Kestrels and lemon butter (not in the same dish)

It has been a very blustery morning. The autumn winds are certainly here. Everything on the washing line is double-pegged, and flowers bloom one day and are blown away the next. It is lovely weather for running around outside with a ball; flying a kite; spending hours jumping on the trampoline; or simply lying, face up, and watching the clouds roll by.

It was a good morning for sighting kestrels - a couple sat on our fence posts and politely waited for me to take a photo with the pathetic zoom on my camera. I do wish they would come by a bit more often and eat up all the mice and snakes.

And it was a good morning for making comfort food: lemon butter and bread. Mmmm... I think I've had my sugar dose for the month, now!

A day in the garden

Another day of lovely sunshine today. After we sadly said farewell to the last of our guests, we got straight into the gardening. The veggie patch is so well mulched now, that, as Don said "I shouldn't need to get the whipper-snipper in there this year..."!

The veggie garden has even made it indoors today... (ie we're growing mushrooms in the pantry).

The children had a lot of fun on their bikes...

...and on the trampoline...

...and preparing for a picnic outside.

A day in the sunshine

We have had a string of relatives visiting over the last week. It's been lovely, and I'm glad the sun is shining again or the relatives might have been sharing unwashed sheets...! ;)

It has been a lovely warm sunny day today. Don has been in the veggie patch, turning over the beds and getting ready for late autumn and winter planting. The children have been racing around in the sunshine with their cousins. There has been a lot of collecting dirt/rock/leaf samples (to go in my nephew's new explorer bag), and observing the wildlife (although I'd prefer it if the flies stayed outside for their observation). And I have planted (with lots of help from relatives) quite a few flowering shrubs and vines.

We were all quite fascinated by the above Golden Orbweaver spider. The web it used to hold to the trees was very strong and quite a yellow colour. It was hanging at quite a perfect height for us to observe all her body parts, including the spinneret.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, friends. We have celebrated the usual way - freshly baked hot cross buns and chocolate eggs, to remind us of Jesus death and resurrection. Today we're happy to be warm inside as it is pouring with rain outside. There has been a spot of reading (Don pictured trying to read "Twenty-one balloons").


And a spot of knitting.

It has been very pleasant, but I think the quiet individual activities have come to an end as the children are starting to quarrel. Time to pull out the rainy-day play tent and box of toys...

Snake sighting

We've had a very exciting morning so far - the children spotted a brown snake in the yard outside, quite close to the house. It was a good opportunity to revise what-to-do-if-you-see-a-snake lessons. Somehow I don't think anyone will be volunteering to help me hang out the washing this morning!

I have been organising some Montessori-style activity draws for the littlest chicken to keep her occupied during school work times. They're such a great idea. The favourites at the moment are posting matchsticks through a hole in a box, and dropping water from one bottle to another.

And after all my moaning and groaning yesterday about not having the right Easter eggs in the shops, I made some up last night using the moulds. It was really very easy in the end, and I'm wondering why I ever bought them in the first place!

An exercise in patience...

There's been a bit of baking happening here over the last week. There have been lots of helpers, as evidenced by the floury fingerprints all over the kitchen, and the sticky spots over the floor... Between you and me cooking with children is a real patience building exercise - there's a lot of breath holding, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's about the process rather than the end result, and flour and sugar all over the floor can be cleaned up! I must say, though, that the cakes have been very yummy.

Don cooked up all the beetroot we pulled from the veggie patch. Yummy!

I'm thinking I'm going to have to find the egg moulds, so I can make chicken no.1 Easter eggs this year. There is generally one store in town that sees fit to stock dairy & nut free chocolate, but evidently this year someone way down in Melbourne decided we didn't need it this year!! Grrrrrr.....

Ah, those chubby cheeks!

On the weekend my dad was showing us some video tapes of the children when they were younger. Those chubby little cheeks were so adorable! (Not that they're not adorable now.. but there's something extra cute about those very early years - that look in their eyes of earnestness and trust, love, cuteness...). I hope you'll permit me to share a favourite set of photos with you, taken while they were playing with a ladybird.