Lollipop Legs

A few weeks ago our beloved chicken Molly sadly passed away at the ripe old age of 4.5 years which I'm led to believe is a very good innings for an ISA Brown chicken. She was a lovely chicken with a great egg laying capability only becoming non-productive in the last 10 months or so.

We were hoping to pick up another chicken that day however, there were none available and the next batch were due later in the week so we placed an order for one.

On Thursday after school, we eagerly drove to Bellchambers in Fyshwick to purchase our new chicken. A quick transaction saw us driving home again with her in a cardboard box in between the girls in the back.

I thought we'd have a good conversation about names on the drive home only to be foiled by Andy. While I was working late the previous night, a chicken naming discussion took place. The suggestions were Bella (Katy), Polly (Andy) and Lollipop Legs (Ella).

Bella was ruled out as it didn't rhyme with Holly. Then it was two again one for Lollipop Legs (or Lolly for short). Funnily enough her legs are rather stick like and the name actually suits her!

Lollipop Legs was introduced to Holly who took very little time to show who was boss. Poor Lolly…she was so traumatised that she squeezed through the holes in the fence in order to escape the attack. A little bit of temporary improvisation saw the fence reinforced until such a time that she has grown enough to no longer fit.

Autumn Colours

The warm weather has continued a little longer than normal not that we are complaining! Hence the pistachio tree in our front garden has only just finished its beautiful journey preparing for winter. I absolutely love autumn in our garden. I look forward to seeing the wonderful tones of yellow, orange and red in the leaves not only in the pistachio tree but also the japanese maple, both crepe myrtles, plum and the crab apple. Plus one the leaves fall, they create a wonderful autumn blanket over the lawn and deck area.

Another positive is the endless play opportunities the leaves provide. A few Fridays ago it was our shift of picking up the four children - our two plus Max and Mira. They firstly spent a large portion of their time raking and gathering the leaves carefully placing them in a huge pile at the bottom of the slide.

Obviously next was to hurtle down the slide every which way and land in the pile!

 Followed by burrowing into the leaves on your landing…...

And finally hiding from the Dad's who thankfully arrived within a minute of each other…Yep the kids were here a minute ago I say to Andy and Rob who continue on with the joke! Eventually the four kids emerge from the pile and a leaf fight begins :) I couldn't think of a better way to spend a warm autumn afternoon.

Vegie Patch Update

A few weeks ago Katy and I pulled up the remaining basil before the frost got to it. We washed it and then blended into our own home made green pesto before dividing it up into little containers just perfect for freezing and using later. We have tasted one pot and it was delicious with the freshness of the basil so distinctively better than the store bought stuff. However the rate at which our girls polish off a jar of green pesto on their pasta is amazing and I'm not sure I could keep up with the demand!

As for the rest of the patch, we trimmed the rhubarb back, planted seedlings of coriander, leeks, peas and for the first time beetroot! Today I noticed that coriander which had been doing really well, has been nibbled by the possums. We also spread over some green manure seed hoping to give the soil a bit of a boost.

Party @ the Himalayan Cedars

It just so happens that for the last four years we haven't been in Canberra for Ella's birthday and have avoided having a party for her. As you can image we were under significant pressure to have one this year, however with Andy away followed by travelling to easter we were slow to do something about it.

Eventually after some discussions and a visit to the National Arboretum, Ella was keen to have an outdoor adventure party at the Himalayan Cedars. This particular forest of pine trees were planted between 1917 - 1930 and amazingly survived the bush fires in 2003. The development of the National Arboretum has seen the building of a picnic area, bbq and toilet facilities in the heart of this forest. A perfect place for a party!

As fate has it, once the invites were sent out, the weather forecast began to look ominous - rain and cold conditions for most of the week and into the weekend! As the days ticked over, the weather began to dry out but the forecast for saturday remained cold and rainy. We weren't too concerned that it wasn't going to be perfect blue skies.

Then Saturday dawned and this was the forecast…..

Oh dear! Considering the effort and organisation put into the party, we decided to still go ahead and hoped the rain would be more like intermittent showers and they'd miss the party. If the conditions deteriorated too much then we would retreat back to our house post party treasure hunt for food and cake.

Fortuitously, Andy's Dad was down to organise the mid week orienteering event the following Wednesday and had picked up the equipment which included a medium sized shelter! At least the food would be dry. We arrived at the venue half an hour early to set up the shelter, food and scavenger/treasure hunt stuff.

Guest began to arrive all rugged up and headed off to explore the stick cubby houses. Soon after, Andy handed out the scavenger hunt bags which listed objects that the children were to find in the forest. This list included both natural - pine cones, bark…and man made - chocolate ladybugs, chupa chupa flowers and their own named envelope.

So for the next 20 mins or so, the children and the adults scoured the forest in search of the items on the list. Some were easy and some not so easy.

Once most children had collected the required objects, they gathered under the shelter for the next set of instructions. Each child had a numbered envelope which corresponded to the order in which they were to be opened. The envelope contained a set of simple instructions which would (eventually) lead them to the hidden treasure!

It was quite a challenge due to the lack of different features in the forest, to come up with enough clues so that each child had a turn, hence seizing the opportunity to using natures offerings of sticks….follow the stick arrows to the stick cross. Anyway for most of the hunt, they 'got' the clue however there were a couple of moments when the older ones took off in completely the wrong direction!

Covering about 700m, the children finally made it to the finish, locating the treasure box adjacent to the Wide Brown Land sculpture. The loot of loom bands and notebooks/pens were well received and well deserved!

Then it was time for more food and birthday cake!  All in all a fun party but we were all really glad to get home and warm up!

Happy 7th Birthday Ella!

It's great having your birthday on the weekend especially when you unwrap your present to find a desk that needs to be assembled, as Ella found out recently. Plus no saturday sporting activities meant Ella could start straight away and take as long as she liked. It did take Andy and Ella quite a while and Katy was content to watch from the packaging box which had become a bed. By lunchtime all the pieces had come together with the desk looking great. A little juggling of existing furniture was required so that it slotted into the far corner of the room. Then next on the agenda was a trip to officeworks to purchase an appropriate chair, a perfect opportunity to spend the birthday money from Nana and Grandad. Ella was very excited to choose a chair and have enough spare to add in a new pencil case and magnetic whiteboard. Thanks to Al and Kathie for their part (a day trip to Ikea in Sydney) in making this all possible.