collecting leaves

with water to stay well hydrated out in the garden. Also considered what was the best leaf design for catching precipitation

Play, Play, We Play All Day

An action shot of the Prince slaying the dragon to rescue the royal baby:

most delicious tempeh

Jeremy makes tempeh using a hot water bottle inside a polystyrene box. It's sooo delicious! Especially cooked like this. I'll try make it next time, have realised the fermentation man's website - http://www.gemcultures.com, looking for a NZ source... need to work out how to cultivate our own.

Jer

baking days

Taking on more responsibility, understanding, confidence and competence each time.

re-visiting an old favourite

making volcanoes but this time with an extra interest in the chemical reaction and the whys and hows of explosions and gases, carbon dioxide etc, etc...

Little L was having his own fun playing with water.



Caoimhe mixes her 'lava' - vinegar and food colouring. She chose red and yellow to make orange:


There is goes!


Timo's turn. he tried all the colours and was interested to see what colour lava that would make. It was brown.



And it's all over...

Timo and Caoimhe's art collaboration.
Timo discovered a new painting technique - flicking paint onto paper using great arm movements. Very physical, fast and energetic, very Timo.
It led to finding out about abstract expressionism and looking at artists such as Jackson Pollock and not to mention some lengthy cleaning surrounding the easel (they had both set up this before I knew what was going on!).

Caoimhe flying through the air on the trapeze

children's voices

Timo Earth is a lucky planet because millions of things live on it...
Caoimhe Space will keep going for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...

Caoimhe If you turn the number 4 [number 4 written like an upside down h] upside down it will be a h...

Timo ... see dragons are real, they do exist, they were alive with the dinosaurs...
Ruth ...dragons have always been mythological creatures, they exist in myths and legends...
Timo ...what's a myth?...
Timo myth is not a real word because it doesn't have a vowel ... ahhh so the y acts as a vowel...

Ruth Caoimhe, is this scary for you?
Caoimhe no I'm not scared of dragons because I know they are not real and they are not in our land in our country...

Jeremy ...how do we know dinosaurs existed if there were no people around to see them?
Timo ... because there are satellites...

Timo's letter he created to Forest and Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club. They read, "Hi my name is Timo. I would like to tell you about the things I have caught - RATS! In a trap that keeps them alive. From Timo":



Lennox standing in front of the fire pit at Granity. All the children put vegetables inside tin foil and cooked them in the fire embers.





Playing pass the parcel, the game they made up together and they each made their own parcels. The children didn't care about the actual present, they were much more excited about the surprise and the playing of the game.



Caoimhe working in the kitchen:


Caoimhe and Timo working outside


We work alongside each other inside and outside in a way that meets our needs and to get the necessary work done:

The clever lyre bird from Australia

Timo's favourite things to watch are nature documentaries. This clip is particularly interesting with the Lyre Bird that can mimic sounds so well, in this it does camera shutters, rewinding camera, logging noises from the forest etc.

possible sky light show tomorrow

Aurora Forecast for Tuesday, June 7, 2011. An event on the
Sun occurred on the 7th of June. Prompt arrival of high
speed particles has already affected the atmosphere. Our
model indicates that the shock wave will reach Earth on the
8th of June around 5pm GMT (5am on Thu 9th NZ time). South
Islanders set your alarms for a light show


http://youtu.be/NJN0hWMrugE

Caoimhe's scary dream

Caoimhe drew her dream of scary witches on the floor using chalk.

Autumn days

These days Jeremy is working every day. We are still managing to have some lovely days even though he's not here most of the time...

On the first non rainy day in sooo long, we made a boat. Was so lovely sitting in the warm morning sun for a couple of hours:



And a simple and delicious lunch comprising just wholemeal pasta, onions, garlic, cabbage cooked in olive oil with dashes of ume vinegar at the end to season.

Lennox cheetah

Lennox insists on wearing this cheetah suit whenever he can. Cheetah suit has definitely been the most played with thing we have been given. Here he is eating breakfast.

Making jumps:

Glider dog and his aeroplane

Timo made a series of these aeroplanes. I was impressed with his process. He took himself off and found all the tools he needed and cut out the pieces using flat sheets of polystyrene. He had the 3d image in his head of how it would be and cut out the pieces necessary, drawing the design first on the polystyrene. He made one for his sister, one for his brother and one for his friend who he heard was sick, then he thought he might try and sell some at the next market..
Here he is with his water aeroplane that floats really well with glider dog the second as pilot:

Lennox so frustrated that he just can't really move in the giant gumboots.
Had some fine days - finally - and did some winter planting and created a path and new shape to one of the chicken dome plots now that we are trying Masanobu Fukuoka One Straw Revolution inspired philosophy as opposed to the chicken dome system, which is still going on the other side of the house.