random bits and stuff

After a wild and windy night and a blackout, we now sit sticky, steamy and to be honest a bit stinky after a warm day with 99% humidity. With a heaviness in our heart we farewelled our dear friends yesterday so today has been flat, flat as we readjust to not having them so near by, to not being able to hug, grin or kiss them on a whim, to seeing their smiley faces, to having to do all the washing up ourselves (or by Scott's self). Hmmm. But we are supremely lucky to have had them with us for such a delicious chunk of time, more about our adventures in the next post.

Right now, I think I will scatter things here and there with a number of pretty unrelated items of possible interest, or possibly of no interest at all, whichever way you decide, thanks for popping by (especially all those new faces, hello, well not 'faces' exactly, not even remotely, but you get what I mean, I hope).

Here goes. 

Firstly, last week I flippantly mentioned something about embroidering a raspberry, oh yes only those keen eye readers may have picked it up, but I did see, well what I neglected to mention was that this raspberry is a very special raspberry because it is for a wonderful human named Jean who lives in Upper Crystal Creek, which is past Murwillumbah and Jean grows raspberries and is apparently a supremely talented pastry chef, so if you are ever up that way.... Oh, I digress, now, how do I know Jean and why are you crafting her a raspberry (I pretend to hear you ask), well, Jean is a dear, dear friend to another amazing human, someone who I have mentioned more than a few times here and someone whom I have and adore all her cookbooks, Jude, oh yes that Jude. The one and only Jude Blereau, so sweetly requested a raspberry for Jean, needless to say, I was pretty damn excited. The raspberry has been completed and if it hasn't been too delayed by floods and what not, should be making it's way into the home of Jean, very, very soon. I particularly enjoyed going french knot crazy on the berries.

From berries and Jude to the beautiful folk at 5 Church St , yes, well they need your/our help, they are after a new Head Chef, but it can't be any old Head Chef, this unique person needs to be passionate about food and interested in sustainable and ethical food practices, here is a little more:

Looking for a tree change on the mid north coast? This is a great opportunity to make your mark and run your own show.
5 CHURCH STREET is looking for an experienced chef to come join the family!

Applicants must be: 
- passionate about food
- interested in sustainable & ethical food practices
- reliable, motivated and hard working
- experienced leaders/capable of running a busy dynamic kitchen (120 covers)
- highly organised with excellent time management skills
- able to communicate & delegate effectively
- able to work under pressure and maintain a positive attitude

For further information please contact Jason at cometogether@5churchstreet.com

So if you think you know someone or even if you know someone who might know someone, please send this around, it is a wonderful place to work and yes a great place to live and Jason and Steve, who run 5 Church St are really special human beings.

Poe's first day of school, last year 2012

Now just quickly, Jodi is running a little school series on her blog, with some wise words from a few parents with school aged children, such a lovely idea. I contributed a few lines over there, but here is my full spiel about the biggest lesson we learnt from Poe's first year of school:

'Well, after we dried our eyes and the gut wrenching anxiety about sending our precious one into the big wide world abated (and it does), we found that keeping a gentle and quiet rhythm after school was essential for everyone. Five days in a row is a long time to be doing anything but to be navigating countless social situations, learning new and exciting things and having to pay attention to a teacher is positively exhausting. Scott and I would make sure there were connecting cuddles and nourishing snacks as soon as Poe got home from school and we made sure that this after school time was kept as free as possible. 

There is so much going on at school, I found that Poe really loved/craved the downtime, the love and the security that was at home. Having this space also gave him the freedom to discuss any issues he may have been having, often after 'acting out' first and then once he calmed down he would share whatever was bothering him. We would also suggest being mindful that by the end of term/first week of holidays your gorgeous child is probably pretty exhausted and can be quite grumpy or even crazily unreasonable, don't worry this is totally normal, think about all that they have been through during the term and try to give them more understanding, patience, nurturing and nourishment. It is amazing how your little one grows and develops throughout the year, it is just so beautiful and so much fun, enjoy'. 

I always find myself rereading my words and wincing a little, especially compared to the beauty of say, Nikki's words, so I just end up writing as I think and not rereading, well I reread to make sure I haven't made any obvious spelling mistakes or glaring grammatical errors, but even some of them slip by. Just letting you have a sneak peek into the inner workings.
Oh and as I mention Nikki, I realise I can deliciously segue into a lovely post a friend of hers recently wrote all about extending the life of those 'what do i do with all this 'insert name of vegetable here'', some very delicious ideas.

Phew, I think that's it, no more randomness, well for today anyway. Thanks for staying in even if you bailed out.

*And to add to the randomness even more, for those who read this post last night, might double take at the addition of three new photos, yes, I only downloaded them this morning and thought that this post was the perfect place to put them, the clean up from the floods. Sorry for messing with you even more.