Still Stretching

It's been six months since I last posted here. I miss this space.

Random songs are warming the mood as the fire crackles in the hearth and Decadent Dad is whistling, just like his Pops, and enthusiastically chopping and grilling our Friday Night Special Night dinner. This institution started in 2000. Tonight we are looking forward to hot baked rolls filled with our own Chinese spiced beef sausage and a cabbage pickle à la Jamie, followed by chocolate Tumble cake, as in chocolate coated raisin and shortcake balls baked into a cake. We will watch a movie and I will knit. Of course there will also be coffee.

I am making a tea cosy for my art deco Susie Cooper teapot that I inherited from my grandmother. I am using a squishy cream-coloured yarn with streaks of yellow, red, green and blue, a mohair/wool/acrylic blend: Toledo by Elle in the Smarties colourway. It will be topped with cream coloured roses and green leaves. I am making it on a whim after joining the Miss Marple Knit-along that A Knitter's Life is hosting. I am binge watching the Joan Hickson series of Miss Marple, Agatha Christie murders while I work on the tea cosy.

Since learning to spin, my taste in yarn has become a bit more discerning but, being Elastic Mom, I can't bear waste and will  try to make the most of my pretty acrylic yarns. Earlier in the month I went stash-diving and put together a Leftovers Diagonal Scarf using a collection of scraps of purple wool that my sister gave me a few years ago. It feels good to turn these bitty pretties into something that is fun to wear. I really like how it turned out. I am sure that some of the wool was hand dyed mohair blend from Nurturing Fibres, there was also eyelash yarn, some recycled sari silk yarn, and the leftovers from the Granny Stripe Blanket that I made for my daughter when we first moved up to the farm. Now she lives faraway and it is her-Hug-From Mum blanket. It is so bright that my son told me it hurt his eyes. My goal is too try to use up my yarn stash before I buy more yarn.

I gave away quite a bit of my stash yarn when I started the Hope Knitters group with the three ladies who live in the staff village up the road. I wanted to give them a way of earning some money to supplement their husbands' meagre incomes. The ladies live in rudimentary houses with outside pit toilets and no running water in their homes, just cold water taps outside. Their lives are hard. They collect wood to warm their homes. They do have electricity, but their diet mostly consists of mieliemeel (maize porridge). Even though we are a little group and the knitting project is a simple concept, I believe that it will bring them hope.

The idea is to start with an incentive pack of yarn, knit or crochet an item, sell it and use the proceeds to buy another skein of yarn. Once they have done all that then they receive another donated incentive pack from me. Then they are free to spend the profits or save them and use any leftovers for personal projects. We have received some generous yarn donations from kind people from Cape Town to America. We happily take leftover yarn and scraps and I put them into 100g packs. Blantina, who works for me has enthusiastically joined the group, and we have occasional visits from a middle aged Basotho man, Ntate Tshupa, who used to crochet using a match as his crochet hook.

Mentoring these beautiful ladies has been exciting and heartbreaking. It is wonderful to see their progress and their delight in selling the items they make. Choosing their well earned packs of donated yarn brings them such joy as they anticipate their new projects. They are quick and keen to learn new stitches and patterns. We try to meet weekly. One lady brings along her two little girls who play with educational toys while their mama knits. When I first started I didn't realise how much my life would change. These ladies have captured a piece of my heart. It has been heartbreaking to see the effects of poverty on their homes along with enduring the brunt of alcoholism and domestic abuse. One of the ladies has left the group because she can't see beyond her personal pain. Then came tragedy of a car accident that killed the young husband of one of our ladies. We have taken a knock. 

Yesterday three of us sat under some gum trees with a view towards the mountains of Lesotho. We stitched and chatted. It was one of those infinite moments where nothing else mattered except that moment.

Elementary, My Dear Watson

Meet Dr Watson, the cutest alpaca cria (baby) in Cape Town. His affectionate nature has won many hearts of friends and family of my dad and Merle. Their indigenous garden on the mountainside is home to a few alpacas. They are not all as sweet and tame as Dr Watson. 

This is some of Dr Watson's third grade fibre from his first shearing. His blanket is a rose-grey colour, varying from pale grey to deep chocolate brown. 

I love my dad's studio. A few months ago I set out to spin some of Dr Watson's fibre on their lovely Ashford Traditional spinning wheel which is different to my wheel at home.

While I spun, my dad painted in oils that day and we listened to classical music. 

 Pickle, the parrot joined us and watched over the first oil painting ever painted by my son that day in the studio. Arran spent two inspiring days learning the skill of oil painting from his grandpa.

I sat in the corner spinning while my father and my son painted with classical music in the background, accompanied by a silent parrot. 

This is the wobbly beginning of learning to spin Dr Watson's fibre which is very different to Lucy's merino fibre. It is also the beginning of learning to use a different wheel. 

After a little practice it became easier to spin a more even single of Dr Watson's fibre. This darker portion of Dr Watson yarn is spun back on the farm on my own wheel. 

Dr Watson's singles were fairly thick, so I plied them into a two-strand yarn. The natural variation in his blanket gave a barber-pole effect to some of the yarn. 

This is the bouncy-soft double-plied skein of Dr Watson's yarn. 

I washed the skein to set the twist and hung it in the bathroom to dry. 

The skein is 82m long and 118g of luxurious bulky squishy soft alpaca yarn. 

The skein rolled into a beautiful big ball for knitting. I used a circular needle and knitted over a few evenings sitting in the lounge with my farm men. 

I found just the right pattern to knit up a beanie to make the most of the plushy warmth of the yarn. The pattern is the Gridiron Hat by Argyle Sheep on the knitting and crochet website, Ravelry. Thankfully the yarn was enough. All I have left is 12g. 

The beanie is warm and super soft and snug. I love the way the lighter fibre ended up on the brim. It is a satisfying thing to journey with fibre all the way from a snuggly greeting from Dr Watson to wearing a Dr Watson Beanie on my head. So my first journey from fibre to finished product was, surprisingly, not with Lucy Lamb's first fleece. I still have a long way to go preparing all of Lucy's fleece for spinning. It has been great fun to dabble in a bit of alpaca spinning in the meantime. 

 

Its much as I love it, it is not for me to keep. I wrapped it up and sent it to my dad to keep warm in the Cape winter; to remember me; to enjoy precious Dr Watson's fibre as a hat; to remember that day in his studio where three generations created art alongside a parrot; when Beethoven was playing; and we were happy. 

Slow Living in January

January, month of anguish for a mother-heart, has passed. Remembering the days spent in Cape Town, settling my beloved daughter in for the new season of her college life and then that long, long drive home to the farm, is something that I have not been able to confront until today. I am sitting on our verandah, the heat of the day overpowering the shade as I look out over the green fields, thunderclouds building in the hazy sky. Katy Melua serenades the late afternoon along with an impertinent hadeda. So join me as I revisit the past month along with Slow Living Essentials.

NOURISH
My soul was nourished with family, friendship, love and meals shared this month. Precious moments all of them....

*A sundowner meal of crackers, chips, dips, watermelon and goodbyes on the hill overlooking the farm, shared with farm friends on her last night before we left.
*Welcoming comfort of my sister-in-law's homemade Spaghetti Bolognese and gorgeous salad lovingly prepared with my nephew in anticipation of our arrival.
* Organic chicken from my dear friend's teenage son's meat business, braaied by the boys
accompanied with ratatouille picked and prepared from her urban homestead, and splashing children shouting, and chilled drinks.
* Bring and share chicken, salad, pizza lunch with my family, cousins laughing and swimming.
*Chocolate croissants, a continental breakfast with my beloved Dad and Merle, looking out over a drizzly Noordhoek valley.
*Mom and daughter fruit shakes and hard mothering time.
*Boy's school buddy reminiscing over curry and anecdotes with Decadent Dad.
*Nana's cook all night curry and popadums served with love and kindness.
*Girls' treat of earl grey tea and chocolate cheesecake for me in a vintage tea shop full of trinkets and heart time. Sisters, daughters and cousins, above all, friends.
*Fish, wine and sushi with old friends, celebrating getting older together and longstanding friendship.
*Perfect fish and chips and a beer with our family at Fisherman's in my heart-home Kommetjie followed by a long walk with loved ones on my Long Beach.
*Braai at the beautifully decorated home of my faithful friend and her family, the boys big and small amusing themselves by hanging a swing from the too high branches of an oak tree in the garden. Lemon meringue pie baked by the 14 year old birthday boy.
*Cherished moments with old valley friends, sumptuous deli lunch, with her daughter's homemade cheese and tea with cakes and happy laughter.
*Gourmet dinner with cousins on a long, lovely Summer's evening in their magnificent new home.
*Birthday cake - chocolate meringue and strawberries baked by my sweet niece and a surprise visit  and gift from a still young, looking-gorgeous, good old friend.

*Surprise birthday lunch spoiling from my Dad, scrumptious butternut salad in a pretty garden.
*Cocktails on the beachfront for sundowners followed by dinner for two, a foodie adventure of note, decadent dinner at Cheyne's in Hout Bay, Asian fusion restaurant. My birthday party for two. Me and my man.
*Coffee, Lindt-romany-creams and awesome catch-up after the years with one of the four C's- bff's from school.
*Blueberry cheesecake and tea under the trees in the Tokai Arboretum alongside sincere heart sharing with a dear friend.
*Roast organic chicken and roast potatoes with caramel birthday cake for a 17 year old young man and family friend, cake baked by his younger sister. After dinner brother and sister demonstrated their ballroom dancing finesse in the lounge.
*Tea and treats with hot chilli muffins and heirloom seeds with my sister and my fabulous uncle and aunt in Gravel Garden.
*Family, abundant chicken and porkie braai at my brother- and sister-in-law's home, cute Jack Russel-child antics and fun photo memories.
*Painters' Saturday lunch of fancy cheeses on bread at my talented Dad's studio. Alpaca wool for felting, a take-home gift.
*Muizenberg Surfer's Corner beach picnic of grapes, chicken-mayo rolls, chips and surfing lessons for the kids with my brother-in-law from the UK.
*Kalk Bay ice creams and then chilling at Cape to Cuba with my brother-in-law. Mojitos, nachos and pizza watching kids down in the fishing harbour dancing to the loud music.
*Comfort coffee with my husband when my mom-heart was breaking.
*Fish braai with family, yellowtail kindly bought by my mom-in-law from Kalk Bay harbour because I miss fish on the farm.
*Kirstenbosch walk and  precious talk time and scrambled egg breakfast/tea with another one of the four C's - bff's from school.
*Appletizers on Constantia Nek sharing parent hearts with our precious daughter.
*Delicious potjie with my brother and his family, naughty cute mischief of my adorable nephew and precious last moments with my family.
*A step into my teenage years in the childhood garden of the third of the four C's from my school days, orange cake and tea with her unchanged, fantastic parents and a walk down memory lane with them.
*Heart-healing tea with a faithful friend, tear salted muffin, healthy green juice and promises of prayer surrounded by antiques, herbs and hearts.
*Popcorn, apples and Egyptian geese at Kirstenbosch with my sister and the boy-cousins. Picnic blanket and chill time.
*Tasty butternut, tomato, spicy sausage pasta and tears with my sister-in-law.
*A tray of heart-lifting Cassis patisserie petit-fours, all for me, for tea, lunch and tea again, and then for midnight snack. I did share a very few.
*A cup of interrupted coffee and not enough time left with my sister.
*Last night sunset picnic of our usual crackers, dips, photos and cheeses on the beach with my most precious three, a fitting farewell to my only daughter on our last night.
*The long drive home to an empty bedroom, heartache, lots of eggs and tomatoes and a comforting frittatta for our first meal for three back home.

PREPARE
Our city visit involved stockpiling of a different kind...
In Cape Town we visited Atlas Trading in the Bo-Kaap to stock up on authentic Cape spices, hard to find where we live, Malay curry spices, missed and needed in my cuisine. A Cape curry is not the same without a good masala. I use a lot of cumin in my feta, rare in our local shops. Decadent Dad is hoping to try his hand at sausage-making, so he stocked up on paprika. I also visited the Ina Paarman Factory Shop for some inexpensive condiments. Our little town has only one, rather inept book shop, so I trawled the bargain book stores, picking up a few treasures. My delighted hubby restocked his wardrobe with some wonderfully inexpensive clothes at a factory shop sale too.

Back on the farm, the wonderful, amazing Blantina, who was housesitting for us, spent many hours making cheese, and blanching and freezing, or pickling garden produce during our abundant harvest time, so nothing went to waste.

GREEN
My sister, noticing one of my older slow Living Green comments a few months ago,  gave me a new deodorant to try out. It is natural and works beautifully, but rather pricy. I see that the main two ingredients are water and bicarbonate of soda... mmm I have a plan for when it runs out.

GROW
I thought the veggie tunnel was a jungle when we left for Cape Town, well Jane, you'd better hold onto your hat, our jungle became almost impenetrable. We came home to borage swamped by tomatoes, nasturtiums climbing up cucumber tripods, abundant beans ambushed by marigolds. The exuberant garden has generously provided more than we can eat.

Sadly our tomatoes and pumpkins took strain while when the water pump to the house malfunctioned for too many days, so I have subsequently spent many an hour attempting to salvage some of the 36 heirloom tomato plants that were looking rather devastated.

REDUCE / RE-USE / RECYCLE
While in Cape Town, I collected a whole heap of plastic yoghurt containers, milk bottles and jars (many saved by my thoughtful mother-in-law) to bring back to the farm for preserving, milk sales and storage.

CREATE
We created happy, treasured memories, we re-created a beautiful bedroom for our daughter in her new home, my generous sister-in-law's house, and Decadent Dad converted her garage into an art and photographic studio for the two of them.

He also made  our daughter a jewellery holder from a saved piece of driftwood collected off the rocky shore during our Gansbaai days.

DISCOVER
I have been reading the entertaining and enlightening e-book all about bread baking, 52 Loaves by William Alexander, a story of "one man's relentless pursuit of truth, meaning and the perfect crust", a delightful account of his baking one loaf a week for a year, and all that his fascination with peasant bread led to, that has taught me plenty about levain, sourdough, poolish, lames and the like. Alongside this, I am also reading the book Bread Revolution by Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan of the Thoughtful Bread Company whose focus in on using local, seasonal ingredients and getting people back to appreciating the art of making bread. The book is full of excellent recipes for breads as well accompaniments. Between reading the two books, I have become inspired and found myself involuntarily kneading a loaf of rye bread last Sunday when I should have been preparing for my son's first academic day of the year. It was delicious served with farm butter and my niece's jigi-jolo jam.

ENHANCE
My sister and I took a day trip to Gravel Garden, an heirloom plant nursery and seed supplier in Somerset West. Every Friday morning they hold a bartering morning where customers can trade various goods from vegetables to home made goods.

We met up with our aunt and uncle there. It was a worthwhile outing and although we had nothing to trade, we supported them through our purchases. I have subsequently collected some Asian adzuki bean seeds from my veggie tunnel to post back to Shannon. My brother-in-law gave me the bean seeds originally bought from Gravel Garden quite a few years ago. So what goes around comes around.

ENJOY
We came home to a nine-week old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, little Kariba.

She has brought me plenty of slobbery kisses, surprise puddles, night time wee-wee walks and sweet snuggles when I needed them most.

There is never enough time when one is saying goodbye. I enjoyed seeing my daughter finding her way in her new city life, the new-found freedom of her own generously gifted car, the way that she was embraced by friends, family and her new church in her old/new home town,  and it was special to share in her excitement of starting college.

Slow Living in November

November has been even more beautiful than October. The magnificent early Summer landscape has helped me to stop... and breathe... and slow down… and give thanks… as we hurtle towards the end of the year. Join me, along with Slow Living Essentials as I remember, remember the month of November. 

NOURISH

Beetroot has surfaced in our tunnel and added it's paradoxical earthy vibrancy to our meals. We are harvesting two heirloom beetroots: Chioggia which, with their pretty concentric rings, are just big enough to pick, and Detroit Dark Red. We also have commercial Crimson Globes. The Detroits have grown big and round. Their colour is truly deep red, their taste more earthy and sweet with a softer cooked texture than the Crimson Globes. The Globes are brighter in colour, firmer with faint concentric rings, but a slightly sharper flavour. Votes are even as to which beet is better.
Forget pickled beets. I decided to experiment with this exciting vegetable. We have enjoyed it tossed in apple cider, tansy and olive oil then roasted and served as a side dish. I have added it into salads, grated raw and in cooked chunks. The Asian salad pictured below was spectacular.

Most unusual, but a definite must-make-again, were the roast root vegetable, bacon and rosemary mini quiches that I made for the market. Along with the beets I roasted a few red onions, little round Paris Market Carrots and freshly dug garlic. 

PREPARE

There's something comfortingly rustic about plaits of garlic and red onions drying in the kitchen. The onions didn't last very long though. I used them up faster than they could dry. All the November cream from Rosie and Joy was turned into many kilograms of butter for croissants, except for a few cups of cream that became peanut butter and chocolate ice-cream for a certain birthday boy. Almost all of their milk became cheese. Most of this preparation was for a market, sadly not my rather empty freezer or pantry. After the market, at the end of the month, when I was about to put my feet up, the apricots arrived, all golden and luscious and needing urgent attention. Now we're jamming…

"We're jammin: I wanna jam it wid you. We're jammin, jammin, And I hope you like jammin too." (Bob Marley)



REDUCE / RECYCLE / REUSE

Reusing, recycling and reducing is everything Elastic Mom is about. A tear through Decadent Dad's T-shirt shelf left him a few shirts less and his workshop a pile of wipe-it-all-up rags more.
Tomato sauce bottles line up in our storeroom, waiting for homegrown tomato sauce to fill them, but then I found these adorable stickers. I am head-over-heels in love with my cute Free State farm milk bottles. I have a set of four stickers but, being Elastic Mom, I'll have to wait until our existing milk bottles break before I can line up my pretty new bottles in the fridge. Considering the current breakage rate, I won't have long to wait.
Just when I thought that was it for new ideas, I noticed a pile of paper bags waiting for recycling. All our November market baking left us with strong flour and sugar bags. Simple. Use-It-Don't-Lose-It. Fold in the top. Punch holes. Tie string and there we have carrier bags for our market customers. They look trendy too, you know, African Chic and all that.

GREEN
Our broad beans were looking wistful, so we watered them with a little epsom salts. While we were at it, we fed the roses and poured it around some pesky ant holes. A few weeks later we were rewarded with a new crop of beans, a flush of roses and fewer ants.

GROW

Brilliant red poppies, along with Hunter our young Rhodesian Ridgeback,  have cheerily greeted visitors entering the gate. Poppies on either side and Hunter in the middle. Quite formidable. No sneaking in quietly around here.The poppy seeds I sprinkled in the flower beds last Autumn burst into bloom after the late Spring rains came. I adore their joyful shout of red, especially when blue cornflowers, columbines or purple campenula are their bedfellows. They have made a striking display, enhancing our view. (Can you spot our cows enjoying the grazing?)

Our vegetables are also flourishing. The potatoes are big and bushy and we haven't been able to resist a little grabbling here and there. Lovely word, grabbling. It's exactly what we do under the roots when we sneak a few for supper.  The runner beans are racing up their stakes. The strawberry popcorn is looking healthy and strong. Our tunnel is such a pleasure, I think our vegetable garden and all it has to offer warrants its own blog post. (Our Joy cow seems to be in the picture quite a lot lately.)

CREATE

While Elastic Mom and Decadent Dad have been busy baking and making all things market related, our competent kids have continued the creativity. His hand blisters were proudly displayed after this hand-carved bow was completed. Strings of stars decorated our Christmas-themed market stall, bringing their own blisters on her scissor-tired hands.
My heart was delighted to walk into my daughter's bedroom and hear music playing, and see her stringing beaded bracelets. Peaceful creativity. Unhurried. Just because.
Halfway through the month she completed her 365 day self-portrait challenge. It has been a pleasure to see her photography skills develop as her project progressed. Every so often I snuck in a behind-the-scenes pic of my own. Take a LOOK at the portrait she produced from the scene below. Her brother's role was just to spray her. She set up the scene, the camera, and took the photo herself.

How does one pose when being sprayed by a high pressure hose?

Her blog is well worth a visit. All of her 365 Self Portraits are on display. Take the time to read her last post. Slow Living on this farm has given her the time and freedom to discover her passion.

DISCOVER
I am a late-comer to the entertainment and education of watching River Cottage and all things by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Although rather extreme, his fascinating Cook on the Wild Side series amused us in November. I share a moderated version of his "passion for food integrity and consumption of local, seasonal produce", and have indulged in a little foraging of my own this year.

ENHANCE
The big community event of our month was our three day market stall at the local Cabin Cherry Capers. It was exhausting but worth it. Our whole family pitched in to make it a success. Our little business, Rosewood Country Kitchen, was exposed to more local, appreciative customers. There's nothing like a buttery croissant-tasting or cheese-tasting to draw people in. I love meeting different people at these markets. We live near the border of the tiny country, Lesotho, so this seemingly remote Eastern Free State farmer's market attracted a cosmopolitan range of customers. My stall was visited by leather-clad motor-bikers, burly conservative Afrikaans farmers with their poppies, elegantly dressed Basotho couples, Chinese factory managers,  missionaries, travellers passing through, vegetarian humanitarian workers, transient engineers, barefoot little boys and foreign diplomats. I met someone who worked with my Uncle on the Katse Dam many years ago, someone else whose godson is attending the faraway college we are sending our daughter to next year and even managed to find a home for a farm kitten with the new grocery store manager in town.

 

ENJOY
Our precious son turned fifteen this month. We celebrated his birthday with a picnic in the Peter Pan forest beside the barn. Friends joined us for a feast under the poplar trees.We set up chairs and tables. The adults sat in the shade. Happy voices rang out as children of various ages enjoyed the day. The boys made a base. The girls posed for photographs and wandered chatting arm-in-arm in the dappled forest light.
Our poor birthday boy was recovering from tonsillitis which left him tired but happy nonetheless.

Bed time for babies: Our daughter bringing in Hope and Thorn for the night.

 Fifteen years ago we cancelled the application for our little daughter to attend preschool and decided to educate her at home. Our journey, starting as play dough on the kitchen table, stories with a little blonde toddler on my lap, counting with blocks, and learning shapes and colours, has come a long way. Together we studied the stars, battled over trigonometry, discussed the difference between Roman civil law and natural law, shared poetry teas, and generally filled our days with rich learning. 

November marked the end of her homeschool journey, the day she closed her last book and completed Grade Twelve. Words fail me at the gamut of emotion tumbling through my heart, everything from pride and joy to an aching emptiness now that our school days are over. 

Next year she is off to explore new horizons.