The colour of Spring

There's a spring in my step:)

Spring is here. It's been creeping up for the last couple of weeks, only to duck behind a tree when Winter brings out a frosty cold morning. But now she's here in her full glory.
If last night was any indication it is time to put away all those extra layers of Winter blankets.
The birds are back in abundace. Parrots, Galahs, Lorrikettes, King Parrots, Fig Birds and Spangled Drongos(who I must mention because that is my favourite bird name ever!) are gathering in the trees to eat all our mulberries!!! But they are a riot of colour and bird song in the early morning.
I love this time of year, everything renewing, blossoming... it makes me feel more alive too.

Zan's Birthday again!!!

I can't believe another year has passed so soon. Zan celebrated his 15th birthday last week. We went tenpin bowling. The kid.s really loved it especially the littlies who had never been before.
Mr T and Tui pretended to drive these racing cars. I didn't want to spoil their fun and tell them that you could put money in them and play a racing game ;)

Zan was disappointed with his game at first but soon found his mojo...

Afterwards we went to The Noosa National Park for a picnic at the beach. It was a perfect Spring day.

Tui immediately stripped off and jumped into the closest rockpool.

While the older ones were catching a few waves ou the back Tui and Mr T had so much fun building sand castles, digging holes and splashing each other and us!!!

Mr T was fascinated by these sea anenomies that close on your finger when you touch them.

Happy Birthday Zan!!!

Food marvelous food...

Does food that you have grown yourself actually taste better or does it just seem to because of the effort and love that have gone into it? I'm sure it does actually taste better. It's just so fresh and still so full of life when it reaches your plate. Or if your like me you can't actually wait for it to reach the plate or even leave the tree. Peace taught me this trick and you can feel the energy from the tree as you taste the fruit. This is a white shatoot mulberry tree that we planted two years ago. It's grown so fast. Mr T can climb up the branches already.


And it's absolutely laden with fruit.



Shatoots have long skinny fruit. The white ones are light green and turn almost white when ripe. We've also got a red shatoot, wich has light red fruit but they're not as sweet and a traditional black mulberry which are so yum but because of their bright color the birds tend to spot them easily. And the persimon is in flower. They'd have to be my favourite fruit tree flower.


Also noticed some little apples coming on but already some birds have been at them. What can you do but share with the wildlife? I must admit we'd be eating alot more from the garden if we didn't have to share!
The vege garden is coming along well. We'll be picking the first lettuce leaves and pak choi next week. And the new herb bed behind the chook house is growing well. It's got such rich soil with all the run-off full of chook poo going straight into it.
And tonight we're eating local produce. A neighbour dopped off bunches silver beet.

Summer unschool

I like the amount of swimming and hanging out at cool water holes that unschooling involves. Our niece stayed over last night and today was hot again and it's not even Summer yet. So we went to little Yabba creek for a swim.

After cooling off we went for a walk through the rainforest. This is my niece looking at the hobbit hole she found.
The writing was already on the log when we found it!
And my three monkeys climbing vines.

On the way home we bought two more laying hens. A black one ( an austrolorpe) and a brown one ( a sussex). When we first got our land the kids wanted pet chickens. Soon they decided that they were going to run a business selling eggs. Well they have now printed off lables to stick on the recycled cartons. They fill out egg counting sheets that they have made and fill out balance sheets to keep track of the money they spend and the money they make. I actually suggested getting the two new chooks today because every time I want to use eggs lately we're all sold out. Which is very cool. The kids think it's great to be making any money at all. They pay for the chook food and feed them and water them every day. We even have a chicken business meeting every couple of months or when they want to discuss something about the chooks or to divvy up their earnings. It is such a great way for them to learn about money and it is totally self motivated. Although I do feed the chickens occasionally to earn my eggs to cook a quiche!

Bees and Bindi-eyes

Spring is also the time that clover grows all over the lawn and attracts bees. I wouldn't mnd but I'm alergic to bees. Have to get out there and mow the grass. And Bindi-eyes...the enemy of every Australian kid in summer. The prickles on these little suckers can almost puncture a bike tyre. Often I've had to rescue one of the kids. 'Help, I'm stuck in a patch of bindis!' So I'll be pulling prickles out of my feet for the next few weeks.

I sprayed alot of the bindis with vinegar. It works best if it's a really hot day. And you've got to get them before the prickles develope. I have used about four litres of vinegar but there was no way I was going to be able to spray the whole 2 1/2 acres. There is a bindi free path to the clothes line and to the car and most of the childrens garden has been done.

It has been so warm that I thought I'd better make little Tui a sunhat. Isn't she cute.

Spring has bounced

Spring has sprung. It doesn't sneak up on you slowly here. It springs, bounces into being. Three weeks ago we had our last frost. A chilly -3 morning and now it's so different. The stone fruit trees are covered with blossum the mulberries are bursting into leaf and their are flowers popping up everywhere I look.

And the birds...this morning there were king parrots, galahs, eastern rosellas and rainbow lorrikeets on the bird feeder and in the tree next to it. It was beautiful to watch, every colour of the rainbow must have been in their feathers.

I love this time of year. There's some smell in the air that just makes me happy.