Banksia in Flower

As promised, here are some photos of our Banksia tree in flower which has bloomed this winter right on cue. As suspected, the flowers are medium sized and yellow and are already attracting birds to sip on the nectar. We gave this a light pruning about a month ago and that doesn't seemed to have bothered it. We'll be keeping this tree, although some of the others like the Geisha Girl have to go to make room for things more productive, like a lemon tree which is our number one wish!

a medium sized yellow Banskia flower

looking up at blue skies through the Banksia canopy

Veggie Patch Winter 2013

The small 1m x 1m veggie patch has already turned out to be productive and earning it's keep. The spinach has been particularly successful, providing evening meals greens several times already with lots more left. We added some beetroot to last weekend's casserole which turned it red but also very yummy! The beetroot is naturally sweet and very tasty. I haven't been fertilising this yet even though its been up for a couple of months. When the spinach is finished I will have to fertilise the strawberries if there's any hope of getting any fruit. I don't like our chances of that!

this 1m x 1m veggie patch has spinach and beetroot, with strawberries in each corner

There's isn't much else to report from my garden at the moment due to the move and reducing the number of pots we have. The rosemary is still going well and the two lavender plants are currently flowering. The basil is looking pretty scrawny, I'm thinking of putting some small plants in the ground. If I get around to it!

Pipecleaners and a Strainer

Here's another no-mess toddler activity that doesn't cost much money. I spent just $2 on some pipe-cleaners from K-mart and used my large plastic strainer from the kitchen. Again, this is a great fine-motor activity for young children. I saw this idea on pinterest, and decided this would be safe for Thomas with supervision. On the packet, the pipe-cleaners say they are a choking hazard for under 3 year olds, but I couldn't see it! Maybe if he was chewing on a pipe-cleaner for a while, a small piece of metal might come loose, but he would have to be chewing on it for a while I think! But just to be sure, I sit with him during this activity.

poking pipecleaners through the holes in a strainer is great to help develop fine-motor coordination

Spaghetti and Cheerio's

Here is a low-mess and cheap activity that has quickly become a favourite for Thomas, an idea I got from pinterest. When he wants to play with the play-dough, I sometimes give him a few pieces of uncooked spaghetti and a small cup of cheerio's. I then encourage him to thread the cheerio's onto the spaghetti sticking up out of the play-dough. This is a great fine-motor activity, perfect for developing hand-eye coordination and finger control in preparedness for learning to write. Play-dough like this lasts well for a month in the fridge. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, the formally pink and blue play-dough is now a deep rich shade of purple!

spagetti and cheerios added to a play-dough session

Lemon and Coconut Birthday Cake

July is my birthday month, and we celebrated it a few weeks ago with this delicious cake! My husband made this devine lemon and coconut cake, it was just what I wanted! We found the recipe on taste.com, we found you need to let the cake cool before cutting it otherwise its very crumbly.

we had lemon and coconut cake for my brithday, it was delicious!