Just too cute!

Volcanoes!

Gone are the days of gourmet meals in this house! In the quest for interesting child-friendly meals I came up with this concoction all on my own! It is called the volcano and consists of a ring of baked fish fingers surrounding a mountain of mashed potato sitting on a bed of peas. Cascading down the volcano is a stream of tomato sauce and grated cheese and spurting forth from the pinnacle is a star-shaped piece of cheese. The vocanoes were well received and will be repeated for any under three's who request them in the future. How times change!

The Black Chook

Our last stop for today was at Mr Riggs winery where I bought a couple of bottles of the Black Chook 2006 Shiraz Viognier. I couldn't resist the chook theme as we will be the proud owners of a chook tractor this weekend. We have decided to purchase our chooks from the poultry show at Mt Pleasant in early May. It will mean having a wider choice of breeds and perhaps some more interesting varieties.


Towards the back of the winery were several big tractors which captured the boys' interest. They love anything with big wheels. it didn't take them long before they were clambering all over the tractors and as you can see here Oliver was very keen to drive this one!

Another hot weekend

Once again we battled heatwave conditions over the weekend. The end of the heat is in sight this Thursday with a forecast of 27C. On Saturday we decided to drive through the Adelaide Hills to Mt Pleasant for the annual agricultural show. It was a traditional show with a lot of animals for the boys to see and pat. Both boys were quite taken by the alpacas with their long necks and big dark eyes. We had hope to see some chickens but the poultry exhibits were cancelled due to the heat. William and Oliver enjoyed eating fairy floss, feeding balls into the mouths of the sideshow clowns and going on rides by themselves for the first time. Oliver has no fear and was quite happy to be strapped into the ladybug ride. William was sitting behind him and initially appeared rather worried. As soon as the ride started the little car drove up and down the hills fairly quickly. Once the boys understood what was happening they had huge grins on their faces and had a ball.
Today we set off for the southern vales. The boys slept all the way as we had taken them to play in Marshmallow Park in the morning. Initially we drove to Port Willunga and enjoyed fantastic flathead and chips while sitting overlooking the green-blue sea. It was too hot to actually go down to the beach but we hope to return sometime soon to do so. We then went to visit Fox Creek winery. Here you can see William looking at one of the wooden sculptures in the garden of the winery. There were wooden emus, a biplane and several wooden spirals hanging from the trees. I bought two bottles of the 2006 Short Row shiraz here.

Happy Birthday Inger!

The boys were very excited today at the prospect of having a birthday dinner to celebrate Inger's birthday. They helped to make a chocolate cake and decorated it with Smarties. The only problem was that Adelaide today broke the record for the longest heatwave in Australian history. It was the 11th day running of temperatures exceeding 35C. The icing and Smarties ran down the side of the cake. As you can see the cake was enjoyed nonetheless!

Come into my garden..............

The first flowers on the snail vine which I am growing to conceal an ugly fence.


Despite the severe water restrictions I have managed to coax along my garden. This week we started to harvest the sweet little cherry tomatoes.


The eggplant has such pretty flowers.

Story Time

William and Oliver are always happy to listen to another story. We try to visit the local library every week so they can choose some new books. They have chosen a book about chickens this week. They have obviously picked up on the general excitement about the arrival of our chooks in a couple of weeks.

Just Joey

Another hot Adelaide morning heralds a day of 40C temperatures. I went out in the garden this morning to find that this beautiful rose had opened. It has such a sweet perfume. I have always loved the big blousy blooms of the Just Joey.

It is just too hot to go outside today so we will be entertaining the boys inside. We have had a morning of reading books, playing with the pirate ship and doing jigsaw puzzles. William is really starting to enjoy imaginative play and this morning has been driving his fire engine off to fight fires in the laundry. The boys both had fun earlier on, playing on the water table outside. Both managed to clamber up onto it and paddle in it with their pyjamas on.

Inger cut two large bunches of plump red grapes from our front garden vine. They are very sweet and juicy and will make a nice dessert after lunch.

What utter delight!

This was the moment at which William realised that he could push a button and cause a stream of water to squirt at someone else. The cheeky look on his face says it all! He was so pleased with himself. Bush Magic Park is a wonderful park for toddlers in the North Adelaide parklands near the aquatic centre. It is safe, fully fenced, and a treasure trove of imaginative equipment for little children to play on.

Summer lingers on in sunny Adelaide

Today was the fifth day running of blistering heat in drought-stricken South Australia. It was our day to water the garden so I was out of bed early giving all of my vegetables a good long soak. The tomatoes are looking rather sad and sorry for themselves but everything else seems to be surviving. The peppery rocket and the strange climbing spinach are booming along in fine health. I am dedicated to making my garden a productive one. The vegetables are interspersed with roses, hibiscus and the heady scent of the mock orange. In four weeks we will become the proud owners of four chickens. I have been busily reading all I can about the needs and habits of chickens and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the chook tractor and the 'girls'. At this stage I am thinking of buying two black Australorpes and two Isa-browns as they would seem to be two breeds which get along with children. Oliver and William love their eggs so I'm sure that they will be delighted to collect some fresh warm eggs each day.
Despite the heat we managed to go walking through the bush at Warrawong Sanctuary today. The boys met up with two curious baby emus, one of whom took a keen interest in William's hat. We also saw many turtles in the ponds. The boys were taken with the tall tree ferns growing along the sides of the track.