Brigitte’s autumn hideaway

Posts Tagged ‘Aileen’

In New Zealand we celebrate the beginning of Spring with the first day of September.

In October the farmers and veterinarian will be busy with lambing.

This lovely sheep had her lambs much earlier.

I enjoy the warmer days for small walks not far away from our house.
This by example is a way up to a summit.

The broom will be covered with yellow blossoms soon and is so high you can’t see anything.

On the top you can catch a glimpse of snow by the faraway mountains.

We have no snow down here but instead a lot of blooming trees and flowers
Our garden is full of interesting animals like this live bearing ‘copper skink’ which can be found only on the North island of New Zealand.

Our rabbits are also developing great and Fluffy is one who we take inside from time to time. He is Aileen’s favorite except for Anna of course

We enjoy the last days of winter and are looking forward for an exciting Spring

We have a lot of rain at the moment… since 3 weeks to be exactly… but that can’t stop our kids from playing outside…

… they have a lot of fun in the sand pit…

… and even use the hose to make a waterfall!

Today we had a few moments of sun and a beautiful rainbow showed it’s lovely colours over our place.

David and Aileen went to a mushroom hunt in our ‘wild corner’

There are a lot fungi on tree stomps…

… but also on the ground like this orange cuties around my yarrow

The biggest surprise today was this little patch of mushrooms I first thought might be puff balls…

… but look at this!
This are lovely white buds (Champignon in German and Agaricus bisporus in Latin) growing in our little forest!
Yum! What a great lunch!

Our poplar is so beautiful with her golden leaves!
Oftentimes we enjoy to sit outside and just watch them fall like golden snowflakes.
Of course the children enjoy the rustling of the dry leaves and even our rabbits seem to like to chase each other around in the heaps of leaves

This weekend we did harvest our few pumpkins, paprika and other veggies.
Then Aileen was helping me to peel out the kidney beans…

… of course she loved the pink ones the most (they are big and pink before they change to a dark colour while shrinking due drying)

Christoph also called me out into the garden because he saw something moving while he was mowing the lawn.
It was a praying mantis

The first time I was able to make a picture from a mantis’ belly

Unfortunately the picture where you can see her blue pretend eyes on the arms is blurry but here is another from the side.

Last Thursday Emy gave birth to some cute baby rabbits.
They are snuggled in under a big layer of Emy’s hair to keep warm.

On the second day they were still pretty pink…

… but now they are already developing a fine fluffy fur. I keep you updated on Benny’s blog

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!