Town mouse, country mouse

As I've mentioned before, I'm spending a bit of time in Sydney at the moment, whiling away a few hours with my big sister.
 Last week I hit the freeway again and found myself, four hours later, in the thriving metropolis that is inner city Sydney. The day before I left for Sydney I was reading "Town Mouse, Country Mouse" to my gorgeous girl. When I got out of my car (after spending quite some time finding a park), in my sister's street, I felt like that country mouse. I felt myself a bit taken aback by all the noise, people and concrete that make up the suburb where Jane lives. After all, if you walk for 20 minutes down the street, round the corner from their house you find yourself in the centre of Sydney. If I walk for 20 minutes round the corner from my house I find myself in bushland!

My sister's local park!

It takes me a day or so to get the hang of it all.To start walking a bit more purposefully, to work out the "good" cafes from the truly hundreds that are in the street over from my sister's place. How do all those cafes make a living!! To stop waiting for the green man to cross the road - all the locals completely disregard that green man! To stop feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the people that are talking on their mobiles, whilst walking their dogs, whilst drinking their coffees whilst helping their kids on their scooters!
After all, I have come from this,

,to this,

But, you know, it doesn't take long for the country mouse to bcome a bit more citified. I find I can sit in harbourside cafes and drink coffe with the best of them. And even though I'm a bit clumsy when juggling that same coffe with the dog and the child I can still keep smiling because all the other dog owners are so friendly and chatty. This inner city hustle and bustle is really just a front for a different kind of community. One where the park is your backyard and the cafe is your kitchen table.
So this country mouse did feel pleased to see the highrises disappear on the way back home yesterday but I am starting realise that country is not better than town, not more friendly than town, more pretty or even more safe. It's just a different form of community and at the moment I'm lucky enough to have foot in each.
Hope your weekend included some chatting, some walking and maybe even some dogs.

Megan xx

Growing

There is something intensely gratifying about growing food. It's not like other gardening. For me, it so much more satisfying. We are just coming to the end of a very late tomato season and the last harvest came in. The patches were a little bare so these past few days have been full of renewed energy and life. The vegetable gardens are looking good but smelling awful (thanks to composted moo poo and seaweed solution). We've been busy planting broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, garlic and a myriad of seeds including silverbeet, peas, beans, beetroot, parsnips and parsley.

While we were on holidays, we ate so very many fresh raspberries and crisp, just picked apples. That has inspired us and included in our plantings were two apple trees and ten raspberry canes - we are all eagerly anticipating the rewards!

Learning to knit...

Knitting, like so many craft/gardening/cooking projects, has been on the list for a very long time. Sewing however, really is my thing. My machine and I are very good friends but I'm equally satisfied with hand stitching. My Mum is an amazing seamstress and as a result of her skill and teaching, my whole life I've been able to sew. I sat beside her as a child and learnt by osmosis, soaking in the technique, and now the stitches come naturally. I know and understand sewing and I'm reasonably competent at it.

And knitting? Well Mum doesn't knit. Nan did but would never teach me because "I'm left handed" (still not sure what that means - perhaps I would have knitted backwards - can you knit backwards?? That might be interesting to try...).

So I've never been there, mostly through fear of failure. Yes, crazy, I know - it's just yarn and sticks and it can always be unraveled. With that in mind, I've been trying to knit and I'm being kind to myself, talking to myself like I do to my children when they learn a new skill. Letting me know that it won't be perfect and that's an unrealistic expectation that anything is ever perfect. I first practiced on holidays with some beautiful yarn that is a wool and silk blend and it's slowly turning into a scarf (above - the little flashes of colour come from sari silk - recycled and spun into the wool).

Then I got bored with just a knit and I want to try something else. Megan has lent me a book so I'm going to try a real project. Check back in, oh perhaps three years from now, to see how it's going!

And because I'm playing with yarn, the biggest small decided she wanted some too so she could finger knit: