Summer pickings

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My son LOVES strawberries. Or in his words, woberries. Late morning one day, the skies cleared up and it was warm and sunny. So we made a very impromptu trip to a strawberry farm!

Kayden has never known strawberries to come in any other form other than the plastic boxes they come in at the supermarkets. So on the way there, we said to him "We are going to pick some strawberries!". And I don't have a doubt that in his little head, he thought we were driving to the supermarket to get some. Usually, when its time to do a grocery shop at the supermarket, he will say Woberry?

So we collected a punnet at the door and lead him to the rows and rows of sweet smelling strawberry plants. "Loooook Kayden! What's that?" I said. He come closer to where I was pointing at near the ground, and then his eyes grew bigger and bigger in wonder. And he exclaimed, "WO-BERRY!!!!!".

A good little fruit picker he was. I told him not to pull on the white ones. And to turn them around to check if they were red all around. I was surprised he actually managed to pick some good ones! (Just only a little squished by the time he brought them to me). `


By the end of the afternoon, our bellies were full of strawberries and other sweets. YUM YUM!

Colours of Christmas

I had unintentionally bought fruits in red and greens, even my fruit bowl was looking Christmasy!

Up till Christmas we were still watering the lawns. Looking nice and green. We love going onto it barefoot, so soft and spongy.

Summer usually also means my green thumb is back. And at the moment, my lettuce leaves are thriving.

 A brightly coloured poinsettia sits on my table. Isn't it pretty!

The grass is not always greener

We had a deliciously warm sunny weekend in Melbourne at long last! Spring was only here half heartedly when it first started. But over the weekend, the boy and I were out enjoying the sun in the backyard! We sat on the grass enjoying the cool breeze as it blew until it was time for lunch.

Kayden was not totally convinced about this green thing Mommy calls 'grass'.

When put on it, he hardly moved from his sitting position! He gingerly touches the grass blades and then pulls his hand back when he realizes it was a little prickly! What a DIVA! If you look carefully, when he was crawling around, his shins weren't really touching the ground, just his knees. He actually had his toes pointing up even. So, in the end, I had to go back inside to grab him a cloth to sit on instead. And he was as happy as a lark after that!

Warm weather = happy days! Can't wait for the weekend to arrive, we're going on a day trip! Yipee!

Hello spring!

Goodbye winter, and HELLO to you spring! When you decide to show up on some days that is.

The temperature has been slowly creeping up. It is still cold, the temperature sits in the low tens or so. But, the days are getting longer and little green buds are starting to emerge from the cherry blossom trees on the nature strips.

Despite September being the coldest spring Melbourne has had in years, we are taking our long afternoon walks again. All rugged up of course, me in my warm fleecy jumper and Kayden tucked up to his shoulders in his foot muff and hat.

The boy loves the outdoors, and one afternoon in the crisp, warm afternoon spring sunshine, he was 'singing' as we walked through picturesque scenes like these.

Beautiful!

Saturday brunches

For the past 3 months or so, hubby and I have been making it a point to head out for brunch every Saturday morning. At the start, it was because we had house inspections every weekend while we had our house on the market. It is a nice way to enjoy some quality time together as a new family, away from the distractions of the television and the Internet at home! We mostly head to a local nursery where we sit in the cafe, surrounded by the sights, smells and sounds of the beautiful flowers, plants and chirping birds.


Eggs benedict is our usual order. The traditional ones come with ham, poached eggs sitting on english muffins, drenched with a creamy hollandaise sauce. We sometimes vary it by ordering bacon with it, or to have it with toast instead.  Then we spend the next 2 hours or so pouring over the newspapers or chit chatting about mostly nothing in particular.

 


Most of the times, baby Kayden is happy playing with his toys in his pram or the high chair and just watching what is happening around him. We take a slow walk around the nursery after and point out to him the ducklings in the pond and show him the birds in the aviary.

Is it Saturday soon yet? I can't wait until our next Saturday brunch!

Starting the spring garden

Remember how I said we were getting the garden ready for spring? I sowed some seeds in and around the garden and they have just begun to emerge. My neighbour's cat, Taco, came over to suss me out when he saw me clicking away at a pot haha!

Winter baby carrots

Last week, I posted about how hubby harvested some carrots from our vegie patch. I happened to have all of the ingredients to make a quick and easy cottage pie for dinner, so cottage pie it is! Took me just under half an hour to quickly chop up some onions, throw it into the pan, wave the mince around with a can of diced tomatoes and some mixed herbs then throw it into the oven for 45 minutes or so.

There was a little too much for the baking dish I used to bake it in, so there was enough to make a quick spaghetti bolognese the next day for lunch too. Yummo!

Now that the vegie patch has been plowed and ready again for planting in spring (which is just only a few days away, yippee!), what shall I grow next? Well, preferably something simple, and its ok if I forget all about it like the baby carrots of course...

Organic carrot harvest

It was a sunny warm winter's afternoon on the weekend. Hubby took the opportunity to tidy the backyard up abit. He spent so many hours out there weeding, mulching and even harvested some baby carrots!


I sprinkled some seeds into the vegie patch some months ago and waited, and eventually completely forgot about them until recently. They are not the size of the usual ones we get at the supermarkets, they are only just mostly thick finger sizes.

I am wondering how best to savour these cute little organic carrots! A later post on how they ended up on the plate.