T&G Tuesday - Animal Farm

Can you guess what I did today?

That's right! I went on a school excursion with Angel's class to a farm.

A freezing, cold day, BUT, we all had so much fun!

Can you believe I had a turn at milking a cow???

I'd never done it before.

I wish, wish, wish that this farm was my place. Well, maybe not such a big farm, but a tiny one, with a few animals and land for the kids to run and play.

Yeah, I could see myself living in gum boots and doing chores around a very, very small farm.

What did you do today?

To see what other's around the world are doing on Tuesday go to

Communal Global

Also linking to The Long Road to China for...

~ Ky x

The Girls aka the Chooks

Here is Le Monkey proudly holding one of the eggs we collected last week. He loves to collect the eggs. Both the kids do. They are always very careful to take them straight to the fridge and put them in the carton very carefully. We had a few egg droppings in the first week of egg collecting, so now they are extra careful.

The Hubby finished the new, bigger coop last night. It's probably way bigger than the girls really need, but, oh well. At least they won't be all over each other like in the original coop.

We've also moved their fence so they have a much larger portion of the back yard to run around in. It includes two trees for them to keep cool under on those hot summer days that are just around the corner. There's lots more insects for them to find now too.

I'm loving the chooks and the fresh eggs.

I'm hating the smell of them though.

Who knew chooks poo so much?!

~ Ky x

Nature Lesson - Poisonous Spiders

 As dinner concluded last evening, my hubby asked me for the jar that was sitting on the kitchen bench. It contained this little nasty. He found it under the lip of a pot plant while he was moving them. He thought it was about time our kids learned what this spider looks like and what it is called and what will happen if they are bitten by one.

Of course, those of you who live in Australia are more than familiar with this creepy crawly. It's one of our more poisonous nasties. It's a Red Back Spider.

If an adult is bitten by one they may feel rather unwell. If a small child is bitten by one, it may kill them.

The kids now know about this spider and are to tell either of us about it so that we can destroy it.

Of course Monkey was rather curious about it and kept getting in the way while I was trying to photograph it as Angel wanted to take it to school next week for show and tell, but cos she can't actually take a poisonous spider to school, we will print out the photo so she can take that instead. A much safer option.

Once I'd finished trying to get a decent photo of it I tipped it out on the cement and whacked it with a shoe. No more spider.

Apologies to those of you who are arachnaphobes, but it IS only a photo on a computer screen.

~ Ky x

I had a relaxing weekend. Did you?

The quiet and serene Gough's Bay.

I'm rather partial to weekends spent in the country.

Way too cold to go in any deeper.

Dirty pigs!

 I'll never understand why people can't take their rubbish home and put it in the bin.

Just in case your not sure where the lake is.

Oh, and girls, Country Road top was $3.

Our li'l family.

Back at the house was our own private waterfall.

Kept these two entertained for ages.

We even had some visitors of the feathered variety.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

~ Ky x

Flowers, Jars and a Snail

Yesterday I shouted myself a bunch of these. Sorry about the blurry photo. My camera was on the manual setting by mistake and I was shooting away like it was on auto.

Ranunculas are such a beautifully, unusual flower.

This is the arrangement I have on my table now. Recognize the runner?

Mum bought this for me at an op shop when she was here last time. It didn't have a cork and I haven't been able to find one for it yet. It had been hiding in the back of a cupboard for a few weeks and then I had the bright idea to use it as a serviette holder. They fit in perfectly!

This large vase was bought from Ikea a few years ago to be used as a fish bowl. The fish died. It wasn't well when we bought it.

I haven't used this vase since as I just didn't know what to do with it. Now it is our fruit bowl.

This morning, I notice these bright red blooms amongst the weeds in the side garden. I believe they are poppies. Or at least they are a very good imitation.

This is the plant they were picked from. There are more buds on it. Is it a poppy plant? How on earth did it get there amongst my weeds? I was going to pull all the weeds out of this garden in the past week, but never got around to it. I'm glad I didn't now. I shall do it this week and leave this plant.

This little guy was near the lemon tree. The sand is there because of the Monkey.

I do like snails. Maybe because they are a little weird.

What I don't like about them is that they eat my herb plants! They absolutely aren't allowed to do that and if they get caught then the penalty is death.

Sorry snails. You are cute and weird, but you aren't allowed to eat my plants!

~ Ky x

A Snail And A Monkey

A snail. A slow, slimy, herb eating, nuisance of a creature was the object of my son's attention this afternoon. He played with it for quite awhile. He found it in the back yard and brought it inside to slime it's way over my table just so Angel, who was doing homework, could see the wonders of this little creature that had charmed our Monkey.

Then it became the object of both of my 'boys' attention. There are MANY more photos of this wondrous event, but I am only sharing three.

I hope so deeply that there are many more wondrous things that catch my son's attention as he grows and learns about the world around him.

~ Ky x

Tuesday At The Zoo

It's the second week of school holidays and the day has dawned beautifully with not a cloud to be seen in the early morning sky. "Woohoo!", I thought to myself. I had planned to take the kids to the zoo today, but of course hadn't told them about it yet, just in case it was bad weather. It didn't exactly stay cloud free. We went anyway.

So, a little later that morning, we all got ready, I packed a picnic lunch and we all got excited about seeing the new baby elephant.

This is me(obviously), about to leave the house for our outing. Angel was mucking about with my camera.

Angel insisted we see the penguins first. It's so frustrating not being able to zoom in closer. I REALLY need to get a GOOD camera!

Then they decided they wanted to ride an elephant.

The baby boy elephant with his mum.

He's only about 3 weeks old.

The kids wanted to go the playground, but I insisted we go see the orangutans first. They are always good value. Please note the Monkey wearing the blue tshirt in this photo. He can't even stand still long enough for a photo.

Aren't they adorable? Well I think they are. They were taking a breather from wrestling each other.

They played with this sheet for AGES. Was so funny watching them rolled around with it. Play fighting and wrestling.

I wonder if they get sick of being looked at and just hide under there to get away from the people.

This gorgeous thing was eating her broccolli. I heard one mother pointing this out to her kids, as if an orangutan eating broccolli is going to make the kids eat theirs.

This guy has the best view at the zoo. He was checking out what was going on on the other side of that wall.

The biggest silverback there. Just gorgeous! I always hope to see him when I go to the zoo. He's my favourite animal there!

Remember this next time you are out in the bush.

We had a great time together. We always do when we come here. It's such a beautiful zoo.

Hope you've enjoyed looking at some of the animals. It's just a shame that they are captive animals. They are VERY well looked after, but it's not the same as being in the wild where they are free to roam the land at their will. It does make me sad, especially when you look into their eyes and see boredom and saddness. Well that's what I see anyway.

~ Ky x