News from Nowhere

Hello. It's been a while!

Spring is here in the Yellow Wood and my attention strays as always to the very tiniest of beings.

A beautifully striped moth in the bathroom.

A delightfully furry caterpillar on the front windowsill.

A daddy-long-legs exploring on the porch.

I hope the world is treating you well wherever you are.

Feronia xx

Winter is Coming

Summer has at long last left us - very late, this year. Although we are moving towards winter, it always seems to me that everything is so much more alive right now. Rains dampens and soothes the dry ground and all sorts of plants dare to show their faces without fear of being charred by the sun!

So it is that nasturtiums are starting to peek through the new grass on our newly-made terrace in the backyard (one day it will have a thick thatch of grass and we'll set up a table and chairs there) and our sadly useless passionfruit vine is shining with raindrops (I say useless in that it produces inedible fruit).

Brooding

One of our three beloved chickens - Joyce - has spent the last month and a bit brooding. I had no idea what this actually meant and when she first retreated to the coop to sit in her box, we were worried. She hunched in on herself and fluffed up all her feathers. She emitted sad little noises and her comb was red-hot. This is not good, we said to ourselves, certain that one of our previously happy little crew would not be with us by morning.

Then we did a little bit of reading. This was brooding, in which a chicken imagines that she needs to stay in her nesting space all the time to hatch eggs. Really kind of sad, when you think about it, guarding and nurturing eggs that don't exist or aren't hers (because, ironically, they stop laying). Poor love. And she would not move, except under considerable protest, when I lifted her out of the box and into the yard during the day. Otherwise she wouldn't have eaten or drunk any water. This went on and on and we read some more - leave her be, she'll come out of it in no more than three weeks. Three weeks passed, then four and nearly five. Oh, my aunt said, you just dunk them headfirst in cold water! That snaps them out of it! We were horrified at the thought of little Joycie receiving such torture, especially in her delicate and rather melancholic condition, but eventually it had to be done. Prolonged brooding has its own consequences.

And so it is that she has now emerged back into the yard to resume her daily frolic with her coop mates, Gladys and Jean. She is now moulting - an after-effect of brooding, apparently - but it's good to have her back. Unfortunately we have now had to build a little enclosure for the chickens (hence the chicken wire above) because they were gradually digging up the entire garden but even in a slightly reduced space, they still seem to be having a lot of chickeny fun!

Hibernating

We are in the depths of winter here at the moment but I was delighted to see yesterday, when I had a little potter around the back garden, that everything is still there, hibernating, just waiting for spring. There were worms and beetles everywhere under pots, just resting in the moist earth, and these two little snails -  a mother and child I'm thinking - all snuggled up in a leaf. Everything is always still there, you just can't always see it.

Colours of Summer

The tomatoes and smaller capsicums are from our garden, as are the lemons. We can't claim those luscious apricots as our own, or the huge peppers. But what a gorgeous array of colour is exploding in the various bowls I have dotted around the kitchen this week! It's the sort of vibrancy that an Australian summer does so well.

Rush Hour

It was all go in the backyard yesterday evening. At about 7 pm, my husband and I went out to pick some herbs for dinner and I noticed that lots of passionflowers had come into bloom on the passionfruit vine. Upon closer inspection, I also saw that rush hour was in progress.

A little spider went steadily about his final business for the day...

While dozens of bees grabbed up the last lots of pollen to carry back to the hive...

Phew!

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I couldn't resist posting another Kate Bush clip today, this time - since I am about to start reading a bio of the Bronte sisters - the wonderful "Wuthering Heights".

Right now I'm...

Loving knitting with the thick Alafoss Lopi wool on thick needles
Listening to old Kate Bush songs on You Tube
Reading An Academic Question by Barbara Pym and finding it so much more enjoyable the second time around
Eating pumpkin pie made by my husband from our pumpkins. Yum!
Discovering Pride and Prejudice (Colin-Firth-as-Mr-Darcy-version) on late night TV and loving it all over again

And how about you?

I want candy

Absolutely beautiful Spring weather yesterday (though we have a few more days of winter to go). I went out into the backyard and was completely dazzled by the blossom on our fruit trees which seem to have really come out in force over the past couple of days. For some reason the delicate, sweetly pretty and light-as-air petals of the blossom put me in mind of the frivolous, pastel-coloured decadence of the 'shoes and candy' scene from the film Marie Antoinette. One of those films you either liked or loathed I think, I enjoyed the spectacle of it while suspending disbelief and without weighing myself down too much with concerns about historical accuracy! I saw it in the cinema one New Years Eve and then again on TV while we were in Oslo. Lots of fun (until the Revolution, of course).

Down amongst the long grass

Faeries and Goblins, depicted by the brilliant Brian Froud

While we're on the subject of alternate worlds and worlds between worlds, I have been reading a lot about faeries (or fairies) of late. Although they have mostly been reduced to the Tinkerbell variety in modern Western pop culture, many cultures have strongly believed in 'the Fae Folk' as they can be more authentically regarded, and continue to do so. Certainly in Ireland, for example, Celtic culture had (and has) a strong faith in the existence of Faeries. Throughout Europe, there were (and are) Faeries, Brownies, Elves, Goblins, Disir and Gnomes, to name but a few.

Unlike Tinkerbell, faeries are not always all sweetness-and-light. Sometimes they can be mischevious, sometimes malevolent - as with all entities and energies around us. So, in order to harness some good Fae energy around our little abode, I have installed some wind chimes in our backyard as well as threading a long string of multi-coloured beads which glistens and glitters in the sun (apparently faeries are attracted to the bright and shiny). Our backyard is apparently one which is likely to attract a faerie or two - longish grass in parts (good hiding spots) and not clipped and primped and preened within an inch of its life...others would perhaps call it a mess!

Do you believe in faeries or do you think this is a load of old nonsense? For me, the jury is still out, but either way, I figure the gentle, melodic chiming, the rustle of long grass and the bright glistening of a string of beads is bound to attract some good energy, from somewhere, and spread just a little bit of magic.

Herbage

Hopefully, I can entice the Tansy Fairy to come to stay...

Rosemary and thyme add a lovely crispness to the air in the bathroom.

At the op-shop recently, I discovered The Herb & Spice Book by Sarah Garland. It describes both the history and uses of a lot of different herbs, as well as providing some very nice recipes. Flicking through it, my interest in herbs has been renewed. I have very successfully grown rosemary in our front yard and a little bit of thyme, but everything else has foundered in the baking sun and dry soil. But now, interest re-ignited and faith restored, yesterday I bought tansy, rue, lemon balm, oregano and sage. The first two I will put into the ground because apparently they grow to be quite large but the latter three will go into pots which I will place near to the front door, so as to hopefully be greeted with a lovely aroma as we enter and exit the house. Does anyone have any herb growing tips?

Warm summer days

I hope the new year has started well for you. Here in Australia, we are moving into our hottest months - January and February. The weather lately has been delightful - warm, but with a nice breeze. The dear sun is starting to flex its summer strength, though. Right now there is just a touch of that relentless, consistent heat that is still to come in full. But, this enables the garden to burst forth with tomatoes and strawberries, and there is really nothing nicer than pottering into the yard at night to retrieve some of your own produce to eat for dinner. Looking up into the impossibly blue summer sky is kind of intoxicating too. Then, after noticing the contrast of your own dark shadow cast on the bleached, sun-baked ground, it's time to spend the rest of the "warm summer day indoors" (with thanks to Morrissey on that last bit).

PS How bad are shadows for putting on the extra kilos...no, really, I'm not that chubby...really...

Coming up like a flower

Summer is on its way...our first truly warm day today and the signs of summer are starting to appear. I must admit I brace myself a little. An Australian summer can be a challenging thing! But I am also trying to remind myself that there is still more of spring to come, and that summer has its own rewards...nature's buzz of expectation and activity on a summer's morning...long, cool nights eating dinner in the backyard...