Bridport

Some pics from a quick visit to the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was just warm enough for the kids to have a splash and a play in the sand (Like it needs to be warm enoughf or kids to do that!)

Five minus one.. at least they are all looking at me.. Ethan was still working on his smile ;)

For Mum

5 years today.

I miss you.

Old McDonalds Farm

Emma's playgroup went to vist the farm today (and saw a cow along the way.. lalalala.. sorry). Emma was totally in her element being the animal lover she is. The animals were so friendly and there were alot of lambs and goats just roaming freely around us.







Of course now she wants to know why WE don;t have a farm. We have chooks.. does that count?

Lavender, Oh lavender

where for art thou lavender..

We took a trip to the Bridestowe Lavender Estate on the weekend only to see that the lavender isn't out yet.. what an anti climax.. sighh.. still, got some nice pics.. minus the fields of luscious purple lavender..

While they had some lovely stuff for sale.. I was too busy wanting the lovely white furniture and bits and pieces for in my house.. lol





I'm sure it looks much better when the lavender is blossoming..



We'll come back again in a couple of months..

Little pink watering can

Emma loves to help me in the garden. She will ask about the different plants and flowers.. smell them.. pull the petals of them.. (we are still working on that one). She especially loves to help me water, so when we saw this little pink watering can.. well she just HAD to have it.. lol


Only problem now is I have to remember to turn the taps off tightly.. or she will spend all day watering the garden.. and herself..

He got a haircut today. Makes him look so much older.

Away from the ordinary..

because

jumping on a bed is fun..





and laughing is good for you

Worms & ladybugs

We're making some changes to our backyard. Changes which involved clearing out the corner where we put our grass and garden clippings to compost... and look what we found...



What little boy (and girl!!) can resist worms.. there were so many to collect (I just know this is grossing some of you out...lol)

They now have a nutritious new home in the compost bin.

and for those that are grossed out by worms.. how about a little ladybug..

and my bigger ladybug..

Woo hoo.. three eggs this morning.. I guess that means they approve of their new home ;)



The yummy chocolate biscuits I posted here. I cooked another batch today and hid half of them from the kids.. just to make them last longer.. lol

Bock bock bock

Meet out new additions. We decided we eat enough eggs in this house to warrant investing in some chooks (chickens for the international set..) They seemed to have settled in well and were last seen huddled together on their roost.

Of course we have picked names.. well names for three.. no.4 chook seems a bit shy so we haven't though up something for her yet.. lol
Meet...

Dame Edna.. she's crossed with a Polish Bantam.... she's the fancy one..lol



This is Sally, for no other reason than she looked like a Sally.. apologies to any Sally's out there ;)


Speckles because she has white speckles on the top of her head.. someone suggested another name because they thought it looked like she had been standing under another chook at an unfortunate moment... hmmmm...






and Anonymous because we are yet to name this one!


Getting use to their new surroundings.. hopefully they won't be too traumatized by there move and will produce us some lovely fresh eggs soon!

Hay!

Today we went to get some hay to mulch the garden with. We arrived expecting nicely stacked hay bales to choose from... wrong. it was more like.. dig through the hay looking for an intact bale..lol.. E & E had a blast playing in it all though and we managed to find 12 large intact hay bales. I spent the rest of the afternoon mulching my garden. All the spring flowers look so much prettier now..lol

We also needed some hay for some new additions that will be arriving tommorrow ............ ;)

Of course I never expected a photo opportunity and left my camera at home (grrr) so here some pics courtesy of Dh's phone camera!

Passing on a good thing

These are the yummiest chocolate biscuits I have ever made. I dare you to stop at one.......... the only thing I did differently was rolled teaspoon sized balls in stead of tablespoon .. if you do this you can eat twice as many....

Yummiest chocolate biscuits link

I would have posted a pic .. but we ate them all.

I'll just have to make them again now..

Kris... you have to get this book ;)

My garden

I've always dabbled with gardening, there's something very theraputic to me about digging my hands through the dirt, turning the soil.. planting seeds and seedlings... watching them grow. Now with the insdie of the house done I am getting more serious in the garden..


Last year I planted mint and was able to make mint sauce from it.. yum. It died off over winter but has sprouted back recently.

and this is my herb garden.. currently its housing parsely, rosemary, oregano, chives and the garlic that dh's mum planted when she was here. I want to try planting some ginger, apparenlty its really easy to grow.


Silverbeet


A couple of weeks ago I planted peas and here they are. I've never grown them before so will be interesting to see how they go.


Brocolli, never grown this before either but I grew some cauliflower over winter so it cant be that hard..lol


Capsicum.. we eat a lot of these over summer with salad.

I'm still to plant carrots, cucumber, tomatoes and zucchinis, just waiting for the weather to get a little warm.

and if we get sick of eating all the vegetables.. I have the fruit taken care off too ;)

The apple tree I planted here is budding. Not sure if we will see any apples this year though. We also have a very old nectarine tree which produces the yummiest fruit.



Strawberries.. that I finally transplanted so they are all in one patch instead of scattered everywhere in various pots.


and raspberries. I got the raspberry canes from my dad, they are from canes that were originally in my nana's garden and I can still remember picking and eating them with cream and a sprinkling of sugar... yummmmm


We are also in the process of sourcing some chooks! We eat alot of eggs and I have always wanted some chooks and I think it will be fun for the kids as well not to mention the great fertiliser they produce ;)