Winter Snowflakes

Snowflakes:

We have just started having really cold weather and surprisingly, rain as well! Here in South Africa where we live we have a dry winter and a rainy summer. So last night when we were awakened by thunder and lightning, it was a pleasant surprise. Today our children decided to decorate our window panes with cut out snowflakes. They are really simple to make. Simply trace around a side plate, cut out your circle and fold it in half and fold it another three times, then simply cut out shapes along the edges and make sure there is always paper between your shapes or you could end up with a large open space. When you have finished cutting all the shapes you can think of, unfold your circle and a wonderful snowflake awaits you. Then stick them on your windows and you will have a beautiful display, not one will be alike, just like real snowflakes!

Winter Nature Table:

We also decided it was time to change our nature table from Autumn to a Winter display. It is still a work in progress, but so far we have added our Winter gnomes that Jenna knitted and a few small snowflakes adorn the bare leafless winter tree. We also added our Winter theme story books called 'The Story of the Snow Children' and 'Winter Awake'. The children will add to their table as the weeks flow through Winter.

Our Special Girls

This is one of our very special girls, her name is Marigold and she is one of our 6 chickens that lay the most beautiful eggs every day! At the moment she is in one of my freshly planted flowerbeds and she is having a sandbath. You can see how much sand she has dug out, this section of the bed looks empty, so I have given up the idea of planting anything in here because this is the favourite bath spot! Our chickens range free for most of the morning and afternoon and only come in when they want to lay. We add their poop to our compost heap and it makes fantastic compost which, when ready goes into our veggie, fruit and herb beds before we plant a new crop. They are so tame, we have had them since they were a day old, when we walk outside they run around after us! We love our specials girls!

Erin's Hat

This is Erin's special woollen hat that I knitted for her while we were on holiday on the most beautiful game farm. It was her birthday in April and because I have been knitting hats for a few people, for their birthdays, she really wanted me to knit her one. This is her design, I knitted it with dyed handspun Merino wool, so it will be lovely and warm.

More Gnomes

Jen has decided to knit gnomes too! We have made our own pattern so that he can be smaller and he turned out really nicely. I think we will start an Etsy shop and knit gnome families, knitted animals and warm woollen hats for winter! We will see.....

Mr Gnome

This is my gnome that I have been working on for the past few days and at last he is finished. He is really sweet and stands about 30cm tall! I still need to make him a jewel bag. Jenna has decided to knit a gnome as well, she is going to make him different colours to mine, she loves to knit and so do I!