Black and White Wednesday...

I so enjoy these Black and White Wednesday Posts... The detail of black and white that gives us a different perspective of an image is at times breathtaking...

(Erin holding Alice)

I am filled with gratitude that my children can grow up with their chickens, learning to care for them, understand their behaviour and love them...

I am filled with gratitude that these beautiful hens lay us the most wonderful eggs each day and nourish us...



One of my favourite birds, the Guinea Fowl...

Please pop by these wonderful blogs to see more B&W Wednesday beauty:
The Knitty Gritty Homeasted Blog 
Morning Sun Rae Blog
Running With Needles
(I will add all the links here, let me know if you have a B&W Wednesday post:)

xo

Linda

Black and White Wednesday...

Our Black and White Wednesday...

PS Don't forget to leave your links in the comments if you have blogged B&W Wednesday:) or even if you haven't we would still love to hear from you...

xo

Linda

Black and White Wednesday...

I love this photo of Kye at the farm, he was about two years old, full of glee, (which he still is)... His hair is almost this long again.... So sweet...

Happy Wednesday
xo
Linda

Black And White Wednesday and Wip Wednesday

This B&W Wednesday post was inspired by the rocks on Spiros Beach, as you know I love rock formations. The striations and weathering created by the sea on these beautiful flat rocks just had to be photographed.

My WIPs

This is my Aestlight Shawl off of Ravelry that I have been knitting. I have been wanting to knit a shawl for ages and this was the perfect one:) I love how the colours are knitting up:) The name of this sock yarn is called Agapanthus, a flower that is indigenous to South Africa and the colours really do represent the colours of the flower. This sock yarn was dyed by my wonderful friend Carle' from Nurturing Fibres, she has the most amazing sock and roving club on Ravelry and produces beautiful sock yarns and roving quarterly for the club. She also has an Etsy shop, Nurturing Fibres. She is such a talented dyer, I love her yarn!

Finally, I have blocked my Shalom Cardigan, it is so soft, I cannot wait to wear it, I just have to sew on the buttons and then it is finished!

Happy Wednesday to you all:)
xo
Linda

Our Week so Far and Black and White Wednesday

It is wonderful to be blogging again after this long absence... Thank you so much to everyone who sent me emails to see if all was well over this side of the world, I really appreciate it:) We are very well, we have had a lack of internet connection, which has only come back on in the last half an hour, so here I am:)  and I have had some wonderful custom yarn orders to fill which have kept me busy for the last few days. I am so enjoying the hint of Spring that is on its way. We have been working in our garden, planting fruit trees, I found different varieties of Almonds, Naartjies, Plums and Nectarines.... so exciting, AND, I even found two varieties of Pear!! Our apricots are in flower and so are our nut trees! I cannot wait to see if they fruit, it will be their first year of fruiting:) Our asparagus is sending out the most amazing thick shoots from the earth, so our veggie garden and orchard are looking good! We have planted three different varieties of lettuce and we are already eating our cauliflowers. We have also discovered that our new chickens have started to lay the sweetest little eggs. I love Spring, the buds on the trees, the green leaves, all so beautiful!

We have always recycled our paper and glass, but now we are able to recycle plastic as well which is amazing, even though we try to buy everything in glass, it is not always possible and now we can take it off to a recycling centre.  All our veggie peelings either go into our compost heap or our worm bins and I also have another wonderful little composter, called the Bokashi Composter which is amazing. We are really trying to reduce our Carbon Footprint as much as possible and be self sufficient. We are getting there...

I love that every time I walk around to switch on our water tank, I am met with the wonderful fragrance of Jasmine...

Our blossoming fruit trees...

We have almost planted up all of our veggie beds. We have stopped planting veggies in the new veggie garden and turned it into a small orchard as the Hadedas' fly in and dig our produce right out of the ground, roots and all...

Our Oak tree has green leaves...

My new Pear tree has blossoms! Do ya think there will be fruit?

We have also been dehydrating this week and the strawberry and banana fruit roll Erin made was awesome! I also made broccoli chips, yum!

This is what has been keeping me busy... Jenna also loves to dye yarn, she has been helping her mama and I love that she is learning along the way... Our new custom hand painted yarns...

 

Peacock Rainbow

Vibrant

Pastel Rainbow

Black and White Wednesday:

Caiden and Kye washing their dad's car together when Kye was still 2 and a half...
Happy Wednesday!
Shannon is also having a wonderful giveaway at the moment.
xo
Linda

Black And White Wednesday and Wip Wednesday

Hi everyone:) it is so great to be able to blog again, we have had no internet connection since yesterday afternoon, so I haven't been able to visit you and post. But yay, it is back today and here is another  Black and White Wednesday post:) It has been wonderful visiting all of your blogs to see your photos, remember to leave your link in the comments if you have posted a Black and White Photo so we can all visit and even if you aren't posting a photo today it would still be lovely to hear from you:) 

This photo below was taken by Erin at the farm, there are so many different varieties of grasses that grow here in South Africa and they are so beautiful:) The perfect symmetry of this grass really intrigued her and she waited to take the perfect shot.

WIP Wednesday:

I have been working hard trying to finish this Guinea Fowl design and pattern for Dana Biddle's new knitting book that is due to be published early next year. It is called From Fibre to Fabulous, A South African Knitting Adventure. I feel very honoured to have been invited to submit two designs for her book, the Aardvark and the Guinea Fowl:) So without further ado, (drum roll.................), the South African Guinea Fowl.........................

I will also be selling them in my Etsy shop as custom order requests:) I have also decided to move forward with my book, it will be a book of Mamma4earth knitted animal patterns, many of the animals will be South African animals, I will also include some marine animals too...

Have a wonderful Wednesday, off to visit your lovely blogs:)

xo

Black and White Wednesday Photo Challenge

Photos of our new brood for Black and White Wednesday... Our chickens are growing so fast, they should start to lay any day now... They are so sweet, they all stay together in a little group and follow each other around the garden constantly:) If one should stray away from the rest, there is a flurry of flapping wings as she runs frantically to the others... So sweet to watch...

Penny, Jenna's chicken...

A few of the other girls roaming in the garden...

I am looking so forward to visitng your links. If you would like to take part in Black and White Wednesday, we would love you to join us, just leave your link in the comments:) And if not, please leave a comment anyway, it is always wonderful to hear your thoughts:)

PS I have a Mamma4earth giveaway on at the moment, if you haven't entered yet, there is still time, it closes tomorrow:)

Black and White Wednesday, Rock Formations...

Todays post on Black and White Wednesday is about a road trip we took not so long ago. We were travelling just outside of Clarens in South Africa, on our way to the Cherry orchards and we came across these amazing sights while on the road. I love rock formations, they are so beautiful and have existed for thousands of years, continually changing by weathering, truly beautiful...

This Sandstone cave was so massive, it reminded me of an amphitheatre, imagine the sound echoing off those cave walls...

This old house was at the Historical Society in Ficksburg, isn't she amazing, we did go inside to have a look, she was very run down, but I could see her former glory shining through...

So many new friends have been visiting our blog and I would just like to say Welcome, thank you for your wonderful comments! It has been lovely to meet you:)

Black and White Wednesday

I am very excited about everyone that is joining in Black and White Wednesday and taking part in this photo challenge, thank you:)

Africa

This photo was taken when we went to visit at our friend's game farm, a most beautiful place... When you stand on the 'stoep' (verandah) outside, it is so quiet, you can hear the silence, it is majestic, I would love to live there surrounded by these beautiful creatures and the flowing hills...

Please feel free to grab the B&W Wednesday button on my sidebar and link to Natural Suburbia and do share your links so we can visit you blogs:)

Black and White Wednesday Photo Challenge

This is one of my favourite photos from our family photo archive. A photo of Kye when he was still just 2 years, almost 3. This was the first time he ever fell asleep on his own:) He was talking and then the next minute he was off in dream land. My sweet little angel...

Black and White Wednesday Photo Challenge

Winter...

This photo really does sum up the weather we are having here in South Africa at the moment. It is really cold and bleak. Our homes really aren't geared for this colder than usual weather so our fires are burning in the fireplaces. It hasn't been this cold for the last 15 years, roll on Spring...

Today was also our knitting group morning. We haven't all met up for quite a few weeks so it was wonderful to see everyone. We all chatted together, laughed, we were noisy and loud and of course we KNITTED! I really feel very blessed to know this amazing group of women. We share our stories, knitting techniques and our friendship...

Take care

Linda

Black and White Wednesday and WIP Wednesday...

Black and White Wednesday is fast becoming a lot of fun, I am so thrilled that some of you have been taking part:) This special boy below is Charlie. He is extremely sweet and more human than cat. I swear he seems to understand us when we talk to him and looks right into our eyes with such understanding... He is Erin's cat and he adores her... He is so clever, he will come into the bedroom early in the morning, stretch out his forearm and proceed to move the door backward and forwards because he knows it will creak if he does this and he KNOWS that we will get up out of bed and feed him! See, told you he is clever... I just loved this photo and had to share it:)

Now for our WIPS'

This is Erin's blanket she has been crocheting in a Merino yarn, it is almost as big as her at the moment...

This is Jenna's blanket she has just started crocheting, it reminds me of ice cream, lovely...

I have started knitting unicorns again, I love knitting unicorns, they are so magical...

I have also joined the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry, I am really loving this. Every year, during the Tour de France cycling race, Ravelry has a Tour de Fleece. Everyone who joins, spins something everyday, just as the cyclists spin, we spin our yarn on our wheels! Tremendous fun! You join a spinning team and share your spinning photos each day on Ravelry. Awesome stuff! I am also getting to spin up my huge stash of rovings that are in my yarn cupboard:) The photo above is a Merino Bamboo blend. Today I am finishing a camel silk roving that is called Midnight, the deep blues, reds and purples in it are wonderful...

Don't you just love these! I saw the tutorial on Ariella's blog and now we can't get enough of them! Jen and Erin are sitting here now working away with pentagons, glueing them together. They look so amazing at night, all bright and glowing little stars:)

Have a great day everyone:)

Black and White Wednesday and WIP Wednesday...

This is one of my favourite black and white photos of Kye when he was younger... His hair is growing long again, love it! If you have also done a black and white Wednesday post today, please share your link in the comments so we can visit:)

When I saw this Shalom Cardigan for the first time on Amanda's blog, I knew I had to knit one.  I think it was the green colour more than anything else that really woke up my senses and the way the pattern twists around the neck... I am looking forward to this knitting journey:)

Love the twists...

This is a custom order for my shop, someone has asked for a pink South African knitted lion:) I think he will be so sweet when finished.
Happy day to you all:)

Black and White Wednesday

Thank you so much to everyone who wished me well yesterday, you are all wonderful supportive friends!

I absolutely love black and white photography, it lends itself to such amazing detail and precious moments are saved forever on film...  I will be posting a black and white photo each Wednesday along with my WIPs, I think it will be great fun.  I would love it if you would join me on this journey of journaling, I will be posting a photo that I treasure, it can be anything that is important to you, your family, pets, a landscape etc (in black and white)... Please feel free to leave a comment with your link of your photo so we can visit your post:) I will be adding a button on the side of my blog soon linking to Black and White Wednesday.

This is one of my favourite photos of all my little ones playing happily together...

Have a great day everyone

Linda