The Grassy Knoll

The yard at our house is a work in progress.  Now we have the paddock/ now lawn under control I am about to tackle the grassy knoll.  Really this part of our yard is the large pile of clay with a little top soil mixed in that is leftover from digging the hole for the water tank we installed. 

(Here the digger is creating the pile of clay)

It was too difficult to spread out over my uneven lawn places so I have decided that a grass knoll is the way to go.....the way to make the very unsightly space look more pleasing to the eye.

To be honest it was difficult to even imagine that anything would grow on clay I thought that I would start with a sample area as we were getting very close to summer and the idea that clay would induce plant growth at any time was tricky to imagine.

So I purchase a little wild seed pack and sprinkled, watered and then crossed my fingers and wondered what would happen.  By some miracle some grass grew. Of course the space was still unsightly but just imagine what it looked like with nothing except a clay layer.

A little disappointed that no wild flowers were there.  That was all before Christmas.  Now it is the end of February and I find the wild flowers still small, but slowly emerging from their clay bed.

If you look closely you can see a few specks of colour from the flowers. 

So what does that mean for my grass knoll.  I think that come autumn I am going to treat my clay with a little organic matter and mow the grass once the flowers have seeded.  I now a little more research is needed and come next spring I am going to give this another go.  I am sure in this part of my yard a little wild flower spot will look spectacular.  I guess though like with any good thing it is going to take some time to make it work just how I imagine.

Monday Menu 20 February

Gosh how quickly the weeks are going.  February is nearly over and it feels like summer has not really arrived here.

Monday  Left over cold meat and green salad

Tuesday  Beef barbacoa Crockpot

Wednesday  spaghetti bolignaise

Thursday   lamb cutlets with baked potato and salad greens

Friday  Homemade pizza

Saturday  tuna burgers homemade

Sunday  left overs

I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie

I am so lucky

I am a very lucky person as  my DH gave me a smart phone for Christmas.  It is the android variety phone. 

I am still learning to drive the said item but I am really keen to work on using a digital calendar system so that I can get rid of the really large diary I lug around every day.  After all who wouldn't want a slim line easy to use diary when you lug this around....it is only the beginning of the year and it is feeling heavy.  This is my diary towards the end of last year.

Now I know that it will be difficult to get rid of the paper diary.  I keep a lot of paper work in there especially paper work I need for Hayden but other little things. 

When I sat to look at what I need the list looked like this

• record of days I have worked and will be working
• DH roster
• Hayden appointments
• list of things to do

Well it is not a large list but each part playing an important part of my week and importantly in my record keeping. 

I am really struggling to find the best application.  Perhaps there is not one for me but I am determind that there must be one that will look after a lot of the stuff I write down.

Hmmm what do you think?  Are there any applications that I should give a try?

Wordless Wednesday 15 February

I am trying to create a wild flower filled grassy knoll.  I bought some wild flower seeds to test the idea and this is just one of the surprises we got.  I will have to blog about this some more at a later stage.  I have no idea what this flower is but boy it is a great colour against my grass.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys

Just sometimes a heart is all it takes

McKenzie thought that she would show how much she loved us but making this and holding it up to us with the sign language of I love you.

I am still smiling about it especially as it was coincidental as we don't really do Valentines Day in house....well not in any really big way.

Monday Menu 13 February

Here is this weeks menu.  A little late but I promise it was written down as I went to the supermarket today.

Monday  steak, baked potato and peas

Tuesday  steak n kidney stew on rice.

Wednesday  cold meat and salad with baked potato

Thursday  baked falafel with salad on rice.

Friday  noodly dinner

Saturday  Of to a dinner party

Sunday  left overs

I am linking this to I'm an Organising Junkie

Propinquity

I know a tricky word was what I needed to work with on the part of my Art Journalling adventure and a new one to me.  So here is the meaning for Propinquity

After about a weeks sub conscious break I thought what this really meant to me.  I really wanted to show how I was trying to celebrate the here and now, the everyday moments.

This is the page I came up with

(the credits can be found here)

Sometimes they say things that really make me think

As you know my son Hayden goes to a school for children/ young people who are disabled.

Yesterday I got a txt from his wonderful teacher aide (Nat)

Nat txt    just got 2 tell u hayden was in trouble with K (teacher) for pushing 2 be 1st.  He knows he gets away with murder with me so he complains about these people and I ignored him.  Thn he says these women are studpid.

Me txt     Oh he won't learn but fancy women being stupid he didn't learn that from me ha ha

Nat txt     yes I know.  we thougth it to be a classic :-)

The funny thing about this is that Haydens brain opperates at about a 2 - 3 year old.  He has trouble learning things accademic but sometimes he drags things out of his memory that I have no idea where he got it from.  In fact I don't even know that any 3 year old would have been able to come up with such a statement.

I have to say I had a little chuckle about it knowing full well that I am a 'Girls can do anything' type of gal.

(Here is Hayden with his box, scissors and tape)

What we do for love

Just sometimes it is the little and unwritten things that we do show our children how much we love them.  Even if it means getting up really early so they can catch the bus to school. 

I took this photo about 10 minutes after I got up and then got McKenzie out of bed so she is not rushing too much to get ready to leave the house in the morning.

Wordless Wednesday 8 February

Nothing like a little cooling down on a hot summers day.  I love that this photo is so full of action right down to the fact that Hayden, who has cystinosis which makes him very thirsty all the time, is capturing the water on his tongue.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.