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November 30, 2007
Name day
Jacob's bath water is reserved for the front garden which doesn't get any of the tank water we save for the veggies and fruit out back. We haven't been entirely succesful in making sure it is evenly shared around. What with the birches, the mulberry, the peach, the lemon and the rest all competing for the daily buckets, it's hard to remember exactly who had what, when, and how often. And then suddenly one morning you're confronted with desicated mulberries or leafless birches.
So we've come up with a solution. All the major players have been named after a day of the week and will receive ALL the bath water on that day, each week. Hopefully this will ensure one good soak a week and maybe the odd shower will bring up the shortfall. Who knows, we may even resort to using mains water now and then!
Posted by Faith at 06:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2007
Democracy
One of the best things about the Australian democratic system, besides what it did to John Howard on the weekend that is, is the fundamental right of the electorate to purchase date and almond loaf, baby bootees and tomato seedlings at the polling booth.
Common sense prevailed and I was saved the embarassment of arriving home with baby bootees and seedlings. A Labor win AND cake, what more could you ask for?
Posted by Faith at 04:10 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2007
Posted by Faith at 02:44 AM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
Mia and Jacob
Posted by Faith at 03:28 AM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
Chocolate cake
Posted by Faith at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2007
Rain
The rain has brought out the amazing white flowers that live under the birches in the front garden.
Posted by Faith at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2007
Dingle Dangle scarecrow
Jacob and I made a scarecrow on the weekend to protect our tomato and capsicum patch. The first night our scarecrow was on duty there was a lot of wind and heavy rain and I feared the mostly water-soluble paint and glue involved would have left him the worse for wear. Not to mention the question of exactly how craft-glue and glitter paint dripping into the soil would fit into an organic permaculture system. Scarily enough he has survived not only intact, but has achieved just the right hint of menace to make him a real scarecrow. The sort that has set its sights on something higher up the food chain than just pigeons. The sort you hurry past as dusk is setting and don't look directly at. The sort you swore appeared somewhere else in the garden when you glanced out the kicthen window late at night......
Posted by Faith at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2007
Five
Jacob has announced that far better than having just the one baby in the new year would be having......... five! Five babies would be just fabulous!
Posted by Faith at 02:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2007
Ninja Fish
Today we went to buy four new goldfish to join the two already in our pond. Mission accomplished, we spent the trip home discussing possible names before settling on Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. The Ninja Turtles of course!
We did also explore the possibility of finding a turtle to live in the garden but apparently they eat goldfish and tadpoles which would not do a lot for the gezelligheid in our pond. Unless, of course, we build another pond in the front garden.........
Posted by Faith at 05:48 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2007
Pottering on
I am sooooooooooooo glad we decided NOT to go camping on the weekend! Especially as we were planning on going to Wye River on the Surf Coast. Instead we pottered around at home as usual, trying to work our way through the enormous list of things that need to be done. Jacob had a more social time, a day at Oscar's and a day out at the Museum with tante Alix. Cup Day we went to Hanging Rock where expectations of 'wild animals' were exceeded by the presence of a very friendly kangaroo with a joey.
Things we DID get done are;
-create a chook run. Yup, the chooks are now behind bars. The volume of chook poo combined with summer and flies wasn't looking too good and with four veggie gardens fenced off the backyard was starting to have the atmosphere of Guantanomo Bay. We now have just the one fence, for the chooks. They can still come out and play ocassionally and we'll probably let them free range again next winter.
-remove the enormous shutter box from the dining room window. These are the boxes into which those steel shutters people have are wound. We've removed the last two and turned them into planters. The next step is to stretch some wire from the trellis on the fence to a board we are going to place above the window so that the grape can form a canopy blocking out the summer sun and the view of the neighbour's house.
-bought an eggplant tree and a pot to put it in.
-watched everyhting grow overnight after all the fabulous rain.
-replaced the lock on the security door. Yup, we can lock the front door again!
-marvelled as Jacob slept through the night, all night every night!
-stained the baby change table Gen and Si gave us.
-plant the last of the veggie seedlings and stake all the tomatoes and capsicums.
Posted by Faith at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2007
4 - like, more than a month ago!
Good grief I forgot to blog about Jacob turning 4! Just what sort of a mother am I?
Posted by Faith at 05:40 AM | Comments (0)
Klootzak 2
Some low-life has stolen my bicycle! What's more they've stolen it from a very secluded part of our backyard making the whole experience very unsettling.
This has happenned before but I doubt I'll be getting the bike back this time; we hadn't gotten around to having the bikes engraved.
Posted by Faith at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)