What to do with all the Feijoas Falling...

Well, when the ground underneath our 3 ancient Feijoa trees began to look like an emerald carpet - and it wasn't grass!!! - we knew it was time to think of some yummy ways to deal to it all before the rain turned them to rotting mush and a big old fruit-fly factory.
We've made Spicy Feijoa Chutney from Digby Law's Chutney + Relish book, Tangy Feijoa Jam from the NZ Gardener Homegrown Edition, dehydrated loads and loads for dried fruit in the Winter, made crumbles, stewed some, eaten masses raw, fresh and juicy...and made this cake many times! It came to me from a friend on Waiheke, Wendy, who got it from another friend on Waiheke, called Liz...we've passed it on countless times and thought...maybe this might be the quickest and easiest way to broadcast it now. Plus Phoebe and I had a huge amount of fun pretending to be food stylists!! Tee Hee!
SPICY FEIJOA CAKE
500gm feijoas, peeled and chopped
125gm melted butter
3/4 C raw sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp gd allspice
1/4 tsp gd ginger
2 Tblsp chopped crystallised ginger (optional)
Preheat oven to 180 C. Combine chopped feijoas, butter, crystallised ginger and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add egg. Sift flour, BP, BS + spices over feijoa mixture. Fold in gently and turn into a lightly buttered (or baking paper-lined) ring tin.[I don't have one of these, so I use a round tin with a latte glass standing in the centre, greased on the outside and 2/3 full with water]. Bake 35-45mins, until just cooked. Cool 20mins in the tin before turning out. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!!

Woo HOO!! Loving the New Swing!

On one of their wanderings down to the river lately, Phoebe and Aaron realised that there was a perfect swinging tree just waiting for a swing to be hung there.
Didn't take Aaron too long to create the perfect round swing seat from a suitably thick piece of plywood, be reminded frequently to buy the correct rope and a few days later...WOO HOO!!!
Father responds to the constant requests of "Higher! Higher!" with yet higher swing-out starts and Mother just has her heart in her mouth!
I guess I know deep down she is safe (!!) and swinging out over the river with loud WooHoo's is incredible fun and all part and parcel of childhood and learning more how make this thing called a body work for her!
[The picture does tend to make it look further out over the river than it is, of course!]

Pretty Pretty Eggs at Easter Time...belated

This Easter Phoebe was given these truly beautiful eggs by her grandparents...no, not the ones in the nest! ...although, I reckon you'd be forgiven for wondering, as apart from the stand-out colours these chocolate eggs are pretty close to bird's eggs, don't you think? [And they are organic!]

The also (I think) magnificently-comfy-looking nest and it's tiny eggs belonged to a family(to-be-that-never-was! :-( ) of barn-swallows and was accidentally knocked down during a Spring Clean Up we were having. Since then it has resided on the Season Table we keep in our entrance way. A place Phoebe displays all the little treasures she finds on her outdoor 'doings' and reminds us of the current Season - although, as I mentioned - this was from Spring and somehow it is just so lovely, we haven't been able to part with it yet...

The beginnings of a New Pond in the Mandala

Here's a blow by blow of the creation of our new pond in the central bed of the Permaculture Mandala Garden.

We've simply (he he he! - I mean "Aaron! simply") dug out our shape and after removing rocks and sharp stuff, placed a 2m square piece of pond liner - the heavy-duty stuff over the space, filled it with stream water (innoculated with all the goodies that come out of stream or dam water!) et voila!

In a later blog, I will update with pics of the further aesthetic beautification of the pond - we are currently sourcing and accumulating various logs, and rocks, boulders (small!!) and driftwood to create potential dwelling spaces for frogs, lizards and all manner of hungry prey in the hope that they will gobble up our unwanted insects of the non-beneficial kind.

And, of course, Luke, our faithful friend looks on, approving the plans...

Inside Play on Rainy Days

Lately, we've had some quite inclement weather, lots of 'fuzzy' rain and chilly days and that has led to more inside time.

And here are a couple of the things Phoebe has been doing. We have some beautiful 'STOCKMAR' watercolour paints and nice paper for Phoebe to create paintings with. These paints come in an intense concentrate in tiny bottles and are diluted with water in small jars. Here she has brought inside a beautiful Monarch butterfly, which she found dead on the ground in the garden and is noticing the different patterns and colours the butterfly has and is trying out a butterfly with dark "Monarch" edges.

Another of Phoebe's inside pastimes is to create necklaces. She really appreciates the lovely beads she is given and spends hours (lots of focus!) deciding their order and then threads them up. All her (toy) friends have at least 1 beautiful beaded creation made by Phoebe.

Mum, I need a Trailer for My Kids!

One day last week, Phoebe decided I needed to attach her wonderful old wooden trolley-cart to her (now a bit small) three-wheeler because she needed a trailer for her "kids".

...finally, after more than a bit of persuasion, Phoebe trotted off in search of possible items for the attachment and came back with a long piece of twine.
In just minutes she'd worked out how to tie the two together and was in behind the handle-bars, dragging her "trailer" about the garden (excuse the lack of lawn-mowing in this pic!!)

Summer Splashing...

Whilst outside this evening the rain is dropping in a steady dribble and the temperatures are now decidedly Autumnal, I thought I'd share this pic from a few weeks ago when it felt to me as if the Summer was eternal, the heat infusing everything.

The sheer joy and sanguine, Summer lightness of two little girls running across the lawn, leaping over a water sprinkler.

Phoebe's younger cousin, Chloe, is waiting fairly patiently for her turn, summoning up the courage a few times and then letting it rip - giggles and delight.