The day started with 'Black Beauty' in bed...so sweet and warm and gentle I couldn't stand the thought of enforcing spelling tests and times tables. Every so often I get caught in trying to adhere strictly to the 'curriculum' and become blind to the rich tapestry of learning that is our life. Today, we let go of doing 'book work' and instead seized a glorious morning and went for a horseride. Lucky is passionate about his horse and riding at the moment and is progressing so beautifully.

He really tunes in to his horse and valued the relationship they are building together. Strength, confidence and gentleness must all combine in order to fly...

In accordance with this interest the horse books are coming out and being pored over for hours. "What's a crupper?" "What breed is Zac?" "How do you get a horse fit?" - the questions pepper our conversation all day long. And now he wants to draw horses as well as he can, so pencils and sketchbooks and tracing paper are all making an appearance as well.

And finally, this evening over dinner at sushi train, we wrote a story about life from Zac's perspective a la 'Black Beauty'.

What a fruitful day of inspired learning!

PDH/PE

English

Art

Personal development

Animal husbandry

Love and joy!

A gorgeous Farmschool learning about and creating with the impermanent and amazing jewels that quite literally, grow on trees.

We gathered leaves of every shape and hue, comparing colours and stages of decay. Each one more beautiful than the last...

We learned that each leaf is a perfect solar panel using green chlorophyll to transform sunlight into energy for the tree. (Photosynthesis). As the daylight hours decrease so does the green chlorophyll exposing the oranges, yellows, reds and purples beneath. Wonderous science which had us equally delighted and confounded :)

Then it was time for art.

Then it was time for Art. We made our own watercolour paints using onion skins, turmeric, eucalyptus leaves, rusts, muds and fresh green growth. These were used to paint our own versions of Autumn leaves, unscripted, allowing lots of space for individual experimenting and expression.

We also were inspired by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and created leaf mandalas. This was great as it was a group activity that even got the older boys involved in the art ;) Tactile, easy and instantly gratifying for those who didn't identify as 'drawers' or 'painters'.

Such a great opportunity to play and chat, create and discuss, watch our kids get muddy and inventive while we got to be artists as well. Proudly sponsored by Autumn and LiquidAmba trees.🍁

Today we went to see The Merchant of Venice at the Riverside theater in Parramatta, Sydney.

This play written by William Shakespere explores the themes of gambling, freindship and the BIG ONE is racism.

There is comedy, love and tragedy all rolled up in a thrilling and thought provoking performance.

The acting was great and the costumes and decor were of the 1930s giving it a stylish and contemporary vibe.

I enjoyed it very much.

Right now we are recording a song. The whole family. Me singing and playing bass, Lucky playing guitar, Flex on drums and Gav twiddling knobs and pressing buttons. In our own recording studio.

It's a song I wrote when Gav and I first met and describes me to a T - "Walking Contradiction".

It's late on a school night and we are having a ball, being creative and totally stoked in each other and ourselves.

Is this really our life!?!?

When did we become freakin rock stars?!?

Over the last two weeks the East Coast of Australia has experienced two 'lows' which in more tropical areas would be known as category 2 cyclones!

These '100 year storms' have caused widespread destruction and even resulted in more than 12 deaths.

We were here at the farm when the storm first hit and though we knew it was meant to rain for a few days, were quite unprepared for the extent of the weather that occurred! Lashings of rain, booms of thunder, flashes of lightning and wind screaming and howling like a band of banshees. The power was out pretty quick and over the following week the 'gennie' became our best friend. Not all were so lucky. People read by candlelight and cooked on cooking stoves on their defunct electrical cooktops. No TV or charge for all their various devices forced people into playing cards or board games and huddling together to share the light of their battery powered lantern. The northern beaches completely sold out of candles and batteries within three days and in fact several suburbs shut down completely. People ran out of food, and flooded roadways or fallen trees prevented many from leaving to get more. Houses were full of water, some had huge trees through them and a friend of ours had their roof cave in due to an uncontrollable leak.

It was intense.

We watched as the water rose in our front paddock and the tension rose with the tide, but luckily our home and property sustained no serious damage.

There was lots to be done. The boys donned their wetsuits and along with Opa John moved the tinnie to higher ground to prevent it washing away. We had to tie everything else down and make sure the animals were OK. There was a huge eucalyptus to remove from across our driveway and several black wattles which had just blown over. Kind of exciting to be honest...

When the worst was passed it was time to clean up and of course have a bit of fun with it all...including riding the Rapids in the river and canoeing back through the paddock!

As the rain clattered on the corrugated iron roof all day long we brought colour to our day by creating some swirly free form art...

This one we thought looked like a fat Picasso bird...by Lucky and Mum.

This epic piece had Mr 'I'm not into art' Flex working patiently for hours...

And of course we needed to play with purple carrots and silk and bask in a steamy eco dye session ;)

The boys both chose to do extra 'book work' as well so that tomorrow they are a day ahead. Gotta love some forward thinking in kids that are so normally 'instant gratification'!