A beautiful week-end

On this beautiful week-end we had a go at making our own natural lip-balm. The recipe is from the blog of a very inspiring mum and can be found here. It uses beeswax, coconut oil, honey and peppermint essential oil. It is so yummy we could eat it, and actually we could eat it. I am so glad we did this because we finished our last mg of imported south african beeswax lip balm and natural cosmetics are not a reality in this little corner of the world yet.

There was some knitting on a new project for someone's Christmas gift. Two rows only. It is just a beginning. And some painting for the girls, which brought some joy to the three of us and frustration to Leila and a great mess which I ended up cleaning by myself. Days do not always run that smoothly, but there always seem to be moments to savor and remember, in particular on a sunny week-end at home.
  

It has been such a long time since my last entry on this blog that I do not know where to start. And so I'll just start with the weather. Cold and dry, like nowhere else in this little corner of the world. We now live higher than praca Tiradentes, higher than the flight of vultures, and do not be fouled by topless Coline, she has been enjoying a fire in the late afternoons, and was even caught wearing slippers on a few occasions. Oh and so did she start wearing her hand-knit blue dress once it had been customized by her - see those pink flower-shaped buttons? They made the whole difference. Dry means that fires were a daily occurrence and not only in our fireplace. Most hills around Ouro Preto have had a fire in September, and this reminded me of the winelands near Stellenbosch in February.

Sunny days meant much play outside the house. Leila and Coline have been parent and daughters to each other, to their dolls and the animals around. Leila's school program currently focuses on insects (on which occasion Silvia and I learnt that spiders are not insects) and Coline has declared that she loves spiders. I am not looking forward to seeing her holding them in her hand like they do with Tatu-bolas (three-banded armadillo) because we have some out-of-proportion specimen around here that do not run away when they see us.

I had some attempts at garden-keeping, rather than gardening, with the help of Thembile. She and Scratchy follow me everywhere and she generally shows me how much better and faster she is at digging than I am. I really do not know what I am doing, but I did clean up the banana-trees (while ignoring the above-mentioned and shown below spiders), set-up the compost pile and clear a small area which I then covered with bits of wood collected on the ground on one end and horse dung on the other end after a horse spent the night on the lawn below our house. I did leave a good-looking weed in the middle because it seemed to be loved by the indigenous stingless bees that I am hoping to breed one day for honey. Well, that will be after I get us some chickens to hopefully take care of the spiders and scorpions. It turns out that the "weed" is used as a remedy against indigestion. I am planning to plant some non-GMO corn to feed the chickens.

In late September we had a feast with mulberries.

 Right after that came the first rain of the season, along with coughing children and tummy-bugs and more fires in the fireplace and herbal tea to fight the humid 13 degrees indoors.

Now is October already. Warmer days have arrived, although I am not yet letting go of my knitting needles.

a new morning

We woke up early to the sound of birds, chickens, roosters and dogs of our new neighborhood. We were groggy and excited to start a day in our new house, getting familiar with the grounds and unpacking. Last Friday was a day of carrying boxes and heavy furniture with a worried little girl grafted onto my left side while the rest of the body tried hard to participate and mostly accompanied five men, two cars and a truck. That day saw me drive at night with that same little girl asleep in her chair, the cat, the dog and a pile of odd items including stuff from the fridge and flower pots. We made it, and it was worth it.

Thembile, the dog, and Scratchy, the cat, seem to just belong here. They shared Scratchy's first trophy: a mouse, which he puked shortly after he ate its head, to Leila's delight (the catch, not the vomit). Coline is all excited about spotting spiders which size Cristiano brags about. I am split between my inclination to enjoying nature with liberated toes and my fear of spiders that makes my spine shrink when Coline goes barefoot on the grass. Leila has revealed herself as the fire master. She organizes expeditions to gather wood in our jungle of a backyard, sets it up in the fireplace and watches the fire so close she gets red and too hot to bear her clothes. We are adjusting to a much cooler and more humid climate here on our South-facing mountain, to all the bugs that call our house theirs and to not being withing a walking distance from anything, not so much because of the distance but because of the topography. We already had time for some intensity with Coline dislocating her elbow again and soon we are off to our yearly European tour.

  

Yesterday's moon set before sunrise reminds me that it is worth going to bed a little earlier.

we are moving soon

A new neighbor has moved in with a perfect timing for me to get all the boxes that we need. The permanent playground that is our home is under siege and although I have already packed most of the toys away the fun has not faded.

We surely had many delightful moments on this terrace but I am happy that we are moving to a place where we can spend more time outside and increase our scale of planting. As always, looking forward to changes in our lives.

blowing our hair back

This is what we do to blow our hair back lately. For me: taking care of the garden on the terrace, baking bread and creating presents, for Leila: science experiments and lots of drawing and for Coline: puzzles, trains and towers (such as the one she sits on) and pretend-playing that she owns all the money in the cash-register.

(all types of puzzles indeed)