Brigitte’s autumn hideaway

Archive for the ‘Summer’ Category

This week we did celebrate Aileen’s birthday

She loved the stickers from our neighbours and the many gifts from Granny.
Aileen also got a make your own doll kit and here are some pictures of her work

Aileen is such a lovely girl
She helps me in the kitchen by peeling carrots…

… or cutting beans which we grow in our garden

Today she even cooked a pot rice for the first time!

What better way to be active then in the kitchen
I wished more girls (and boys!) could cook with their mums… imagine, years ago it was normal that girls could cook by the age of 7!!!
They already started with the age of 5 and that by a hot wood fired oven!
No wonder the children today have problems when they only sit in front of the TV and have nothing else to do…
I want to give my kids a good start into life with the ability to provide for them self (cooking included…)
And I think you can never start to early

We had a great day at the ocean today.

It was amazing to watch the sea water come in in waves and flooding back the river.

The waves were quite high and so beautiful. It sounds as if the ocean is a big living thing breathing in and out with every wave.

David wasn’t afraid and had fun to chase the waves which were as high as him self (yes, David is VERY fast ;- )

Aileen of course wanted to go into the water, but wasn’t allowed since the waves were to forceful.

Jonas had his fun too

And Christoph of course went fishing

I was happy to find some green treasures. I just love the stones which contain green minerals. They remind me of moss agate a stone which combines my love of herbs and mother earth.

Since the waves were to forceful and Christoph came empty handed we girls enjoyed our pick-nick which we luckily brought with us

Croco even brewed a coffee on the burner and we enjoyed good food and the beach of course

It was an awesome day and we hope to go again soon.

On the way back I made a pic of Lake Ferry…

… and the Tasman sea.

We also saw this beautiful ‘Haunted house’

And I was so lucky to find a big patch of cattails!

Our garden is blessed with a lot of lovely plants and herbs. While I was weeding out nightshades I found two more ‘lucky clovers’
I gave one to Aileen and one to Jonas.

There was also this cute tiny viola which looks like a miniature pansy.

I don’t know it’s English or Latin name so if you can help me out I would appreciate it.

In our near forest we also found three high old trees covered with fungis.

Do you think this is Judas’ ear? It looks like the ones we have in Austria and are edible, but I don’t want to risk something with a New Zeland look alike…

Not far from the forest are wide meadows and on one are two lovely horses.

One day as Aileen admired this beautiful animals a tractor came and we helped to close the gate behind him.

In the conversation with the nice man we learned he did immigrate from Switzerland ages ago.
Aileen was so lucky because she was allowed to pet the horse!

And we were also invited to come again for a ride! Awesome! This is dreams come true!
We just love horses.

Summers can be hot and dry and we all have to use the water wise. You can help by bathing your kids in a herbal bath (use a big container as bath they will like something unusual and you can teach them to be water wise in an early stage ;- ) and then use the water for the garden.

Peppermint geranium or other scented flowers smell really beautiful in a bath.

You could also collect the water when you have a shower. Stand into a suitable container (like the one in the picture below) and use the water for plants afterward.

Keep a bucket in your bathroom. If you use warm water for brushing teeth, collect the cold water in the bucket and then the warm water in a cup for brushing your teeth.
Collect also the rain water of the roof with barrels or other containers.

Cover the water collector with a fine netting or plastic foil so insects don’t drown.
With one night rain we had this little container full. We will buy some barrels so we can collect all the water we need for the garden. Don’t worry if the water is yellow or orange, that’s from the pollen which may stick on your roof.

Christoph was very busy and now all cut trees and other twigs are processed. Here he used our bench as alternative for a  saw horse

It worked well

At the weekend we made another trip to the end of the road (we went there to collect some mullein blossoms)

On the way was this lovely creeping mallow (Modiola caroliniana) I never saw it in Austria (guess we have only the pink ones over there)

On the path grew a plant that smelled like chamomile not sure what kind it is. Maybe you can help?

I also don’t know what this tiny plant is… maybe it it will bloom soon

On the path grew some ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) which is very poisonous for cattle and other animals…

… but not for this Cinnabar moth caterpillar who eats this plant to BE poisonous for predators so they don’t eat them.

This river is very high when it is raining and look how dry he is now…

… it is important to be thankful for the water and use it wise. I will post some ideas later.

In this riverbed we found interesting green stones as well as a stone with a koru pattern on it.

On the way back we came by by this thistles which are ready to put into a paper bag for collecting their seeds. As far as I know all thistles are edible (if you don’t mind the scratchy harvest) and high in minerals and vitamins. You can collect the flower heads and boil them in water. I also pickled the flower heads which tasted like mini artichokes

If you collect the seeds, shake the paper bag well when it is full of seed heads. Then cut away one edge of the bottom and collect the loosed seeds which are falling out.

If you live in an area like I do it is good to collect all the thistle seeds (or flower heads or even the whole plant) because they are invasive to our beautiful New Zealand. So you really help the environment by eating the weeds

This is a Cape goosberry (Physalis peruviana)

You can make jam with the ripe yellow-orange fruits which contain Vitamin A and C.
But be aware because the flowers are poisonous! Also the foliage and the unripe fruit are harmful if eaten!

Christoph discovered this gorgeous plant!

It is a teasel (Dipsacus)! In my home country the roots were used against warts, fistulas as well as Jaundice.
According to the book Encyclopedia of Herbal Medince teasel was used as diuretic, sweat inducing, stomach soothing and gallbladder problems.

It also says that the water that collected in the leaves was called ‘Venus’s bath’ and thought to be beneficial for the eyes.

The mullein was blooming and I …

… collected a jar full of blossoms to make an oil.

At home I filled it with olive oil to make a antibacterial oil for ear ache.

Ah, yeah, on the picture you can see the stone with the koru pattern

Please click here for a link of the whole process of making this special oil and other info.