came over for a visit, and since she commented about wishing for a gluten-free lactose-intolerant pizza, I set about making one. I’m just that awesome. And I love Ariad :D

So I made up a huge batch of regular pizza dough, and a smaller batch using organic gluten-free flour. I made a yummy pizza sauce, and instead of cheese I put crumbled up fried tempeh, and topped with mushrooms, garlic and olives. Heart-shaped, of course!

Yum! And the pizza was delish too!

Of course, I made loads and loads of pizza, so we invited all the neighbours in to join us with all the left-over Guinness from the weekend’s party (yes, we are aware that we’ve let the Irish side down by having beer left over)

Super-awesome fun :) and Ariad was even polite enough to not mention that gluten-free cheese-free pizza kinda sucks LOL

Irish Night

2011-06-14T18:38:00.001+10:00

Our downstairs neighbours (who happen to be Irish), Pixie and Elf held an “Irish Pub” party, to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday. Naturally lots of Guinness was consumed, and a yummy Irish stew was cooked, and lots of Irish people were invited. Elf even got an old beer keg from the tip and cut it open to make a fire to sit around outside – Littletree toasted marshmallows.

I wore green especially for the occasion

The Irish stew was super-delish

And it was great to hang out with good friends

I made up a batch of Chocolate-Guinness Cupcakes with a Kahlua Ganache icing for the birthday boy (recipe from Cream Until Fluffy)

They went down so well!

Seriously, the best cupcakes EVER

Twas a most fun night :)

Back in the Rhythm

2011-06-10T23:30:00.000+10:00

We’ve been home for a week now, and starting to feel “back to normal”. I’ve finally got the house in some sort of order; unpacked our bags, did a billion loads of laundry, cleaned so much dust from the kitchen renovation (which isn’t quite finished), caught up with some friends, spent some time with Ariad, went to Capoeira group, and did a lot of resting and acclimatising to the COLD. brrrr

We went to homeschool group this week, Littletree was so happy to catch up with her friends again

The kids had a blast, we met up at a friend’s house and made pizzas

Littletree decided to make hers heart-shaped (which started a trend)

Yum!

And so educational too…

Frequent Fliers

2011-06-05T15:34:00.000+10:00

We’re home!

It was a long journey, but not too bad. The flight to Australia wasn’t overfull so we had two seats each. Well, for Littletree two seats was enough to stretch out and lie down, so she slept most of the flight. For me it was just less-uncomfortable, but still pretty nasty.

I hate flying. Being stuck in the air-conditioning, it’s loud and uncomfortable and rough on the immune system.

Here’s Littletree, the mega frequent-traveller, boarding the plane on leaving her 24th country.

So, things I have learned on this trip: Phuket International Airport sucks. Most airports these days don’t allow you to bring any liquids through security into the departure lounge – including drinking water. Normally I bring my usual crocheted drinking water bottle with the water tipped out and the lid off. After we’ve passed security I find a drinking fountain to refill the bottle for drinking on the plane. But Phuket airport, there were *no* drinking water taps at all anywhere, and every single shop in the entire place sold *only* Nestlé water. :(

HERE is what I think about Nestlé, especially their water. So I was wandering around the departure lounge for ages, desperately wanting a drink of water, not wanting to buy Nestlé water. Not wanting to get on a flight without water, not wanting to buy Nestlé. Argh!

On the other hand, Kuala Lumpur LCCT Airport has filtered drinking water fountains, free WiFi, and not just WiFi, but electric sockets you can plug computers into (rare and hard to get in many places), nice bathrooms – even with free showers(!), and a reasonable selection of cheap food. Yay KL!

I will admit the shuttle bus to KL airport made me very nervous. The driver not only had his day bag sitting loose on the floor,

he also had a sticker of a motorbike racing driver covering the speedometer! yikes!

We did at least arrive safely :) Ah, it’s great to be home!

X Marks the Spot

2011-06-01T15:39:00.000+10:00

Littletree is making a treasure map. I’m not entirely sure what the treasure is, but apparently the map will lead the way. And apparently the map will be rolled up and stuck in an old bottle which will be thrown out to sea. Or maybe just left somewhere one of her friends is bound to find it.

I’m not even sure where she got the idea, but the recipe was pretty clear.

Brew a cup of tea

Use the tea bag to colour a sheet of paper so it looks old while mama enjoys drinking the tea (this works best if mama has some cookies to go with the tea)

Leave the paper to dry in the sun. Once it’s completely dry, paint a map onto it. Add details to taste, such as islands, water, trees, paths represented by dotted lines, etc.

Let it sit a few hours while mama goes out to buy a lighter for the next step. Use the lighter to carefully singe the edges of the paper.

One authentic pirate’s treasure map!

Arrrrrrr!

Maybe the map will lead us home – we’re leaving Phuket tomorrow; who knows where we’ll end up!

Lying by the pool

2011-05-30T23:00:00.001+10:00

The house we’re staying in has a huge swimming pool, so we’ve been spending a lot of time poolside, Littletree is ecstatic

I even bought her a snorkel so she’s been practicing with that.

Didn’t take her long to get the hang of holding her breath to dive with it and then blowing out the water on surfacing.

There’s plans afoot for an unschooling camp on an island near Bali next year, so we’ll get to practice a lot more! Fun!

A Day at the Beach

2011-05-29T19:30:00.001+10:00

Since my friend, T, is feeling a bit better, we went to the beach for the afternoon yesterday.

So nice to enjoy a fruit shake and the sea breeze

Littletree couldn’t choose which kind of fruit to get

Then she went exploring on the beach, finding cool coral and hermit crabs and interesting stuff.

Ah, it’s a hard life!

Oishi Again

2011-05-28T21:50:00.001+10:00

Since we’re back in Phuket, we had to make our traditional pilgrimage to the Japanese all-you-can-eat buffet place, Oishi. (yep, we love this place, remember it from HERE and HERE). Luckily it’s right next door to the fancy hospital my friend was staying in.

Littletree was so excited, we could easily eat there every week forever and ever!

And she’s really getting the hang of using chopsticks too

Yum!

5 Star Travel

2011-05-26T14:26:00.001+10:00

Littletree and I landed in Phuket, tired after a long day. Thankfully, we were greeted by a driver standing with one of those little signs with my name on it.

Relaxing in the air conditioned car, we pulled up at our destination where a bellhop in a shiny uniform greeted us in front of an imposing edifice, a large brass baggage cart in hand.

We were guided to my client’s suite by an elegantly-dressed concierge who swept through the expansive marble-floored lobby, past the gift shop selling expensive trinkets and overpriced luggage, numerous little boutiques and beauty counters advertising specials on facial treatments or dental whitening, and to the elevators.

The suite was quite large with all the mod-cons and a massive garden balcony. I headed straight for a hot shower in the marble bathroom and then ordered dinner from room service before laying down on the sofa for a rest in front of the big-screen TV while Littletree played on the wifi.

Only this wasn’t a 5-star hotel but a fancy private hospital. Kind of fun for one evening taking care of my client, she is very sick, but we’re back at her house now, and she’s feeling better.

Change of Plans–it’s a Wild Life!

2011-05-24T00:55:00.001+10:00

Majikfaerie to the rescue! Just when we decided to change our tickets and go home early, a good friend contacted me asking if I can come to Phuket and help her out. Littletree was really happy at the prospect of spending a week or so in Thailand, especially since we’ll be staying at a house with a private swimming pool. So off we go!

Last night Wasabi, the civet cat – which Littletree, who has been avidly studying a book on South East Asian Mammals, informs me isn’t a true cat – came to visit in our room

She’s such a sweet little critter; apparently it’s really rare to see them as they’re very shy of humans, but Wasabi was rescued as a baby and hand-raised by the owner of this resort, She’s returned to the wild now, but still pops in for visits.

We also had another surprise guest – a massive scorpion!

Here it is next to my size 39 shoe for size comparison

So glad not to accidentally step on that one in the night!

Faerie Secret Garden

2011-05-23T13:23:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I spent the afternoon following Littletree around this magical garden just up the road from us. It’s actually an organic plant nursery, but they have several acres of amazing gardens full of hidden, winding secret pathways.

Littletree loved exploring

And I loved listening in to her conversation with the faeries

Finding amazing things in the garden, like Red Pineapples

And beautiful flowers

and faerie circles

Simply beautiful :)

Its a hard life

2011-05-21T14:30:00.001+10:00

We spend our days eating lush tropical fruits (rambutan, Littletree’s favourite)

Drinking coconuts (Littletree is learning to climb coconut trees)

Eating durian mmmmmm (well, I eat durian, Littletree hates it)

We walk down to the river for swims

Or jump in the pool

We hang out around the veggie garden, picking fresh greens for dinner,

and we have yummy feasts every night with awesome people

Mmmm Malaysian food

Yep, it’s a hard life alright, but someone’s gotta do it! And still, Littletree is bone-crunchingly homesick. I’m starting to consider changing our tickets to go home early, but it’s really expensive – $450 for both of us – yikes!

Phone a Friend

2011-05-18T21:17:00.001+10:00

Okay, I need help, Quick!

As some of you may or may not know, I’m actually crap at making decisions. I um and ahhh over things for *hours*. okay, for days and days, irritating everyone around me.

My tried and true method of making decisions (other than the multitude of craziness we all remember from when I won the iPad) is to ask my friends. The few friends I now have left will attest to this. I go over and over stuff, weighing up pros and cons ad nauseum.

And in this very moment, I have a massive choice to make… and no friends around to ask! Purple is off at a rainbow gathering somewhere in Queensland, no one else seems to be online… and I’m in Malaysia!

So, I’m asking the help of the internet-at-large: please please please help me design my new kitchen! (not sure if I mentioned it, but while we’re away, our kitchen is getting re-build).

The builder just Skyped me to say there’s a question about the size of the island. Here’s the diagram:

(click to see a bigger version)

The actual walls are in thick black. Don’t worry about the thing that looks like we have 2 ovens – one of them is mis-labelled and will actually be a “dishwasher”, but I’m installing the laundry machine there instead, just because I’m cool and European like that.

The question is about THE ISLAND. (ignore all the faint green lines that indicate the sizes of things, and focus on THE ISLAND! it’s to be 1350mm wide (53” for Americans) (not 1300 as shown) and 2100mm long (82”), and yes, it’s curved on one side, with barstool seating around the curved edge.

So, See how the island sticks out past the dotted line that represents where the edge of the kitchen *was* (there was a half wall and bench here before, but now it’s gone – just lovely open space).

The choice is: Do the island as shown, OR cut out the “300 base” (which is 300mm – 11.8”) and shorten the whole thing to 1500mm (60”) OR change the 300 base to a 400mm base (15.75”), thus making the whole island 2200mm (86.5”).

Less island, which doesn’t stick out so much, but I just loose storage space and seating space, or more island, more cupboards and more seating space, but it sticks out past the “kitchen” space and into the “living/ dining” space 640mm-740mm (25”-30”).

I can also change the configuration of all the cupboards in the island, but let’s don’t go there!

Help!!!

Hippy Bath Day to Me!

2011-05-18T11:58:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was my birthday. Admittedly, the least interesting of all my birthdays ever, but still, it was a nice day.

Only a couple of people said anything about it, I didn’t get any presents, no party, and my day was much like any other. Well, I did wash my hair, which is quite an undertaking ;)

And I made myself a cake for after dinner

Kind of a weird cake, given the limited ingredients and equipment we have here – Littletree didn’t like it because the texture was “too marshmallowy”. But still, it was a pretty good cake, and a pretty good day :)

So now I’m 32… I wonder what the next trip around the sun will bring…

Finding Friends

2011-05-15T12:47:00.001+10:00

Littletree is feeling more settled in now, and talking less and less about wanting to go home – I bought her some food she is more familiar with, and she met a bunch of kids who live in the neighbourhood.

The local children are all excited to have a new, exotic friend to play with, especially as they can practice their English with Littletree

And they all have great fun playing and running around

and of course, playing with the kittens!

She’s still a bit homesick, but I think we’ll survive :)

Homesick

2011-05-12T23:16:00.000+10:00

We’re missing home; Littletree especially. She’s complaining pretty regularly that she wants to go home. She misses the food that she’s familiar with, she misses her friends, her own room…

Right now she’s lying on the bed next to me reeling off a list of all the things she misses so much from Australia. Tinned spaghetti, chicken nuggets, the fish and chip shop in Mullumbimby, chocolate-flake cereal, bread and nutella, flan, the porridge the Purple makes, Shakshuka that Purple makes, rice porridge, semolina, wafer biscuits, sausages… the list goes on and on.

I pointed out that most of those things we can get or make here (and funnily enough, most of those are things she rarely has anyway!) but I guess that’s not the point. What she really misses is being at home. She misses the comfort of having familiarity.

Me too. I’m happy to be traveling, and the place where we are staying is wonderful… but it’s not home. Funny, how after all those years of traveling, and not having any stable base or ties to anywhere, I’d find myself not only having a home, but feeling attached to it.

I miss having my own kitchen, and my own space. I miss Ariad and Purple. It’s strange to be queer in a country where homosexuality is illegal. I admit to taking advantage of my privilege of marriage, and being closeted; not mentioning aspects of my life that are very dear to me when we’re in public, or with strangers. It’s strange to be in a country where Israelis are banned. We have to be quiet about that too.

So, what can we do to overcome homesickness? We try to keep up our routine. We practice capoeira every day, we spend lots of time cuddling, Littletree watches her favourite DVDs, we talk with our friends and family on Skype, Littletree plays with the new kittens a lot.

And I remembered I have a secret stash of Shkedai Marak (Israeli soup crackers) that Littletree loves. I just pulled them out and she got all excited! Now I just have to make her some soup to go with them.

Tomorrow I’ll go to the big supermarket in the city that’s an hour away and try to get some comfort foods for Littletree, and we’ll plan some more fun activities and outings.

I’m sure we’ll be home before we know it!

Landing in Paradise

2011-05-08T13:05:00.001+10:00

Littletree and I arrived to Malaysia safe and sound :) We left Bangkok for the airport early, to pick up my luggage which finally arrived – just in time to take our flight to Kuala Lumpur. I was so glad to get my backpack back, intact, with all my birth kit!

We landed in KL at around 9:30pm, then the slow dawdle through customs and immigration, waiting at the luggage carousel (thankfully, lightning doesn’t strike twice and all our stuff was there)!

Then it was an hour on the shuttle bus to the city, we got slightly lost and waited a while for our ride, and finally another hour to drive back to the place we’re staying. It was nearly 1am when we arrived – exhausted!

In the dark we crossed over a little footbridge with the sound of water rushing underneath. In the darkness, a little bamboo “chalet” was dimly lit, and we were ushered up the stairs into our room. Mmmmm a lovely, soft bed encased in mosquito netting. Ah the bliss that is horizontality!

We slept like a pair of logs to the sound of the river below, and only woke up around noon. Slowly stretching, I threw back the shutters to see:

Paradise!

The river rushing by right below our chalet and the little bridge we’d crossed over in the dark

Beautiful gardens all around and other little chalets and huts across the way

Littletree was incredibly excited to see treehouses and rope bridges

Our room is lovely; simple and comfortable.

Here is the chalet from the outside with it’s little living area downstairs.

Such a beautiful place, and the smell of fresh durian wafting on the breeze!

Fish Feet

2011-05-06T14:19:00.001+10:00

Littletree and Purple arrived to Bangkok early yesterday morning – with their luggage. We spent the day walking around, eating yummy food, buying nice clothes and looking at cool stuff.

The latest craze on Khao San Rd is “fish spa” – you sit with your feet in a big tank of little sucker fish and they nibble all the dead skin cells off your feet. Littletree loved it, though she could hardly bare to keep her feet in the water for any more than a few seconds at a time.

Supposedly it’s good for your feet – exfoliating and rejuvenating… but mostly it tickles like you wouldn’t believe

It really feels freaky, but my feet did, at least, get really clean – very welcome after I’d walked around Bangkok for a day barefoot since my sandals are in my backpack that never arrived off the plane!

It was quite an experience – definitely worth trying!

Clip of Littletree with her feet in the fish spa

Bagless in Bangkok

2011-05-04T11:22:00.001+10:00

I arrived safe and sound to Bangkok after a long and boring night flight, only to discover that my luggage didn’t fare as well. Apparently, my backpack went to Hong Kong.

I always knew that one day my backpack would be old enough to go traveling without me and off she’d go. It’s just part of being a parent – our children aren’t our own, we’re just borrowing them for a while. Like with anything one borrows, the idea is to take good care of it and return it in good condition, preferably with a full tank and the oil and water topped up.

Still, I hadn’t expected my bag to fly the coop so soon; after all, she’s barely two years old! The good people at the airport baggage services counter assured me that should my backpack be recovered, it will be returned to me. But like any runaway, one can only hope that after a crappy night or two out in the cold, they will come back – sadly, many of them are never heard from again.

I would very much like to see my backpack again, because there’s no way I could replace my fetoscopes and stock of herbal tinctures and other assorted midwifery whatnots before I will need them next.

On the bright side, I still had my carry-on bag with my computer in it, my passport and wallet. And I’m in Bangkok, so I could easily get a room at my favourite guest house, buy some clean clothes very cheaply, go eat a yummy meal at Pen Thai - my favourite place to eat in the whole world,

And spend an evening drinking a beer on Khao San Road, watching the people go by and chatting to interesting strangers.

Backpack, if you’re reading this, please come home; everything is forgiven and I promise never to over-stuff you again!

Capoeira Cats

2011-05-03T03:25:00.000+10:00

All packed up again and ready to leave Israel. It’s been nice to visit, a little short, but so good to see everyone!

On the weekend we had a lot of friends over for a little get-together, we all sat around chatting and we got into playing capoeira.

Littletree has been really getting into playing again – she begged me to do some training with her every day :)

Loads of fun!

Sadly, Littletree’s cousin found some abandoned kittens mewling in the woodpile. One of them was already dead and the surviving three weren’t in good shape; hungry, cold and wet from the rain.

Everyone took turns in holding them on hot water bottles and feeding them special milk from a dropper.

Tonight I fly to Bangkok to await Littletree and Purple, who will be coming in two more days, then Littletree and I fly to Malaysia for a month :)

Jerusalem Butterfly

2011-05-02T01:54:00.001+10:00

On Friday we drove up to Jerusalem to see one of my bestest friends, Butterfly. Twas so awesome to see her again, after three years!

Littletree loves her to bits as well :) We all went out into the old city in Jerusalem in search of the best hummous ever in the Muslim Quarter. I love walking around in the old alleyways, on stone pathways that twist in and out; I would get lost in there within 30 seconds!

Eventually we found the best hummous, and oh my goddess! It was worth the walk. Seriously delicious, still warm and served with fresh pita.

We walked around the markets, buying bits of this and that, and catching up

Then we went to another place for the best knaffe ever. Knaffe is a kind of dessert made with goats cheese and sweet stuff somewhat related to baklava. Actually, I can’t explain it, you just have to go try it for yourself! (be warned though, it’s sweet enough to curl your toes!)

Purple and Butterfly sat being silly and we all laughed a lot

Then we went up to a lookout, just to be a bit touristy, and take funny photos while admiring the view. Yay for the good zoom on my camera

And Butterfly showed off her new-found acrobatics skill, in perfectly irreverent style

A fantastic day :)

Best Olive Oil Ever

2011-04-30T15:38:00.001+10:00

The one thing I really love about Israel is my family here. They’re all very close, and most live in the same little cooperative village that Purple’s mother grew up in. I love that there’s a 75-year-old-tree on the street that she planted when she was little, and Purples brother, sister and some cousins all live within walking distance, all with their assorted children. Littletree LOVES playing with her cousins and having them so close.

And I love that the family all work together. The family grows olives for olive oil, Bird of Paradise flowers and mandarins. Everyone helps with what they can.

The last time we were here, Littletree and I went out with all the other kids to help picking olives. This time we helped bottle the olive oil.

The bottle tops have a shrink-wrapped cover on them – it’s really cool to watch the plastic shrink onto the bottle under hot water

Littletree and I helped put labels on the bottles

Which isn’t as easy as it looks

The finished product

The most delicious olive oil I ever had! mmmm

Enough Matzah

2011-04-28T01:12:00.001+10:00

It was still Passover when I arrived to Israel, so of course, there was an abundance of matzah around. Yay. I hate matzah; haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough?

Purple did succeed in making a damn fine tiramisu with matzah flour, and I do kind of like the matzah ball soup Purple’s mother makes.

Apparently, Littletree was hankering for some wafer biscuits, and her grandmother, aunt and cousin were all trying to explain why she can’t have any. They went through explaining the stories from the bible, and why we can’t eat any “Chametz” during Passover.

“But why” Littletree kept asking, “why can’t I have wafers?” Finally her cousin had enough and said to her “Just because! We do it because we always do it and we’ve been doing it for 3000 years!”

Littletree replied: “3000 years? I think it’s time to stop now!”

LOL The unhindered honesty of children :)

Anyway, it’s over now and I’m muchly enjoying a good fix of pita and hummous of the like you can’t get outside of the middle east. mmmm

Five countries in one day

2011-04-25T01:38:00.001+10:00

I finally arrived in Israel. It’s been a long and exhausting day, but it’s good to be here at last.

Starting at quarter to ridiculous, I started out from home to catch a flight at 8:40am… 32 hours and five countries later, I landed in Israel at just after 9am the next day.

For a long and exhausting journey, there were lots of wonderful glimpses along the way.

The gaggle of teenagers off to backpack in South East Asia for Easter break, who were a riot of laughs, debating why the sky is blue.

The satay chicken roti I got in KL airport that was folded over in a way that looked like a perfect yoni-flower (and silly me I didn’t photograph it before hunger got the best of me).

People-watching in Bangkok airport

In Amman airport, crouching on the floor of the bathrooms, handing out toilet tissue, was a woman with the most beautiful smile. I wanted to take a photo of her, but I figured that would not only be weird, I’d never manage to capture her amazing glow with a camera. So I just smiled back at her.

My plane to Jordan

Seeing the Dead Sea and then Israel from the air

Arriving home so aching, and getting a massage from Purple and Littletree (who is exceedingly skilled at walking on backs)

And of course the best thing of all: getting to squeeze my little girl (who is, apparently, not so little any more and wont let me smother her in kisses as much as I’d like.)

And now I’m just waiting for it to be night so I can sleep for about a week.

Update from KL

2011-04-23T18:12:00.001+10:00

Well, I made it! I got myself all packed and everything organised and my kitchen cleared out and all the renovations organised and my client birthed and all the everything I had to do.

I even managed to get myself up at quarter to ridiculous and get to the airport on time. I didn’t forget my passport, or my iPad or my fetoscope.

And now I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Well, I’m in the transit lounge at the airport at least!

The flight to here was just over 8 hours, I have a 3 hour wait here, then a 2 hour flight to Bangkok. Then 4 1/2 hours in Bangkok, followed by a 9 hour flight to Amman, Jordan, 90 minutes in Jordan and then another flight to Tel Aviv. Assuming I’m still conscious by that time.

I’m already so tired!

Capture from my webcam, oooooh I look tired. Thankfully they have free wifi in KL airport, and soon I will get to see Littletree!

Beautiful Belly, Perfect Placenta, Midwife Mayhem

2011-04-20T22:28:00.001+10:00

At exactly midnight last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, the phone rang. My client, calling to tell me her waters had released. She said she wasn’t having any sensations yet, and nothing was really happening, but she wanted to give me a “heads up” and suggested I drive out and sleep there rather than getting woken up and have to rush over at quarter to ridiculous in the morning, or whenever things got really happening.

Good idea! I’d rather drive the 40 minutes to her house up a winding, dirt road at midnight than in the wee hours, so I extricated myself from my cosy bed and went out in the rain to go… only to get my car bogged in the mud in my own driveway! Oh goddess NO!

So after a fair whack of swearing and spinning wheels, and jacking up the van and digging under the tyres and putting a few boards down… I was out. Just before I got the van out of the mud, I stood up and said to Ariad (thank the goddess she was there to help me!), “why am I even bothering, I bet she’s birthing a little girl at this very moment”.

A minute later my phone rang – my client’s partner telling me they’d birthed a little girl, all healthy! Only 40 minutes after the original phone call, no less! So I wouldn’t have gotten there anyway.

They asked me to come out and check to make sure everything was fine, and help with the placenta (which took three hours in the end!). Isn’t she a beauty! Nutritious and restorative too :)

So no birthing photos, but I do have yummy pics from when we did the belly cast when the mama was 39 weeks.

Yay for women’s bodies and babies, yay for beautiful birthing!