Delights in the garden for 4 year old

I love days at home. I commented on this to my husband a few days ago, and his response was "So that's where he gets it from". Our 4 year old is a real home body. He much prefers being at home to going out.

Today I feel a little flu-ish and am pottering at home doing a little weeding, watering and washing - nothing too strenuous. Meanwhile, my boy is climbing trees, playing in the tree house, digging holes to transplant seedlings and now, much to his delight, playing in mud. How he enjoys this freedom to explore nature as he discovers insects and plants, and gets well and truly dirty in the process!

He calls out to me at times and we investigate things together. At other times he studies how things work or plays with fluid dynamics. It is a wonderful thing to watch. This is the pre-schooling education that he enjoys the most!

And the scrap celery is in the garden.

Remember the celery that I was growing from scraps? Well I have planted it out now. It has just gone in today, so we'll see how it continues to grow...

Small, sweet pleasures

I thought I'd lost my raspberry canes to dry weather over the summer, but thankfully a few canes survived. Now that we are getting fruit again, we are very pleased... and will take greater care to nurture the canes through the hot and dry summer next year!

Mummy, I'm in the carrot aisle!

When collecting and harvesting, my son likes to get right into it. Today he was squeezing between the corn rows and poking his hands through to the carrots, reaching for tomatoes and searching for herbs. I love the way he was commentating his pathway through the garden as though he was out shopping and wandering up and down the aisles. My garden isn't quite big enough to supply all of our fresh produce needs, but it's great that he sees it as the place to get food.

Although he is now stamping through the too-long grass, waving his 'carrot sword' around and slicing down all of the dandelion heads, complete with sound effects. It's a charmed life in the garden!

Cucumber

Look at the spikes on that cucumber! They are somewhat fiercer looking than the spikes on zucchini - both wonders of food that are not seen in supermarket vegetables because they brush off very easily.

Limes

We have two lime trees, a kaffir and a Tahitian lime. Over the few years that we have had them, the crops have been minimal or non-existent. But this year it looks like a great year for fruit, with some well developed fruit and many more developing. Yum, yum!

My daughter, the artist.

My 6 year old is developing a love of painting and I am so proud of her artistic talents. She is a pleasure to watch during the creative process as she studies the flowers and brings the paper to life.