11th April 2008
Amelia started piano lessons on Wednesday. We hired an old bomb of an electric keyboard for $12 for the term - how can you go wrong with that?? Piano practice went swimmingly until we discovered the Hip-Hop button and then it dissolved into one of those slightly hysterical, over tired, pre-dinner dance parties where we all tried to out do each other with moves we’ve gleaned from Hi-5.
And we have a new plant which arrived in a cardboard box labled “Live Plants” from Diggers. It’s a “True Curry Tree” - which sounds pretty awesome when you read what Kurma has to say about it. I like the bit about all the groaning. Must be good. It’s just a wee little thing at the moment - about a foot tall - but it will grow to two metres and has lovely lush looking (groan inducing) foliage. We planted it outside the back door and fed it organic chook poo and lots of water. Now I hope it manages to avoid those pesky possums and we’ll be having curry for dinner in 2009!
17th March 2008
Phil’s back from a week long business trip to California and I can’t tell you how good it is to have him home! We have all been pining for him. Lily most of all. She’s been stomping around the house saying in the most heartbreaking of tones “Daddy - home?”. The cockroaches and spiders are the only ones not pleased to have him back - they get away with a lot more when it’s just me around. I tend to freeze up in terror and revulsion while they make their mad-scrambling escape. On top of the spiders and the cockroaches I have been sick with some throat, chest, lung thing and apart from making me feel crappy I haven’t been able to shout effectively at tired, overheated, misbehaving children and of course the weather has been unbelievably foul. I am feeling compelled to pack up and move to Tasmania. But whinging aside… Upon arriving home Phil discovered a pumpkin on the vine. Hooray! I can’t see any more but they seem to grow fast. I have just had a look at some photos I took of the girls playing out the back from the weekend before last and could see the itty bitty pumpkin just starting to look pumpkin-like only 7 days ago. This is Lily and her baby doll “Shep” playing alongside the pumpkin without even realising it! You can click on the photo for a better look.
Go pumpkin, go! It’s growing underneath Lily’s window which makes me wonder if it’s been growing happily there because of the gentle lilting sleepy music that we play to Lily at nap time and bed time. Ya never know.
27th February 2008
Ink! And brushes!
I am not sure what I am going to turn this in to — gocco print? Embroidery? I am still playing with it. It’s meant to be Lily in our garden, hence the pumpkin leaves, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. I haven’t drawn the possum-massacred capsicum bushes nor the forgot-to-be-watered herb pots… nor the weeds! That will be an entirely different embroidery or gocco print.
Kirsty started this little meme and just as I was wondering what I should post today, this came along. It’s nice that it’s happening on a Wednesday as I have some time to do some work on Wednesdays so can do a kind of WIP thing.
Truth be told, This isn’t actually my desk. This is the kitchen table but it was my desk for today so it kind of counts. My desk is below — and as you can see it’s got too dark to take any more photographs so that will have to do for this week.
26th February 2008
When we need a little comfort-reading we always turn to Milly Molly Mandy
. We chat about what it would be like to live in a little white cottage with a thatched roof with a brook at the bottom of the nearest meadow. It’s a very nice fantasy, and quite different from our current “eat your breakfast!”…”Hurry up! We’re late! We’re leaving in five minutes!”…”Can someone wipe Lily’s nose/hands?!” reality. At the beginning of last Spring we read the story “Milly Molly Mandy and the Surprise Plant”. MMM is given a little mystery seedling as a gift and plants it in her garden. As the Summer goes by the plant grows and grows; “It spread out branches along the earth, with tendrils which curled round any stalk or twig they met and held fast.” After much theorising It turns out to be a prolific pumpkin. After giving away the largest pumpkin for Harvest Festival they cook up the rest and everyone gets a little bread and butter with pumpkin and ginger jam spread on it.
So of course we decided we should plant a pumpkin to fill the new garden bed which we had put in when the deck was taken away (hooray!). True to the story the crawling creeper has grown and grown and is slowly but surely spreading it’s long tentacle, triffid-like arms around the garden. Amelia keeps talking about growing a prize winning pumpkin. “Ooh, this sunshine will be good for our Prize Winning Pumpkin!” etc. Despite the enthusiasm we have only just seen a few male flowers popping up their heads in the last couple of weeks and nothing in the way of female flowers let alone any signs of a pumpkin. Perhaps it’s been the lack of rain or maybe our new topsoil is lacking in goodies, but I may have to wait until next year and another attempt to try my hand and pumpkin and ginger jam. Perhaps Jane will have a recipe in her book!
18th February 2008
Hello!
It’s just a few days over a year since I stopped updating here and, predictably, I have been missing it. I feel like it’s time to start up again. Do you like our button squash? Some got a little too big and tough but the little ones are delicious steamed, with a big blob of butter and sprinkling of pepper. See you tomorrow!
