Six Word Saturday - May 14th, 2011

Magic Harvest babies in the garden. 

I am excited to be part of the second batch of Magic Harvest participants. Magic Harvest is a program which encourages people to grow their own vegetables at home and increase both their gardening and cooking skills. Last week I attended a workshop where we received seedlings and compost. Yesterday I planted the baby seedlings in the garden. It will be interesting to see how they go. There is broccoli, cabbage, spring onions, lettuce and others. I have been gardening for around a year now and have enjoyed some success but am particularly looking forward to the sharing of ideas and experiences with others as part of the Magic Harvest Program. I think I will particularly benefit from the cooking workshops later. It's always possible to learn from reading books and from the internet but there is something great about being with other people and learning together. Cooking is not really a strong point of mine so I'm hoping for some ideas and motivation.

Here's the babies as well as some carrots in the front.

I have already learnt a lot from my involvement in the program. One thing we talked about was a way to discourage white cabbage moths from laying their eggs on the plants. Their was some debate about whether it actually worked but I figure it can't hurt to try. It was suggested to make pretend butterflies and put them near the plants. As the moths are territorial creatures it is suggested that they will not land on the plants as they will think another moth is already there. I thought I might tie some white material to sticks so they will flutter in the breeze. Can't hurt to try. I think it is the white moth caterpillars that have been enjoying quite a feast recently. 

Something has been feasting!

Six Word Saturday - May 7th, 2011

Remembered to wash the paintbrushes today! 

I have been attempting to paint a cherry blossom tree for Alysha. Her middle name, Hana, means flower or blossom in Japanese and she has asked for a large cherry blossom tree painting for her room. I thought I would practise on a smaller scale. 

I was quite pleased with the first attempt. Unfortunately though, I ran out of blue paint and needed to go over some where it had smudged. Actually, I attempted to add the Japanese characters for Hana and it didn't work. I had mixed blue and white for the background and didn't get it quite the same. 

Today I bought another canvas, some more paint and some paintbrushes and tried again. I am pleased with this attempt but not entirely happy with the background colour. The photo doesn't really show it that well but it is a bit dark I think. 

I remembered to wash the paintbrushes afterwards. I have a bad habit of forgetting to do so. They end up with paint caked on them or I leave them in water too long and they go rather disgusting. It's a good thing I mostly use very cheap brushes from Cheap as Chips. That can be a bit frustrating though as I have to often pick loose bits of hair from the painting. Perhaps I will invest in some better brushes sometime and then remember to wash them after use. 

Fairy fun for Three Word Wednesday

The words for Three Word Wednesday this week are Grace, Jitter and Thin. My poem this week is also in response to Monday's Child...fair of face picture prompt: 

Illustration by: Cicely Mary Barker

Fairy shoes 

It was nearly time for the Springtime ball 

In the distance she heard her mother's call 

From leaf to leaf she did flitter 

Inside herself she was all a jitter 

Fairy had looked but could not find her shoes 

She spotted Bee and hoped for good news 

With grace she waited until she could say 

"Mr Bee, have you seen my shoes today?" 

Barefoot and poised on that leaf so thin 

Bumblebee's answer caused her to grin 

The A to Z blogging challenge - my reflections

A big thank you to all of the hosts of this challenge: 


Arlee Bird's Tossing It Out
Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe
Alex J. Cavanaugh Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jen Daiker's Unedited 
Candace Ganger's The Misadventures in Candyland
Karen J Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain Talli Roland
Stephen Tremp's Breakthrough Blogs 


and also to Elizabeth Mueller for the badge she made for participants in the challenge. It is so gorgeous! 

I enjoyed participating in the challenge. It was great to have some extra visitors to my blog and I enjoyed visiting other blogs. My approach to the challenge changed halfway through. I started off making an alphabet card each day. I did enjoy doing that but after a while it started to feel a bit cumbersome. I pushed myself to keep going for a while but then decided to change my approach. I then chose words for each letter and wrote about them for the rest of the challenge, like many others did. I think too I really wanted to write a bit more each day after visiting other blogs and reading all the different posts. 


I missed a few days and combined them with later days but I made it to the end! 
What I particularly liked about the challenge was visiting other blogs and seeing the different approaches to the challenge. I haven't had as much time to do this as I would like so I'm going to keep visiting in May. I have come across a few blogs that I will definitely keep following. I really liked how some people had a theme such as books, recipes, education ideas, movies, songs, etc as well as the letters A to Z. Well, I have almost a year now to contemplate my own approach for next year. And in the meantime I may finish off those alphabet cards at a more leisurely pace. 

April 28th-30th, 2011 - X, Y and Z.

X is for xylophone

Y is for yes 

Z is for zipper 

We come to the end of the A-Z challenge. It has been fun. Even if I didn't carry through with my original plans. I have enjoyed thinking about what to post for each letter and have visited many very interesting blogs. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to stop by here. :) 

I feel like I've lost a bit of momentum at the end of the month. I have been thinking quite a lot about what to write about, especially for the X post. I have particularly enjoyed reading other people's X posts as I have learnt quite a few new words. I chose xylophone but wasn't sure what I was going to say so I did a bit of internet research. I learnt the difference between a xylophone and a glockenspiel. I also found a wonderful site (actually there were a few) outlining how to make a xylophone. I particularly like Building and Playing a Water Bottle Xylophone by Phil & Sarah Tulga. Their site also includes lots of great ideas for teaching and learning activities, particularly around music and maths. 


I chose yes as the Y word because it is such a great word. Just as it is important to be able to say no, saying yes is a great thing to be able to do too. See my poem Saying No for more about this. 


And for Z, zipper. Quite by accident I discovered an excellent way to make little paper zippers a while ago using my decorative scissors. I'm sure I'll find some way to use that idea sometime. Simple, yet effective. It needs some more work but here's the general idea. 

The April garden update

Rescues and survival against the odds

Preparing to write this post about the happenings in my garden for the month of April and I realised the title I chose has six words. The post can double as my six word Saturday offering! 

The main news on the garden front this month is the survival and thriving of the seedlings I bought from Bunnings last month. The marigolds, parsley, rainbow silverbeet and the basil are all doing exceptionally well. 

The Afro parsley was quite yellow when bought but is now very green and thriving! 

The basil was also very yellow and is starting to look healthier and beginning to grow. 

The silverbeet seedlings settled in very well. 

I love the colour of the marigolds! 

Some plants have been struggling to survive and have been feasted on by various creatures (snails and cabbage moth caterpillars I believe). The rocket seems to be growing quite well now after being eaten a lot! The basil I planted from seed which was looking very good last month, sadly didn't make it. I went to check the garden one morning and thought something looked different then suddenly I realised the basil was completely gone. There were two capsicum plants too which took a long while to grow and were being eaten. One didn't survive and the other now seems to be growing well. 

The rocket - starting to do okay

There are a few things growing in the garden which I didn't plant. There must have been some seeds left over from previous seasons. The Italian parsley which was a Bunnings rescue last year seems to want to take over the garden bed again. There are a couple of other plants which I am not sure what they are. Any ideas or information greatly appreciated. 

Italian parsley - taking over! 

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April 27th, 2011 - W

W is for Wii. 

We got a Wii for Christmas a few years ago. It still gets quite a bit of use. This week it, as well as us, has gotten quite a workout. I was in the supermarket looking for batteries a few weeks ago. I noticed a promotion from Energizer where upon spending $15 or more on batteries it was possible to send off for a free Wii game. I bought some Energizer rechargeable batteries and sent off for the free game. There was a choice of a few games. I chose 'Just Dance'. It arrived about a week ago. We've been having lots of fun. It is quite a workout. I have woken up with sore arms. Must remember the warm up, which is available on the disk. The kids tell me it's not Singstar but I think singing at the same time improves my score! 

My favourite song to dance to - 'Fame' by Irene Cara. I loved dancing to that song every Sunday afternoon as a child! It's still great fun! 

April 26th, 2011 - V

V is for vegetables. 

I want to eat more. 

I want to grow more. 

At times my diet can be somewhat lacking in vegetables. It would be great if I ate more. Growing my own is contributing to me eating more than I used to so continuing that would be a good thing. Over the next few weeks I will seek out some different ways of cooking/using vegetables to increase my intake. Recently I was given a couple of beetroots from the local Community Garden. I had no idea what to do with them. I have never eaten beetroot before apart from out of a tin. I was given some advice and I used Google to investigate my options a little more. I ended up roasting them (individually wrapped in alfoil with a tablespoon of water and cooked in moderate oven for about 50 minutes) and then I chopped them with my Tupperware Quick Chef food processor and adding some yoghurt. They made a delicious dip and I was surprised how easy it was. I'm even thinking of growing my own beetroot now that I've discovered how yummy they are. Plus I am told they are very good for you. Bonus! 

April 25th, 2011 - U

U is for understand. 

One of my favourite quotes: 

'We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand'

- C. Day Lewis.

Sunday Scribblings - April 24th 2011

The prompt for Sunday Scribblings this week: Shine. 


Everything you do is good. 


'Everything you do is good' 
Your words reverberate 
Plant themselves inside of me 
A mirror cradled between us 
Swivels quick and clever 
'Everything you do is good' 
Bounces between us 
Reflections encourage us both 
to SHINE