Seed. Sprout. Harvest. Repeat
Life in the sub tropical part of Australia’s east coast. Abundance surrounds us. Us and most of our friends have opted for a semi camping lifestyle, where outdoor living is a priority. Absorbing sunshine most of the time, just like the vegetables gardens they have been created. Simple living, striving for a self sufficient existence. Their dwellings, shacks, caravans run on solar power, appliances are low wattage. Their water come from bore/spring and rain water. Why? Because we realise that getting back to nature is our goal. Whilst the rest of the world spin out of control, we like the idea of watching our homegrown organic vegetables spin around the juicer instead and drink all its vitamins and minerals. We like the slow lifestyle of catching the first rays of the sun, as we get onto the day’s yoga practice. Then to the garden we go to tend to the plants. The children help here and there. They learn by observing the adults play out their passion for cultivating their own food. They are reminded that is what our life is all about. We eat, we play, we garden. We provide for ourselves. They learn where their food come from. The cycle of life. Seed. Sprout. Harvest. Repeat.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? So it should be. But alas, it’s not always that simple. In the gardens there are bugs and insects and caterpillars that eat some of the plants. There are opportunistic bush rats, brush turkeys, possums to name a few that hover around the garden waiting to get in there and indulge in our hard work. There’s droughts and floods to deal with. And these are these are the reasons why we persist on learning how to live on land. Because without the challenges we cannot go within. We observe and reflect on the seasons. The cycle of life. We are here to guide and learn with the next generation, our children. In hope that they will relearn and remember the ways of the land.
Paradise found in the four elements of nature
We don’t just live in paradise. We live paradise. We are paradise. However it is a constant challenge to attain this level of existence. Every minute, every hour of the day we must be in pure awareness and alertness of what thoughts are crossing our heads, what the physical body is up to. We go through many many many emotional ups and downs as well as physical ups and down. This existence is much more high maintenance than anything else.
Life is easy if you want it to be. We have chosen the path of living according to the rhythms of the natural world. We embody the four elements of nature every given opportunity. Today was a great day to do this. We packed up our belongings into the car, farewelled the grandparents whom we spent time with in their suburbia’s version of paradise over the last couple of months. And off we went to return to our sub tropical coastal forest, 2000 kilometres away. On the way we stop to rest and absorb the four elements. The four elements in case some readers out there are not familiar with them are earth, water, fire and air. We earth ourselves by sitting on the warm sand as we listened to the water element in the form of the waves crashing. We felt the fire element as the sun shone on us and the wind element passed through in the form of a soft breeze. To be in awareness and in sync with these elements does a great job at keeping us in a balanced state. To pause for a second or two throughout the day bring such serenity. To be in gratitude for these elements.
Here are some shots of today. I hope theses photographs gives you all a taste of where we are located. We are along mid eastern part of Australia. It is pure magic and beauty. Nature spoils us too much.
Lively Up Yourself
It was an unusual early spring day. I say unusual because where we are located the start of spring hasn’t got a definitive start month/s. Nor does any other of the seasons. We are in the south of eastern Australia. That bit on the map that looks like you can cup it in your hands like you would a cup of tea. Which is what the people here do. The weather patterns are bizarre. It would be in the middle of winter, cold of course but yet the sun burns as it blazes down on you. Or it is the middle of summer, but out of nowhere, strong southerly winds from the Arctic seas pass by. Brrrrr, where’ my warm cup of tea.
The unusual thing about that day in early spring was, the air was so dry. It felt like instead of being in suburbia, we were in the great Australian outback, where the ground is red and about 400 million fly buzzing around you. The children were in shock. Just days before, they were in full winter gear. They have spent the last five years in the sub tropics of eastern Australia, the weather temperate. They have gotten used to that kind of climate.
With their faces red and their hair all tangled in sweat, they hover around me wandering what game to play. Something not so strenuous where they would feel more hotter.
The 10 year old wilding finally spots the guitar in the corner of the room. Then the Bob Marley chord book. And that’s how we spent the rest of the day. Learning how to read guitar chords, strumming and singing. All that uncomfortable feeling from the day’s heat harnessed and transmuted into passion for learning how to play the guitar. And that’s how we homeschoolers spend our days. We flow with ease, learning happens naturally, anytime, anywhere, every time and everywhere.
Engage with us! If anyone out there homeschool, let us exchange tips and resources!
Kids, let’s get handy today!
Today’s activity for the wildings
Woodwork! I always enjoyed woodwork back at school. Today felt like a great day to get into sawing, sanding and drilling. What did we create? Two slightly wobbly tables. Work in progress. I encourage as much as possible for them to lead the project. Make lots of mistakes because at the end of the day, everything can be re-done and fixed. It is to boost confidence in them to tackle any activity with ease.
I grew up in a conventional household, I went to regular school. I was an obedient student, yet I lack the confidence to do things. This is one area that we work on with our wildings. Give them emotional stability and with that layed out for them as their foundation, their magic carpet, they are able to fly into their activities, join in workshops and not feel afraid of their environment.
Bit by bit I will write more about our earth/homeschooling journey. I will outline how our days look like and how we go about teaching and learning from each other.
For starters, as we begin any project big or small, we set an intention. For example, what do we want to learn from this?. We visualise us doing it and finishing it. Makes them sure of themselves. And if they are any uncertainties with what the project is, they can ask first to smooth it all out.
As more most things in life, some days are easy and some not! Stay tuned to our journey!
Dose of nature
As promised here are some photos of the trip to the botanical gardens. It truly is a dose of nature.
The geometric shapes of the leaves, the flowers are superb! These shots were taken during the golden hour... just before sunset. My most favourite time to photograph almost any subject outdoor. It makes every splash of colour saturated.
Check out the razor sharp jagged leaves! Yes they are as sharp as they look!
So obviously we were all too much in awe of plants, we did not record the scientific names of them. That’s for another visit to the botanical gardens!
Trippin’ on Nature
Today’s activity with the wildings: A trip in Nature! In this case, a walk around the local, newly created (well at least 6 years ago, still new to us as we haven’t been before) BOTANICAL GARDENS.
We live in Australia, along the eastern coast. At the moment, we are exploring the southern part of the east coast. Australia’s flora and fauna are absolutely jaw dropping, eye-rubbing, would you look at the colours of that plant kind! No matter how many times we have seen a certain flower, a tree, a shrub, even seed pods on the ground, we cannot believe the form and the colour it is. We are so spoiled here with the beauty of the natural environment. The indigenous people here call their creation stories ‘Dreamtime’. And it does feel very dreamy when you go on a walk about in the bush.
Our senses today sure did take a wild trip in nature. The colours of the flowers, the seeds, even the leaves are just beyond words. Nature has its way to mix colours. The contrasts between a deep jade shade of the leaves and sprinkles of bright purple flowers... who thinks of that? Nature does!
As we take a walk through the gardens around the botanical gardens, the children are in such awe of the plants they see... and they could not help but take a few flowers in full bloom. We also collected various types of seed pods which are so fun to do crafts with, play with. My children are homeschooled so our “learning” takes place anytime, anywhere, every time and everywhere. The seed pods we collected could end up as characters in a theatre production that the children come up with. Or they could be “food” in their game play. They most likely would receive names as well.
We walk through the food gardens section where it tells us the medicinal properties of each plant, how they are prepared and when harvest time is. We read through the signage. It is so comforting to watch the children take interest in plant medicine. This is one area that I always get excited about. Food as medicine. Or rather, food is medicine. We are always conscious of what we are feeding ourselves and our children too.
Because we were so excited when we left the house in the morning, we did not pack the camera. Whoops. We will attempt to go to the botanical gardens again over the next few days and take some shots of the plants for all you out there!
For now, here are some shots we took of flowers and seed pods we collected. Enjoy!
Flow of Golden Eon
I made it! Here I am on this platform ready to publish. So who will be my followers? Who will loyally read my musings, my reflections on life in general... who will give support and exchange tips on the trials and tribulations of mamahood? In return I will follow writers that motivate me, make me laugh quietly as I read through your blogs late in the eve as my wildings are starting to drift off to sleep, or even make me laugh out loud at your posts as I share your humorous vibe with my household....
I am Flow of Golden Eon. I embody the elements of the natural environment; in full awareness of multiple dimensions and using these as guides to parenthood and beyond. My aim is to nurture and nourish my children in all aspects of self; to cultivate emotionally content children. I have taken the great responsibility to earthschool my children, together we teach and learn from each other. I use platforms like Read.Cash to share our experiences. Enjoy!
@flowofgoldneon
