Feather your Nest Friday, 10th April, 2026.

It was a very nice week.   We had a family Easter brunch on Saturday.  The sun was out and the kids all had a wonderful time hunting for easter eggs and speeding down the hill on the flying fox.  

Since we had rain which is perfect timing to keep the grass growing and also to water my seedlings.

I managed a slightly less crazy pace and tried to balance running around with some more restful things ie paying bills and crochet and letter writing.   

It is a wonder I made any progress with crochet with my friend always one inch away.

Still I completed all my squares and sewed them together. 

I am on the third round of the border.  My idea is that this should be quite wide.   Then it will take me five thousand hours to sew all the ends in!

AND I faced up to laying out all my patchwork blogs to see how they looked together.  I was worried because some blocks are more pinks, some more blues or lilacs and some more green.  

With the help of a friend I loved how it looked and a layout was selected.  I have joined the first row only... 

I have a gorgeous floral sheet to back it.  It will be really exciting to get that far!

My cook up for the week was sausage rolls.

I am not sure how many I made... maybe three dozen.  This tray went to Chloe's and they are not quite brown enough because she was going to put them in her oven.

Lots of celery went into this recipe and what was left I chopped and froze.

At a garage sale I found four huge baking dishes.  Exactly what I've been looking for.  I can only ever find small ones.  Very often I need a dish to make a lasagne and they are all full of in the freezer.   Anyway it was a bit of an adventure but I came away with four great dishes and apparently one is a fancy brand and although I never would have known (if not told by my friend) it would be $400 to buy!  Brands I do know well though are Pyrex and Corningware and when I see them I investigate!

That evening I was talking to a friend on the phone.  She asked how was my day?  I said it was fantastic and I was so excited to get these baking dishes.  Then I said maybe not everyone would actually find this overly exciting but I did!  She said that it was ok,  one time someone gave her an actual hump of camel fat and guess who was the friend that found that exciting?  Yes, that would be me.  😊 haha!   She said I listened to her fat story so she could be happy for my baking trays story!  It is truly a beautiful thing to have someone to celebrate with! 

Friends gave me two beautiful Pumpkins.   I also found lovely books for Mum.

In addition to the pumpkins I was given a bag of onions,  a bag of passionfruit and cream!

I am still picking figs and have used a bucketful to trade and more to give.  Often people ask me how to get trading going.  Well, you give people stuff.  Mostly they end up giving you stuff later on when they

have an excess they think of you.  Or someone gives you something and you think of something you can give them back.  Soon it is coming at you as if you are running a gauntlet.  haha.

While I am on the subject.... tell people you cook, preserve, make jam... knit or crochet and tell people you are always looking for jars, a slow cooker, a dehydrator or whatever it is!  Ask and you shall receive!  Truly be brave!  Whatever you need also pray about it! 

Tom came over and because of making the sausage rolls I once again had left over pastry.  I try to be teaching things as we go and I explained that we could throw out these last bits or we could make something fantastic.  (Option one being not an actual option.)

So away we went.  He has done this before so he was off and running.

This is the tray he took home.  I needed up with some gluten free pastry treats as well.

On Tom's farm there is a huge windmill.  While farms were always covered in windmills these days they have been replaced mostly by solar pumps.    Only a few weeks ago I said if I find an old windmill I would put it up near the house because I think they are beautiful.

My farm helpers were fixing a water tank on a hill.  This was surrounded by scrub.  It was only a week later when I was told that there is an old windmill up there but it is not seen because of the trees!

So guess what we did!?  Tom, the tractor, my helpers and me... off we went.   I told Tom we were going on an adventure.  For that he stuffed his pockets with biscuits and took a drink.  😊

First the spinning part came down.

Then the base...

It is having a clean up and a few repairs before we put it up on the hill near my house.

This next one is also going to be exciting for gardeners and farmers and maybe no one else.

Last year the sheep yards were cleaned out (after about 30 years) and the pile of sheep manure is probably the size of a small house.  I know this is valuable fertiliser and some was added to my giant compost heap.   But in my mind I imagined needing some kind of machine that could spread the manure around the paddocks ie a super spreader.

Last week it hit me what a waste it was just sitting there.  It would be better to be in my cow paddocks any way at all to improve the soil and I have a tractor. 

So this week about fifty loads (as in giant scoops) went into the paddock.

The tractor then bulldozed it around and now it is pouring with rain which would work it into the soil. 

Hopefully soon I will see a difference in the grass in this area!

Now to the loveliness of a farm Easter.  

The egg hunt was over a pretty big area and Lily was pretty good at it!

As you can see the sun shone and we all just enjoyed being together. 

I over catered massively on purpose and sent everyone home with treats and dinner.   So it was a happy success. 💗

I hope you had a beautiful Easter and a good week of nest building.   Make hay while the sun shines, that is my motto.  Maybe add to that busy hands = happy hearts. She works with her hands with delight...  ok I have many of them!  But do you notice how so often small things are big things and you feel absolute delight even if it is an old baking dish or a crochet edge.xxx