We have planted a veggie garden full of delicious vegetables. Now we are excitedly awaiting the seedlings to sprout! We have planted zucchini, carrots, onions, watermelon, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, coriander, parsley, garlic, lettuce, basil and chilli.
We have got lots of chillies and herbs already, and today we just discovered this...
After our ice skating escapades, we were stoked to find an invitation to pre-order tickets to Disney on Ice here in Adelaide in June!!! Wooo-hooo! I have splurged on front row tickets as a surprise for the girls (ok, I'll admit I'm pretty stoked too).
Today, Wednesday and Friday miss Agnes has hospital appointments with her eczema and to test for her allergies. Judging by today's tears, this could be a long week...
Elliot wanted to come along with Agnes today - they constantly held hands this morning (and the rest of the day), and I think Agnes enjoyed the comforting cuddles of a sister-hug!
Each piece, unloved and long since forgotten, is re-imagined for modern tastes. Re-fired in the kiln with new and vintage images, Melody Rose breathes new life into vintage ceramics. What's not to love???
Friday night we met up with parents, children and siblings from Milla's class for a picnic in the park. The teacher, Maria, also came, along with her husband and her dog. We all had such a good time - all the kids had a blast!
The bushfires in Victoria are why we are
covered in smoke in Adelaide, yesterday and still continuing today. The Herald
Sun reports that the Metropolitan Fire Service has received numerous triple-0
calls this morning from residents across Adelaide and as far north as the
Barossa Valley reporting smoke in the area. The smoke is being pushed over the
border from a bushfire burning near Edenhope, about 50km east of Naracoorte.
The smoke is hanging thick over our backyard and smells really strong. It is a
bit eerie actually. In particular now that we are living up in the Hills, an
area with extremely high bush fire risk. We are checking in with CFS (Country
Fire Service) everyday for announcements and conditions. Fires can threaten suddenly and without warning, so we all
watch for signs of fire, especially smoke and flames, as it travels fast in the dry
bush areas. We make sure we know the Fire Danger Rating in our area and we are
aware of local conditions. After advice from Milla's school (we had a fire
safety meeting yesterday night), we were adviced to have a Bushfire Survival
Plan and kit ready at all times during summer. Now we have packed a box with spare clothes, blankets, water and some dried foods, in case we have to go on short notice. According to the other parents it happens a couple of times every summer that one has to evacuate on days with catastrophic fire warnings. Those days schools and everything closes, and we can come back when the fire risk lowers. The bushfire risk is very real up here. So to be safe we listen to local
radio, check in with www.cfs.sa.gov.au daily, and have the Bushfire Information
Hotline (1300 362 361) on the fridge.
Here are some pictures from the newspaper today. A smokey haze that is lingering.
So, Valentines Day came and went. I was spoilt with lilies, my absolute favourite flower - and they are still blossoming beautifully.
The girls wanted to bring some Valentines treats to school and pre-school, so we decided to bake. I had bought a little cake-cutter with an inbuilt letterpress, and finally got to try it! One of the letterpress inserts had the wording 'Sweetheart', and I was inspired by a friend's wording on their Valentines cards last year, saying 'Sweet Hearts for my Sweetheart'. So adorable! Sally, who is incredibly resourceful and possesses endless creativity - have a blog was well, have a look at her Valentines post on Littlehiccups, or other ideas and projects she has done.
Agnes, Elliot and Milla rolled the dough and cut out all the cookies. I loaded them in the oven for baking. And our sugar cookies turned out just perfect! We wrapped them in little bags and added a fold over-label on top:
Milla loves her stationary, and she loves writing letters. We took these to the post office about a couple of weeks ago; one for Daisy and Di here in Adelaide, one for Petter Edderkopp on the West coast of Norway, and one for Besta. She wrote them a while back, but we just never got around to sending them. Finally they are on their way. I have no idea what they say - I was not allowed to have a look before she closed them up :-)
Today Milla was elected into the SRC, the Student Representative Council, at her school. Her class was voting for who they wanted to represent their class, and they chose Milla!
She was so very proud when she told us the news last night - and so were we; very proud of our responsible Milla. And today at Assembly, she was presented with her SRC badge!
On the second day in our new house, I woke up at 4 in the night from terrible grunting noises from the backyard! It sounded horrifying, like there was wild bores running around. Angry wild bores! Ready to attack!
Heading for work at 6, I ran quickly to the car. The same thing happened next night. Still we could not see any animals in the back. But that afternoon we heard the grunting again. This time from the front of the house. We found the perpetrator up in the trees! A koala!
And we have learnt that male Koalas make this bellowing grunting noise. Since then he has moved around in the trees - some days in the front and some days in the back.
Have a listen to this - it does not sound like a cuddly, furry, little bear, does it?!
