I have about 6 weeks to go until we see this little one. I'm hoping it won't be any longer than that, though I have no proven track record to go by. Of my three children that I have given birth to, the first arrived on his due date, the second 2 weeks early and the third 2 weeks late! How's that for a pattern!
I saw my midwife a couple of days ago and she has given me a referral to the physiotherapist for a support belt, as I have suspected Rectus Sheath. I was talking to a mum at ballet who is a physiotherapist and she tells me that it is not life-threatening to me or the baby and that it won't stop me from having more children - it's just a nuisance more than anything. I had been noticing with this pregnancy that the baby's movements are a lot more prominent and closer to the surface than my other pregnancies, so I guess this explains it. When I am standing I have a slight concave at my belly button, and it has been hurting there quite a bit when I'm on my feet for too long, and I asked the midwife to check it. She said that normally the muscle criss-crosses over itself in front of the stomach (to hold the stomach in), but in pregnancy it can separate and leave a gap, which is what mine has done. Kind of makes me squirm a bit (I would not have made a good doctor)! LOL!
I was getting some pretty strong Braxton Hicks last night. We had company over for the evening (not female company either), so I had to do a pretty good job of disguising the quite strong contractions. I don't think I've ever had them this early before, so I'm hopeful that it will mean a normal delivery for me. I am one of these girls that go into labour on my own ok, but end up having strong contractions (too strong to sleep through or do anything else) 10 minutes apart for days on end and nothing else happening. I have been so grateful that I live in these modern times and have been able to get assistance before getting too exhausted. With this pregnancy I feel a lot more relaxed (we are closer to the hospital than we were for the last births which was a 2 1/2 hour drive away), and we've been praying that the delivery will go really well without having to have intervention.
Already we have had prayers answered with this pregnancy. The baby was lying breech a week or so ago and although my obstetrician was not worried about it, she was going to have to book me in to the public hospital in the city if it didn't turn around. So we prayed, and the baby has turned, thank the Lord for that. The head is down, and I think he/she is starting to drop as the pressure on my ribs has lessened considerably. Does anyone know how early a baby can come without having to have special care?
I'm so pleased that I don't have to go to the public hospital as I really wanted to have the baby at St. George's which is Christchurch's oldest maternity hospital and is where my father was born. I have discovered that he was born there in the first year that the maternity hospital opened. My obstetrician is really excited about us having the baby there - I think she wants to get it reported into the hospital newsletter because of the historical connection. :o)
The other good thing is that my blood pressure has dropped. It has been quite high, but I'm trying to relax a bit more and with the school year nearly over our extra-curricula classes have nearly all finished, so I am able to stay home a bit more now. I'm trying not to stress out over everything I have to do for Christmas. I want it to be a fun build-up and anticipation for all of us. And when that is over we have the baby's arrival to wait for within a few weeks.
In my attempts to create a homemade Christmas I went looking on the internet for ideas.
Imagine how thrilled I was to discover these two websites with absolutely wonderful old-fashioned paper dolls! Paper Dolls do seem to be back in fashion here among the little girls of New Zealand at the moment. And I know my 7 year old daughter Meredith will get so much pleasure out of these. They are free to print. The first website is for Betsy and Barbara and their clothes. I'm sorry for the funny-coloured photo. I had to take the pictures clandestinely while my inquisitive daughter was hanging around.
And the following website was my favourite find. It is the Betsy McCall pages. I am especially thrilled with this. They follow Betsy from around 1950 through to the new millenium. Here is one of the first pages from the 1950's Betsy McCall.
They include little stories about Betsy and her family and her outings. Betsy goes to a wedding, Betsy goes on a picnic, Betsy goes to the Beach etc, etc and they all have the appropriate clothing. They're so cute! And I hope to combine all these into a bound little book (costs $4 at the stationary store to have done), and in a little plastic sleeve inside the cover put the Betsy and Barbara dolls from the first link. I can't wait for Meredith to open it up. I know she's going to love it!
Every year I like to give something to the teachers who take the special classes that my children go to.
Mainly the Ballet, French and Art teachers. Because we're having a homemade Christmas this year - not just due only to economising, but also just for the challenge of it (remind me to start earlier next year LOL). I'm also hoping to give these to the neighbours as well.
Every year we have a tradition of Christmas Wassail in our family. It is something that I brought back with me from America and I have a wonderful recipe for it. I love the spicy aroma that fills the house while it is brewing in the crock pot. I've been reading up about Wassail and the tradition of giving it is to bring good cheer and wishes to the recipient. It originated in England, but I believe it's now more popular in the USA. You may remember the Christmas Carole that goes,
Here we come a wassailing Among the leaves so green, Here we come a wandering So fair to be seen. Love and joy come to you, And to you your wassail too, And God bless you and send you a happy New Year. And God send you a happy New Year. — Somerset, 1871
(They sing it on the movie Little Women while carrying a hot brew of Wassail to a poor neighbour).
So today I have been making my special (non-alcoholic) Wassail and poured it into the bottles for our French and Art teachers, who we will be visiting tomorrow when we go into town. I did of course help myself to a little tea-cup of it while I made the tags and tied the ribbons. :o)
I found a lovely little vintage picture on the internet with the greeting, "With kindly greeting let me say, I think of you this Christmas Day." I glued it onto a homemade tag and on the back I wrote out the words to the above carole and what Wassail is (I don't imagine many New Zealanders are very familiar with it), explained how to heat it, and then signed it from our family.
I'm so pleased with how it looks and how inexpensive it was to make. The bottles cost me $3.95, and the cost of the actual Wassail was only the cost of the juice, as I had the spices already on hand. The ribbon was just some I had in my ribbon box and the tag cost nothing at all - only time to make it. I hope that our teachers will enjoy it!
I finally got around to baking my Christmas Cake today.
It actually doesn't take long to put together, although it takes 3 hours to bake in the oven. The house smells of a delicious mix of fruit and spice right now as it cooks.
I think I am yet to meet an American who likes fruit cake, but it is very traditional here in New Zealand. We use it for wedding cakes, special anniversary cakes and the good old Christmas cake. It gets iced with Royal Icing, and in my family we like to top the royal icing with butter icing. I believe Christmas Cake can be made months ahead of Christmas and the longer it has to age, the better, but so far I have never been organized enough to do it well in advance.
This particular cake is the non-alcoholic version. Some recipes call for brandy in the cake, but this one doesn't. The recipe comes from Alison Holst - a famous-in-New-Zealand chef who is known for her good, practical, yummy and never fail recipes. We housewives love her!
This photo shows the fruit ingredients before the flour and egg and spice mixture is added.
And here is the cake fresh out of the oven.
And this is a picture of a Christmas Cake all decked out in its finery.
Some people prefer Christmas Cake uniced with a fruit and nut glaze. They are just as yummy too, and look just as beautiful. This picture is from the BBC Good Food website.
If anyone wants the recipe, just leave me a message and I'll send it to you.
Theodore turns 4 in about 10 days time, and I happened to stumble upon this blog one day a few weeks ago with a cute brithday crown tutorial.
Jessica Levitt's crafty/design blog Juicy Bits has a tutorial for birthday crowns that are just adorable. So I decided to start the same tradition in our household, and made one for Theodore to wear next weekend at the little afternoon-tea party we are having for him. I had plans to do birthday crowns using Amanda Blake Soule's pattern from her book, The Creative Family (her blog link is in my side bar, SouleMama) but when I saw this other one, I liked it better. Jessica used wool felt, but that is very expensive to buy here in New Zealand (why, I don't know when we have an abundance of sheep and wool) - so I just used the craft felt instead and it turned out great - even though the colours are a little brighter than I would have liked.
Theodore loves his crown. I was going to do it as a surprise, but I had to measure his head for the elastic. I finished it yesterday, and he has been wearing it all morning today as well. I might put it away now for next week.
For the first crown I pretty much copied Jessica's colours, but I will try and be a little more creative with the next one I make. My oldest son will be 9 in February but I'm not sure he'll want one. The next birthday after that is my daughter in March and I know she'll want a pink one!
This is the taste of America to me! This and A & W's Root Beer. You may laugh, but this was the very first 'foreign' drink I tasted when I went to America for the first time back in 1991. I was in Hawaii on a hot day, drinking iced tea for the first time with my classmates at the university, and it was this exact same brand.
I have since gone on to try making my own sun tea, (not with much success I might add), and it never quite came up to the taste of this one with the lemon flavour. This is the first time I have seen Lipton's Ice Tea in New Zealand and I'm thrilled! That makes it quite a long time since I last had a glass of this and today is stifling hot, and I have no energy due to a late night last night, hayfever and the baby pushing all my ribs, stomach and lungs up into my throat.
My glass was bliss, but my husband screwed up his nose at it and said it tasted ''artificial', but I'm enjoying every mouthful! See how much I have had to drink in only a few hours. It tastes of Hawaii to me - I know that's sad (aren't pineapples, Kona coffee and frangipani's supposed to remind you of Hawaii), but that's what Lipton's Ice Tea does for me!
We just had Canterbury Anniversary Weekend and after having been away last weekend for my brother's wedding, we had a lot of work to do outside.
Thankfully, I have been late getting my seedlings out into the garden this year. I was despairing over it, but while we were away there was a late hard frost (very unusual for November), and so many of the summer crop farmers lost at least half of their crops, if not more. But for once, my tardiness paid off and I'm only just getting my plants out into the garden.
So this weekend, I planted out more beans, put in my zucchini plants, corn, lettuce and pumpkins. That was about all I had energy to do. Being in the third trimester of my pregnancy really slows me down. I did manage to get the strawberry bed weeded which was a good thing, and now we can see the berries starting to turn red under our hot Canterbury sun.
We had soaring temperatures over the weekend. It hit 31 deg Celsius in town (not sure what that is in Fahrenheit), but it was hot. We had to turn the air conditioning on for the first time this summer. Oh it is nice to have summer here at last. I imagine may of the locals headed for the beach or river.
Here are some pictures from the vegetable garden. My greatest thrill of the weekend was finding two artichokes growing nicely in the middle of my plants. I grew these plants from seeds last summer, and these are the only two that survived from about 12 that I planted. I love artichokes and I can't wait to try them. Also, an updated shadow of my pregnant belly. The baby is lying breech at 31 weeks, so we are praying he/she will turn around, although I have been told that my obstetrician is the master artist at manually turning babies before labour begins.
Here is where the beans, potatoes, peas and a few herbs grow. I go out everyday to water and check on progress. There are a few more beans and peas to go in. I am growing the heritage climbing beans, Purple Pod and Dalmatian and I will also put in some Borlotto Fire Tongue. We are breaking in the ground out here on our 10 acre block, so it's not very aesthetic yet, but we're working on it!
Here is the long view of the garden with the home orchard in the background and the wheat crop growing in behind. That's poor, deceased Scarecrow Roger lying in a heap. We'll try and resurrect him later in the summer.
Here is the garlic growing nicely. The longest day is coming up soon, and traditionally that's when we're supposed to harvest it.
Here is one of my beautiful artichokes.
Meredith and Theodore really wanted a picnic outside for lunch on Saturday. They chose a really funny spot to have their picnic, but they were happy.
The hens enjoyed a morning wandering around the garden. They did get quite close to Cricket (the black labrador), but we distracted him with a bone and I don't even think he realized that they were within pouncing distance.
And finally, here is my shadow. It's really hard to take your own shadow photo without it getting distorted, but you can get the general idea. My bottom really isn't that big, I promise!!
I have to admit to being a little biased about my wedding. It was 11 years ago today that I got married to Robin. We had an old-fashioned courtship and a 7 month engagement and we've had 11 years of happy marriage so far. We've had our own little tragedies and struggles of life to cope with along the way, but I have to say that marriage has been easy and one of the deepest joys of my life.
When I got married my parents were in full-time ministry, so there was not much money to splurge on a huge wedding, and I was the first to get married. I had some money put aside which I used to pay for my own wedding dress and a few other things. I had grand ideas, but these had to fit within the confines of a tight budget. But somehow, in spite of these constraints our wedding came off very nicely. In fact, one of my sister-in-law's called it the 'grand wedding', and it was grand. We had a beautiful setting at my husband's old private school in Auckland. After the old cathedral in central Auckland, I think it is the second most beautiful place to get married in. It is used for a lot of the Auckland society weddings. A lovely old chapel which was built to model the original Kings College Chapel in England. It had a nice long aisle up the centre too (very important) :o)
We were able to invite over 200 guests - a large wedding for New Zealand standards. My husband's sister gave us a wedding gift of the beautiful stately cars that carried me and my bridal party across the city to the church. The car that I rode in had once carried the Queen of England when she visited New Zealand.
We were married at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon - a warm Spring day in Auckland city. I had 4 bridesmaids and 7 children as flowergirls, pageboys and a ringbearer. I came down the aisle to the organ playing Handel's Royal Fireworks, and we left the chapel to the sounds of the old hymn, "Jerusalem" (the same one played on the movie Chariots of Fire). My sister (a soprano) sang Holy Art Thou during the service. My father ( a minister at the time) married us, and my old friend and employer, Bill Gothard came all the way out from the USA to give the address and a blessing.
We were blessed indeed - God worked out every little detail of our ceremony and the reception. Deuteronomy 6 was the reading we had at our service - slightly unusual at a wedding when it is usually the love chapter or something similar, but Robin felt strongly that this passage of Scripture was our gift and creed from God for our marriage and life together. It is a beautiful, sobering, challenging passage.
I look back over these 11 years to that day today, and remember so many of the little details and the little joys and pleasures of a happy day, and the beginnings of a happy marriage, and I am grateful to God for His blessing. We tried to honour God in all the little details of our courtship, engagement, wedding. And I can say that it is worth the constraints, worth laying aside the temptations even in seemingly insignificant things, to start it right and get it right and the blessing that flows from that through the years of union.
Here are a few photos from our special day. I hope you enjoy looking at them. I start with this one of me and my father arriving at the chapel.
Here is my bridal party. My sister Penny on the far left, friend Angie, friend Paula from the USA (who is due to have her first baby today)! And my childhood friend Kim. The flowergirls are friend Damarus, neice Amy and friend Phoebe. I saw Damarus and Phoebe just a few weeks ago, and they are now in their late teens and beautiful young ladies!
The boys (from left) are: friends, Evan, David; nephew Thomas, and the ringbearer friend Josiah.
It was truly a delight to have so many children as part of our wedding party.
Robin's groomsmen
From left: my cousin Andrew, a minister, who took the service until my father gave me away; Robin, his bestman-brother Jeff, longtime friend Ben from the UK, my brother Roy, friend Nigel
Exchanging of vows (and yes, I said 'to obey') ;o) We used the old English wedding service format (the same one used on the 1995 tv series of Pride and Prejudice - beautiful language)!
Leaving the church now married.
The entire wedding party with Bill Gothard
My family with my grandparents who have since gone Home to Heaven. I have my Nana's outfit and hat hanging in my wardrobe.
Robin was the last of his 5 brothers and 1 sister to get married, and so I became an instant aunty on my wedding day. Two of these children are now married and quite a few more cousins have since been added to the crowd. Two of my sister-in-law's were pregnant at the time of our wedding.
Leaving the church. I love this photo for the way it shows my dress, which was Thai silk.
And here we are leaving our reception for our honeymoon. My dress came from the USA, which my sister chose for me. We flew out the next morning to Queenstown ( a resort town in New Zealand) for 2 weeks.
Deuteronomy 6
"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged.
Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might,
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name."
It has been an extremely busy two weeks for us since I last posted on my blog. I have so much to write about and lots of photos to share of my brother's wedding and other things going on around here, but I have to start with this.
We had our national election 4 days after the American election (and I thank God that I live in a democracy), and while I have not been a political person at all in the past, when the government we have had for the last 9 years started to march through my front door I was woken up out of my apathy. I blogged about it here not long ago.
Last Saturday night we saw a blessed change to the right and we now have a new government with a man called John Key as our primeminister. He's married, has children, is proud to remind all of New Zealand that his wife is the love of his life.
He has good people with him in his party and I'm just so relieved that now we don't have to sell up and move to Australia - which is what we were contemplating if the Labour government and Helen Clark got into power again. I'm just so relieved! I feel as though now I can settle back again into my apathy and enjoy life and the simple pleasures of my family and home without having to worry about what the government is going to do next.
But I know it would be irresponsible to relax completely. I don't trust any politician, even the ones I like, but I do feel as if the pressure has been lifted somewhat.
And Helen Clark - our former primeminister - that woman who I have lost sleep over in the past because she worried me so much, who dared to march into my kitchen with her social agenda, has gone. Gone! She has resigned, along with her deputy who was just as bad.
John Key is a self-made millionaire who was raised in a poor home by his Austrian Jewish mother after his father died. His mother escaped Nazi Germany during the war. His wife is a stay-at-home mother and they are a close family from all accounts. He is very family-oriented and his ambition is to make New Zealand what it once used to be - the envy of all the world. He is a young politician who has only been in government 6 years, but I like that about him. He is not a career politician.
Our own strawberries are not ready yet (though flowering well), so I was thrilled to find at the grocery store yesterday some of the first strawberries of the season for only .99c. I don't know why they were marked down as there was nothing wrong with them, and they smelled divine and tasted good too.
I cut some up to put in our lettuce salad last night, and today I searched for a recipe online for a Strawberry Pie.
I found one at www.allrecipes.com and it turned out fantastic, so I thought I'd post it here. This one is a keeper!
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked 3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 quart fresh strawberries 3/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup whipped cream
Arrange half of the strawberries in baked pastry shell. Mash the remaining berries and combine with the sugar in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling strawberry mixture. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour mixture over berries in pastry shell. Chill for several hours before serving with a generous dollop of whipped cream.
We built our new home last year and we love it. We love every little thing about it - except that we had to take on a mortgage to finish it off. It's the first time that we've eer had to have a mortgage and I hate it! Especially now with the world economy in the shape it's in - why oh why did we ever do it! But we love the house and the garden.
However, as I was driving into our little local town yesterday I passed this house. It's one that I've always admired from the road, because it has such well established grounds and beautiful big trees. And as I drove past I noticed a For Sale sign outside it so when I got home I checked it out online. It's a 50 year old house but it's lovely inside (with a bit of upgrading), and the grounds are wonderful and it has a swimming pool - something that is on our wish list but probably won't be attainable in the next 20 years. When we built we got quoted for a pool and it was going to cost around $80,000 (NZD) which is approx. $45,000 (USD). Swimming pool laws are quite strict here in NZ and have to be fenced, and the fencing is just as expensive as the pool.
The good thing about this house is that it's just around the corner from where we live now, so we could still keep our lovely neighbours. And the price is right too and we'd hopefully have some left over. The only downside is that there is only just under 5 acres and we prefer at least 10 acres. We probably won't go for it, but it's tempting - just to clear the mortgage and still stay in this area and have the lovely established garden. That's one thing about buying a bare block is that you have to wait for the trees to grow and you have to break the ground in yourself - but that is part of the fun too.
Here are some pictures of the house around the corner followed by the real estate blurb. It has 5 bedrooms (which is what we have here), 3 toilets (we have 4, but I don't mind doing without a toilet to clean), and it has a large functional kitchen.
I love this little creek at the bottom of the garden.
And lots of room for the children to run around, and look at those big trees.
Doesn't this living room look so cosy and Englishy and it has a wood fire.
And this would make a great homeschooling room.
"It is just oozes home sweet home - cosy fires, family gatherings, children running around squealing with delight, splashing in the pool, playing in the meandering creek & majestic mature garden setting, this 2 storey family home is an entertainer for all seasons & any reason. Sited on 1.8 ha currently grazing horses with plenty of outbuildings (tack room, 2 bay barn, hen house, stables & stock yards). An additional games room studio all add to this affordable family package."
Oh what to do.... what to do? We've been praying these last few weeks that God would help us to decide what is the best thing to do - we still haven't got that answer yet.
Traditionally, New Zealand does not celebrate Halloween, but it is starting to creep in a little bit, but up until this point it hasn't effected me or my family at all.
However, this morning I was talking to one of my dear neighbours, and she said that she's organizing a group of the neighbourhood children to go around the homes on Halloween and would our kids want to join. Well, I had to tell her that no, we wouldn't, as we don't celebrate Halloween. That was all I said, but she told me that her husband who is Irish has always had it as part of his culture. I said, "oh, that's interesting - just like the Americans'. But apparently, according to my neighbour, Halloween originated in Ireland. I did not know that - but that's beside the point.
My dilemma and question is that while we don't want to be a part of it, I don't know what to do without offending the neighbours. I don't want to alienate myself from them or come across as self-righteous. We want to live peaceably together with them.
I'm not sure that I like the whole candy-wrapped in Bible verses idea that I read somewhere else once, nor do I want to hand out candy, nor do I particularly want to go out of the house either (although it may come to this). Is there any other option? I thought that you seasoned American Halloween-handlers might have some ideas.
One of my children was asking me to sing the 'milkshake' song this morning. It took me awhile to remember it, as it is a few years since we sang it.
When we lived in a little isolated country community down south, we went along to a lovely Playcentre group twice a week, and this is the song they used to sing. It was my favourite. I don't know if it was the children's favourite, but something about it appealed to my imagination. It's a pity I can't get the tune on here - it's just a simple tune, but here are words.
"What if all the raindrops were lemonade and gumdrops,
Oh, what a rain it would be.
(Now, tip your head back and open your mouth wide for actions).
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a rain it would be.
What if all the snowflakes were candyfloss and milkshakes
Oh, what a snow it would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a snow it would be.
What if all the sunshine were sherbet and icecream
Oh, what a sun it would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a sun it would be."
I think I'm missing out some words somewhere, but that's the bones of it, and I love it!
Today was a good day. We didn't have anywhere to go (being the last Saturday of the school holidays), so we got up early to get a good start to the day.
I was a bit worried when I pulled back the curtains this morning as there was a red sky in the east, and I always thought a red sky in morning was a shepherd's warning, but the day turned out to be glorious and hot!
Robin says that I must be getting near my third trimester in my pregancy as I've started to get my washing obsession. I don't know why it is, but in the latter months of my pregnancies (once I'm over the morning sickness) I always want to wash everything in sight. I go through the house and grab anything I lay eyes on that can be washed. I'm only 26 weeks - 14 weeks of laundry obsession left!
The orchard trees are starting to look beautiful. Finally the apples are starting to flower, and the cherries as well. This first picture is of my heritage apple called Monty's Surprise. It was a recent discovery from an old tree found on the side of a road I believe, somewhere on a country road in the remote parts of New Zealand. It's my favourite apple tree, given to us by my sister and brother-in-law. I should get another one, because I'd be devastated if I lost it - I think it's my favourite because it is such a unique tree and a fairly new 'old' discovery, so there are not too many of them around yet.
And here is the cherry tree blossom.
And of course, Saturday is the day I clean out the chicken house and give the girls a new bed of straw. So they get to roam free range over the property. I put my 8 year old son, Hugh, on sentry duty - it was his job to keep the girls off my fledgling vege garden. It was not an easy job either - they would make straight for the silver beet! I'm saving up for a picket fence! I took Hugh out a large drink of juice and a large slice of banana cake to eat in the shade while his Dad and I took our afternoon cup of tea inside. See... there's one heading straight for the silver beet with its bottom in the parsley bed.
I do love watching them scrummage around in the dirt though - and it is nice to see them break into a little trot every now and then. They are being good girls mostly though - we are averaging 6 eggs a day!
Don't you just love a fluffy chicken's bottom!
And this is a photo of Poppy sulking. I had to tie her up for the first time in her life because she was getting rather rough with the hens and even though they were sticking up for themselves I could see that in the end they would come to no good. But Poppy sulked and she doesn't like me now.
It was so hot outside that the children wanted to stay inside, but I wanted them out where I could keep an eye on them, and doing something that would burn up some energy, so I said I'd put the sprinkler on for them if they got into their togs (bathing suits). We don't have a pool yet, and this is the next best thing, and the kids really love it. They had a great time and I could hear lots of laughter and screams as I gardened.
When the chickens were back in their run, we let the dogs off and Cricket (after his ritual dip in the water race outside the gate) smelled out 'something' hiding under a pile of wood scraps and iron behind the chicken house. It was probably a field mouse, as later on I did see something small and brown dash across the lawn towards the vacant field next door. It was rather funny to watch him though. Cricket spent a good part of the afternoon sniffing it out and trying to reach it. As always with Cricket's hunting sessions, Poppy was just content to look on and at times be a little helper, even though she mostly got showers of dirt sprayed all over her.
Here are some pictures of the vegetables that I do have out in the garden, but we're still getting the odd frost, so I'm holding off planting out my seedlings yet. Maybe another week and it should be warmer. I did manage to get a couple of rows of potatoes planted before my energy gave out.
This is the garlic with the chives on the edge.
And these are my artichokes that survived from last summer. I have two plants from about 8 that I grew from seed, but they struggled to grow and it didn't help that I put the hoe through two of them while weeding. I don't know much about artichokes, except that they're yummy, but I'm thinking that I probably won't get anything from these plants until next year.
And these are my peas. The first three rows have sprouted, bless their hearts. I was so pleased with these seeds, because I paid only .95 c for a large packet because this is the last summer before their expiry date and I was a little bit worried that they might not sprout, so it was thrilling to see that little shoot apear from under the dirt. I have three more rows planted two weeks after the first, and I have still more to do - you can never have too many peas, right?
And here is my strawberry bed. I have another smaller one around the other side of the house. The netting is temporary due to the chickens getting into there this afternoon, so Hugh and I quickly threw this over to keep them off the precious plants. A huge thank you to Vickie in Nova Scotia for this strawberry bed idea (I copied hers), but mine don't look as hearty as they should because the poor plants got drowned not once, but twice - in the floods we had during our late winter, but they're starting to come away nicely now and we've even got quite a few flowers blooming on them.
Those leftover blocks from our house-building sure came in handy!
And here is a final shot for the day. It has been a wonderful, happy, productive Saturday. I'm looking forward to the Christmas school holidays coming up in a couple of months when we will get lots of Saturdays like these once Saturday ballet and tennis are finished for the year, and we're right in the middle of the long stretch of lazy summer days.
Here's a little secret - well, probably not much of a secret actually, but I love Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery's writing. And my dream holiday destination is Prince Edward Island, Canada. I prefer the books to the movies, and I have all the unabridged books on audio. I love to escape into that olde-world when the new one gets too wicked. I love LM Montgomery's characterization and I love the innocence of Anne of Green Gables. I'm 36 years old and unsophisticated enough to still love a children's story and naive enough to believe that such a world did once exist, and idealistic enough to believe it still could.
So how absolutely green with envy was I when my husband's younger brother told us he was going on a business trip to Prince Edward Island. And he was arriving on the very day that the centenary celebrations of Anne of Green Gables was beginning (although I had to tell him that). My brother in law Nic, has one daughter who has read the books, but in spite of that I don't think Anne of Green Gables and her island and her house and her shop was high on his priority list of places to visit. I tried not to bombard him with requests. He told me he'd go and take a photo outside the Anne of Green Gables house for me (I actually really wanted him to go into the shop). I sent him an email with all these lovely Anne of Green Gables things he could do - like the barn dance they were holding with dressed-up characters there such as Marilla, Matthew, Mrs. Lynde, Anne and Diana and Gilbert. Or there was the LM Montgomery lecture and display of previously undisclosed journals and scrapbooks (I drooled over this), or the garden party with sack races and home-made candy and buggy rides and of course, the musical Anne of Green Gables at the theatre. But strangely, Nic seemed impervious to all these temptations. Nic is a potato-growing expert and he was going to PEI to talk to the farmers about potatoes. Potatoes! Pffftttt!!!!
This weekend he and his family came over to visit and it's the first time we've seen them since Nic got back from my dream holiday destination, and actually being a nice, kind brother-in-law really, he did more than just take a photo of the Anne of Green Gables house. He got me something that I can enjoy all year round. A 2009 PEI calendar.
Drool, drool, drool, drool!
And some postcards (I collect postcards) of the Anne of Green Gables house.
And a thick book of special things to do, see, maps, places to stay, walks to take, restaurants to visit, shows to see of Anne of Green Gables and Prince Edward Island. I was in bliss-land last night reading through it.
He may be going again and next time I'll ask him to get me the Anne of Green Gables recipe book.
Last year I discovered the bug for gardening, and did quite well out of our garden, so this year I planned a much bigger garden, and we are hoping to use it to reduce our grocery bill considerably.
Here is my little nursery in the spare room - it's a nice sunny north-facing spot and the children don't go in there, so the little seedlings are safe.
I have various varieties of heritage beans, onions, tons of heritage tomatoes, lettuce, corn, pumpkin, zucchini, cucumbers and this year I'm trying Luffa, Stevia, eggplant (or aubergine), jalapeno's, watermelon, spring onions, butternut, squash. In the garden already, I have sown garlic, silverbeet, peas, and parsley and chives. The potatoes are ready to go in now too, and I need to get my beets and carrots in soon.
Some of these I haven't tried before and I don't know if they'll take or not. It could be too cold for the watermelon and the jalapeno's, but I'm trying them out just for fun. The children have each planted a giant pumpkin seed each. I love looking at the little zucchini and pumpkin seedlings and it always amazes me at how big they're actually going to get by the height of summer.
Most of these things are going to be ready for harvesting and preserving right around the time our baby will be about 6 weeks old, but I figure I'll be back on my feet by then with post-pregnancy energy! I hope!
Not long after Robin and I got married, my Nana made me a peg bag. It's of the old fashioned kind where you wrap it around your waist and tie behind you in an apron-style. I loved it. It revolutionised hanging up my washing. No more bending down for pegs.
My Nana passed away about 3 years ago, and much to my sadness her peg bag didn't last much longer either. With the daily use it had been getting for the last 10 years it had started to disintegrate and fall apart. I was sad about having to throw it out - it's just another one of her things that I can never have replaced by her now she is gone. This last year with all our moving, we've been using the dryer alot, but now that we're settled in our house and land, one of the items at the top of my list for my husband to make was my clothesline. It's one of life's little pleasures to walk out to the clothesline every day with the washing. I chose the spot for it behind the orchard. When the fruit trees are mature, I can just picture the laundry flapping in the sun behind the leafy branches of my apple trees. Plus, it's quite a little walk out to the clothesline which I wanted as well - I like my clothes-hanging to be leisurely so I can enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine and all the country sounds.
Robin made me my clothesline a couple of weeks ago and I'm thrilled with it. I'll post photos of it at a later date, because I want to paint it first. But today I made a replica of my Nana's peg bag, and I'm quite pleased with it. It works just fine.
The days are starting to warm up, and the trees are about to burst into life - it's so lovely to see. I was out bringing in my washing this afternoon and there was such a pretty light I took these pictures of the fruit trees with their new blossom.
I have been very slack with my blog lately. Mostly because it is Spring in this part of the world, and we are relishing the warmer weather and getting the garden going. Also, Robin starts a new job on Monday and we are trying to make the most of the last few days he has at home with us. A lot of women say they don't like having their husband's around during the day, but that has not been my experience. We have all loved it and are going to miss Robin when he goes back to full-time work. I think having him home for these last three years has actually made me a bit lazy. He's a server by nature and I am not!
Anyway, here is my memoir for this week. This is going to take some thinking out.
Bible-focused - sites mainly about God’s Word - we love David Wilkerson's preaching. We know that man is not perfect, but he has been around all my life, and we feel that we can rely on his Bible-based preaching, and ministry and spiritual advice.
Businesses, particularly homebased - I have to give my own a plug here of course. It's Littlebourne Books
I haven't included all of the choices as I realized that I don't actually spend that much time on the internet anymore - I just stick to my favourites for regular reading.
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
