It seems like a flame has been ignited...Flex and his mate R and I prepared and cooked the food for a 'heritage of Spencer' event held yesterday.

The boys chopped and prepped...

....for a specially designed meal that would represent the best of local, seasonal produce from this area. Our menu incorporated freshly caught mullet and prawns, organic salad and wild bush tucker that we foraged for ourselves. This is samphire (a salt mash plant with a delicious juicy saltiness) and Warragal greens (a native spinach).

The Spencer hall was transformed into a cosy place for storytelling and the display of artefacts, maps and bits of Interesting flotsam and jetsam...and soon filled with people chatting, swapping histories and catching up with friends and neighbours.

And then they got hungry.

And my boy got his first experience of working a kitchen - orders flying in fast, plating up, taking money, serving food, explaining the menu, hot pans sizzling and the buzz of 'compliments to the chef'.

He did so well. Helpful and friendly, efficient and tidy...no wonder the tip jar filled up so fast!!!

He told people about how all the food had come from a radius of about 20 kms and could point out all the sources on a local map. And then had the pleasure of counting the takings at the end of the night, subtracting all costs and the float and realising we had made a decent profit!

Another lovely community event, a pleasure to be involved in.

Sydney Festival is always worth the train trip and yesterday was no exception. After a leisurely train trip we started by eating food and playing ping pong at the Australian Open viewing area at Circular Quay. then we met a golden man....

After meeting our friends at the Opera house we made our way to Festival Village at Hyde Park. They always put on some amazing, free, interactive art here and as we walked in we could see the strange, looming,rubbery monoliths of 'Sacrilege'...

Set against the towing spires of St Mary's Cathedral on one side and the CBD skewered by Centrepoint on the other, the juxtaposition of this ancient Druid wonder and Sydney on a summers day is truly strange!

And did we mention you can jump all over it!?!?

In the sizeable line we chatted about what 'sacrilege' means and the mystery of Stonehenge and then all the politics of art and history made way for the smile inducing bouncing...

After wheezing for a while (10 minutes jumping is quite enough!!!) we made our way to the 'library' and sat down to read, eat, catch up with friends and play with giant blocks...

We found some other lovelies back in the line and found ourselves jettisoned back onto the air filled wonder...

Now it was time to enter the 'worlds smallest venue' to listen to a song sung in the pitch dark - just gorgeous.

Omtara joined us for the next leg of the journey...Darling Harbour. After sushi train (featuring the best photobomb EVER) we saw some amazing international break dancers and played around on the grand scale optical illusion which was 'The Merchant Store'.

...and finished the day with a bit of good old playground action. Rolled back to the farm and fell into bed exhausted, happy, inspired and stoked in the city we call home.

Godfather Ben is in town and so we drove up to Newcastle for a day out with him and his lovely Mum Trish.

Ben decided to take us to one of his favourite childhood adventures...exploring the historical defense base known as Fort Scratchley.

Made up of underground tunnels and manned with various cannons this place welcomed us with a 'boom'!

After this 'little' gun we moved up to the incredible panoramic view which was the backdrop to the big one...

With the ringing in our ears subsiding we joined the tunnel tour where we were soothed by the dulcet tones of David our tour guide...who told us all about the history of the fort and led us underground where we saw the Armstrong disappearing gun, $10,000 old whale oil lamps and went through a reaaaaaallly tight tunnel.

After all that excitement and David's voice lulling us into a strange hypnotic state we needed a sugar hit. Cue ridiculously large ice creams.

And then down to the baths for a swim which was salty and fun. However the highlight of the day came last with a dip in the hand hewn by convicts 'Bogey Hole'.

Crashing waves, fresh water and vistas as good as you'll get anywhere in the world. However my phone had run out of battery by them so no pics...we will just have to relish the memories.

Thanks Ben - what a gorgeous day.!

We have had the great fortune of welcoming a new band of tribespeople to our clan....the Pirates! We met this amazing couple at Burning Seed festival last October and they enchanted us all with their magic tricks, cheeky humour, expressive presentation, joie de vivre and creativity. They walk their talk and are such a joy to be around.

From meeting them we have been introduced to a world of sleight of hand fun, frilly knickers and balloon creations.

They participated in Wild Yam and won everybody's hearts adding the edgy jester balance to our happy hippy vibe:)

We love you Pirates!!!

To welcome 2014 we hosted a 'festival of giving' here at the Freedom Farm. It was magical, playful, inspiring, beautiful, musical, joyful and cemented our tribe as being a truly awesome group of people.

Everyone contributed what they loved. Flex put on ice cream for all, Licky did a soda stream bonanza, I ran women's workshops and a love letter workshop and Gav organised a ping pong tournament:)

People bowled me over with their giving ness. From art to food, magic shows to Wild West Burlesque performances, yoga to kids play a spirit of generosity and gratitude was cultivated by all and the valley simply overflowed with goodness!

I can't even explain all the awesome that happened. All I know is that when money is out of the equation and we focus on giving instead of getting, we sink into a sense of true connection. And have truckloads of goooooooodtimes!

Keep the Wild Yam spirit alive!!!