The lovely Geri looked after both kids on Thursday and they had a fabulous time. I tried very hard to get a good photo of her fabulous face painting but didn't have much luck.
Phone pics
Visitors to the bird feeder
It took about a month before the birds discovered our birdfeeder, but now they all know about it.
When I put nectar out we get the Rainbow Lorikeets but otherwise it is mostly Rosellas, King Parrots and the odd curious magpie.
One day a flock of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos flew a raid over the feeder and either ate or swept out every last bit of seed. They can't have been too pleased as they never came back!
And more recently, the feeder has been frequented by a Wonga Pigeon which I have been very excited out. When it comes to the feeder the kids shout out 'MUM! My Wongy is here!' and I sit and watch him peck away at the small grains.
The other day, after one such occasion, Ella turned to me and said thoughtfully, 'Mum, I think you can't get the Wonga Pigeon out of your head.'
Too true.
She is five
The present? A leapster l-max. Jury's out on whether it was a wise gift. She loves it but it seems so antisocial. (Part of me thinks I may as well have got her a trench coat and a rifle.) We'll see how it goes.
Long overdue
First there was the trip into town to see The Wiggles!
Our seats were up in the stratosphere but the kids didn't mind.
Followed by the stay at the hotel where we got good value for our money by not wasting any precious hotel time sleeping.
There was Christmas!
Silly hat pic by Toby.
More lovely christmas pics by Toby on his flickr.
Excitement at the black cockatoos alighting in our front yard to rip up our banksia. {Feel so privileged!}
Visitors! Lots!
[Ummm. No good photos of them all! Sorry!]
A garden party!
Cakes pic by Miss Helen. More on her Flickr.
And for me, plenty of this when everyone else is asleep.
Happy New Year!
Christmas portrait
Arky has been asking to wear a dress for several days now. So today Ella chose one of her old dresses for him to wear. As a consequence he's been pleased as punch all day, and they've been playing together beautifully. Might try the dress more often :)
Vegetables
We've been trialling a small vege patch this summer, ostensibly to see if I can keep the plants alive! If it works we'll put in much larger vege patch early next year.
So far the results have been mixed.
The strawberries were going really well until they caught some weird fungal disease and stopped producing fruit. The few strawberries that we did get were snapped up by the currawongs despite being protected by wire!
The first baby watermelon seedling snapped and died within three days of being planted. The second one has not grown a single centimetre in six weeks. It's not looking good for baby watermelon!
The eggplants might have gone well if they hadn't been drowned in torrential rain.
The parsley, basil, mint and rosemary have been going great guns. Cherry tomatoes also looking good.
The pumpkin seems to be doing well. In fact, it's taken matters into it's own hands (leaves?) and is slowly making it's way out of the vege patch, across the yard to a more desirable location! There are lots of flowers, we have high hopes!
The most successful of all the plants has been the snow peas. We harvested out first batch today and are planning to eat them for dinner tonight - with a great deal more of them that we bought from the greengrocer.
We're a long way off sustainability as you can tell!
