Making a Scarecrow

After a morning helping Poppy in the veggie garden, a very serious conversation arose at the lunch table, between my 4 year old and 2 1/2 yr old.

After a long conversation about what makes the plants grow, the veggie garden, the birds and dirt girl world (a much loved telly program) ,it was decided that Poppy needed a scarecrow to look after his garden to scare away the silly birds.

Living on a house on the same property as Poppy, we often hear the yells, shouts and curses directed towards the local magpies and crows from dear old Poppy.
Poppy often runs out of the house (sometimes wearing only a dressing gown!) like a bolt of lightning to save a baby corn cob or tell a crow off after pecking at a lovely specimen of fruit.

I guess the kids in one way or another the munchkins have realised that Poppy doesn't like the silly birds much and needs a way to get them away.

Not long after Mr 4's Birthday Party we found a nice day to carry out our scarecrow plan.

On reminding the munchkins of their scarecrow idea, they instantly got excited and told me that they had to make a scarecrow just like Hay man (scarecrow from the Dirt Girl world tv series).
 Declan even ran to the play kitchen and said "Mum, he will need some bangers! just like these (holding up two small saucepan lids) he can bang them like Hayman does to scare the birds"

You can see character hayman on the left of this picture :)

First it was off to the second hand store to find some scarecrowish clothes, on finding blue pants, a stripy scarf, cowboy like hat and a check shirt we made our way home. The munchkins had the most input in what was brought.

On arriving home the first task was to find Poppy, ask him where in the garden would be a good spot for our scarecrow and then ask for some help in making Hayman because Mummy really had no idea
Poppy is really good and making stuff.

choosing a good spot!

Then we got to laying out the body parts.

A broom head, pipes for legs, various wood lying around

all secured with good old zip ties.

time for the stuffing to begin

Time to dig some holes and stand him up :)

In the end Poppy and the munchkins all had a good time

(I'm not sure who enjoyed it more!) and all three had a big lunch and a nap :P

Here are the happy bunch with our new scarecrow Hayman!

Just quietly although this was a great project, I don't think our Hayman

is doing his job properly...

Mummy might have seen a crow pinch some corn while Poppy was out the other day.

Perhaps we should have given him eyes!! LOL

shhhh don't tell Poppy.

Mummy still isn't used to Hayman yet, getting the groceries out of her car on a Thursday night has become quite scary when you think you saw a man creeping up against your fence!

Never the less I'm sure Hayman will find his place in the backyard and the kids do check on him most mornings. Quite cute really :D

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