Making Mud Pie: May 2012

We Are The Robots

The little Bowerbird has recently discovered the recycle bin and is unleashing all its potential. She comes from the cupboard with a toilet roll in her hand and pronounces she wants to make a caterpillar. Cereal boxes are turned inside out and given a sticker glitter makeover, and bottle caps become robot eyes. I just have to watch she doesn't procure the milk bottle complete with smelly milk inside.

It is very sweet, although a little labour intensive cleaning up the tsunami she creates around her. I love her imagination and belief in her ability to create. The only problem is what to do with the masterpieces after they have been on display for a couple of weeks. Craft threatens to take over house.

Mr Bowerbird is a huge Kraftwerk fan and likes to get the kids dancing to this number, there are some pretty classy moves.

Over the River and Through the Woods

We had storms last night, which left the weather this morning wonderfully cool. The girls and I picked up Granny and headed for Chaplin Nature Center.

We hiked through the woods, listening to birds and finding deer tracks.

The woods were lovely, but the girls far more excited about the end of the trail - a huge, empty sandbar at the edge of the river.

It's the closest thing we have to a beach and it IS a lot of fun to play on!

The girls had a ball digging holes. They eventually figured out that if they dug near the river's edge, their holes would fill with water. That was REALLY exciting.

(You gotta love the squat...)

And then we had fun climbing the dead trees that have washed up in past floods. Katherine pretended she was "mountain climbing".

And Rachel found bugs, of course. There were ladybugs and roly polys, and even a tiny grasshopper that she wanted to bring home (he's hidden in her hands here).

We spent the entire morning on the sandbar, just enjoying nature.

We hiked back and had a picnic lunch. And had long naps.

graduation day

my little lady graduated from kindergarten.

i can't believe how fast the year has gone! time seems to be going by so quickly!

before i know it, she will be one of the graduating class of 2024. yikes!

it makes me want to cherish this time so much more, because it's precious and one day it will be over.

as much as you want to see your kids grow up...it's bittersweet.

she's had an awesome year and we couldn't be more proud of her!

i could go on and on, but i better stop before tears start rolling down my cheeks.

Relaxing day off!

If you can't tell from their smiles... these little ladies were very excited to spend Memorial day at the pool!
Right now swimming is the girls very favorite activity...especially Lola.

We had a simple BBQ with family and friends and hung out at our pool this past Memorial Day.

The ribs were a big hit... the girls dug right in!

It was a great way to spend the day off!

Insulation Education

Our house was built in the 60's and while parts have been updated since then, other things have not. Like the windows. They rattled every time someone walked across the room, stuck when you tried to open them, and tended to slam shut unless you propped them up with a stick. So this spring we replaced them. The new windows are great and they don't rattle and you can't feel a draft standing in front of them. So then it was time to insulate the walls. Steve had rewired some switches in the house and had seen enough of the wall cavities to know that there was was room for a lot more insulation in there. So he checked out various options and the insulation guys showed up yesterday. They parked their giant truck in front of the house...

...and ran a hose through the front window.

Inside, they drilled holes every 16 inches all around the perimeter of the house. That would be every room except the main bathroom!

Then they inserted their hose and filled the whole wall cavity with fluffy white fiberglass insulation. It was actually kind of cool to watch.

Steve followed behind, collecting all the wall plugs.

And then he started patching.

And patching. There are a LOT of holes.

This morning he taught Katherine how to patch.

There will be sanding. And more patching. And finally, lots of painting.

We have our work cut out for us. (And this is not the only summer project!) But we should be warm and toasty this winter...

Pink

With a little girl in the house who loves everything pink and frothy, pink is never far away. Pink skirts, pink boots, pink dresses, pink hair, pink fairy dresses, and pink dressing gowns.

It is not a colour I would choose to wear, but I do love it in the garden. I am very enamoured with the pink Crowea whose flowers never cease, even better it is the perfect insect lure, hauling in the prettiest of bees (see my last post). Pink petunias, pink hollyhocks, pink native hibiscus, pink lillies, pink leek flowers, pink Naked Ladies, I am surprised by how much pink I grow in the garden.

Raspberries make a wondrously pink curd, and air dried clay turns an earthy terracotta pink.

Playing along with Evi from Sister Sun who has inspired me to dredge out all things pink from my archives. I could have filled a book.

planning ahead for dinner

tomorrow is our little lady's last day of kindergarten and summer break is right around the corner.

i don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen this summer, so i prep 10 meals to make my life a bit easier.

i cut the meat and veggies for 2 meals of fajitas.

made 3 dozen turkey meat balls and cooked them.

i cut the meat for 2 meals of lemon garlic chicken and pour the marinade over the cut meat. my marinade is my own creation of lemon juice, vinaigrette, minced garlic and pepper.

i also added teriyaki marinade to some pork chops and chicken that i cut up for kebabs.

all cooked and bagged for the freezer.

it makes my life a bit easier when some of the work is already done for me ahead of time!

How to make Whitsun Doves

We made some doves from lambswool hanging on a bunch of birch branches for our Whitsun table last weekend. Those doves are easy to make with children. All You need is two skeins of unspun carded lambswool and a little bit of thread. Take one skein (approx. 20 cm) and make a knot in the middle for the doves head. Fold the skein and put the second skein (approx. 15 cm) in between the two parts of the folded skein for the doves body and the doves wings. Take the thread or some fibers of Your lambswool and to tie the two folded skeins together for body and tail of the dove.

In the Whitsun garden, white the flowers grow,

Earth is listening, glistening, listening, warming breezes blow.

N. Foster

And now for an interruption...

The house is painted on the outside. There are holes every 16 inches all the way around the inside of the house. Some have the beginnings of patches and some are leaking fluffy white insulation. The furniture is still a mess. There is dust on everything (to be fair, some of it was there before the insulation arrived...). There are about a thousand things I should be doing. But I got distracted by flowers...

We have a lot of plants and flowers at our house and I love most of them. But I think this one is the most fascinating.

It is a hydrangea. According to the plant labels and books about plants, hydrangeas are supposed to bloom in either blue or pink, according to the acidity of the soil. Apparently our soil is having an identity crisis, because our hydrangea blooms in pink...