She Sows Seeds

simple country living

And so that was Christmas 2021…

Hello! Remember me, and this place, on the strange internet machine, we meet again... why not go retro and blog about our Christmas rather than post a million photos to my Instagram stories? Yes? Good. Let's go. We had this Christmas Eve and morning with Matt's parents down by the sea - the money shot is always Christmas morning with littlies, let's face it, and we hadn't had a Christmas morning in Inverloch for a few years. The magic of Christmas Eve needs to be bottled: the anticipation, the carrots left out for the reindeer, the laying of the Santa sacks, the thrashing little bodies in beds too excited to sleep... I wish I were joking, but our darling two eldest children were up at 2.50am looking for Santa. ARGHHH!!! We managed to keep them in beds with further giggles and thrashing until about 6am when we discovered that St Nick had indeed popped by. Turns out the Steendam sisters were on the nice list after all. Cousins galore and delicious salads at ten paces are what ...

Read More »

Latest Posts

And so that was Christmas 2021…

Hello! Remember me, and this place, on the strange internet machine, we meet again... why not go retro and blog about our Christmas rather than post a million photos to my Instagram stories? Yes? Good. Let's go. We had this Christmas Eve and morning with Matt's parents down by the sea - the money ...

Read More »

Mother’s Love – A Gift Guide

Oh, hello! Here I am with a gift guide, of all things. I miss faffing around on my little corner of the interwebs here and sharing with you all (or nobody, doesn't matter), so I thought I would do a wee little round up of some loveliness for Mother's Day. Now, every mother will probably say ...

Read More »

Dear Mary… (One Year)

As with most things third-baby related, this is a little late... but oh still applicable and important. Mary is now 13 months - whoosh! Trying to capture my girls just as they are right this very moment, and eagerly anticipating what might be just around the corner for them, is a tricky balance I'm ...

Read More »

Retreating In. Blooming Out.

A few weeks ago I saw a post of Chantelle's over on her Instagram feed (@fatmumslim - you can see the post here). It was one of those scrolling, scrolling, scrolling... stop you in your tracks posts. I read it, and read it again. I read it again, and almost looked over my shoulder to see if ...

Read More »

Dear Mary… (Eight Months)

Third baby problems strike again, Mary Moo - you are actually nine months old at the moment, but I wrote this awhile ago! Remote learning in the time of covid-19 with small children at home all day every day is no joke... but we're getting there! And you, our little "pandemic baby", thank goodness ...

Read More »

Hidden Zucchini Choc Muffins (Egg Free Too!)

Every year we plant zucchinis in our veggie patch - no real surprises there. But every year we say "Just one plant." Because experience has taught us not to plant six plants. No no no, we are generally drowning in giant zucchinis every year, with just the one plant. I generally make all of the ...

Read More »

Dear Mary… (Four Months)

I wrote a monthly letter to Eleanor (first child!) on my blog, and then Harriet got a three monthly letter... now here we are at child number three, with a four month letter to kick the show off. I am nothing if not consistent in dropping the ball though?! Sorry/but not sorry Mary, there's been a ...

Read More »

What’s In A Name… (Naming Our Third Baby Girl)

I intended on writing a blog post on potential baby names when I was pregnant... but now, after the baby has arrived (and has a name!) is actually a much better time to put this into words: the names which were contenders, the ones that got away, the could've beens, the rejects, and the boy name ...

Read More »

Introducing Mary Alice

Would you look at that, we made another tiny human... Our third precious girl - Mary Alice, welcomed on 26.11.19, but we have been far too absorbed in the newborn love-bubble (and Christmas merriment) to worry about such things as a blog post to 'announce' Mary's arrival. Three girls! Three ...

Read More »

Growing A Human 3.0 – My Third (and Last) Pregnancy

When I belatedly blogged our explorings of the Eyre Peninsula recently... I realised that the last time I had sat down to 'put pen to paper' and blog was to announce our pregnancy... in May. That was probably not the surprising part - I am not the blogger I once was, the times they be a'changing. I ...

Read More »

Exploring the Eyre (Part Two)

In case you missed the memo - I was 34-36 weeks pregnant while we were away. Camping. Which some people thought was nuts, but honestly the only issue was perhaps how I slept at night... which I don't think had much to do with the camper, as I wasn't sleeping well at home anyway so may have been much ...

Read More »

Exploring the Eyre (Part One)

All throughout the first six months of this year, the first year with Matt back working on the farm, our first spud season with a busy packing shed and orders and trucks to fill, we said "after spud season we'll go away, after spud season we'll go away, after spud season we'll go away..." July and ...

Read More »

Someone Was Missing…

This time last year, we were somewhat rudderless. Matt was working an awful lot, often away, I was deep in the throes of raising a three and a one year old, a bit different to the two year old and baby phase, but in a lot of ways more juggling than ever before. We were by no means unhappy with our ...

Read More »

Book the Weekend

About six months ago, Beth documented her weekend away with a group of girlfriends. I thought "oh that looks nice... but far too hard to organise everyone's schedules and families and lives and work and and and..." I tagged a few girlfriends in Beth's Facebook post about "booking the weekend" - ...

Read More »

On #blogging and ‘doing social’…

Once upon a time (not so long ago, in about 2009, 'only' ten years ago) there was a girl... A girl fresh out of a photography university degree, who was burnt out and didn't really want to pick up a camera, who had followed her heart to rural Victoria, to a beef property in a small community where ...

Read More »

Heartbreak in the North

As a story teller, communicator and weaver of words about our farming life, it would be remiss of me to not post something about the recent rain event in the north-west of Queensland. I have already touched on it over on my Facebook page and in my Instagram stories, but thought a blog post to cover ...

Read More »

Pulling The Magic Out Of The Madness

Our house is very quiet at the moment. Over the weekend we had our best mates here, all the way from the dry and dusty Mallee (to dry and dusty and smoke hazed Gippsland...) It is always such a mission to visit each other, being four or five hour drive and with very small people thrown in the ...

Read More »