Archive | Birds

Out and About in our Garden

By Linda on August 15, 2011 in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, organic vegetables

I am loving working in the garden at the moment, there has been so much progress, our raised vegetable box beds have all be repaired and composted, we have added gravel to the pathways, which look a lot neater now and this keeps the weeds at bay too. I have been using the most wonderful online veg garden planner, it is called Grow Veg and it really is worth taking a look at. You can plan you veg garden, what you will plant in each box or bed, the programme also lets you know what plants will be suitable as companions for each vegetable keeping them pest free and enriching the soil. It helps and gives guidance on crop rotation and how to ensure continuous food with succession planting. You can even add your postal code to the programme, it will take your seasons and weather conditions all into account. I really am enjoying this tremendously!

I am also reading a book I downloaded to my PCs Kindle called One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein, I was going to order the book, but I couldn’t wait to read it so I just bought the kindle version and I love it!

Other lovely organic gardening sites to visit are Jane’s Delicious Garden and her blog she has a book out too by the same name.

And now for some garden snapshots…

These are our Primulas that are in full bloom…

We have added crushed stone to our pathways…

Hooray!! The Asparagus has started to grow…. Delicious!

Nectarine blossoms…

Aahhh, the Rocket is so tasty this year, it just continues to grow by seeding itself all over the garden…

Miniature Prune blossoms…

This plant is so gorgeous, it is called Buddleja, an indigenous plant to South Africa, it is flowering now during our winter months and the perfume that emanates from its flowers is just amazing…

These two Grey Louries, were arguing over a piece of orange they discovered on the bird feeder this morning, very entertaining to watch:)

This is one of my favourite birds, the Rameron Pigeon, they are huge birds, with large yellow feet, beaks and circles around their eyes, so beautiful…

Wishing you all a wonderful week.
xo
Linda

The Weekend…

By Linda on July 24, 2011 in Birds, Family, Gardening

It’s quiet here today, Jen and Erin are off preparing for our city play, Mary Poppins, they are painting props and choosing out costumes, great excitement I tell you. They seem so grown up now and I love watching their independence and confidence blossom… While Richard is out with the boys, I have had a little time here on my own, I have been enjoying walking around our garden taking snapshots of the birds that have slowly been returning with the warming of the weather… It seems Spring is on its way… hooray!!

A young Black Collared Barbet enjoys fruit from the feeder…

Have you ever watched a Weaver build a nest? It is an amazing thing to see, I could have stood there for hours as he returned over and over again with a long thread of grass or palm leaf and meticulously wove it in and out of his half built nest.

A pair of Red Headed Finches popped in for a visit too today, they are the ones that have converted the old Weaver nest in the front garden…

A young Thick Billed Weaver and his family were scratching in the leaf pile…

At night when the temperature drops, we are so grateful for our warm fires, I have been using the orange peel firelighters to get our fires going. You can see them burning in the above photo on the bottom left and right. They work wonderfully…

Heart Swap:
I have been thinking about having another Heart Swap similar to the last one, where swap partners are paired up and swap a heart related craft item, I will be putting up the post sometime this week if you would like to join and this will explain the swap and items but most of all it is about ‘sharing the love’ across the world:)

Giveaway over at Ecomilf:
Dear Meagan over at Ecomilf is hosting a Mamma4earth knitted animal pattern giveaway for me. Thank you so much Meagan:) I will be hosting a wonderful giveaway here on my blog for Meagan on Tuesady.

Wishing you a peaceful weekend,
Warmly
Linda

Bird Visitors, The ‘Go-Away Bird…’

By Linda on June 23, 2011 in Birds, Gardening

I love the bird feeder my hubby Richard gave me for Mothers Day, at the moment it has taken up residence out on our back veranda and every morning, while in the kitchen I see the most beautiful feathered creatures stop by for a quick bite to eat. This particular one is called a Grey Loerie, they usually arrive in flocks and make a tremendous noise letting all the other birds know that they have arrived. They sleep in our Oak trees at night and their call sounds like they are saying ‘Go-Away, Go-Away’. They are large and a little prehistoric looking if you ask me, but I really do appreciate their presence.

This fellow below managed to pry a piece of apple loose from the feeder, he picked it up and threw it all around the patio, breaking it into smaller pieces and eventually did manage to eat the whole piece…

I am grateful for these beautiful creatures….

Don’t forget to pop by for the Creative Friday post tomorrow and share your creative links or just have a browse around at all the links that have been shared…

The Weekend…

By Linda on March 14, 2011 in Birds, Gardening, Lego, Sandy

We have had a great weekend, I managed to do quite a lot of tidying up and recycling of things we no longer need. We seem to have so many piles of things all over the house and as soon as you have found the places where they belong, they seem to find their way back again! Do you also have this problem with stuff? Sunday was a warm day so Jenna and Caiden swam, Sandy LOVES the water and jumps in to fetch her ball over and over, it really is amazing to watch her. She runs furiously up to the pool and without hesitation, seems to elevate upwards, on all fours and land with a belly-flop in the water.

Kye was ill on Sunday and stayed in bed for most of the day, outside our bedroom window is a birdfeeder that was full of fruit and seed. Two Black Collared Barbets have started visiting everyday and they were there on Sunday. They are young and have just learned to fly from the looks of it. But how sweet to witness them feeding and ‘speaking’ to eachother in their raucous but beautiful banter. We just sat and watched them for hours, it was amazing!

I don’t know if your little ones, or not so little ones are Lego fans, but our boys and girls definately are. After seeing the post over on Jenni’s blog about what makes her happy and her photo of their Lego figures, my little ones went racing off to find all of theirs and lined them up for a photo. Legos are the only plastic toys that we have in our home, they have been passed down and gifted to us by friends and family and some have even been bought. They do love them so and even though I really go out of my way to avoid platsic at all costs, this is one I cannot say no to right now. I do know that they will treasure these little items and will pass them on when the time is right and perhaps even give them to their children one day… Kye wants me to knit him some lego figures but I have only been able to find crochet patterns for them, my crochet skills are so new at the moment, I really don’t know if I will be able to crochet an entire figure. Anyone know of any knitting patterns out there?

Aaaah, this is one of my favourite birds, the Rameron Pigeon. He stopped by for a visit near our little pond, to me he is so beautiful! They are large and have the most amazing YELLOW features and spots! They usually appear in flocks, but this was just one lone one….

Other than that, that was our weekend, we have also been having a look at which curriculum we will be moving on to. Our Waldorf homeschooling curriculum that we have only goes up to Grade 8 at the moment and Jen is already in grade 8. I am not sure if there are any others out there that go beyond this point, I would love to hear from anyone if they have any information, I would be most grateful:)

Happy Monday to everyone:)
xo

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