A Healthy Garden

Signs of a Healthy Garden
The sign of a healthy garden is the visibility of the insects, beetles and living creatures that live in it.

'Plastic' gardens have nowhere for the insects to hide. Plastic gardens are so neat and clean, and look blow dried, as though they have just come out of the hairdresser. When you go to the hairdresser your hair gets washed, cleaned, brushed, combed, trimmed, conditioned, dried and sprayed. A hair would not be game to be out of place. 

So with a garden. A healthy garden needs somewhere for spiders to spin their webs, flowers that attract insects, birds to eat the insects, beetles to .... just what do they do? But I like beetles.

Beetles

When I went out the back door the other morning a very large beetle was scurrying along the mat towards the door, coming to visit. He had 6 strong, armour plated legs.

Frogs

A few days later I was digging a hole to plant a flax plant in my chicken's garden and a little brown from jumped out of the ground. 

den

How is your garden?

Chickens - With a Paintbrush in Hand

My paintbrush has been busy again lately. It feels good when the paint flows. From having a blank piece of paper, a blank canvas or a blank piece of wood (I do like painting on wood), you have the power to transform it into a cacophony or a kalidescope of colour. 

This can be pleasing to some and not to others, but so long as it is pleasing to you, then that is all that you need. 

This week I had some fun painting on some wood.

 

I'll probably hang these two paintings out in my chicken shed. I think the eggs sign will have to go above the nest just to remind the girls what to do and where to put them. 

My third project was a little different. More on that next time. 

Cheers

Water Play for Children

Children Love Water

Children always love playing with water, whether it is playing in the baths, playing while they wash their hands, splashing their drink on the floor and playing with the spills or playing in the swimming pool. 

You can turn this favourite activity of theirs into a benefit for you. Get them to water your outside plants.

Watering the plants and learning what plants need

It doesn't matter if the children spill some of the water when they are outside. It will all dry up. Even their clothing will dry if it is a warm day.

At the same time as having fun with water, children learn something about gardening. They learn that plants need water to survive, just like we need water to drink. It's a simple, subtle way to teach them things.

Free Apps for your Photos

Free App for Photos

Recently I found a great FREE app for your phone to manipulate your photos. It presents them very nicely with lots of variations. 

I started with this photo

Then I used the InstaFrame app to make 

and this

Warning

I just have to let you know that this app is addictive. I spent over an hour trying out many variations and decided that it was well worth sharing.

Real Aussie Food

GrumbleTumms

GrumbleTumms is a small business devoted to supplying REAL Australian food.

The good old pie is often thought of as being Aussie tucker. GrumbleTumms takes the humble pie one step further, no, two or three steps further. 

GrumbleTumms uses kangaroo, emu and crocodile meat in their pies. And not just a whiff of it. There are chunks of meat slow cooked in delicious sauces, enough to get the saliva dripping. 

They also have Flinder's Island Wallaby Kranskys, sausages made with wallaby meat and King Island cheese. Flinder's Island and King Island are out in the middle of Bass Strait. They are buffeted by the fresh Arctic winds and produce from there is known to be healthy and pure. 

Visit GrumbleTumms website to see all their produce and to find out where they will be next. 

The GrumbleTumms van is very popular at Aboriginal celebration days as these are some of the original meats eaten by the native people of our great land.  
 

Free Activity for Children

Keeping Children Amused

Little ones need something to do to keep them amused. It is always best if this is NOT in front of the television, tablet, games on phones or DS or X-box. 

Here is a simple, free, easy thing that they can do and can can keep them amused for an hour or so. 

A plastic bowl, an old paintbrush, flat concrete, some water

Expanding artistic ideas - Water painting all sorts of creations

Cecile Brunner - The Sweetheart Rose

Cécile Brunner

Here is a lovely rose growing in my garden.
It is flowering prolifically at the moment and I couldn't resist taking a video of it.

The Cécile Brunner rose is named after the lady who bred it 100 years ago.
It was so pretty and perfumed that it was also called The Sweetheart Rose.

It was a favourite in the gardens of our Grandmother's times.

More details below the video.

Enjoy

Height

The original rose grows about 1 metre (3ft) tall.
Mine is a tall variety growing 3-4 metres tall (9-12ft).

Flowering Time

The original rose flowers for a month in springtime.
The tall variety has many flushes of flowers throughout the year. 

Varieties

Bush rose growing 1 metre tall - 3ft
Climbing variety
Tall variety growing 3-4 metres tall - 9-12ft

Free Recipes

Free Video Cooking Class

I know this great chef, Bevan, that does most delicious cooking. 
He has his own website and makes great videos, showing you just how easy it is to make and present these great recipes. He has over 80, yes, 80 videos he has made just for you. Check out his you tube videos here.

Now he is a very good and creative chef but I must reveal my connection. Bevan is my son. We always look forward to a  meal at his home. 

Cooking is deeply embedded in him. Even as a tiny child his favourite playthings were the pots and pans. By Kindergarten age he had to cook something every day. And so it went on...

And here he is ...

Free Sites to Enhance your Photos

Things I Like to Do

I must tell you - I like -

• writing my blogs and books
• painting - arty stuff, that is
• being amused by my chickens
• spending time catching up with family
• gardening
• taking photos

and - I'm a bit of a computer addict.

Now this computer geek business can involve all of these things because I can take photos of a lot of this stuff. Then I can manipulate the photos. 

Here are some examples and the programs I use.

Photo Manipulation Programs

Photoshop

Making a sepia photo.
www.photoshop.com/

A photo make into sepia using Photoshop

Free Photo Manipualtion Programs

Picmonkey

Making collages and designs.
www.picmonkey.com/

Collage made in Picmonkey

Design made in Picmonkey

FotoFlexer

Manipulating photos. 
http://fotoflexer.com/ 

Using Coloursketck on FotoFlexer

There is so much you can do, and these are only a few programs I use. Try them for yourself and let me know how you go. If you want help contact me.

Bantams on the Move

Two Hens Leaving Home

We have had a rearranging of our bantams again. Some of them have moved house. 

New Chicken Keepers

Our youngest son has just converted a large playhouse in the backyard of his first home into a chicken house. He and his partner were anxious to start their chicken collection. So we thought we would help them along by giving them two hens - one of the pullets I hatched in an incubator this past year and one from the year before. The girls would need a friend. One hen would be pretty lonely on her own.

As she had never had anything to do with chickens, we didn't know if the young lady of the household would like standard sized hens or bantams. I prefer bantams. So we gave them one of each. 

Standard Orpington

 She's already made her decision and she is going with bantams.

Buff Pekin has gone to a new home. Little white Silkie has stayed with us.

 

Children Learning to Love Chickens

The young couple were so excited to get their hens. Three of our sons now have hens. They are teaching their children the joys of the chicken world. The children learn to look after the birds. They learn that they are all individuals with their own personalities. 

Whenever our grandchildren come for a visit, the first thing they do is go and visit my chickens.

Three Hens Moving House

While all this moving was going on with some of the girls moving house, we decided to move our older hens, all three of them, in with the four pullets we had left, into the new hen house. There has been a bit of scuffling going on and a rearranging of where everybody sleeps but generally they are all getting along pretty well.

Fresh Australian Food

Australian Food

Here in Australia we are very lucky. We have a plentiful supply of fresh wholesome food. 

Food is what we all need. We cannot exist without food. 
Food gives us the energy we need to do everything we do in our lives - walk, work, laugh and think. Yes, it gives us the nutrients our body needs. Our body then gets to and converts the food into energy. It uses the minerals, water, vitamins and protein to fuel our body. 

Eat Only Good Food

If we fill our body with sugar and empty calories then we get no benefit out of it. Eating the wrong foods for our body can make us ill.

Fruit and Vegetables

We all know about fruit and vegetables and how they are so good for us. The next time you are putting sweets, chips, bars and other manufactured products into your mouth, think what else you could be eating.

It could be food like this. Watch the video and be inspired to eat good food. Your body will thank you with more energy.

Here

Chickens in the Garden

What is a Pullet?

A pullet is a young hen in the first year of her life. She is a first time layer. When a pullet starts to lay her eggs are smaller than an adult hen's eggs.

Our young pullets have just turned twenty weeks old. Now the books tell us that they can start laying any time from now on. We will watch and wait. The pullets from last year were about ten months before they started to lay. 

First Big Afternoon in the Garden

A couple of days ago the pullets were allowed into the back garden for the first time. They have their own run and this was their first time out into the big garden. 

Plan of chicken house and run

I had planted silver beet plants around the outside of their house and they had to pass this to get into the garden. Yes, you're right. They didn't get too far into the garden. And yes, you are right again. There are no leaves left on my silver beet plants. However I had harvested most of the bigger leaves for ourselves first.

Today I let the little hens out again. They took a while to get out their gate but as there were no silver beet leaves left they moved on into the garden for the first time. 

Can the Pullets Find Their Way Home?

Expecting the pullets to find their own way back to their shed, we kept peeping out to see if they had gone in for the night. It was 8.15pm and almost dark when there were still two of these little creatures wandering about.

One of them was on the back doorstep. We could not understand this then realized that they could not find their way back to their house. Poor little creatures. They had been attracted to the light of our living room.

Chickens Cannot See in the Dark

Now, chickens cannot see in the dark. This is why they go to bed with the evening light. They are different to ducks and geese. 

We used to have geese who wandered freely. They were especially active at night on the full moon. They honked under our bedroom window all night long as they grazed on our front lawn. (We lived on a farm in those days.) 

Ducks can also see at night but not chickens. However chickens are 'up with the birds' in the morning. Remember how roosters wake everyone up at 5.30am?

Home at Last

We went out and guided the pullets back to their shed. They quickly jumped up into the box where they all sleep together and peace reigned.

Let's Talk Health

Have you seen my other blog, 'Let's Talk Health'?

As the name of it tells you, it is a collection of articles I have written about many aspects of health. 

Let's Talk Health Blog

 It can be found at  http://allergiesandcfs.blogspot.com.au/

I am a trained Natural Therapist. I have studied Homeopathy for many years. I am also a official Flower Essence Practitioner with Australian Bush Flowers. I have also studied Colourpuncture, Kinergetics, Massage, Sound Therapy, Tachyon Energy, Aromatherapy, Colour Therapy including Aura Soma, and Crystal Healing. I'm sure there are some other modalities I have studied. 

I like to touch the inner person and feel it is important to address the inner emotions, bringing them into balance, rather than stick a bandaid on their ills and hoping they will go away. As you can see, I am especially attracted to Vibrational Therapies.

I do like to learn new things. I have also run many classes, teaching others how to incorporate these things into their lives. 

I hope you can come across to my other blog to read the many articles there.

Let's Talk Health Blog   http://allergiesandcfs.blogspot.com.au/