On the Homefront

Winter has certainly arrived here in Tasmania but MONA's Dark Mofo brings everyone out of hibernation for the 10 day Winter Festival which is a celebration of food, art and music and all things weird and wonderful that MONA is famous for. 

Whilst I missed the Ball of Death this evening and have no plans to participate in the Nude Swim, it was quite magical walking around Hobart's waterfront with the Kids.

We said 'hello' to the Giant Blow-up Bunny

And watched the spectacular Light Installation.

On a quieter not,  I've joined an Art class at our local village and it has been so much fun meeting up with a lovely group of ladies each week and doing something for myself during the daytime. These past 10 years I've reserved such crafty things for evenings while the days are spent taking care of the Children but with things about to change around here in a few months I thought I better seize the moment.

I was a bit hesitant taking Flynn along but he has been welcomed with open arms and has so far been an absolute gem. I set him up with a lunchbox full of food and some toys and he is happy as Larry.

Speaking of crafty things, I was extremely fortunate to win this hamper from our local yarn store The Stash Cupboard in celebration of their 2nd Birthday recently. It's full of all sorts of goodies that I can't wait to try out.

I've made a start on a new shawl with the Fyberspates Cumulus, a lace weight yarn that is just gorgeous but the knitting is a hard slog given the tricky lace chart coupled with the fine and fluffy yarn. It's the Baya pattern by Mindy Wilkes from the 2014 Pompom Magazine which you can download now. I absolutely can't wait to get to the garter stitch body where I get to use a whole skein of Madelinetosh for the very first time. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like a serious knitter with some Madelinetosh in my possession.

Also on my needles is my second "Follow Your Arrow" Shawl. It's been waiting patiently in the wings for the past 5 months. I was down to my final clue when I got discouraged to see I had 500 rows to go on the border.  

I am also working on my first pair of knitted socks, for no other reason than The Sound Of Music was on TV recently and when Martha requested a pair of pink socks for her 7th Birthday I decided I would like some too. I'm following this Simple Skyp Sock pattern.

It has been slim pickings in the vegetable patch since we decided against planting any winter vegetables while we worked on plans for our larger project.

Thank goodness for that rainy day back in January when Daniel harvested the entire crop of Broad Beans. 

Fortuitously, his parents happened to be here so the shelling was spread amongst many helpers

That second shelling is a pain isn't it?

They've been providing sustenance for almost 6 months now. There's probably still enough left for another 3 years!

 In other news the Chooks have decided to leave their "Chook Palace" and can be found roosting 2 meters up this pine tree every evening. I love that they free-range but it has created a game of hide and seek to find their eggs every day.

Speaking of odd, I walked down the stairs this morning and found the boys eating their breakfast like this. 

I didn't know whether to praise them for eating at the table or be concerned that their love of food outweighed their ability to pull the chairs off the table and sit down for a comfortable meal. 

Finally, I don't know why but I couldn't resist taking this photo of my lovely Husband looking after 8 Children and the Whippet while I enjoyed a nice night out on Saturday with the girls.

And that's just a little bit of what has been going on this last week - a bit of a scatty and random Post with substandard iPhone photos but some weeks are just like that. My blogging Mojo seems to have been swept away with the Autumn leaves so I've also been a little absent around the traps lately.  I think I'm getting back on track now and looking forward to catching up on all your news.

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along this week.

Hope you are having a good week!

Mel xxx