Tappy feet

Four children didn't ask to go through this kind of year.
The stabilising factor has been staying in their own home and continuing with all their routines.
In the midst of winter after days I'd rather forget, we went every Thursday to tap practice.

As spring came we went to exams and extra practices for the recital.
Her feet grew and her shoes got tighter, she put plasters on her heels!
She tried so hard without any complaints, (OK, maybe a little tired sulking)

It all paid off for her yesterday. She smiled till her cheeks got sore, as her Dad watched in the audience and I cried in the wings.
Her name got called for a prize. Fantastic exam results, and much improved confidence for the year.

Well done my girl.

Sewing fast, growing fast.

Typical story for late November.
Sewing like mad for Christmas.

Once a week I've been checking the Sew Mama Sew Handmade Holidays ideas. The Mama Chic wrist cuff took our fancy. A silk one for me and a patched one for PJ.

Meanwhile the garden.....

is close to bountiful.

Peas sown where garlic was last year. A bit silly of me to put the peas so near the back door though as I'm sure they'll all get eaten raw before I can get any on the table.

A strategy for tattle tailers

I have to share this wonderful trick.
A friend who I really admire has raised 5 lovely children , one of whom has special needs after an horrific accident involving a fall when he was two years old.
I was telling her about my tiredness at dealing with constant silly tattle tailing. She said "look this is what worked for me: Every time you get a tattle tale say to the child something like Oh dear that's no good, just a minute let me wipe your face it's really grubby"
I LOVE IT!
I still listen, don't get me wrong, but those silly tales (she did this, he did that) get forgotten after a good scrub of the face.
Helps them solve their own disagreements and they are playing much more happily while I prepare dinner, which with the warmer weather and abundance of veges in the garden is probably an 80% sustainable meal most nights.
That's gotta be good! Skatey boy is even stepping up to do some cooking!
Oh happy days.

Making ginger beer

Truth be known, the produce from my garden is wasted in my cooking as I'm a totally uninspired cook. Beautiful fresh peas, asparagus, broccoli and carrots are all being steamed together tonight to have alongside chicken and rice. I like to spend as little time in the kitchen as I can, unless it's one of those days when I am spending all day in the kitchen cooking enough food for a week, or throwing together some raw stuff.
The other night I made something with pasta and veges, sprinkling on some chopped parsley at the last minute. The teen, who was setting the table said sarcastically "f a n c y Mum. You finally learned something from Masterchef"
Cheeky little begger!
I do like making concoctions for keeping, like ginger beer, Elderflower cordial, jam, sauce, syrup and cider. Got some of them going on this week.



I know there are recipes for these all over the web but here's my ginger beer recipe followed by one from my Dad:
Ginger Beer 1:
To make the plant:
8 sultanas
2 tsp ground ginger
4 tsp grated ginger
strained juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp of lemon pulp
2 cups of cold water
Put all ingredients in a screw top jar. Leave for 3 days in a warm place. It should show signs of fermentation (bubbles) Then feed the plant for 7 days with 2tsp ground ginger and 4 tsp sugar.


Making up the ginger beer:
3-4 cups of sugar
1 litre boiling water
juice of 5 lemons
strained ginger beer plant
7 litres cold water
Mix sugar and boiling water and stir until dissolved, then add the lemon juice.
Strain the plant through double muslin, squeeze the muslin to get all the liquid out. Add the plant liquid to the sugar, water and lemon juice. Reserve the plant left in the muslin.
Now add cold water and stir.
I bottle into saved plastic bottles to avoid glassy explosions.
Fill bottles and add a sultana to each. Store in a cool place for two weeks.
To make a new plant halve the plant residue left in the muslin and place back in the jar. Add 2 cups cold water. Feed daily as before.
usually freak out about the sugar quantities adding less sugar at stages.
Feel free to experiment or offer some other ideas.


Dad's recipie: (More simple, less wholesome)
16 cups of cold water
1lb sugar
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp lemon essence
1 level dessertspoon of DYC Active yeast
Mix.
Stand overnight (or at least 12 hrs)
Strain, bottle and cap.
Stand 24hrs at room temp, then keep refrigerated.

Forget what you've been told about 4 year old boys.

The Montessori teacher stopped me on Monday to tell me about a conversation she had with the red head.

He told her " God gave me to my Mum as a special gift. I'm so glad cos she was just the Mum I wanted"

I of course nearly cried at that. Beautiful child.

After the school fair on the weekend he came home with his sister and presented me with this:

"Mum that's a love heart for you because we're in love"

Even the weeds look good

I haven't had time to do a lot of seed raising, planning or planting this spring, but luckily for the last six years I have established many of the herbs and fruit trees we need. Radishes, kales, beetroots, lettuces etc self seeded last autumn and are now providing us with tender salads along with the addition of a few choice self seeded weeds. I've also been indulging in some local olives and oil just to top them off.
( Just need to find a source of nice local feta to barter.)
It is interesting that Motherwort and nettle are thriving in my garden at the moment. My friend who is a herbalist once suggested to me that all the plants you need for your well being at any point in time will colonise your surroundings, this might also explain why I just cannot grow some herbs despite much persistence while others rampage out of control. The nettle is being taken as tea for the iron and vitamins, while the Motherwort is helpful for woman's cycles.

Other herbs and medicines also thriving are: Elderberry and elecampane, chickweed and calendula, comfrey and hop plant, lovage, marshmallow, borage and lemon balm. Listing those herbs makes me really think about all their properties as well and how I must "make hay while the sun shines" so to speak. The warm, windy weather is quite favourable for harvesting and drying them.

The weeds are also doing a good job of "supporting" some things I have planted. The broad beans for example don't need to be staked as they are being held upright by weeds.

The planting that I have been doing has involved planting 6 telegraph cucumbers in the tunnel house, a few, "Ahem!" F1 hybrid tomatoes in the glasshouse. Ox heart tomatoes curving round the corner of the garden path leading to the blueberries. Tomatoes and basil near the water tank. Sunflowers and Phacelia by the neighbours fence with spinach and hearting lettuces poked in the shady wet spots. The onions were a disaster, I think they were too little when I planted them out so only half have taken off. Peas look good, a few flowers showing. The red head has a very close eye on the strawberry patch after a lesson in why we don't pick the strawberry flowers for Mum, a few weeks ago.

One row of spuds in, one more trench dug and lined with comfrey.

Hope to get the Purple Cherokee tomatoes planted in the tunnel house this weekend as well as the cannelinni beans and gherkins outdoors. Have four zucchini in but have been a bit slow to plant the pumpkins and forgot to buy corn seed altogether. Will watch a friends experiment with saving corn seeds this summer with interest.

If any Kiwi's want motherwort roots, sunflower seeds or cannelinni seeds drop me a line.

I'll happily pop some in the post.

A Breath

Here goes, .............. a long deep breath before summer.


Pj needs new tap shoes and her term fees paid. Practice, practice, practice before the end of year concert.


Skatey will be off to school camp on his birthday. Trapping possums, eeling, orienteering, camp fire cooking and other adventures.

The school book and Country Fair. Fundraising for the solar heating on the new pool.


The teen will sit his exams and go on summer holiday early.

Grandpa will need help picking strawberries and peas at the farm.


I will sew for markets and events and grow a garden full of beautiful food.


Pj asked tonight " Mum when will we have raspberries and cream after dinner?"

Our future is uncertain here. But I can grow sprouts and herbs anywhere.

Mum gave me a plaque which I like:

"No matter what

No matter where

It's always home

If love is there."

Breathe

Time out

I've realised that techniques I learned for observing children at Playcentre, come automatically

now and help me with interpreting what my own children need. "Notice, Recognise, Respond" is the little phrase that runs though my head.

The other day I noticed one of my children seemed upset. Recently I have learned myself that a change of scene, especially a walk to get the blood pumping can really help put things in perspective. I had no trouble convincing the other three adventurers to come. A lovely walk to a lookout through the beech trees cliff side and over to the next beach for a play, where the first thing we saw was a perfect tree for climbing. Of course once skatey jumped out of it the others wanted to as well. This is probably why I end up at the hospital with kids with broken bones. Thankfully not this time. Off to the store for an ice block and a cheered up car load of kids on the way home.

Saved seed verses bought

It's interesting to note how my own saved strain of sunflower seeds compared to a packet of bought seed of the same variety. I've been saving my strain for about 6 years. This year I only had quite a small amount of saved seed to plant because I didn't do enough collecting in Autumn, so I bought a packet. I sowed one tray from the bought seed and one tray of my own seed on the same day in the same potting mix and raised them under identical conditions.

So there they are sitting next to each other, my seed on the right is growing bigger and healthier looking plants. I am very encouraged.

Just wanted to show this good recycling idea too. We buy old ironing boards from the recycling centre for $2 each. Because they fold down flat they are ideal as market tables in summer, with a cloth over them you'd never know. Then when they get to tatty for that I use them as potting tables around the garden and in the glasshouse.

My plant tags are cut up icecream containers or venetian blinds.

Spring Shift

It sneaks up. I don't mean mother nature's changes, I mean the energy levels and optimism I feel within myself, come spring. For about a month the garden has shown signs of spring. Though only in the last few days have I felt the energy I need to keep up with the season. Instead of lighting the fire and sitting near it to knit, I go straight outside to collect the eggs, open the glasshouse, check growth, frost and bugs. Washing dries the same day it is hung on the line and grass grows in a week.

Meanwhile....

We're in the middle of school holidays as well. This is what the teen has been doing. His homework folder is out but I'm fairly certain from the earphones, pocket knife and dreadful computer game case that NCEA English is not at the top of his priorities.

I've had to focus on a few things I'd rather not be doing, so my Mum took a few days off work to look after the children. I came home the other day to find they'd started making some puppets, an idea from a Living crafts magazine. It's so lovely to have a Mum who wants to do things with her Grandchildren, they adore her for this. So does the dog who walks around looking for her when she leaves.

I managed to put the finishing touches on a bag last night, I'm off to put it in the shop after a couple of very much appreciated purchases last week.