girls can use tools too!

By J12
(posing in the first photo, taken at Karekare earlier this week)


Wanting to attract some different kinds of birds to our garden, I decided to make a bird feeder. Before Dadda would let me use his tools, he required a plan! I provided him with a very detailed one. It was so good I had unlimited access to his saw, drill and screwdrivers.

Here's what I made
(with a little assistance from an interested J11):



The little piece of dowel held up by two small branches can be removed and have a piece of apple or something stuck on it, but we didn't have any spare. Water goes in the yellow container (Dadda said I should hollow out a piece of wood instead to make it look really natural - I just might yet), and seeds go on the other little platform. Any bird who happens to use the swing too energetically might knock itself out on the upright stick - that's a wee design fault, which could be fixed in the Second Edition!

WEDNESDAY

Garden Day.

The rain had abated, but the wind had not.

That was no excuse to not work!

We spent the entire afternoon pulling weeds, moving plants around and spreading out bark.

It's so much fun having Dadda home for a week.

mandarin madness

It's a year since we harvested K8's first madarins. The second crop is NEARLY READY...we're checking every day!

boys will be boys

K9 you are usually ALL BOY! For such a long time you've not really been interested in anything much apart from bats-and-balls and making money!! But recently you've been awfully productive - I just love the boy-doll you made yourself - I can understand how important it is to have a boy-doll and not a girl-doll when you're a boy! He's very handsome - and I hope he doesn't make too much noise when you're spying out in the bush.

Love,
Mama

workin' with dadda

The neighbours decided they wanted some privacy screens up between our living area and their kids' bedrooms. So our adventures in that part of the bush have come to an end - we never realised how much we played on *their* land! Hope they didn't mind!!!

But the adventure wasn't entirely over - the screens still needed to be built:



And right now we're staining the posts black while Mama types this for us.

Pumpkin Paradise

We love soup.....any sort of soup....but our absolute favourite is pumpkin.....yes we all share the same favourite (well we don't know about ER, but she sure liked this one).

Yesterday we picked our first pumpkin and Mama made Dadda's favourite chewy crusty bread and we had a scrummy dinner.



Here's the soup recipe:
2 onions, carefully chopped
as much garlic as you can manage, chopped as well as a 6 year old can
a good shake of cumin (2 teaspoons perhaps)
a little bit less coriander
about the same of turmeric
a pinch of ginger
a pinch of nutmeg
a few cracks of black pepper
as many mustard seeds as you feel like
fry together in a little olive oil and butter until nice-n-smelly

6 parsnips, chopped up
3/4 large pumpkin just picked from the garden(that's all that would fit in the pot)
this one actually



a few cups of chicken stock left over from the other night
add and bring to the boil, boil for five minutes or so transfer the pot to the cooking bag and leave a few hours


a can of coconut cream
just before serving stir in and sprinkle fresh coriander on top - oh yeah, you need to whizz it up so it's nice and smooth like this:


serve with Jim Lahey's New York Times No Knead Bread

Avocado Sunday

Yesterday we drove out to an avocado orchard near the airport. You're only supposed to pick five per person......so we weren't supposed to bring home more than fifty!!!!! Unfortunately there were only two ripe ones. But we had a lot of fun running amongst the trees and climbing them - avocado trees are so big. Well, not big like a kauri, but certainly bigger than our mandarins or plum trees! And it was interesting to see just how many avocados grow on one tree - they hang there like decorations on a Christmas tree!
ER(9mo) particularly liked the wind - she was snuggled up with Mama in her wrap and she kept opening her mouth and trying to catch the wind on her tongue!!!!
A light drizzle moistened our picnic lunch.....but we didn't mind a bit. It was just great to be out with Dadda, coz he's been working really hard and having lots of meetings.
We stopped at the vege shop on the way home.....we think it was funny that Mama bought 5 avocados for $1.50.

Hold on tightly!

We've been reading Charlotte's Web.



"Mothers for miles around worried about Zuckerman's swing. They feared some child would fall off. But no child ever did. Children almost always hang on tighter than their parents think they will."

mmmmmmmMuffin

Mama discovered late in the day yesterday

that she needed to take supper out last night,

so J12 made a couple of batches of muffins for her

(with blueberries from her own bushes).

We all enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast this morning
(and yes that's chocolate on top!)

a kiwi party

Summer parties in New Zealand revolve around the BBQ.....so we are finishing our party week with a "barbie" tonight (and not the doll sort!).

We've got lamb chops as well as lamb, mint and rosemary sausages to eat with lashings of mint jelly. We'll stirfry some veges from the garden on the hot plate to go with the sweetcorn. YUMMO. We love summer evenings.



Look who ended up coming for dinner.....Grandpa (well that's usual enough)....and he brought his brother and his wife and daughter too......when T2 saw Grandpa's brother she said "There are two Grandpas". They sure look alike!

Tea Party

Special biscuits and muffins we made that were not ready in time for lunch called out to be eaten at an AFTERNOON TEA PARTY. Mama even set the table with a tea set from her childhood and the remainders of a painted-by-K8 porcelain one. L6's flowers-for-Mama decorated the table.



K9 had made T2 a very special skirt to wear. He sewed it by hand.

Chinese Dinner Party

Having a Malaysian grandmother (Poh-poh) is a great heritage, especially for the foodies of the family. Yesterday we beavered away in the kitchen cooking a very tasty sour chicken laksa and chopping lots of veges from the garden to make spring rolls. Mama accommodated our request for steamed BBQ pork buns from the local Chinese vege shop - she thought that was a pretty easy contribution to the meal. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Kids Can Cook

T2 enjoys helping make the pasta.....this batch is full of basil from our garden.....mmmmmmm


Look at this whopper - it greeted us when we got back from our camping holiday.


And we can't wait for Pumpkin Soup. We've got quite a few pumpkins growing this year. J11 wanted to feed a milk pumpkin just like in "Farmer Boy", but there were already too many on the plant by the time we noticed them this year.

Still Hot

Plum sauce in the pot

Plum sauce bubbling hot

Plum sauce in a jar

Can be smelt from afar


Plum sauce rich deep red

Plum sauce thick to spread

Plum sauce tastes so good

I would eat it if I could

written by J12, J11, K9

The plums off this tree were very tart this year so yesterday I made plum sauce.

1 large green apple
1/2C water
Simmer, covered for 10 minutes

2 fresh chillies, chopped finely
1.5kg plums, halved
2C brown sugar
1 1/2C white wine vinegar
1 onion, grated
1/4C soy sauce
2T fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Add and bring to the boil.
Cook uncovered over medium heat for 45 minutes
**stir often**
Remove from heat and press through a seive
Discard the stones
Return to heat and cook rapidly, stirring constantly until thick
Pour into clean warm jar and seal
Leave for a month before opening

Ride the Wave

From the littlest boy to the biggest boy, we've been drawing boat plans:


But we didn't stop there......we built a boat too. At one stage it had a big (tarpaulin) cover in case we encountered a storm, but the wind got up and blew that off as well as blowing the ti-tree supports down. So for now we're sticking to scurfing on the ocean.

work or weed

This morning we didn't do our chores properly.

*sigh*

So this afternoon Mama worked us.

tidying tidying tidying

weeding weeding weeding

and there's even more to do tomorrow if we forget our lesson

A Moment in Time

Saturday morning chores are complete and we are free to pursue whatever takes our fancy.
ER8mo takes a nap - as usual, she has kicked her blankets off.


The big three are resting in preparation for tomorrow's triathlon! Monopoly keeps their minds off the big event!


K8's mind is working overtime. "Mama I can do up to 10 or 11 on the clock but I don't know the ones after that" she said as she chopped up garlic to go in the savoury bread they were making. A few minutes later she was enlightened as to how the 24 hour clock works! But subtracting 12 was a bit tricky, so she used the cherry tomatoes just picked from the garden to help her!


The two little boys were in the garden....catching cicadas. Cicada-buzz is surely the most distinctive sound of summer round here.


T2 accompanies dolly playing with the playdough.


It's now 10:26am.

Time Traveller

Petrarch lived over 600 years ago....and he liked to read ancient history because it allowed him to forget some of the ills of the day and rejoice in the grandeur of the past, especially of the Roman Empire.

We love to read too. The past few days it's been outside under the plum tree while M4 and T2 potter nearby in the sandpit. Today we were enraptured with the relationship between Donatello and Brunelleschi - you've got to find out about them; they're sooooo funny.


The trouble with reading about places is that you want to go and visit them - it would be amazing to go and see Brunelleschi's dome on the cathedral in Florence. Just imagine standing inside it, knowing it took over 200 years to build and that they started it without knowing if it was even possible. Imagine standing there and thinking about the architect who suggested they fill the cathedral up with dirt so they could build the dome! Imagine.











Here's another book that has sparked our imaginations - we've been reading through the books by Holling Clancy Holling (or "Holey Clanky" as K8 calls him!). So far he has transported us all around the Great Lakes and we've passed through China and Hawaii after spending time on a whaling boat.
Do you see M4 with his arm round Mama's neck? He's always very snuggly.

Many Hands Make Light Work

Mama said we could make a path on the bank....we didn't need any more encouragement...off we went, K9 K8 L6 M4 and T2 for a couple of hours of hard work and lots of co-operation.










We carted the rocks around and laid out the path.













K9 had mowed the path first with the handmower and then went on to do the grass at the top of the bank too as a surprise for Dadda.














How do you like the handmower? Mama is really in to recycling things and she bought this for $5. It didn't work too well, but we attached the rollers at the back and now it does a great job. It doesn't pollute the atmosphere either ;-)