An Afternoon at the Park

We have many lakes nearby our home and plenty of birdlife fly to and from these lakes each day. We thought a visit to the park would be fun and Jenna needed to take a water sample from the lake for her Chemistry work to test the ph level. So off we went, breadcrumbs in hand (and camera of course) to run in the sunshine.

Just look at these beautiful Egyptian Geese basking in the sun... 

Erin climbing a Willow tree...

The Egyptian Geese and a couple of Coots swim over for some crumbs...

Jen spotted a beehive hidden in the trunk of one of the Bluegum trees, we stayed a safe distance away and I just zoomed in for the photo with my camera...



Jen taking the ph sample, the lake was slightly acidic...

Now I am off to plan and prepare everything for Kye's 5th birthday tomorrow, I can't believe how time has flown, it seems like just the other day when he was a tiny little mite... I love preparing for birthdays, we start the night before by placing a birthday table in the lounge decorated with flowers and gifts and of course the birthday crown. Then in the morning the birthday child is greeted with kisses from each member of the family, 5 kisses for Kye because he is FIVE tomorrow:) Tomorrow will be a baking morning to bake the birthday cake and then in the afternoon friends will be coming over for a small birthday party... he really can't wait, he has literally been counting down the days and has drawn a little calendar, which is too precious and marks off a day each day, yeah, too sweet:)

Tuesday Morning

Today has been such a wonderful day so far, I have been busy with my dye pots, dyeing up cochineal yarn to knit my Easter Rabbits. What a beautiful colour... so dusky pink and lilac, I love it! I have just hung the first batch up to dry. I soaked my Merino yarn in water overnight, filled my dye pot up with water this morning, added some Alum for a mordant and when the water was hot, I added the cochineal, the pot was suddenly bursting with colour! Once the water was ready, I added my yarn and let it simmer for one hour,took the pot off the heat and removed and rinsed the yarn once it was cool and hung it out to dry in the shade.

This is a wonderful book about natural dyes, it really is easy to dye with natural dyes and you will have so much fun if you decide to give it a try:)

We also managed some school work today:) Erin is busy with her Mineralogy block for grade 6 and so today we have learnt all about volcanoes. How they form, what happens when they erupt and we even did a little experiment out of the Childcraft book called Our Earth. What a fantastic resource these books are! I managed to buy some from Betterworld books they are amazing! To make our volcano, we used a shallow cardboard box, a glass jar, sand around the outside of the jar for the volcano.  Into the glass we poured 3 large spoons of baking soda, red dye, water and a glass of vinegar. The end result was wonderful and really looked like a volcano!



Jen is busy with Chemistry, Grade 8, she is learning all about ph and we have been using litmus paper to test, lemon, juice, vinegar etc... for acid or alkeline ph solutions. It has been such fun. So this afternoon she has asked if we can go down to our lake and test the water ph there as well:) I am thrilled she is so keen to do more, I really love that we have the freedom to learn in our own time in our own way!

Last night Erin lost one of her first incisor teeth, she was so excited, she put her tooth in a special tooth box and left it for the tooth fairy... we she was so surprised to see this adorable little chicken waiting for her this morning in place of her tooth:) Aren't these little birds adorable?? I found them on Swirly Arts on Etsy. I will definately be back for more.

And here is my love, Richard... doing what he adores... mountain biking. He rode in the Valentine's Dirt Ride last Saturday and he had the most wonderful day... Tonight, he has invited me on a belated Valentine's date, the day after Valentines, the restaurants are much quieter and that's how we like it... just the two of us... I am so looking forward to it, I think I'm in love...
xo