September summary

Wow, September coming to end already!!!!!
I thought a little update would be in order

Our Home
Our new dog Monty has settle in really well. How about this for a dream dog - he doesn't bark, he comes when he is called, sits when asked, sleeps in his kennel all night and has a lovely gentle nature. One thing we are working on though is getting him used to the children - not sure if he has had negative dealings with children or he is just not sure about them. We are off to the butchers tomorrow for bones and a department store for a few more toys. All in all, he has been a pleasure. Dd would like him retured to the pound though, still working in her animal phobia. She LOVES looking at him through a window or door, just not close.
Dd had a lovely quiet (perfect for her nature) birthday. Lots of swimming, playing duplo and sharing her favourite meals with the family. Bix for breakfast, lavish bread for lunch and tuna and rice for dinner and her butterfly birthday cake for dessert. She has a few more toys to come, dramas with the online toy shop - oh well. She wanted a few more wooden toys for her kitchen that her Daddy made for her.
Dh has been really busy back at work at the moment - the dreaded overtime too. His pool heating is working really well, and has had heaps of blokes at work interested in his home designed and built pool heating system. He has nearly finished the retaining wall down the back - with me on the cement mixer and the kids playing in the car nearby.

Learning at Home
Well, after a long holiday down south, the new dog here at home and the beginning of the swimming season, we have been pretty relaxed with the routine at the moment. Ds is enjoying catching up with all his friends and they are both discovering all their toys again. We watched a lovely documentry on whales tonight which will spark lots of discussions over the next couple of days. Dd has been drawing and painting most of the time and playing with her babies of course.
Might have to get a little more structured next week as ds seems to be ready now.
Back to homeschooling group this week too!

Gardening.
At the moment we are focusing on trying to stop everything from going brown and dying. The sun is extremely strong at this time of year and only going to get worse so what was once a lush green acre, is now a brown dry acre. A little disappointing but normal for this climate. My vegy gardens are continuing to grow lots of tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, spring onions, corn, silverbeet and chinese cabbage. I am going to try and sneak another planting in this week, just to save the organic food bill for a while longer.
We are working on developing the gardens a bit more so a couple more trips to the nursery and maybe a little cutting nursery could be in order.
The fruit trees are going well - heaps of mango, lychee babies coming and we are still harvesting mandarins. Yum, we know Christmas is coming soon when we see fruit on the tropical fruit trees.

My Craft
I have been busy in my crafty room with painting a key rack for home, a cushion for a pressy, making a doll that a friend has ordered and getting some cards together for family and friends. The children show a lovely interest in my craft and really enjoy looking and discussing what I am doing. It usually kicks off a craft project for them. Dd is desperate to try fabric painting, I just need to get some more medium to mix in with her paint.

Planting in the tropics

I wanted to get a document together about what to plant monthly for our region.
This is what I came up with.
For other regions, look at eden seeds website for planting guides.
Planting Guide – for the tropics (from Eden seeds)
http://www.edenseeds.com.au/

ANY MONTH
Bush beans, climbing beans, beetroot, cabbage, capsicum, chilli, corn, eggplant, gourd, Luffa, mustard greens, radish, sunflower, watermelon.
JANUARY:
Rosella
FEBRUARY:
Asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, leek, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, rosella
MARCH:
Board bean, onion, parsnip, pea, salad greens, shallots, turnip, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, leek, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini. , rosella
APRIL:
Board bean, Buckwheat, herbs, kale, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, onion, pea, salad greens, shallots
MAY:
Board bean, Asparagus, broccoli, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, herbs Buckwheat, kale, onion, pea, salad greens, shallots
JUNE:
Asparagus, broccoli, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, buckwheat, herbs, kale, onion, pea, salad greens, shallots
JULY:
Asparagus, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, buckwheat, herbs, kale, salad greens, shallots
AUGUST:
Asparagus, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, tomato, zucchini, herbs, kale, rosella
SEPTEMBER:
Asparagus, carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, marrow, okra, pumpkin, rockmelon, rhubarb, silverbeet, button squash, zucchini, herbs, rosella
OCTOBER:
Asparagus, carrot, celery, lettuce, rosella
NOVEMBER:
Asparagus, carrot, lettuce. , rosella
DECEMBER:
Rosella

Birthday Girl

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR 4 YEAR OLD GIRL!

Our little fairy girl is 4 yrs old today. Wow, how fast it goes. She asked for some wooden toys for her wooden kitchen set, picked some duplo from Grandad, a toy dog from her brother, lovely colouring book and a couple reading books and some lego from Nana and Pop. With lots of swimming and her favourite food, it is set to be a good one!

Using Harvest

From a tree full of mandarins

to a container full of mandarin poppy seed cake!

Recipe

* 4 mandarins - peeled, and deseeded

* 180g butter

* 2 eggs

* 1 C sugar

* 1 1/2 C SR flour

* Poppy seeds (as you wish)

- Put all in the food processor and whizz up till batter forms.

- Bake in greased tin at180'c for 40 minutes

Intoducing Monty!

We have taken the step and added a lovely dog to our family. His name it Monty and he is a 5 yr old Kelpie X . Dh bought him from the local pound and so far he has settled in with not too many dramas. We have noticed he feels more secure on the lead and likes to be taken for lots of walks. When he feels more at home, we will take him off the lead and let him explore his surroundings.

Anyway welcome Monty!

Online toys

Now that I have had my rant, It is time to be constructive and list the toys shops (online of course) that I love
http://www.extendabilities.com.au/ - about to close down but atill have a lovely selection
http://www.dragonflytoys.com.au/ - great books too
http://www.rudolfsteiner.com.au/ - also great fro reference books
http://www.winterwoodtoys.com.au/ - my crafty supplier too
http://www.honeybeetoys.com.au/ - haven't ever bought from them but they look great.
www.spiralgarden.com.au - another great one.

Making childrens toys is a love of mine but woodworking is something I haven't got into yet - I wonder if dh would let me loose in his shed!

My Rant!

I am not usually a ranter but the time has come.
WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THE TOY MAKERS OF TODAY THINKING!!!!
It is dd birthday next week and I usually make all birthday pressies but life has got very stressful over the last couple of weeks, so i went into the local toy shop - big mistake. Don't they realise how important toys are to children, maybe they don't and that is why they make so much c**p. Scary faces, fragile plactics structures, once they push the button - that is all is done, agressive, over the top with colours, so many tv characters, all this and really expenive. I could not buy one thing - even ds said 'look at all the plastic Mummy'
Kids need to connect with their toys, use their imagination to create and to BE KIDS. Kids toys don't need to break the budget either. I regulary add to our chidrens toys because none of the wooden stuff gets broken. I bend the rules for Lego only, just because i feel it is an educational toy that the children learn alot from it. I really feel for the children today, they should get lost in their play as their toys take them on a journey of discovery. Now they break after one session and scare them at night.
Anyway, this subject is my bugbare and one dh agress with but is sick of hearing about. It is my love of early childhood that all this comes from and the fact that from a marketing point of view I feel it is not being respected anymore. End of rant

Poppy amongst the ferns

Introducing Poppy - my lastest Steiner doll. Pattern by http://www.sarahs-dolls.com/

I have her for sale on the Crafty Mamas website

http://www.craftymamas.net/

She is made from all natural materials and stuffed with wool fleece. She is just beautiful to cuddle.

Homeschooling with Dad!

Yes, when Dh gets involved in homeschooling - look what is created!

Mum made us beanies

Me, Me - I did it, I have knitted something and boy was it fun. I know knitting doesn't sound like fun but it is try it. There are so many patterns online - it is a cheap and satisfying craft

Cards made with love!

Here are some cards I am working on at the moment. I want to develop my drawing skills so combining them with cardmaking is a win win situation. I get lots of flower ideas from my Australian Folk Art Magazines - thanks Mum!

My flowers!

Here are some of my favourite flowers in our garden.



Oh, frangipani - love the colours, love the smell. The kids are always bringing the flowers to me and arranging them on the nature table or for a centre piece for the dinner table.











Lovely hibiscus - all around the pool is a must. We have a few varieties which need a little up keep at the moment but nothing a prune and a little white oil (homemade of course) won't fix.



I will get the variety names soon.


To make white oil
* water, squirt of detergent and a slurp of oil in a spray bottle and spray on little insects sucking at your favourite plants. Best to spray late afternoon to protect the plants from sunburn.

I made Soap!!!

Here is the olive oil and coconut oil soap I made.

I got the recipe from

http://www.aussieslivingsimly.com.au/.

It was very dangerous as I was mixing caustic soda and oil but what a thrill to be making and using our own chemical free soap. Just to verify, all soap needs caustic soda but once it is mixed with oil and left to harden, all the chemical leaves the soap. I made some into liquid soap and i also had a go at shampoo. I am still working on this recipe though.

I am itching to have a go at some lovely smelly soap next, maybe chamomile, citrus. I would love to make some lovely molds too.

My journey to Luffah

Here is a luffa growing on the side of the carport. Two seeds planted in our raised garden produced hundreds of luffa vegys. You can eat them when they are the size of a zucchini but we didn't really like them.

After they dry out, here are the kids peeling them. Many mornings of rubbing the skin off and collecting the seeds

To this, a dried luffa - handy for all uses of sponges.

Our Gardens

Garden 1 (above)

Garden 2 (above)

I love vegetable gardening. The kids and I spend many hours of pleasure planting, fertilizing, mulching and harvesting - yeah!

It is such a empowering feeling of producing our own food.

Some of our all time favourites - tomatoes, lettuce, capsicum, chillis, eggplant - yum, beans, corn - dd favourite, various herbs and this year we even got some strawberries. I tried a potato cage but wasn't very successful - remember to use certified potatoes next time!

As a family, we go out at meal times and harvest - what a buzz!

A very proud mother moment - ds harvesting his own tomato to put on his homemade bread for lunch - his choice and his favourite - hooray!

My objective for this year was to learn to seed save. I had success with corn, eggplant so far!