Butterflies and Babies

Spring is in the air today and it’s just the weather to get into the garden. We are going to start a butterfly garden because E6 is wanting to learn all about butterflies this term. A friend gave me some Milkweed seeds (which the caterpillars eat) and some wildflowers (which produce nectar for the butterflies) so today we did some planting. No photos yet because I’m too lazy to upload them…

Oh my gosh I an loving the sun today! So glad winter is coming to an end. I really do love warm sunny days and a blue sky always puts me in a good mood.

Baby in utero is doing fine… growing nicely and kicking around from time to time. I am 17 weeks or so along. What’s that…23 weeks to go! Seems like forever and how much can a body morph in 23 weeks? A heck of a lot actually! I’m so glad the morning sickness phase is over. Right now is a lovley pregnant time for me. I’m neither sick nor the size of a house, so the discomforts are kept to a minimum at the moment. Just little annoyances like my being unable to button my jeans so they are always falling down, but not quite ready for the maternity pants. ehehe

The children are still fascinated by the whole pregnant thing and we’ve had interesting discussions about all sorts of things like where my food goes…”Does it go straight into the baby’s tummy mum?’ It was quite cool being able to explain to the all about the placenta and the umbilical cord and the amazingness of foetal circulation! Love it! Fourth time around and I still find the whole thing fascinating!

Sunday Sunday

Sigh… my weekend begins. D is off today after working 6 days until yesterday. I’m so very glad he’s home today….just tired of being in charge of three small people day after day. He took the older two for a walk to the playground this afternoon while the little one (and a little friend who is here to visit) had their sleeps. I fell asleep on the couch. Quiet house…blissful. I am feeling much much better after just a little break and some needed silence. Thanks D!

I woke up just in time to see a little hedgehog waddling across our front lawn. He was in no hurry as he pottered along snuffling into the grass looking for whatever it is that hedgehogs look for. He made his way right across our lawn and toddled off down the driveway. So cute. I wanted to take a picture, but couldn’t find the camera, but he looked quite like this one.

And apparently they eat insects, worms, centipedes, snails, mice, frogs, and snakes, and are usually nocturnal. Thanks for popping out for a visit little hedgehog.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Or anything else. See, I mentioned you never know what you’re gonna get when you come here. Bet you weren’t expecting a hedgehog.

Colour for the kitchen

Today, inspired by this post at Mt Hope Chronicles we planted some chives in this cute PINK bucket.

It will be fun for the kids to watch the seeds sprout, and will add some green to the kitchen, not to mention some flavour. Will keep you posted!

Oh, and while you’re over there check out her amazing house here and here.

It’s one of those houses I admire and then wish I never saw because I’m so overwhelmed by how much our house is NOT like that!

Short & Sweet

Waitangi Day.
Fine. Sunny. Not too hot.

Weeded garden. (Oh yes I did….it’s an annual event)

They make us think it’s too hard

We had tomato soup and crumpets for dinner. HOME MADE Tomato Soup no less! What inspired me was that last week I read the ingredients on a can of Tomato Soup and thought, “Oh, that’s simple, Why not do it myself.” So…..I did. I used a recipe I found in a Vegetarian cookbook I have. It was soooo easy, and so tasty.

There are so many ready made meals out there, I’ve realised that I have tended to assume those items are just too hard to make yourself. Things like bread, pesto, pizza bases, stock, pasta sauces, soups, fresh pasta etc. It’s so satisfying to cook from scratch, and it’s made me realise how lazy I had become and how many basic cooking skills are being forgotten. I’ve tried all these things except pasta, and it’s fun, yummy, and cheaper. Not to mention the accolades for being so clever!

Admittedly the main ingredient was a tin of tomato puree, but I wished I’d had fresh tomatoes on hand and I would have done that myself too. Which leads me to wish I had home grown tomatoes on hand too. I did have a vege garden last year, but it was sadly neglected and is now overgrown with kikuyu grass. However, a friend gave me two compost bins this week and so maybe we’ll resurrect the little patch and plant later in the year.

Anyway, the kids helped and it was done in 10 minutes. I love winter soups and tomorow is going to be Lamb and Vegetable soup out of the lamb shanks I bought today. Cheap but makes such a hearty soup. Has lots of lentils.

And guess what. It never occurred to me until I started this post that it may be possible to make your own crumpets. Why do I just assume that if you can buy it you can’t home make it??

Home made Crumpets here we come.