beautiful april

1. 'Peter + Paul' handmade by a local Denmark girl and found at the Denmark Easter Markets 2. Smokey autumn sunset = smokey washing 3. Edible cheeks that never stop growing 4. An orchard full of juicy pink ladies ready for picking 5. 'Twiggy' the handmade doll by another local Denmark girl and found at the Denmark Easter Markets 6. The fluffy red French cardigan, (hopefully Loren and Lil have started Hannah onto a love of beautiful second hand clothing).

birthday cupboard

My other special birthday gift was this old cupboard. We saw it one evening on the side of the road a few blocks away, thrown out for bulk rubbish collection. Will rescued it wheeling it all the way home that night on a sack trolley down the middle of the road. He spent weeks in his shed cleaning it up; sanding off all the old paint, fixing broken drawers and varnishing.

I wish I had taken a photo before it was cleaned up, with its cracked white paint and awful big blue plastic handles. I would love to know this cupboards history. But it now has a new life as my wardrobe.

mum's wall hanging

I was given two of the most special birthday presents this year. One was this wall hanging Mum made when she was in high school back in Holland. This is Mum's wall hanging and her story, so I will let her tell it:

“I was 16 years old and at high school when the arts teacher asked us to create a 'painting', using a different medium than paint. The task was to create an imaginary 'space', where we could place ourselves one day later in our personal life. I dug through my mother's boxes and boxes of materials, to find little treasures for my project, and I painted a place of my future, snipping and stitching it together, layer over layer. Well, my prediction through this 'painting' has well and truly come alive: Thirty years ago I immigrated from Hilversum, a major city in The Netherlands, (after bumping into my husband Kim on a bush track in Australia), to the most incredible natural environment in the world: a peaceful valley in the middle of the Karri forests, with old growth trees, permanent creeks, abundant bird- and wildlife and wild flowers galore. It is here that I became a mother of three absolutely beautiful children. I loved my pregnancies, the bonding and mothering and truly can say that I feel rich, despite all the challenges. And there were plenty of them!

My art teacher told me that she was impressed with my work, but she also asked me: "Do you really think that this is where you will be one day Marianna??" Wouldn't it be interesting, if Mrs De Lange could come over to see me here in Australia today? I can't remember what mark she gave me for the wall hanging and that seems totally unimportant.

I seem to be able to predict, without trying, certain events in my life and I have been very accurate with my predictions at times. So, it is not surprising to find me today in my 'painting'! I am hoping to stay here, in the beautiful green valley of my 'painting' for as long as I can!"

One of my earliest memories is looking at this embroidery, studying all the colours and textures and daydreaming that it was me lying in Mums arms at the edge of the forest, not realising that she actually created it with this image in her mind all those years ago.

Now that I am a mother myself I feel so lucky to have this image hanging in our lounge room. Despite it slowly deteriorating with old age, I hope it will continue to be an image in our family of new life and new generations.

time for vegetables

Hannah is getting big and so is her appetite. We had to start her on solid food quite early. Just rice porridge in the beginning, but it is time to mix it up with a few vegetables. Pumpkin from our garden is the first.