The feather bouquet

(Or how a child can see the pretty in everything).

We're waiting for rain.  The resilient 'Smooth cat's ear' weed provide the only flowers to be found in bloom.

Our chooks are going through their annual moult and the orchard is dotted with white feathers caught in the dry grasses and dead leaves.  The leghorn rooster is losing his magnificent long tail feathers, one by one. 

Barry Lyndon crowing.  He has already lost a few of his tail feathers.

These feathers normally sail like grand pennants in the breeze as he strikes a pose to crow, but now can be found at the bottom of the chook shed near the water bucket, trampled and dirty.  There is a time at the end of the moult when he loses all his long tail feathers.  At the risk of personifying an animal, I do believe that he is quite embarrassed about the entire moulting process.

The other day Sylvie and I took a long twilight stroll and photographed all the types of feathers, looking at each one and noticing all the differences, some are long and straight and some are soft and fluffy, and others are very fine, almost transparent and gossamer thin.

Just a few of the feathers that can be found scattered about the orchard. 

When I finished photographing the rooster, Sylvie said, “Turn around Mummy, I have a surprise for you” and she presented me with a feather bouquet, complete with the florets of the only plant in flower at the moment, the Smooth Cat’s Ear.  It was a lovely gesture made from the heart and testament to a child’s natural instinct to see beauty in all they encounter, including moulted feathers and common weeds.

Easter hare story

Or some personal ruminations about Graeme's new painting: "The straw kingdom".

In the Adelaide Hills, (or the Fleurieu Peninsula to be specific), rabbits are plentiful.  Every morning two or three who reside by the road scatter this way and that across the gravel in front of the car as we make our way down the lane on our daily trip to school.  Those rabbit-y ears don’t ever seem to be put to much use in the case of these little local souls who make dodging my vehicle a daily occurrence.  Can they not hear me approaching?  The top-notch (or crested) pigeons are equally blasé about a 3 tonne car heading toward them (albeit at a slow pace) and I wonder too about their ability to discern imminent danger.  I know that both the pigeons and the rabbits are the descendants of many generations who have lived in this same set of hollows by the roadside, so either their chosen survival skills are just not obvious to me, or the few people who drive on this particular dirt road are all very aware of the wildlife (probably a bit of both).

The wiliest of all the locals is the hare.  We have a few hares living on the property, I know of one who I suspect lives over the back hills who can be seen leaping across the dry paddocks at twilight like a streak, a flicker of flowing movement, almost completely camouflaged with the dry grasses, his speeding body set against the static paddock the only giveaway to the observer.

A second lives on the other side of the property near the main gate.  There is a small rise that lies alongside the driveway and this hare, male or female I cannot tell, will sit upright, alone and alert and use this rise as a vantage point but bound instantly away on hearing a car or a footstep or the small noise the gate makes as it swings on its hinges on opening.

Hares are larger creatures than the rabbit, longer in the leg; his back legs seem almost too long for his body, the fur on his back is all those soft tones of brown and taupe, but his under body is white.  He has a short, racy tail that is black on top and white underneath and the best bit, the very best bit, are the hare’s ears, long and black at the tips.  The hare’s eyes are set on either side of the head giving him great powers of observation of his habitat.

Hares don’t dig burrows, but live in the grasses; they make what’s called a form or a shape in the tall grasses.  Their young are called leverets and are born in the form with the long grass to protect them.  Their mother separates the leverets into several forms in the vicinity and visits each form every night to feed her babies.  After four weeks or so, the leverets are able to begin their adult life.  My father, my husband and myself are all keen to capture the hare on camera, but so elusive are they that even after years and years of careful watching, not one of us has managed even a blurry shot.

I always consider it a sign of good fortune when I come upon a hare. I say to myself, ‘it’s going to be a good day tomorrow’ (if I see the hare in the twilight) and if lucky enough to encounter one early in the morning, it sort of sets me up for the day and I feel I’ve been blessed with good tidings.

My husband is an artist and he feels similarly about hares and their relation to good fortune.  When driving through the countryside, there have often been occasions where a passenger exclaims ‘oh, oh, look; a hare, a hare!’ and the poor driver misses out on witnessing that elegance of form, that noble stance.  We feel the same way in terms of luck about shooting stars, but in the case of shooting stars you can stay up for hours and eventually both see one simultaneously, this is very rare in the case of the hare.

Graeme loves to paint hares, he adores their natural and innate nobility, and I thought you would like to see his latest work completed today, as we’re leading up to Easter I thought the subject matter would be perfect.  The hare is sitting atop an ottoman fashioned from the sorts of grasses hares create their forms with.  Pure Graeme Townsend gentle wit and twist on careful observation.  I hope you enjoy looking at the painting, alas, I don’t get to live with it, even for a few days, the painting is off to the gallery and I hope it will find a lovely home soon.

Our Easter lilies have emerged, they are so very lovely.

Oh bless!  They have returned, despite the hot, despite the dry, our ladies of Easter have thrust upward through the parched earth; leafless, albeit glorious.  What a perfume!

My gorgeous daughter described their scent as "like Princess perfume”.  For those familiar with a 5 year old girl's sensibility, you will know this a great compliment.  

Our Easter lilies are a perfect example of a case of persistence in the face of resistance.  Remember it's deadly baking HOT outside...

Below is  proof of just how dry the earth about us is at the moment.  Please rain soon!  

For those observant enough to notice, Sylvie; despite the heat, is wearing Wellingtons (or gumboots) because we need to be extra, terribly cautious of snakes at this time of year (the Black snakes are respectful and flee if disturbed, but the Browns are fierce... and won't back down even if you turn away). Wellies don't protect you completely of course,  but are a good way to teach a little one that before they leave the house they need to think and prepare themselves about the threat of stepping on / disturbing a snake.  

'Stomp and look at your next step, stomp and look'.  (& so on)...

The vibrations from your stomping in the ground can aid in letting a snake know you are within their vicinity, Black and Brown snakes don't wish to seek out trouble, they generally choose to avoid it, so as a human it's good practice to give them as much notice as possible, they will slide away to a safe place and you will not have a terrible scare.  Polite behaviour from both parties.  LOVELY.

If you're reading this and it's cold, cold, cold where you are, I'd love to hear from you!

Best,

Lara Jane.

The Easter races home-made hobby-horse

The Easter long weekend is coming up soon and for many of us who reside in and around Adelaide, the following equation applies:

Easter weekend = chocolate + Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

or

Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival = Chocolate +Easter weekend.

In honour of this long-running event I have designed a very quick, whip-together in a jiffy hobby-horse that your child will enjoy racing around the house on for the Easter long weekend.

If you’re not from Adelaide, bookmark this project for Melbourne Cup (November), as there are some primary schools that ask their younger students to bring in a hobby horse to celebrate Melbourne Cup day.  My daughter’s school has begun a tradition of holding a mini-hobby-horse-‘Melbourne Cup’, and this is how this project came about, I couldn’t bring myself to purchase an overly pink and prissy hobby horse that I felt would be left in the corner of the cubby house, unplayed with and ignored, so I went ahead and made something that I thought would be able to withstand a day’s play at the races and then could be dismantled and the broom returned to sweeping duties around the cubby house.  How wrong I was as the home-made hobby-horse remained intact and was well played with for quite some time until he was left out in the rain one night.  The one in the photos here is a new one I popped together and that’s why I can provide step-by-step photos.

It’s truly pretty simple and swift to whizz up, so have confidence and please have a go!

Here are the 6 PDF's you will need to download and print out.  I have reversed the image for you, so just click and print (onto A4).

Horse head 1 of 3 reversed pdf pattern

Horse head 1 of 3 pdf pattern

Horse head 2 of 3 reversed pdf pattern

Horse head 2 of 3 pdf pattern

Horse head 3 of 3 reversed pdf pattern

Horse head 3 of 3 pdf pattern

What you will need:

A small child sized broom

Some poly stuffing

Stapler and staples

Glue stick

Sticky tape

Scissors

The 6 print outs of the PDF’s provided (onto A4 sized plain copy paper)

A4 sized plain copy paper x 6 sheets

2 lengths of ribbon (I used black and white stripe), 40cm and 150cm

1.              Print out the PDF’s onto A4 (each side is made up of 3 A4 prints, you need 2 sides, so 6 A4 print outs in total).

Showing the 3 print outs required for each side.
Also note the centre strip (with the eye) which has been trimmed of white excess.

2.              Take one set and cut the excess white paper off the top and bottom of the centre image.

3.              Run the glue stick along the excess white of piece 3 and piece 1 on areas shown on pattern.  Stick piece 2 (the centre piece) in place, lining up the image so a complete horse head is created.  Repeat for the other side.  You have now created a left side and a right side.

The 3 pieces glued together.  You need a reverse version of this also to form the other side.

4.              Cut out the black triangles on each side (these will be used to match the sides together). 

5.              Match the triangles together, and hold up the horse head in front of a bright window to check the two heads line up together.  Pop a staple onto the nose to keep the two sheets in place.  Roughly cut off the excess paper  around the edges to allow the stapler access to the perimeter of the image.

Illustrating the triangle cut out to match to the other side.

Look closely at the bridle over the nose to see the first staple placement.

6.              Re-check that the images line up and begin stapling the two images together around the mane area, around the top of the head, and around the nose, into the mouth and under the chin.

The orange arrows show roughly where to staple.
The extra paper has been cut away to allow the stapler to access the stapling line.

7.              Trim around the stapled area, leaving a 5mm edge.

Stapled, and now trimmed with a 5mm 'seam'.

8.              Push a little stuffing into the nose and mouth area.

9.              Slip the horse head onto the broom head.

The lower half has not been stapled yet, the neck needs to be trimmed.

10.           Lightly stuff the horse head with poly stuffing, especially over the cheek and over the eye areas (both sides).

11.           Staple* under the chin to complete joining the two sides together on either side of the broomstick, stapling in a line along the chin.

Staple along either side of the broomstick following the cheek line.

12.           Trim excess paper from under the chin and on either side of the broomstick.

13.           Use a generous amount of tape to secure the horse head to the broomstick.

The lower cheek line area has been stapled and trimmed, and sticky tape has been applied to secure the hobby-horse head to the broomstick.

14.           To form the reins, take the 150cm length of ribbon and fold it in half, making a knot in the ends.  Put the centre fold in the horse’s mouth and have the ribbon lead up from the mouth to just under the lower ear on each side.  Staple the ribbon in the mouth area to secure and staple through all layers (both ribbons and the two sides of paper) several times to secure.  Then staple through all layers under the ear.

The ribbon has been secured to the hobby-horse head with staples in the mouth and under the lower ear.

15.           Complete the bridle by wrapping the 40cm length around the nose, and slipping the ends under the horizontal bridle straps to keep the look tidy.

Note well that the ribbon has been folded under to discretely hide ugly raw edges.

*It is advisable to check to ensure that all the staples are sitting flush to avoid any nasty cuts/grazes.

Your Easter races home-made hobby-horse is ready to run!

This horse head image has been taken from:

“Animals, 1419 copyright-free illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc. A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources” selected by Jim Harter, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, ISBN 0-486-23766-4

It is copyright free.  These sorts of publications are great fun to noodle through, you can use these images in so many millions of ways, and all you need is a scanner, a program to re-size or manipulate the image and a printer.

Cover illustration