Muttonbird Island

One day after school we set off on a little adventure to Muttonbird Island, Coffs Harbour. This was our first trip to the island and it was an utter delight. Muttonbird Island is the most accessible place in which to watch the migratory shearwater birds (or muttonbirds), they come here and build their nests, hatch their young and then depart again (around March). Walking along the path we were enthralled as we spied nests, looked at the birds feeding and dancing along the coast, a mutton bird carrying a rather large fish in it's feet sailing over the island, watching the sunset over the mountains and imagining that being out here, looking out at other islands and a great expanse of sea, we could almost be in the Greek Isles or for that matter, any number of island getaways around the world. Yes, there were joggers making good time running up and down the steep hill, focused on their headphones and fitness regime but aside from a couple of near misses we were too busy trying to take all this majestic beauty in. It was a lovely little trip and we can't wait to share this special place with friends next time they journey up the coast to see us. Yep, another one for the Bellingen and surrounds guide book.

celebrating love

Two of our dear, dear friends recently celebrated their ten year wedding anniversary (hooray) and what better way to celebrate than by having a picnic by the river on a glorious days surrounded by friends who love, love, love them so. Leisa and Ben are two remarkable humans, individually they are delightful, hilarious, open and full of love, together they shine, they exude love, affection, genuine admiration and more. Like most people who reach ten years of marriage they have had their fair amount of crap, they have broken up a couple of times, they have struggled bigtime but the coolest thing is that they have emerged more connected, more open and more loved up than ever before. And that's what makes this anniversary so special, they have tried and tried and tried again, they haven't just given up because things have gotten too hard, life is hard. They also have two children who are a further testament to them, as both Finton and Braidyn are absolutely wonderful beings.

Anyway, back to the day of love, as you can see it was absolutely delightful, because quite frankly, who doesn't love celebrating true love between totally awesome humans. Oh and having a glorious day, a picturesque setting, the openness of having a whole day of doing nothing but eating, laughing, loving and drinking, oh and seeing children having delightful fun in the sun, hmmm, doesn't get much better than that.

Scott actually declared this day, which included him watching some bands at No. 5 for the ABC Exhumed contest, his most favourite day in Bellingen so far. It was definitely pretty wonderful. Now for Scott and I to plan our ten year wedding anniversary for next year, hmmm, maybe more of the same but with a touch of Bluegrass and some dancin', who knows. 

I do realise that this life of ours is looking a bit ridiculously idyllic and in someways it is but Bellingen does have ticks, snakes, leeches, challenging mould issues in summer, excessive rain from December to February and for some the problem of never being anonymous, always accountable, I quite like this though. Everyone does work, some multiple jobs, we all have children that can drive us crazy at times and can all fall into ruts or periods of sadness. But yes, there is also a load of goodness, but that is more than evident.

a little gift

Some of you may recall that a year ago we attended a very special birthday celebration, a celebration that turned into a surprise wedding. Yes, really. If you are new to this space you can find out all about it here.

Just after the celebration I was inspired to make a little clip about the day and seemingly true to form the night before Woo's birthday this year I finally got to it (yes, seriously, what was I thinking?).

It was interesting looking at how much I have learnt in the last year (I did cringe quite a bit at my filming and photography), it was fun having a play with final cut pro and it was challenging working with limited footage, which led to including stills. In the end I was pretty happy with it and believe it reflects the beautiful day, the celebration of Woo and the oozing of love that occurred. 

Hopefully you all enjoy, smile a little, laugh a little and embrace the love, especially since the disaster that was the elections last night, an election result that was so far from what is good for everyone, what is good for our environment, for the minorities, for communities, for people who need help, for a better world. An election result that was seeped in the 'I' not the 'Us'. Anyway, I could go on but I won't here, I guess sometimes it has to get worse until it gets better, the bad thing is that our world is already in a seriously messed up state, these kind of results set us back quite a bit, okay, rant over (for now).

Happy happy birthday/anniversary beautiful Woo, you of that amazing laugh and twinkling eyes. You, who loves your dear ones so, held firmly in your heart and close by your side. We love your frankness, your humour and the delight that you see and share with the world.

Here is the gift I made for Woo and Eno, enjoy. xxx Ah love. 

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Woo and Eno

By scott collins

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Delights for a 4 year old (or 2, 3, 5, 6)

Here are a few of the beautiful gifts Ilo received for his 4th birthday, I feel like they were chosen or made with so much intention and consideration, so very special. They have already been adored, played with and delighted over. 

• little foxes mask and vintage snakes and ladders

• handmade hooded cape made with love by Woo using this book
• a perfect bag for all sorts of adventures made lovingly by Victoria
• a beautiful felt pencil case and the necessary brushes for everything from discovering dinosaur bones, applying fairy dust and even painting
• handmade finger puppets from Jen (how gorgeous is the display hand), the elephant and the rabbit are particularly well loved

Other loved gifts, not pictured here included a shovel, a whole lot of flowers to plant in Ilo's garden, a precious little pouch from Sharma full of fairy glitter, a hanging fairy lure, tiny sparkly stars and a fairy crystal and of course Ilo's very own panda. 

I decided to include a whole lot of Ilo's favourite books at the moment including some that he received as presents, the right book will be held close for so many years, some are even held firmly in the child's mind and heart well into adulthood. They are the most perfect gift.

• Annie's Rainbow - Ron Brooks
• An Awesome Book - Dallas Clayton
• An Awesome Book of Thanks - Dallas Clayton
• Miss Rumphis - Barbara Cooney
• Brambley Hedge Winter Story - Jill Barklem
• To Market to Market - Nikki McClure
• Nobody Owns the Moon - Tohby Riddle
• Just Another Ordinary Day - Rod Clements
• The Fairy Houses Trilogy - Tracy Kane
• A Child's Book of Seasons - Satomi Ichikawa
• The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales - Dawn Casey

• The Shore Beyond - Mary Joslin
• The Runaway Dinner - Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingram
• The Magic Beach - Alison Lester
• The King and the Seed - Eric Marden
• All through the Year - Anna Walker
• When you were small - Sara O'Leary
• The Clever Stick - John Lechner
• Oh the Thinks you can Think -Dr Seuss (other favourite Seuss books are The Lorax and Oh the Places you'll go)
• Mama is it Summer yet? - Nikki Mc Clure
• The Adventures of a Nose - Viviane Schwarz
• Flamingos on the Roof -Calef Brown

There are quite a few more but I hope this will suffice. 

• Oh and a magic growing tree (do you remember these?), pretty fun. 

garden guilt

I love gardens that provide, gardens that wander and overflow with produce, gardens that have meaning in their confusion, gardens that run in everywhich way. I love them. My heart feels happy when I see gardens not lawns, gardens that run with mint, chamomile, dandelions, then layers of dense but plentiful bits and pieces. I love to pick for every meal, to be creative with abundance to honour heritage and heirloom, to challenge and delight.

But, I must declare I feel like since we have been here I have failed in this vision. True we are only renting and have lived in two places in the last two years but it is more than that. I feel like I am so out of touch with how things grow here, last year I planted as I would in Sydney and although I had prepped the beds I didn't realise how depleted they were, my seedlings remained seedlings and then shot up to seed. Not to mention my ignorance at the big lemongrass sucking my garden bed dry.

Hmm, I tried again but to no avail. Finally before heading to Malaysia I gave the beds a serious talking to and hit them big time with all matter of manure and compost and glorious seaweed concoctions followed by layers of newspaper and sugar cane mulch and let it work it's magic for a couple of weeks. I also decided to plant a lot earlier than I previously had, it seems to have worked, kind of, but it's just starting. We are now getting deliciously juicy tomatoes that smell and taste amazing, wonderful glorious sweet potatoes, almighty brilliant Kale, a multitude of herbs and a few other bits and pieces (I didn't want to go too crazy in case I failed again). 

In other areas, I have pulled up a whole lot of plants that look like ginger but are in actual fact one of the many varieties that look like ginger or even galangal but are in fact neither, I plan to plant a whole lot of turmeric and actual ginger there instead. There are a few plans afoot without going too crazy, keeping in mind this is a rental. The kids have their own garden, filled with herbs, flowers and other random vegetables. 

I want an overflowing garden, even within our small confines, I want big leaves, hidden gems, many morsels of goodness. This makes me so happy, happy in my bones, my heart. But I feel like I still stab in the dark, in Sydney our small permaculture garden was a delight and produced a lot, here I find that mulching does not work it's magic in quite the same way, I am tempted to go a bit Biodynamic and expose my soil to the elements. 

Anyway, I feel like I have owned up to a dirty little secret, my failure (over and over) as a gardener, but I will try again and again, I will ask more questions, observe more and do my darndest to make what we have of a garden a snippet of my fantasy. 

Another thing I love about gardening is the passion that I feel afterwards, I have more of a spring in my step and smile on my dial, after this particularly fun session with Ilo, we hopped off to the kitchen to whip up some muesli, anzac cookies and a whole lot of nut butter (full of almonds, cashews, pepitas and hemps seeds), yum. Yes, it is true that after all this baking, dinner came a poor second, as we ended up having a bit of a slap dash baked bean nachos meal, albeit complete with guacamole, salad and yoghurt, hmm, it seems my baking mojo got used up prior to dinner, oh well, it was so worth it.

* update - I love nachos, like really love it nachos and all things mexican. 'Slap Dash' is more indicative of the depletion of said cooking mojo, basically you sneeze and nachos is cooked (well not exactly sneeze and definitely not over the food but you get the picture).