Say no more...

A Loss

A beautiful person left us yesterday. 

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. 

Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

---George S. Patton, Jr.

One of my beautiful neices is constantly showing me beautiful photos. I want beautiful photos too, so I bit the bullet and asked her how she does it?

The answer is

Instagram

Considering that this is my first pic and I couldn't be bothered getting up of my fat little bottom to look for a suitable pic to take, this is pretty cute... There's all different kinds of effects you can get... turns a rather gnarly pic into something a bit... quirky... yeah, I like it.

It's about time...

to start blogging again. More than one person in my life has mentioned that I need to do it again. It is a different way of looking at life when I am blogging. Quite often those little moments get lost, unless I am blogging and then I think "This is bloggable! By golly gosh it is!"

Besides which, the children are pretty much refusing to read and so if I blog then they read it and that counts as reading hey? The Little Man loves to read about himself and his adventures and positive attributes, and The Nearly Teenager just checks it out to make sure I haven't said anything too harmful to his reputation.

Ha! To be a kid again!

So this morning's pic is this beautiful pumpkin come gourd come whatever it is... I Bought it at the markets about a month ago and it has been on the bench for so long, I have been failing to see it. I had no idea really what would be on the inside, thinking perhaps something like a marrow, but no! look at it! Gorgeous. Would make a perfect house for a mouse, but even better, it is tonight's dinner! Pumpkin soup! Delish!

I have had so much happen lately. I forgot to blog that I had a student staying with us. I had two but one moved out. Together they were wonderful, like brothers and I am sure they spoke their own language (other than Samoan). Such a madcap pair, had us all in stitches so many times... very entertaining and enlightening for me as one day I will have boys their age to contend with. (they are 17, nearly 18). So anyway, I am wondering what The Footballer will say when he finds out we are having pumpkin soup for dinner?

"Where's the meat?" I can hear faintly, then louder, louder, louder... Perhaps I should BBQ a steak as well...

who's that?

Who is that furry little thing curled up under my desk? I stretched out my foot and what do I touch but the soft little head of RubyRoo.

She is fast asleep, exhausted from the drama which unfolded this morning: both of them decided to roll in something disgusting in the garden and then come inside and share the aroma. It was mind blowingly putrid. Into the bath, both of them, the kids threw the towel from the doorway, wouldn't even come close enough to pass the towels to me... and there I was, in the thick the the fuggiest fug ever!

Bathtime is always stressful when your mother is washing off your most favourite perfume!

The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner - Trailer from Jonathan Stedall on Vimeo.

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"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

— Andy Warhol

mum?

Is Mr Hall short because he's still so young, or is he short because he's short?

Growing

The chicks are growing so fast... since this photo was taken, they have grown so much more... They wake me in the morning with their chirruping. It is so loud, they want their breakfast, and they can fly really well? Strange, the first chooks I have had that can actually fly... We shall see what happens with that... Surfy Murfy is laying again, just one little egg every 2-3 days which is wonderful seeing as though the vet said she would never lay again after her injuries. So, after Christmas sometime, we will be getting 3-4 eggs a day... how exciting...

And another visitor

The other night we had a huge storm and it was so wonderful to hear a great dirty frog croaking in one of the down pipes. It is such an old fashioned sound for me now, the kids didn't know what it was, I had to tell them and they were so excited. He came out the next day and sat on the watering can all day. We gave him little showers on and off through the day, and he just loved it... Haven't seen him again... I wonder if he is the one who lived in the gate post at the front?

My paper daisies! Aren't they gorgeous... looks at the brilliant colour!

Nasty Mummy

This year I decided that I would actually put my foot down (and leave it down!) and so I told the kids that they would not be able to go Trick or Treating this year! The last three years somehow they have talked me into allowing them to go. The final straw came last year when they returned home with approx 1.5kg EACH of lollies! (Yes, I weighed them... I was so horrified at how much they had!!!) Needless to say that half of them got thrown out as they were unwrapped and unsealed. Who knows what could have been put in them...

So I told them that this year instead they would prepare the treats for the children who did come knocking and they would be the GIVERS rather than the TAKERS. They sat and made these little treat pockets and all was well... 

The Big Man left with Mr Purple for their usual Monday night football game and The Little Man was left to wait patiently for the hoards of children coming down the street.... in his wig of course.

After about an hour of this, giving and not getting, he started to get the cranks... totally disowned me and started to get rude about the whole thing... Imagine his horror when I dish up gnocchi (his second favourite, yes I'm a crawler, but with broad beans, asparagus, zucchini and onion!) I may as well have told him that there would be no lollies for a year by the look on his face. He picked out all the gnocchi, ate nothing else and did not even beg for something else to fill the hole... Oh dear!

Of course, today when I emptied his lunch box I found a Kit Kat wrapper. "Where did you get that?" "Oh Maddie gave it to me because I didn't go trick or treating." I can just see it, he will be playing that line for weeks to come, trying to weasel lollies out of all the kids... blasted lollies, who invented them?

Enter Detective Peter

Yes indeed, enter Detective Peter. The Little Man is now on the hunt constantly and particularly looking for things that his dastardly brother is doing wrong. Then he runs (or sneaks) to me and tells me about it. Hmmmm.... not quite right Detective!

This morning Detective Peter came to me about The Big Man playing his iPod instead of being in the shower. Hmmm... "I'm so surprised he didn't hear my footprints Mum!"

The Transistor Radio

I thought I had it all sussed. I had confiscated the iPod, the MP3 player, and something else (cant remember) I thought it would be fine. He cannot entertain himself in there unless he plays with his lego or such. Imagine my surprise when I go into his room after school drop off and find his transistor radio all tucked up in bed. His old Pa gave it to him for a birthday or something and even though the aerial is broken,  he just loves it... So very cute, this little man.

Faeries purses

When I was a little girl I always thought that these dear little heart shaped seed pods were actually faerie purses... I thought that the faeries picked one from the bush and used the seeds inside as money. I haven't seen any of them for years and years, and then this little one popped up amongst my strawberries.

Another visitor!

Here is Kevin. Kevin Kookaburra. He has become a recent visitor since he has realised that there are 35+ rats in these here cages he is sitting on... He also has his eye on the baby chicken cage just across the way behind him... He fills in his day looking in the cages perched on top. I guess he is trying to figure out how he can get to them... At the moment 30 of the 35 are still peanut and brazil nut size, imagine what he will do when they all start running around in there ten to the dozen.. which they do actually. It is so funny to watch, in every batch there is always a crazy dude who tears around running on the walls, fighting with the others, setting the place on fire... Anyway, good luck Kevin, but I need to to remind you that these little ratskis are Juliet's dinner not yours!

Every so often

a lady needs some flowers.

Sometimes I get the occasional bloom plucked from a nearby garden... tsk tsk... Other times I get huge branches of "It was wild mum!" bouganvillea to decorate my entire wall with... and other times it is just nice to spend half an hour in a beautiful florist shop, admiring and smelling and touching and deciding what it is that I would like today. This is where I go mostly, but their website is not nearly so beautiful as the shop... they really should do something about that...

Invariably, someone will ask... "Oh, who gave you flowers?" like it might be something exciting that they missed out on.

"ME!" I proudly say. I bought them for me.

I spy with my little eye

My vegie garden has made a comeback. I just woke up one morning and thought "That's it! It's time to get a growin'.!

I planted lettuce, rainbow chard, rocket, basil, mint, comfrey (for the chooks apparently), tomatoes, pumpkin, paper daisies (for the boys... we have been seeing them around lately and they are fascinated with them), thyme, beans, parsley, zucchinis and strawberries.

The lettuce, chard and rocket have been feeding us for about 2 months now, even with the odd bunch or two going to friends. There is nothing quite so wonderful as being able to share the bounty from your harvest! Sounds so lame... but I love it. 

The tomatoes are growing taller and taller and are just flowering up now. Once random little one that came up from last year in my basil pot is sporting lovely red fruit already. Every time I see them still there I am amazed that the little men haven't come along and gobbled them up, nothing like a tomato warm from the sun. They just taste different that way.

The paper daisies tried ever so hard to pop their heads up to the sun, but the enormous pumpkin leaves got in the way. They stand about a metre tall and are huge, bigger than dinner plates. I have never seen a pumpkin like it, but thought I would persist... mini pumpkins... 

Unfortunately every pumpkin that I picked had rotted through and fell apart in my hands... so disappointing. I had visions of baking them whole stuffed with yummy things like pine nuts and ricotta. So, the decision is made – Out come the pumpkins on the weekend and in go some peas. I have been pondering whether or not to try broad beans... a good crop would fill the freezer and the boys do so love to peel those thick thick skins off... Personally they remind me of big cattle ticks... but the inside so yummy and green...

When mum is out

What do baby chickens do when Mother is out?

Oh yes, hey escape the box they are in, causing her to have a heart attack when she comes home to find them missing. But not for long... chirruping like mad, I found them...