We are me; Mummy, otherwise known as Michelle, Big chickpea; Daddy, otherwise known as Tristan, Medium chickpea; Rowan and Baby chickpea Reuben. This blog was started as I thought I was starting to loose track of all the amazing day to day things my children learn and how we grow as a family. It is also here to keep family and friends up to date with our adventure of moving our life from the UK to Australia.



Friday, 30 April 2010

My Grandads rhubarb

The rhubarb that is planted in our veggie patch used to belong to my Grandad.  He passed away 6 years ago.  He only had a small garden but he loved looking after his rhubarb, every summer we would have loads of rhubarb crumble.  When I moved out of home he would always wrap me up a parcel of rhubarb in some newspaper. So when he moved on to the spirit world I was chuffed to recieve his rhubarb crowns.

They are doing really well this year, they apparently love a cold winter. 

So this week Rowan and I pulled off the first stalks of the year and made a very yummy Rhubarb and Ginger crumble.

I am so pleased that my children can share a bit of the delight that my Grandad had in growing this rhubarb, especially as they never met him.


This week...

We have bought a new tent, played in new tent, then left it up to play in it again the following day, but it is still up having a good old waterproof test as it hasn't stopped raining since!


Tye died some boring white vests, Rowan and Reuben loved doing this and the boys are so proud of there new clothes they have to keep showing them off!

Baked more bread

Visited friends

Went to HE group today, made lovely mayday crowns, just hope it nice enough weather tomorrow to go dancing round the maypole!

The weather has generally been quite soggy this week, but the plants are loving it!

Monday, 26 April 2010

Another busy week

Well the sunshine has gone away for a bit, but it has also warmed up and the garden is starting to come to life!  Seeds that seem to have been dormant have popped up and now they are all growing lovely!

The rhubarb is ready for its first crop, some onions are poking up their heads and the radishes are popping up too. 

We have marked out the area for the bean tipee, just need to compost it now before planting out the seeds.
We opened up the bottom of the compost bin and took out some really lovely compost (it must be a good 2-3 years old now)


The fairy garden is growing, and Rowan found this really nice piece of wood with a hole in the middle which he just 'had'  to put in the fairy garden.
More Tassajara yumminess mmmmm
My weekend was taken up with putting dreads into my hair, I have wanted dreads for a long time and finally thought why not?
They are still a bit crazy at the moment but I love them already!

Saturday, 17 April 2010

Sunny Days....

And not much time for blogging. 
Over the last week or so we have been....

Building tree houses in the garden
Sorting the veggie patch - Finished weeding, built child proof fence, and planted first spuds and onions! This photo doesn't look much, but I am really excited at my new fence as the monkeys in my garden have been  loving the veggie patch a bit too much! 
I have cleared a large area next to the veggie patch for the kids to plant things and we will also plant a bean wigwam.

Apparently Reuben was being a tiger!?

We also planted a fairy garden, (inspired by this blog)   We made use of an old broken ornament that was a wedding present and have planted it with cress seeds.

Our first proper beach trip of the year, it took Reuben all of about 5 minutes to get all of his clothes off!
It was sooooo lovely at the beach, both boys were so happy playing with so much space to run in.  Reuben loved playing  in the rock pools, splashing and paddling.

Another trip to the beach today, however the wind was a bit nippy!


Tintagel Castle


After our morning walking to the waterfall we decided to go to Tintagel to walk to the castle.  We did wonder if it would be too much walking for Rowan, but the sun was shining and he showed no worries about more walking.  So off we went!



To get to the castle (which is ruins - something I didn't realise!) you have to go through the entrance, courtyard area and cross to the island where the castle once stood.  The view across made me feel a bit sick!  I don't really have a fear of heights like that but when crossing bridges and steep cliffs with two small children it makes my tummy go a bit funny.  Rowan on the other hand showed no fear whatsoever and loved it, someone commented that he will be climbing mountains when he is older, as some of the steps are really big!

Reuben is looking grumpy in these photos because he really didn't want to be in the sling.  But there was no way he was getting out, not until it was a bit safer!


This beach is where Merlins cave is, and Rowan spotted another waterfall too
 

Rowan loves to collect 'treasure' whenever we walk, this was his treasure put into a neat line in one of the steps on the island!

Reu was finally free of the sling or arms and could climb. Boy this boy loves to climb, run and jump!


We walked all over the island, looking at the ruins of the old castle.  The boys liked the well and tunnel (cold store) best.  Rowan couldn't quite grasp the concept that there once stood a great castle, he kept saying that it hasn't been built yet!

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

St Nectan's Glen


The recent beautiful weather is wonderful, everyone is so happy and busy! 
Busy is an understatement, its like we've come out of hibernation and need to get everything ready for summer, quickly!

Since the clocks changing I have completely lost track of time, I can't get tea ready on time, get the kids to bed on time or even get myself to bed at a reasonable time because I am so busy outside!

Anyway I thought it was about time I sat down, got some photos off the camera and played catch up on my blog!

For Easter weekend we went away to North Cornwall for a break (only half an hours drive away but it was still nice to get away).  We stayed near Tintagel, the home of King Arthur and Merlin.  So we filled the boys heads of stories and legends of the round table and the sword in the stone and went of on our adventure.  Unfortunately the first two days rained pretty much non stop so we didn't get up to much.

But on Easter Sunday morning we awoke to a clear blue, sunny sky.  So we headed off to St Nectan's Glen, the beautiful waterfall above. 

St Nectan's Glen is situated between Tinatgel and Boscastle and you have to walk a fair old trek through a gorgeous wooded valley alongside the river, which after all the recent rain was flowing rather fast.  It was a lovely walk, signs of spring everywhere and that lovely deep, mossy smell filled our nostrils.


Rowan collected loads of little pinecones to make a hedgehog family with.

Rowan was amazed by one thing after another on this walk, he managed the whole walk without once complaining (I remember doing this walk whilst pregnant with Rowan and I had to stop on many occasions!)

The first buds opening up

Rowan and Reuben were looking for fairies in this miniature waterfall.

We all made it to the top, where there is a little tea house, then continued down to the waterfall.  Following the steps you can hear the waterfall getting louder as you get nearer.  Me and Tris used to love going waterfall hunting on our many travels, I was interested to see the boys reactions to the first really big waterfall they have ever seen.

To see the falls, you have to cross some stepping stones or wade across the pool (or swim!), it was a bit tricky with Reu on my back!  I think both boys were amazed/scared.  The amount of water falling was quite intense and the noise was really loud. 

At the tea house there were loads of photos that people had taken at the falls with these orbs in (like in this photo).  They are not water splashes.  We took 4 photos in succession and this is only photo with them in and the camera didnt get wet!

St. Nectan was a hermit who gave his name to the glen and waterfall, although according to some sources the name is a Christianised form of the Cornish water god - Nechtan.
St. Nectan was said to have lived here and reputedly lies buried under the stones of the basin.
People leave special messgaes all over the rocks, trees and in the water itself.






There was also a big old dead tree hanging over the water that people had banged coins into, Rowan had a go too!



On the walk back up to the tea rooms, I noticed this nursing mother in the bushes..

Beautiful!
This place never fails to amaze me how much magic and beauty you can feel in nature.

The amazement continued on the walk back to the car. We all kept looking out for beautiful signs of spring..
 

Rowan with his find of some Jews Ear fungus..

And beautiful Wood Anemones.

Rowan is really into cannons and shouting KABOOM! at the moment, so he couldn't resist this cannon-like tree to play on!

Reuben had been in the sling for most of the walk, so he was more than happy to come down for a run around, although a little mischievous! (Reuben, never!)

A lovely morning on a beautifully sunny day.