Chooks

"Bl***dy pesky chooks!" is frequently heard at our place, usually from me at the kitchen window.  Every morning and afternoon they make their way to the verandah, scratching up the flower beds on the way and covering the paths with mulch and poo.  If the dogs are about, the chooks persecute them, nipping their ankles til they leave, then eat any biscuits left in the bowls, drink their water and do some more pooing.  I am constantly scrubbing it off.  Yuk.  It is certainly a chore I could do without.

Still, I love them.  Their antics are endlessly entertaining and their clucking and crowing and the very look of them fossicking about is charming.  The eggs are a world away from those you get from the supermarket - the whites actually keep their shape.  And they are very easy to keep.  Here's a photo of Miss Gosling helping clean their house out.

A gift for Miss Gosling

I always start sewing projects in a fit of enthusiasm but become discouraged at about the point when I've spent more time unpicking than I have sewing.  This project went surprisingly smoothly, maybe because I did it all by hand.  No machining necessary.

I saw some lovely hair clip holders at the Library's Art and Craft Market. (The market is fabulous but takes a break over winter.  They'll resume monthly in spring.)  Even though they were reasonably priced I thought I could make one with what I had at home.  Everyday Miss Gosling was going through a performance searching for clips in various places and insisting on wearing particular ones.  I'd spend AGES trying to convince her to wear whatever I had in the bathroom drawer.

So I downloaded an image of a strawberry from the web, enlarged it, printed it out and used it as a pattern.  I had to read a web tutorial on how to do french knots, and didn't waste any time practising on a scrap, I just put them straight onto my strawberry, which might explain why no two knots are the same.  The beads act as a weight, and they were from some broken costume jewellery.

Anyway, it has proven to be a very useful little addition to our bathroom.  All the clips are there on display and she can pick whichever she wants to wear.  And when I find them in the car, under her sheets, in her pockets and stuffed between cushions, I just pop them back in their new home.   Happy 2nd birthday Miss Gosling!

Kalangadoo Farmers' Market

All I know about Kalangadoo is that it's surrounded by apple, cherry and potato farms, and that it now has a small but quality farmers' market.  

We pootled along to the inaugural market this morning to find tables laden with organic apples, vegetables, preserves and crafts.  Luckily most of it was indoors because in typical SE style, the weather was divine yesterday and miserable today.  The drizzle put a bit of a dampener on the sausage sizzle and coffee stand outside, but didn't take away from the quality and range of produce available.  I bought a jar of ruby red, crystal clear crab apple jelly and a forest of silverbeet.  

The market will be on weekly and you can find out more on their website.

http://kalangadoofarmersmarket.com.au

Playgroup

I love playgroup.  I particularly love our playgroup.  It's held every Friday in the Yahl hall, which is now only used regularly by us and the indoors bowls club.  Each week the kids run around like mad things, eat some play dough and get covered in paint, while the Mums chat and drink tea.  Sure, there's probably room to include more structured activities that increase particular skills and learning, but I love the free for all.  The kids get to explore, imagine, play and quarrel together, and when they can't sort it out themselves there are lots of mums on hand to help.  There's time for structure at school.  And I love the tea and chats with other mums.  I've got to know lots of lovely local women through play group, that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.

Miss Gosling in action.

Moving the bees

The Gander has dreamed of keeping bees for years.  Since moving to the Mount he has met a few apiarists through work and recently one of them very generously gave him a couple of hives, complete with 100 000 odd bees.  They've been living by the chooks, but rejected our water sources in favour of the neighbour's trough.  We bumped into him by the fence a couple of nights ago and it turns out he's allergic bees and terrified of the hives.  So with perhaps a little bit less planning than required, we moved them that night.

Gander and bees

It's best to move them after dark, when they're all home and sleepy with the cold.  So after dinner we put Miss Gosling to bed, wrapped Master Gosling up snugly in the pram and headed outside.  While I got kitted up in the protective gear, the Gander bravely smoked the bees and stuffed their doorways with newspaper in nothing more than his jeans and long sleeved t shirt.  Together we lifted them into the back of the car and drove them 100m to their new home.  That's when the trouble started.  The lid of one hive slipped open exposing a lot of very grumpy bees.  Agh!  A lot of swatting and swearing later, we finished the job with just two stings.

The bees are now happy in their new location.  Happy bees.  Happy neighbour.  Happy Geese waiting for their honey.  Harvesting it is the next job!

Bees new home by the water tanks

A trip to Port Fairy

The Goslings' Grandparents live in Port Fairy and that's where we spent last weekend.  It is the perfect destination for families with young children.  It's just an hour and forty five minutes from the Mount (a bit more if you stop on the way to feed the baby) but I find not many people from the Mount exploit its proximity ... most head towards Robe.

The southern end of East Beach.

As soon as we finished unloading the car we walked to the beach.  The southern end of East beach is calm, sheltered, shallow and often covered with shells.  Miss Gosling peeled her clothes off as soon as she hit the sand and ran around with glee for a good half an hour.  A great way to wear her out.  After snacks, her lovely aunt took her for a walk along the jetty to see the boats coming in.  There is seal and big sting ray that both visit the ramp to eat scraps fishermen throw in while cleaning their catch.  It's tuna season at the moment and the men were bringing in very big fish.

We spent a morning walking over the shops and stocking up on toys and books from the op shops for the Grandparents house, had coffees and babycinos and ducked into the lolly shop.  It's a beautiful shop - more like a large cupboard lined with shelves of sweets of every shape and size.  It's irresistible.

The jetty.  It really does look like all the post cards.  I just snapped this photo on my phone.

There's lots more to say in praise of Port Fairy - the shopping is great, the day spa is a real treat, Miss Gosling rates the play park VERY highly, the cannons at Battery Point are of little interest to a two year old but there's a great hill for rolling down.   I won't say anymore, I'll leave it to you to discover yourself.

Baking

I love to bake.  Miss Gosling loves it too.  I'm pretty sure she likes the beaters, the sugar bowl and pats of butter best, but along the way she's learning how to stir, use a rolling pin, break an egg, measure a teaspoon and use a knife safely. She's also seeing how real food is prepared from scratch.  I don't get too hung up on super healthy food.  I think there's value in looking at the whole experience of preparing, sharing, eating and storing food, not just the fat content of the raw ingredients.  We made these shortbread for afternoon tea with little friends, and ate them in the sun on the verandah.  Lovely. 

Short bread.