First day of the school holidays 2010

Well...  We have all 5 kids off school for the next six weeks, (admittedly, they will be with their other parents for odd parts of the holidays as well).  They're all excited, with Christmas so close, and it's up to me to provide entertainment for the first week of the holidays...

So, a slow start to the day, with pancakes for breakfast, and the girls and I spent a few hours dancing and listening to classical music.  It all started with Wagner's bridal march from Lohengrin, followed by the Ride of the Valkyries, and then through a bunch of dance-worthy classics, from Bizet to Mozart.  Then the girls snuggled up to listen to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf while I sorted morning tea (pineapple, apple, oranges, kiwifruit, banana, pretzels and peanuts).

It's raining again.  The garden is springing into life more vigorously, and the kids are scratchy...  But, while the rain broke for an hour or so, the kids ran to the trampoline to let off some steam.  Then they took off with the neighbour's kids to play at their house for the afternoon.

In the meantime, I managed to sneak out of the house during a break in the weather and grab an update of our garden's progress:

Our first tomatoes

The first couple of tomatoes have started to grow on the largest tomato plant in the greenhouse.  Hopefully, once the other plants are up to a decent size, we'll start harvesting a fair few.

Baby pepino

My ruby pepino is forming its first fruits as well, which I look forward to trying...  I've had them described as similar to cucumber, but also compared to watermelon...  Should be able to tell for myself soon enough

All our strawberry plants are producing well now, but the birds are getting more than we are for the moment...  Job for the weekend - cover the strawberries!

Peppery nasturiums.  Yum!

Sam and I have both discovered we like the taste of nasturtium flowers and leaves, so we've been busily plucking them while wandering the garden.  So nice and peppery!

I'm behaving, and leaving Sam's raspberry to ripen for him, instead of picking it...  But it's so tempting.

Potatoes by the chook enclosure

We've added another tyre to each of our potatoes and loaded them up with more straw.  They're growing happily and will hopefully produce a fair few spuds this time around...  Potatoes and tomatoes seem to be my gardening downfall, so any positive progress with either will please me.

I'm yet to see how well it does, but the "Beneficial insect blend" of wildflower seeds I bought from Kings Seeds is finally starting to sprout nicely.  This lot is in the chook enclosure, where I hope to get extra seeds from it once it's done, to put in other parts of the garden.



And last of all, a couple of cute vids of our animal friends...

Andre was telling me just how hungry he was this morning, so he had to squeak a little longer while I got out the camera (I promise, I fed him after)

And, true to their normal desires, Sammy and Fluffyfeet are broody again.  I didn't want to interrupt them for long, but here's our little broody girls, keeping my golf balls warm



Take care,
Mama Fern