Some of September

Early May

We have harvested our maize.  Corn on the cob - so tasty! 

 Daily electricity cuts are the norm here.  Noah and Jedi happily drawing and colouring by candlelight.

 The clan hanging out together!

My magnificent lundi star flowering for the first time!

Five!

 Incredible autumn mushrooms

 Young giraffe

 Special birthday boy.  Five already.  What a precious, blessed five years it has been with this incredible little Jediah.  We all love you so much our precious quiet, strong boy.

 A birthday cake decorated with nasturtiams and jelly beans - sweet and sharp!

 

Horseriding - just what he wanted to do on his birthday!
Happy Birthday beautiful boy!

Glimpses of April

From Here

All is good from here. It is winter - sometimes cool, sometimes warm..always good to be here under our African sun flowing through our days.

A sweet dormouse the boys discovered nesting in old timber.

Back soon with more updates!

The swing of spring days

I really have fallen out with the swing of blogging. Sometimes I am in two minds on whether I want to continue to blog but yet when I look back over the years of this journal as such of some of my family's days, I love to see these memories here in this space. So, I will endeavour to get back to regular posts.

Things are not so easy for us for now. A bit of a time of uncertainty. We have no income as the company Mark worked for went into administration very unexpectedly and with no warning several weeks ago. This after relocating for job security and promised promotion. Ah well, such is the way of things. So, he is looking for a new position. We have faith the right opportunity will come up and for now, we are thankful for each other and our boys and our health and time together. We are mostly frustrated as things loss of employment delays even more our dreams of returning to our homeland in Zimbabwe to be nearer to most of our family but we need to be patient and keep believing. Things always shift and change and that is living life.
So for now, lots of togetherness times for our family. And it is good and valued.
We have our days of worry and yet remember that this is springtime - a time for renewal and growth - a good time for new paths to present themselves.

We visited a beautiful nature reserve recently. Willow trees a plenty and wild areas and swans. I loved the beautiful white swans on the shimmering, shiny water.

I had a pet duck very similar to the duck in front of Noah. He was so special to me and followed me everywhere. I have such fond, clear memories of my 'Daddy Duck'.

Birthday

Sunrise on the day of Sol's ninth birthday.

Fishing on his birthday. His latest hobby!

Thank you for being you.  We love you so!

Celebrating

Celebrating all the little things like

Picking strawberries

Simply being in the woods. Always so much soul nourishment to be had there.

Playing with chickens.

Walking through the golden wheat.

Celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary and celebrating Noah's 4th birthday.

And celebrating memories of the time spent in this home as we spend our last few days here before moving next week to a new home on another farm further north in the Midlands. So celebrating and embracing change!

Our Leo turns Six.

Happy birthday our Leo the Lionheart!
Here he is in a grand wooden throne on his birthday at the nature reserve.

You were born on a stormy, thundery early morning.  You are so passionate just like a storm, so strong, so gentle, so brave and very loving.
Our Leo loves all things to do with pirates.  I managed to get tickets to watch The Pirates of Penzance muscial on the evening of his birthday.  How delighted he was and how he loved the show, clapping with joy and delight!

 I knitted him a spring themed lion as a birthday gift, as his birthday falls in the Spring.  Soft spring green for the body and head, and a mane and tail of rainbow colours.  I used Linda's fantastic lion knitting pattern which can be found in her Mamma4Earth etsy shop.  Thank you so much Linda! 

Jediah's baptism

A special family gathering day on Sunday for Jediah's baptism.  It has taken us quite a while to organise his baptism but we got there!

Jediah was very interested in the ceremony and enjoyed it all.  He wore the Irish linen baptism gown that each of our boys have worn for their baptism.  I knitted him some white and silver bootees.  He looked beautiful even with the scratch on his nose from crawling straight into a wicker basket a few days before!

Ash, his Godmother, my precious, precious lifelong friend, soul sister, couldn't be there, as she is far away over the seas in Australia, but always close to us in our hearts. He did have two family member  Godparents there.