Busy Birds

My goodness, I'm so totally chuffed to be included in Bellgirl's Blogtoberfest Crawl. Thank you lovelie!

Speaking of lovelies. I love watching birds. We're so lucky to have an amazing array of seasonal visitors who come to our place each spring to raise their little families. From the first light of dawn to well past dusk, our yard is bustling with the comings and goings of busy birds raising families accompanied by glorious birdsong. I have no idea what most are called, I really need a copy of this.

But this little one is easy to identify - my favourite - the Splendid Blue wren, these guys are extremely very small and extremely very busy. Therefore impossible to photograph, so I've had to use someone else's photo. I could have shown you my attempt at bird photography but the birds are all missing from my photos, they are all way too fast for my shutter speed.

This morning my husband was clearing a large tangled mess of overgrown blackberry when he found their little nest. What a perfect nest! Such adorable blue eggs! We carefully put the blackberry back. That job will have to wait until the little ones have, proverbially, flown the nest.

brown paper packages

It's my friend Penny's birthday today. Here's her present. Finished with an adorable gift tag from Belle and Boo. Isn't their stuff just the sweetest?

Penny's an amazing gardener, she has this way with tomatoes that I'm so envious of. They just grow and grow and grow. Then she collects the seeds in paper towels, lets them dry for a year, then plants in the spring. She's what I call a tomato witch. So I bought her the Jamie at Home book. Penny seems to grow all the things Jamie does, asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes and beets. I hope she likes it.

I've never been such a huge Jamie fan, but I've a new found respect for his recent projects. I am so loving the Home series, his garden is so beautiful, his recipes delicious and his message so simple. It's so easy to grow and eat better food.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Penny!

Today she said....

...it's good to talk to plants because they breath in the air we speak out. So, hello flowers!



Here she is with a little slater bug, one of her favourites. It makes me so happy when I see dirt under her nails from playing in the garden. She's out with Dad to buy a special treat this afternoon. "I hope I get a pack of my very own seeds to plant." So, so sweet...

a day at the fair

Well, I enthusiastically signed up for Big Cat's Emporium's Blogtoberfest and 4 days in and I'm terribly behind. As this month is my first year blogaversary, I thought it only fitting that I join the fun, so I'll try and keep up and post every day.

My excuse is valid however, today was our school fair, so the last few days have been full of midnight baking. I made 100 cupcakes last night - so satisfying.

During the week though, we had our share of kitchen disasters. The pastry in the apple pies fell apart, jam wouldn't set and then what a disaster my toffee apples were. Thanks for nothing Donna. I feared I'd lost my cooking mojo. Luckily, an experienced grandmother from a local orchard came and saved the day. Suffice to say, she'd never heard of Donna Hay.

I spent the day helping in a craft area for the little ones. We made ribbon sticks and kites, which came from Amber's fantastic site Kids Craft Weekly. And for the bigger kids, we had a cardboard and tape extravaganza as the kids made boats for a dry boat race held in the afternoon.

Too much sugar and too much fun. I'm looking forward to a quiet day in the garden tomorrow planting my new rhubarb plants. Bliss....