from seed
Top image} A little shoot growing up from a seed.
One night while we were making salad dressing {lemon juice + olive oil + honey} we found a seed that had already just started cracking open.
Ready to send forth roots and a shoot.
I gently placed it in the soil in our little window box on our kitchen window.
A space that gets regular watering and not too much hot afternoon sun.
Little by little each day we have watched our seed grow. Even since taking this photo, a few days ago, it has grown taller with proper leaves opening up.
Bottom image} A piece of mandarin left on our bench, half eaten by Mishi's little mouth.
One day we will eat lemons and mandarins from our own grown trees. This little shoot is the first. A hopeful first. A dream growing to fruition. Even if it takes many years of tending before we have our own fruits.
Other things} It also seems as if Ari has suddenly shot up taller and taller. I don't even recall when it happened - but he is now tall enough that he fits under my armpit quite easily. Just tall enough for me to lean upon him.
{flowers} yesterday::today
Yesterday at 6.15 am*, I took these photos of our hoya. The buds still all closed up.
Then this morning, at 7.43am* I stepped onto the front steps and noticed that they had opened their star petals up. These have a subtle, sweet perfume.
*times may not be entirely accurate, but are as close as memory allows.
Then this morning, at 7.43am* I stepped onto the front steps and noticed that they had opened their star petals up. These have a subtle, sweet perfume.
*times may not be entirely accurate, but are as close as memory allows.
i'm going to have to start sharing
My big boy decided that he can sew by himself. On my machine. 
He had this long stretch of white felt that we got from (possibly) Reverse Garbage. He drew great lines on it, just strips of colour. And a few cross lines as well. Simple. And perfect. In a very graphic art way. I really like his simplicity, his restraint with the shapes and lines. Just keeping it still and uncomplicated.(Someone outside, in another house, is playing a beautiful lyrical piece on a flute, or something. Another one of those moments you have of living in the city. In a street where you can hear your neighbours breath and talk and yell, and play music, and laugh).
So, after much talking, and me having to finish sewing my skirt (photos tomorrow, or some other time, I promise), I let him at the machine. First he sat on my lap, moving the fabric about with his hands, and pressing the button to reverse the stitches, lifting the foot up and clunking it down. All to my instruction. With me pressing the foot presser, to make it all go.Then, while I was doing something else in the same room (my machine is now in our kitchen), he hopped onto the chair, and stretching his legs to reach the foot presser, he started doing it all on his own.
So, my big (little) boy can sew. Have a look at that concentration.
We got a box to make the foot presser higher, so that he can reach properly. And with standing over shoulder instructions from both mum and dad about being careful to not get fingers sewn on.He did it.
He decided exactly where to start and when to stop the stitches. And then, half way through a line, half way across the 'page' he stopped, lifted up the foot presser, cut the thread. And declared it finished.
So, I suppose I'm going to have to share my sewing machine with him now, hey. Or buy him his own.
portrait of an artist
These photos are all taken by the little artist himself. I love the composition and viewpoints in these images.
He painted this one by squeezing the paint straight from the tube, and working it into shapes. He did this all on his own, while I was doing something else. He asked me to get the paints down, while the littest one was asleep, and set about doing some beautiful and textural paintings. Pieces that needed a few days drying time.
This one, the smaller one in the middle, was a collaboration between Sam and Ari. Done with those paint pen things, straight onto canvas. Many beautiful parts in this. I hadn't even got out of bed for the day, and these two artists had completed this mini masterpiece.
The red and black piece on the left is one of Sam's canvas lipstick palms, which he has hand drawn on top of. The beetle vase in the front is by Deb Cocks, I've mentioned her before (somewhere, I think).
And this is, of course, a fun and childish self portrait!
He painted this one by squeezing the paint straight from the tube, and working it into shapes. He did this all on his own, while I was doing something else. He asked me to get the paints down, while the littest one was asleep, and set about doing some beautiful and textural paintings. Pieces that needed a few days drying time.This one, the smaller one in the middle, was a collaboration between Sam and Ari. Done with those paint pen things, straight onto canvas. Many beautiful parts in this. I hadn't even got out of bed for the day, and these two artists had completed this mini masterpiece.The red and black piece on the left is one of Sam's canvas lipstick palms, which he has hand drawn on top of. The beetle vase in the front is by Deb Cocks, I've mentioned her before (somewhere, I think).
And this is, of course, a fun and childish self portrait!