Today, I’m so excited to launch my new Patreon community offering membership for those of you who wish to explore various aspects of nature -based creative inspiration. My membership levels begin at AU$5 which includes a weekly Creative Prompt, a monthly wallpaper image for your phone, and more.
Category: Lifestyle
12 Months On
One of the things I most enjoy about my Fifteen Acres blog is the communication with people who are interested in nature and who enjoy sharing flora and fauna finds – both on my site, and on their own. For those long term followers who must wonder where I have been, I want to write … Continue reading 12 Months On
For Those Who Sew!
Many of my friends and family are keen quilters, or sew clothing or items such as throw pillows and tote bags. At some point I noticed that most of the flowers on the floral fabrics were exotics, and I wondered if I could create fabric designs featuring our local wildflowers. The result is my … Continue reading For Those Who Sew!
Catching Up
Most of the time, confining this blog to what happens on our property of fifteen acres works well. There is certainly a lot to photograph and research. Over the past year I have been doing many more things which take my focus away: involvement in the community and trying to progress my artwork being two major focal … Continue reading Catching Up
Mind Shifting Moments 1: Ecosystem
As we approach the two-year mark, I want to document some of the ‘mind shifting’ moments that have occurred since we moved in. I think I am substantially a different woman from the one who lived in the centre of the city two years ago. The topic I have selected for this first post is Ecosystem … Continue reading Mind Shifting Moments 1: Ecosystem
Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact
The first thing I do when I get out of bed each day is look out the window to see ‘who’ is there. We recognise individual birds and animals within a species because they seem to have made their regular patch of turf the land outside our windows. It is their home as much as … Continue reading Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact
Lingering Moments
It is almost a year since we moved here. As I look back over the photos, I notice a number which were intended for posts, that never quite made it to the blog, so here they are. Each one lingering as a moment I remember clearly. They all resonate with me enough to share with … Continue reading Lingering Moments
Daily Prompt: Journey – My Morning Walk
I’ve discovered the WordPress blog ‘The Daily Post’ which offers challenges to bloggers. Today’s challenge is to photograph or write about a journey. I won’t do this every day, but today I was inspired to get out and capture the journey I take every day around our property, including the things I look for each … Continue reading Daily Prompt: Journey – My Morning Walk
A Bark Weaving Experiement
Two recent visitors have wondered aloud about weaving bark, and how it might be possible to retain the wet colour of the bark. This also interests me, so I thought I would give it a try while looking after our granddaughter. We collected some bark which was close to the house, soaked it in water … Continue reading A Bark Weaving Experiement
A large fast-moving grass fire…
Intellectually, I’ve known that life-changing events can happen almost randomly. This idea became a crushingly clear reality over the last two days after a large grass fire swept through our area, burning at least 16 houses and 18 out-buildings to the ground. The fire took hold some 500 metres or so away, on land across the … Continue reading A large fast-moving grass fire…
Waiting for the end of Summer
I’d imagined Summer would be a hive of activity, with new birds arriving for the water in the dam, flowers appearing everywhere, and an active planting season in the vegetable garden, but I’ve come to realise Summer is a time of waiting and watching. Waiting for the vegetables to grow, waiting for each high fire … Continue reading Waiting for the end of Summer
Too hot for swamp wallabies, and for me too!
Yesterday, the temperature here reached 39 degrees celsius. We were lucky – many parts of the State had temperatures in the low 40’s. Even so, we didn’t feel lucky – high heat, high winds and dry vegetation is a dangerous mix. In our former life, in the middle of a large city, we would have … Continue reading Too hot for swamp wallabies, and for me too!
Fire Plans and Pumps
Recently, we’ve been to a few Community Fire Authorityn (CFA) information sessions. These sessions are aimed at ensuring property owners are aware that we are coming into the ‘fire season’. This is the time of year when, due to the combination of high heat and low humidity, vegetation is dry and bushfires are more likely … Continue reading Fire Plans and Pumps
Coming to the rescue: Lizards, Wrens and Spinebills
As I write this, there is at least one very scared skink lizard hiding under the filing cabinet in our study. Yesterday I rescued two lizards which Luna brought in to me. Today I was given reptile gifts by both cats, and managed to rescue four or five of them (I lost count) but unfortunately … Continue reading Coming to the rescue: Lizards, Wrens and Spinebills
Catching My Breath in Slow Motion
The pace of life seems to have slowed since our move. Partly this is simply because we have passed through three frantic weeks of cleaning, packing and uppacking boxes, shifting furniture into new formations that suit the new spaces, and the settlement on our former home has successfully come to a close. Now we just … Continue reading Catching My Breath in Slow Motion
Boxes, Birds and Wood Fires
For a week now, we’ve been living in our new house among a sea of boxes. Piece by piece, we unpack our old life and see how it fits with our new life. Already we find that some loved items simply don’t fit into this (smaller) house. We knew this would be the case. Part … Continue reading Boxes, Birds and Wood Fires
If you are reading this, it’s a clear day
When I started writing this blog, full of idealistic notions of the way we would live on our new property, I imagined we would face many challenges. I didn’t imagine that even being able to log onto the internet would be one of them. Our property is 30 minutes drive out of a very large … Continue reading If you are reading this, it’s a clear day
We have arrived!
This is a short update because we are in the process of moving in. Enjoy this photo gallery!
Moving the Cats
It’s getting exciting now. Only one more week before we can move to our fifteen acres of bush. Apart from madly packing our stuff into boxes, we’re starting to narrow down the list of things we need to do so we can move in. The very first thing we will need to do in our … Continue reading Moving the Cats
Book Review: Keeping Chickens in Australia
In a previous post I boldly stated I would review two books in a few days time. It’s a bit late, but here is an overview of information contained in the first book “Keeping Chickens in Australia”. As I don’t yet have any chickens, I really don’t know enough to review it from a position … Continue reading Book Review: Keeping Chickens in Australia
House Naming Ceremony
It’s four weeks to go before we get the keys to our new house. Sitting here at my desk in the sunshine with a coffee, it seems a long way away, but I know this four weeks will fly by. I want to prepare by doing or buying things now so when we move in, … Continue reading House Naming Ceremony
The Spark
After travelling for two weeks, we decided to check out Lake Hattah National Park on the second last day of our trip. We were the only people there, along with myriad birds, a handful of emu, and the brilliant blue sky. We stayed for lunch, and then decided to set up camp for the night. … Continue reading The Spark
Fifteen Acres 