Glorious Garden Goodness: Poppy's Corn

Corn Corn glorious Corn! but not just any corn...

it's Poppy's corn!! :D

Since moving house late last year onto a property that had an established orchard, fruit trees and lots more potential our family has embraced the way of growing our own food where possible.

There is nothing like going out into the garden and snapping of a snow pea, pulling out a carrot, twisting off an orange of the tree, picking some herbs, smelling the mango's

growing and all the things we now get to experience before we eat our own produce.

When my parent's moved onto the property earlier
this year they brought with them the wisdom and knowledge that comes along with 'a veggie patch'.- something that was lacking somewhat in our garden.

My mum grew up in the small country town of Stroud in NSW where her father (Pop) grew all manner of garden goodness...Pop has such a passion for garden life
and many look to him as master of the garden.

I may be a little bias but Pops produce was 'THE BEST' and simply could not be beaten, he shared the fruits of his garden with locals, family, friends and always gave to the local nursing home.

One of the things I always looked forward to when visiting Nan and Pop was to follow Pops footsteps around the garden as he tended,picked, groomed and showed me how it all works
.Nan simply was the icing on the cake as she magically turned Pops garden to a feast for your eyes and music to your mouth as the food headed towards the kitchen
Every meal was prepared with love from the seed, then harvesting, the food preparation and finally becoming a melody of tastes before you at the table.....taking every step on it's journey with the utmost care.

Without a doubt my favorite thing that Pop grew in his garden was 'Pops corn' - known my many ...I'm sure that if you asked anyone that had at least one cob of Pops corn "So what was it like?"...an instant warm smile would appear on their face, remembering that unique sweet juicy taste they will simply never forget.
Sadly Pop doesn't get out and about in the garden anymore as he is now a resident in a nursing home and Nan has moved house into a retirement village, but believe me the memory lives on.

I remember the last time I had Pops corn was on a visit to Newcastle in March of last year....Mum, Dad, Andy, Declan and I were seated at the table for dinner and mum in a soft voice announced that we were about to have the last of Pops corn, instantly I was excited, sad, happy, salivating and not wanting dinner time to end.

Excited: that after quite a few years living in Brisbane without such a treat :O
Sad: that Pop could no longer get his hands dirty in the garden :(
Happy: to share the experience that is 'Pops corn' with my hubby and toddler :)
Salivating: at remembering that very distinctive taste

These memories will always stay with me and the experiences very dear to my heat.
I hope to create similar experiences of garden life in my own children, planting, watching the garden grow, the excitement of harvest time and having fun in the kitchen with our own food.
The garden is such a great place to get dirty, explore, create, design, teach nutrition and learn about the world around us.
So far this year my children have really grown to share the passion of the garden and love going around observing and actively helping in the garden.

Since Dad, their own Poppy has moved and created the veggie garden- they have dubbed him Teacher of the garden.
Poppy's garden (the veggie patch) grows all manner of yummy: zucinni, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, beans, capsicum, snow pea's, tomatoes, broccoli, shallots and many more to come.
The munchkin's always ask when dinner is served if it's Poppy's broccoli or Poppy's zucinni and so on...I must say that their is a little disappointment when the answer is no.

Mum seems to have taken on Pops passion and way of garden life...everything has to be done the way Pop did it back in Stroud, the seed packets have to be placed on the wooden stick standing at the end of the row of seeds, the wind must be verbally abused at when it blows of the blossoms of a fruit tree while the shaking of fist is practiced and so on
It's beautiful to see Pops passion living on through my own parents and passing on these experiences to my own children.

This morning Mum called on the intercom letting me know that a very excited 'Pop' would be coming up to our house soon to collect the munchkins for a good corn picking....knowing that Declan just looooves his corn on the cob Pop felt it very important that Declan be present when the picking was done.
When Pop arrived at the back door and told the muchkins what was going on I don't know who was more excited, the kids or him...lol

Off they went with Mummy in tow with camera...they picked the corn along with some other goodies munching a few snow pea's as they went.
On Nana's request Poppy then showed Declan how to strip the corn of it's husk to prepare for steaming, Declan was filled with excitement and happiness that I'm sure the next block in the neighbourhood would have heard :P

Tonight I added 'the corn' to our dinner and the kids just loved it, Declan finished his off and just kept rotating it hoping to see another kernel magically appear. On seeing that Daddy had left a few kernel on his, Declan gave Daddy a big smile and slyly asked with him puppy dog eyes if he may have it...Daddy handed it over and Declan made sure it was all gone.
At the end of dinner a gorgeous phone call was made to Poppy himself Thanking him for the yummy corn!!!

It seems my own children will have a very similar love of corn as Mummy does, but with their own special Poppy!! :D

Simple little treasures

Simple little treasures.....and no I'm not talking about my children, although Declan and Thalia are my 'little treasures' I assure you that they are in no way SIMPLE!! lol

When I say Simple little treasures I am referring to the simple things that make us happy, smile, explore, understand, learn, laugh, create, imagine and much much more.
They can be the most simple items that becomes special,not just for the initial joy of having it and what it does, but for what it becomes.
The memories, adventures, dreams, games, sentimental value, comfort and moments we have over time with our treasures is what makes them so precious.

This post is dedicated to some of the Simple little treasures that are close to my children's hearts.

Firstly both my children own their own very special sleep buddy, from birth Declan and Thalia have slept with a selected stuffed toy that acts as a comforter for them at night no matter where they sleep (home, friends houses, nan and pops etc).
Both Declan and Thalia didn't have a dummy/pacifier for any long period of time, we got rid of Decaln's without a fuss around 3-5 months and Thalia only had one sometimes in the first 12 or so weeks.....and to tell you the truth I really hate dummy's unless you REALLY need it.

Declan pictured below with "MONKEY" is one of his most loved possessions and usually when he gets a new toy/book monkey always gets a special introduction :)
Monkey was kindly given to Declan as a birth present from the Gibson's and mummy and daddy liked it so much it soon became the sleep buddy.

While I was pregnant with the Thalia and knowing I was having a girl this time, I was on the mission to find the perfect sleep buddy. After seeing one of my friends little girls special toys I knew I wanted one and after asking my friend where she got it from, she volunteered to buy another for my baby :) I was a very happy mummy

Thalia absolutely loves her 'MISS CAT' and every night after we put her to bed you can hear her quiet little voice singing the bedtime song to miss cat and saying goodnight :P
Most mornings she says goodbye to miss cat on her way out of the room to go get brecky....so cute!
the pic below shows one of our wooden house clocks ( given to us as a wedding present) and Declan and Thalia's relatively new wooden watches. My mum picked them up from a educational toy shop for a whole $4 each!!! Thalia quite a few months ago showed an interest in clocks and has become quite obsessed so they were the perfect gift.
Both Declan and Thalia love their special watches and wear them with pride, showing them to everyone whether they want to see or not. The hands on the watches only move when the wearer manually moves them so I'm hoping they will become a good learning tool when it comes to learning to tell the time.

This next picture shows some items Andy and I picked up on our "wicked weekend for 2" (wedding anniversary weekend) a week ago.

The pillow case dress in the pic was a $5 bargain at the Coolangatta Wintersun Festival markets.

Due to our family's love of old cars and vintage it was the prefect piece for Thalia to parade around in. I'm not sure if you can see in the pic but it has pictures of old classic cars, gasoline pumps, route 66 signs etc on the material....love it!!!

We gave it to Thalia when we got home and it was love at first sight with the verbal long repetition of "car..car...CAR!!" that followed.

I made sure I remembered to collect a bag full of pine cones for the kids when we were staying at Mount Tamborine as I have always loved them. I remember studying them in my hands as a child and being fascinated. They are a wonderful example of natures beautiful creations but are good for craft projects, sensory development, learning about nature, shapes, an interesting item to paint with and the list goes on.

So far the kids are amazed with them and have examined them in their little hands, looking at the different shapes, if they are open or closed, talking about how they come from trees but I can see that having these pine cones will lead to craft idea's, pine cone painting and much more.
here's a pic of Declan having a closer look at a pine cone :)

A little less than a couple of months ago on a visit to a second hand store I spotted these two wooden crafted cars at $2 each!! it's not every day you see toy like these so I was quick to pick them up and add them to the shopping which the kids were simply thrilled with.

They have become very special cars to add to the ever growing car collection.

These three books were my bargain books from a second hand store just this week and have become the flavour of the week.

Both my children seem to have inherited my love of books and love leafing through books... some of the faves are Dr Seuss books, Each Peach Pear Plumb, ten little fingers and ten little toes, Animalia, Time for Bed, The very Hungary Caterpillar, Kisses for Daddy, Mr Little's noisy car .........

The last 2 pics show a collection of things that the children have kindly been given by my lovely Finnish friend Erna.

Over time we have received little parcels in the mail all the way from Finland, sometimes even from Santa :P

In the pic there is a lovely moomin's cd with a 3d flap in the cd holder that initially introduced Declan to the wonderful world of the moomins (children's cartoon in Finland), also pictured is a Finnish moomin's dvd (and no it doesn't have English subtitles but we enjoy it all the same), a gorgeous moomin's pillow case (baby/doll size) and this week we received the two large pink and blue moomin's pillow cases at the front of the pic.

Now and again we receive lovely post cards from Erna with the most magical pictures of Finland's country side/ culture on the front- in the pic you can see 3 lovely postcards of berries, mushrooms and flowers all found in Finland. The kids love looking at the 'special pictures' and talk about where they come from and what they are, these 3 postcards are currently on our fridge.

The last item in the picture is a lovely red and yellow striped long sleeve all in one which was given to Thalia last year, although it is still too big I can't wait till she fits in it as it's so cute with the Finnish words PIKKO SISKO (little sister) on the front.

The kids love their special things from Finland and both get so excited when Declan asks for the moomin's, whether it be the dvd or cd. Thank you so much Erna for opening their eyes to another culture and sharing the love!!!

Declan had no hesitation when I asked the to sit for a photo with all their special Finnish things, although Declan couldn't let go of his much loved duplo :P

As you can see they are very thrilled will all their gifts :)

I could go on forever about different things and their sentimental value for my children but I will stop here and say that it's mostly the simple things that mean the most and what a joy they are!

I once saw an Indian child on my travels who was ecstatic when he received a metal teaspoon for Christmas....it makes you think and feel blessed for all those simple things we have.

Things are just things until people make them alive :)

You might find yourself asking yourself what simple little treasures you or your family have.