Do possums eat pumpkins??

Picture from here 

 
I've never had much luck with growing pumpkins. Probably because the last 2 houses we've lived at just havent had enough sun. So I was absolutely gleeful when my pumpkins started fruiting this year. I've watched them carefully as they've grown on the vine, made Mr B mow far away from them as they took over the lawn and imagined all the lovely things I could cook when they were ready.

So you can imagine my surprise earlier this week, when I went down to the vegie garden to water one hot morning and discovered the whole lot had vanished. Into thin air :-o The vines were still there but alas not a pumpkin to be seen. And no evidence of what made away with them - no skins, no seeds - zip, nada, nothing!!

So my question is - do possums eat pumpkins?? If they dont, I have to say I'm out of ideas...hungry aliens maybe LOL??

Simple Summer Holidays

As the summer school holidays are drawing to a close it’s been fun to look back and see what we’ve done with ourselves.  Mr B took all of January off work because Little B starts school this year. We then detached ourselves electronically, turned off our mobile phones and placed them in a drawer and let the summer take us where it would. It’s been great family time and we’ve had a whole lot of fun :-)

:: We’ve explored our local surrounds and found new places we didn’t know existed (like waterfalls)

:: Been blackberry picking in our own backyard LOL (we get a bowl like this every 2^nd day) and found wild strawberries

:: We’ve spent a lot of time canoeing, bushwalking and exploring local lakes (yay for the warm weather)

:: Spent time at our local library weekly and enjoyed their school holiday activities like making carrot cars and croaking frogs

:: Read our way through the entire Flat Stanley series; then Babe the Sheep Pig, and re-read Stuart Little

:: Visited family and old friends, discovered new beaches and a new favourite – climbing trees.

The greatest thing I think has been how much time we’ve managed to spend outside and out in nature.  But with school just around the corner, we’ve spent the last couple of days readapting to the “real” world. Not long now and my faithful side kick will take his first big steps out into his new world.

New Years Goals

 Picture courtesy of here

The start of a new year is such a funny time – there’s the reflection that come as one year closes as well the opening expanse of possibilities of a brand new year. I’ve enjoyed 2012 – we’ve renovated and settled into our house, Little B has loved and thrived during his last year a kinder, I made new friends and we’ve had the peace that comes from digging in and making a home.

As I look at last year’s goals, we didn’t do too badly. We started a vegie garden at this house but had no chance to expand it. We kept our electricity usage to a minimum and our latest bill with solar has us in credit (yay!!).  I did find alternatives to more items from the supermarket and have settled on a little local independent supermarket as an alternative to the duopoly of Coles & Woolworths for those things we just cant change because of Little B’s allergies. And I did learn more crafty skills (I learned to crochet, to sew a wider variety of items) and hey I learnt to plaster on this house ;-)

And I was kinder to myself. I’ve let myself wander in mind and thought – read more for fun than information, caught up on old movies, and spent some really concentrated time with my family.

So as I enter 2013, I’m focussing on 4 simple goals:

* Improve my posture – after my fall in July, my body is still struggling to recover. Turns out I pulled my psoas muscle which controls your hip sockets and is kind of hard to work on. But my physio and I are aiming for full recovery by July this year (which sounds like a long way away but it’s sort of a little by little process)

* Move more – said hip injury has made me a couch potato, but a few thoughtful Christmas gifts means I can get back out into the garden and canoeing more.  I’m a moving kind of gal and I want to get back to that.

* Grow more – after our successes this spring/summer with our limited vegie beds, I’m inspired to branch out and grow more of our own. We are aiming to put in more vegie beds and to put in an avocado tree, and another pear tree as well.

* Be more creative –I've purposefully left this sort of open ended because I want to think outside the square for so many different areas of my life and I'm not quite sure where I'll end up. I guess creative to me in this instance, is to look at things in my life with a different set of eyes.

* Remember more - Time passes so quickly and perhaps I feel more nostalgic as I get older, but as we slow down on our sustainable journey and as my little one grows, I want to document our family memories more. I hope to write on this blog more, am aiming to join in Jodie's (from Che & Fidel's)  52 A Portrait A Week project, and to spend more time with my lovely son and husband. We've done so much community work this year, that I want to spend 2013 focussing that little bit more inward.

And as Jodie quotes Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project, I want to "slow down, stay patient, take photographs, and play Hide and Seek". This year I want to live and soak in the moments of my time with my loved ones.

 

Let's see what 2013 brings!!

Canoe Trip to Herring Island

On the weekend, as part of Little B’s advent calendar we took a canoe trip down the Yarra River to Herring Island.

There were so many things and people to see as we canoed along. I loved looking at all the old boat houses, and cactus walls. Little B loved all the baby ducklings and saying hello to everyone we “met”.

Sometimes, you need to just lie down for a little rest (hmmm mainly I would think only if you actually did the paddling rather than socialising LOL).

Originally created with silt dredged from the river, Herring Island passed through many hands (including the Scouts) until it became part of Parks Victoria in 1994, and is now an Environmental Sculpture Park. It’s also the home of a Summer Arts festival from January to April each year.

After a picnic lunch from our trusty esky, we did a walk around the island and checked out all the sculptures. Little B loved the “giant pinecone” and a falling fence to nowhere :-)

We’ve found a good travelling picnic lunch for canoeing is tombolas for Mr B and Little B and a sandwich for me, some fruit and a nutrient dense home-made slice or biscuit. Mr B’s current fave is bring along some home-made ginger beer (since he’s the muscles in our paddling).

On a side note, Mr B and I could not get over how dirty the Yarra River was. We canoed it a looong time ago (about 7 years ago) and it was dirty then but the level of pollution in it and the smell was disgusting. It dismayed us both over how much rubbish was floating in there. We always pick up rubbish from wherever we canoe following the Take 3 Clean Beach Principle (though in our case it is generally lakes and rivers). Little B does it naturally now though he is still saddened and doesnt understand why people leave it there in the first place.

Neither do I love, neither do I. All we can do is make the best difference we can. I wish more people did it though.

Advent Calendar 2012

Two years ago, with Granny B’s help I made a fabric advent calendar for Little B. Mainly to help him track the time until Christmas (and his birthday which is not long after) and not only was it fun to make but an absolute hit with Little B. It’s always been part home-made, part craft, part cooking and part experiences.

And it's these things the he remembers and talks about when thinking about Christmas. Inadvertently these have now become family traditions :-)

But this year I’ve taken a leaf (excuse the pun) out of Tricia’s book over at Little Eco Footprints and made a leaf advent calendar. For three reasons, 1) it takes up minimal space, 2) I like the notion of using things we have in the yard and 3) Little B was very attracted to the novelty of the whole thing. Our normal advent calendar has just stayed packed away and we will probably use it again next year.

But as with all traditions, my little boy has gotten bigger and some activities have lost their gloss.

So this our list for this year (taking into account one very science-y, outdoor, active type of boy – read less cooking):

1. His Christmas Book (we started this from his 1st year)

2. Decorate the tree

3. Paint with Feathers

4. Make a natural sistrum

5. Make a foaming monster

6. Draw on the trampoline

7. Create an ice world

8. A canoe trip up the Yarra River

9. See the Myer Christmas Windows

10. Put a gift under our local charity tree

11. Make your own bath paints

12. Make a snowglobe (for presents)

13. Blow up balloons science style

14. Paint with Mud

15. Climb a tree

16. Camp overnight in the backyard (in our trampoline tent)

17. Paint rock monsters and setting some free

18. Make a home-made lava lamp

19. Make a nature paint brush

20. Make some seed bombs

21. Make a gingerbread house

22. Go for bike-ride along part of the Warburton Rail Trail

23. Make fireworks in a jar

24. Sprinkle reindeer food and put out milk for Santa

Slow Living Diary November 2012

Once again, I am joining in with Christine from Slow Living Essentials for a monthly reflection of slow living…

NOURISH: I spent a weekend cooking all the snacks that Little B would need for kindy until the end of the year and froze them. Now I just get out what we need the night before and it’s defrosted in time for his lunch. I’ve also bulk cooked a few meals, so that on really busy or hot nights we can grab something and heat it up in the microwave.

PREPARE: I finished off as much of our Christmas presents as possible. I made a batch of strawberry jam to give as gifts to give to teachers, Little B’s physiotherapist and OT, and some neighbours.

Those I didn’t make, I bought from Etsy and MadeIt. I’ve also been adding to our stockpile so I don’t have to go to the shops as much during the Christmas period (I hate crowds!!).

REDUCE: Repurposed a whole bunch of star pickets and old bamboo to support my tomato plants. The one benefit I guess of a buying a house with a crazy wild backyard (it was FULL of star pickets just stuck in the ground in any old place). Used up all Granny B’s old stocking socks on tying up said tomato plants as well.

 
GREEN: Nothing new to report here, just moseying along with all our current green living choices.

GROW: It’s all going on in the garden at the moment – lots and lots of zucchinis, the almond tree is full and our apples look beautiful. Our tomato plants have baby tomatoes, the bean seedlings are shooting up, our potatoes are flowering and our pumpkins are trying to take over the world :-)

CREATE:  This month I made another teepee as a gift (pics to come), bunting for Christmas and a scarf for family overseas. I also made our Christmas wreath out of sticks in the backyard and crocheted a few Christmas decorations for our tree.

DISCOVER:   I’ve jumped back into reading again this month. I enjoyed Whole Larder Love by Rohan Anderson for it’s preserving section. I’m looking forward to making semi dried tomatoes (we are growing one kind of tomato specifically for this), hot zucchini relish and blood plum jam. I’ve also read In the Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I originally read an abridged copy of this but it was good to read it all in total.

For fun, I read Love Anthony by Lisa Genova (it brought tears to my eyes), and roared through The Twelve by Juston Cronin (fantastic reading – I literally almost couldn’t put it down and probably wouldnt have, if I didnt have to do annoying things like cook, sleep, look after my family ;-).

ENHANCE: Aah its coming to end of the kinder year – I’ve helped at AGM’s, and strategy meetings. Mr B and I put up signs at the kinder to help get rid of some unsavoury people boozing away the evenings in a preschool’s car park – noice!!.

ENJOY: This month we enjoyed a holiday break at Phillip Island. It was great to take some time out and away and just switch off from it all – no phones, no computers – just sun, sand and exploration before Mr B had to go away overseas for work for a week or so.

Christmas Wreath

This year will be our first Christmas in our new house as well as our first Christmas with our own Christmassy things. After losing everything from the old house, we celebrated the last two Christmases at Granny B’s and decorated/celebrated with things we either made or decorations Granny B already owned.

Luckily for us, last year we were gifted a handful of decorations from family members. These things were given with our green beliefs in mind (one of these angels, and some handmade gnomes on reindeer). But this year I wanted a wreath to hang on the door.

In an old (2008) Burke’s Backyard magazine, I found a simple how to guide to making your own wreath. Then I spent 20 minutes picking up a variety of sticks from our backyard before sitting down with an old coat hanger and a hot glue gun. And voila, we have our own Christmas wreath to hang on the door.

I love the front cover of Country Style magazine at the moment with their feather wreath (not the bird though), so we think we may weave a few feathers from Little B’s nature collection into our wreath before we hang it up. I also want to cover the hanger in white wool, so it blends in a bit more with our white door.

And what has surprised me is that I really feel a unexplainable happiness that I made this wreath from simple things already in our backyard. I guess sometimes it’s the simple things that give us the greatest pleasure?? :-)