Summer has finally arrived with temperatures all week in the very high 30's! Alister and BB bunny are both finding it challenging. Until it gets really hot they stay in their outside cage with drapped blankets and their solar powered fan working overtime. As Alister is an albino mini lop bunny I make sure he is well protected from the sun. About 1pm they go straight onto the concrete floor of the open shed with ice bricks and fans blowing. I check them every 45minutes until it cools down!
I am following along with Jenny of Elefant's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" book study and it is so inspiring. Jenny is also giving lovely free patterns to augment our journey. To actually be given "permission" to enjoy being at home, free to create, to make this space our own and to be happy and fufilled in doing so is nothing short of liberating! In a society where homemaking is viewed as "a life half lived", this book tears down that fallicy.
I remember as a child growing up in Brisbane that my mother was always busy at home. Sewing, patchwork, embroidery and knitting were always in progress. Mum was a great jam and chutney maker and I remember her melting paraffin wax to prevent the jam from going moldy before she sealed the jars. Moday's were baking days and to come home from school and see and smell those glorious loaves - it was like nothing else! Mum wasn't much of a gardner but she did have a narrow garden bed to the left of our driveway which she filled with petunias every year - the brighter the better!!! Mum was never one for being overly domestic. If the choice was cleaning or doing something else well something else always won out!! (Having now read further into Jane's book I now realise that my mother was practicing the art of domesticity over being domestic. Now I understand why we had home made bread and home made jam and lots and lots of dust bunnies!!!!)My next door neighbour had a huge veggie patch and always kept half a dozen bantam hens. I loved hearing the chooks cackling and seeing them roam around. She worked full time so didn't have much of an opportunity to pursue anything else. She was always very generous and I remember her making me and her daughter copious pots of tea and innumerable rounds of toast dripping in butter - bliss! Good memories of domesticity!
Well time to have a cuppa and continue quilting my table topper. Then off to town with my daughter for coffee and shopping.
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