Eggsactly

4 days ago we were blessed with one warm speckled egg...

 

Oh yeah

 

 

Miss Zoe

What do you do when it's been pouring rain and flooding for two days?

Buy a cat, of course! *

Little Zoe

The children are in love...


*no kittens were bought without proper research and  a huge pros and cons list...

Lazy Parenting

So I don't normally write about everyday stuff, but there's a time for everything, right??

I recently came across an article (here) which basically said that parents who are 'lazy' have less stressed children. I was interested to hear that their version of a "lazy" parent was one who didn't take children to extra curricular activities like sports, music, etc.

Rather, we should be "saving our energy and staying at home, dragging out the dress-up or craft box, or sending the kids out into the backyard"

I found this all rather quite funny... I refuse to enrol my kindergarten child in soccer, AFL, rugby, martial arts and whatever other junior sports flyer is sent home by teachers each week. Why? Maybe it's purely selfish - I would rather garden/clean the house/lounge about in PJs the whole weekend instead of ferrying children between ballet and football.  

I encourage them to go outside any moment it's not raining. We make the best sheet fortresses ever. We make playdoh and colour it ourselves. We create things out of Weetbix boxes, toothpaste tubes and other pieces of rubbish. (and then I slowly move them closer and closer to the recycling bin until they're forgotten and I can chuck em out). We have dinner at the table every night.

I have been known to put tents up inside... 

camping!

I'm all for lazy parenting!! How about you?

Seedling update

And here's the seedlings... 10 days on...

Cucumber

Peas

The whole tray - tiny beetroot seedlings on the bottom left

The carrots are taking a little longer than the other seedlings - I suspect because the soil is quite clayish... But there are still *tiny* sprouts there, nonetheless. :)

I've started my next tray - sweet corn, onion, and silver beet - all winter varieties. I cannot wait to plant the other seedlings out in about 3 weeks.

Gettin figgy with it

My Mum loves figs. And ultimately, she will retire and live in this house - so what better surprise than to plant one in the backyard?

Where I live is classed as a temperate climate in Australia, so I hit the books (well, google, really!) to find out what fig varieties would be happy. There's quite a few varieties which are appropriate cold hardy (we might have kick ass summers - 2011/2012 an exception to that - but we also endure killer frosts).

I plan on hitting up the local nurseries this week to try and get a plant.

Do you have a fig tree in your yard? Any advice on how to look after them?

Gardening in the rain

Have you ever gardened in the rain? I highly recommend you do. Sunday morning I spent pulling couch grass out of garden beds, raking up weeds, digging around and re-planting rhubarb... I love the smell of wet, damp earth. I love how muffled all the everyday sounds become - kinda like when you were a kid and used to sink under the bathwater to avoid hearing your Mum yell for the millionth time to get out and get your PJ's on. And even though you do get damp, and your glasses get all fogged up, and trickles of rain creep down your back, it's fun. Cos we all were told to get out of the rain when we were children, too.

Rain drops splatting on rhubarb leaves

The wet smell of tomato plants as you tie them to their stakes

The swish of wet grass as you walk over it

And the chooks crooning as they snuggle up together in their house, avoiding the water...

The garden played a symphony for me today. I liked it.

Seedy Friday

I was feeling kinda seedy on Friday. Not because of some rum and coke the night before, but because helping out in the kids' school vege patch had re-united me with my green thumb. Which was MIA. On leave, without permission.

Vege seeds and I don't have a good track record. Usually, I just poke a few seeds in the ground, then lament when nothing ever comes up.

Things have changed, man.

So this is my version of "How to make egg carton seedlings".

You will need: an egg carton, scissors, vegetable seeds, some potting mix

Get the egg carton, and hack it to death with scissors. Kidding. Just cut the top lid off, and the volcanoes in the middle

 Chopped off volcanoes

Spoon in some potting mix (or raid your garden pots for some...) either way, whack it in there!

Objects may appear smaller in real life

 Add seeds of your choice!

 Cucumber seeds

But how can I remember what I've planted where?? Ahhhh my young padawan. Use the force!

 Or a felt tip marker...

Ta-da!!

So there you go. I'll update on this project whenever I can, I'm curious as to how it all goes!