Savour the Seasons
  • BLOG
  • About
    • About me
    • Why savour the seasons?
  • Shop
  • CONTACT

Mice are nice

7/11/2022

3 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I think mice are rather nice;
Their tails are long, their faces small;
They haven’t any chins at all.
Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,
They run about the house at night;
They nibble things they shouldn’t touch,
and no one seems to like them much,
but I think mice are nice!
​

-Rose Fyleman

It started with this poem which we discovered in a book of poetry for children. Ever since Archer has had the words to explain his love of mice - those little ears and teeth, long tails and nibbling instincts. So when it came time to think of ideas for his 6th birthday party, a mouse theme was suggested. And of course, I simply had to honour this poetic whim! 

There were mouse meringues and mouse shortbread, a mouse cake (orange zest and vanilla) and various mouse games: making mouse ears, mouse, mouse, RAT! Pin the tail on the mouse, mouse egg and spoon race, What's the time Mr Cat? And a piñata which was not mousey but made by the birthday boy and I into a number 6. My mum gifted him a beautiful book called "Mouse's Wood" which we've been reading and exploring the magnificent illustrations for days.

How can my littlest son be six already? Though it's hard to believe, he is every bit a wonderful six year old; he can read a book to himself and ride a two-wheel bike and help collect eggs. He loves school and music and adventures and cuddles and sloths and lego and... mice! 
3 Comments

For you

1/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Here's a link to download a set of three coloring in pages I designed around the theme of spring: Australian native flowers, a jolly wombat and the daffodils that come out in abundance around my town in this season... 
springtime_colouring_sheets.pdf
File Size: 262 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

To Sydney and back again

13/7/2022

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I drove the boys up to Sydney with me for the beginning of the school holidays. Our cups were filled with the sublime - cousins and family, hugs with my mum, playground adventures, Lebanese pizza, salt water, sandy feet, urban sounds, city birds and glorious sun rays. Sydney will always be the place I grew up: the city I studied and explored on train, bike and foot. It's where I got married, where I discovered Arabic and jacarandas and heavy metal. Fostered faith, found friendship. It's loud and chaotic, overdeveloped and overwhelming, and the traffic makes me want to give up driving forever - but it's gloriously diverse, colorful and exciting. It's the ground on which I lived for two thirds of my life. I am glad to return and say to my children: this is the city where I was born //
1 Comment

Autumn walking

26/4/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Walking in the forest on an autumn afternoon. The gentle sun filters through every crack and bug-eaten leaf. It is a lesson in shadow and light, in life and decay. Underfoot the crunch of leaves, the snap of sticks, the remains of a dead fox or two, the slow gurgle of the river. The forest is a hidden world, sheltered from the wind, and creaking with willow limbs, oak, elm, holly, hawthorn. Foreign and familiar. Stooping down we see the tiny cyclamens blooming in lilac magnificence, mossy stumps and spider threads. Three boys and a man sit perched in a high up branch. I hear them laughing as I pack my camera away and feel the dappled light on my face //
0 Comments

twelve

20/2/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Twelve years growing a marriage and most of those spent learning how to farm regeneratively and raise little men, rising at dawn and retiring long after the sun has set.  Not a day passes without a hearty conversation between us, and that's the privilege of living with your best friend; of sharing the best and worst of your selves and still feeling safe enough, loved enough to keep at it. We have gathered twelve years in our hands; seasons of comfort and difficulty, of joy and anticipation, of drought and abundance, of adventure and mundane life, gritty and awful, faithful, golden loveliness. We have worked hard to understand each other better, to listen, to hold carefully a thing that sometimes feels overwhelming fragile, or momentarily obscured. We are still leaning how to rest, to nurture what's separate, to invigorate the mingling. Marriage is play too, ridiculous and sweet. To grow a life together is not always to agree or know the way forward but to know you belong beside each other and that's enough. The path ahead is glittering faintly, and we're bound to fall short, to disappoint and delight, but there's promise too. So much goodness yet to come // 
0 Comments

10

7/2/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Mr 10-year-old wanted to have his two best mates over and camp under the oak trees, so with the loan of his kind auntie's tent it came to pass. There was much chatter and reading by torch light, movie watching and trampoline jumping and a rather unstable Minecraft inspired birthday cake complete with marshmallow "snow blocks", blue jelly "water blocks", chocolate cake "earth blocks" and marzipan creeper and pigs. We made it together and it was fun to create and deconstruct! 

For as long as I have known and loved this child of mine he has been most himself, most relaxed outside. Surrounded by grasses and wide open sky and beetles and creatures of all sizes. I pray he will always return to the nature that brings him fresh perspective and peace, and know the love of the Creator behind it all. 
0 Comments

Gifts From the Sea Pt II

30/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
"To step over the low wall that divides
Road from concrete walk above the shore
Brings sharply back something known long before--
The miniature gaiety of seasides."

​
-Philip Larkin, To the Sea
0 Comments

gifts from the sea Pt I

29/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
We returned last week from our holiday by the seaside. Our first time off the farm as a family for more than four years. We sunk our feet and hands into the warm sand.  We felt the cold rush of salt water over our bodies. We caught waves and watched tides come in and out. We explored rock pools and gathered seaweed. We found shells of many colours and sizes and sometimes ones with little whelk residents still inside. We watched the clouds roll and the water froth. We listened to the birds chattering in the gum trees. We walked under coastal teatree and huge banksia trees and flowering bottlebrush. We read books in bed and in the park and on the beach. We caught a ferry and saw a giant petrel take flight. We squished moon snail egg sacks in our hands and bought fresh squid from the market. A seal swam under our feet on the pier. We made a sand octopus and many a sand castle. We ate fish and chips too. We delighted again and agin in the gifts from the sea // 
0 Comments

cake and flowers

11/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
November has arrived with all her flowers and sunshine and birthday celebration! It's still sinking in that my youngest baby is now a five year old. He is such a jolly, passionate, theatrical and tender fellow. He requested a white chocolate cake with whipped cream and French-style coffee buttercream icing and a sloth on the top. 

​Meanwhile the garden is bursting with colour, leaf and bloom - white foxgloves with little speckles of deep purple, yellow irises, red valerian, white daisies, roses and lavender beckoning all the bees. I recently acquired some beautiful Liberty of London fabric - cotton lawn sprigged liberally with flowers - it will be like wearing my November garden around on my chest // 
0 Comments

spring walking

1/10/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I want to remember the afternoon in the spring holidays we went out for a walk, my three boys and I. We walked, rode and scootered to the cattle yards. They humoured me as they played, holding still long enough for me to take their portraits. And it's in seeing their faces captured that I realise how beautifully grown they are, these three boys of mine. I want to remember the blue September sky, the growth of new leaves on the trees, the grass soft and green, the fine spider webs in the gorse bush. I want to remember the sounds of birds and the the cattle grazing the river flats, the sight of children rambling back home, this beautiful place, our home of more than two years. 
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture
    Picture

    ABOUT the author 

    Emily Clare Sims is a farmer and mama to three young boys. Each day she looks for ways to notice beauty, contemplate her faith and savour the seasons...

    Read more here


      Savour the season has a newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter
    Read my latest newsletter

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Atumn
    Autumn
    Blessings
    Celebrations
    Christmas
    Community
    Easter
    EBooks
    Faith
    Family
    Farming
    Flora
    Food
    Forest
    Garden
    Gluten Free
    Home
    Journal
    Landscape
    Lent
    Making
    Memademay
    Motherhood
    Odes
    Places
    Poetry
    Reading
    Recipes
    Savourtheseason
    Savourtheseasons
    Seasons
    Sewing
    Sketches
    Skincare
    Slow
    Soap
    Spring
    Springtime
    Summer
    Winter
    Wintering


    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    October 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    July 2015
    June 2015
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    August 2013
    November 2011
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    January 2009
    September 2008
    July 2008


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • BLOG
  • About
    • About me
    • Why savour the seasons?
  • Shop
  • CONTACT