Launch Successful

We have had a successful launch of our new term topic.

It started out a bit rocky with Mr6 not feeling 100%, so Mr11 read him a Magic School Bus book on space to set the mood.
Then we talked about ancient people and what they may have thought of the night sky, we looked at myths and legends and wondered what prompted people to start trying to understand the heavens and what they did with the knowledge they gained- a way to record the passing of time, a way to plan farming activities and navigation.

Today the boys have been learning about the first astronomers and we have been thinking about how mysterious the world really was back then.We read about Ptolemy and his belief that the world stood still and everything circled around it, then how Aristotle came up with the amazing concept that the Earth was not flat! So Mr6 did a little experiment with his ship the Purple Lady and he saw how the ship just disappeared at the edge-
but managed to slowly and evenly navigate around a globe, we marveled at the hundreds of years it took for Aristotle's radical theory to prove true.
We also looked at Copernicus and Galileo, Mr11 did a report on Galileo and learned a lot about this fascinating man and the consequences of being true to your science in that time we also covered Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Newtons discoveries.
After some lunch we looked at constellations and Mr11 did a pinprick southern cross.
The weather is cloudy and showery here at the moment which is a shame for our planned night time astronomical activities but the ducks are happy and so is the garden and the lorikeets.

In the Garden

Mr6 found a little friend last night

Just after a downpour,
we could hear all his friends calling
from the garden so we went for a wander

whilst the pasta bake cooked in the bbqOne of Miss Ems friends was in the bird feeder,
the birds were all over the garden
enjoying the cool refreshing change after all the heat.The sweet potato patch was looking very happy
just don't look at that pesky onion grass
some herbs in the herb spiralthese beautiful fragrant blossoms
are on Mr11s lemonade treeThis is the garden the boys and I made for Daddy
to welcome him home from Uni after 2nd year.
some new babies coming on.
Baby pumpkins, baby corn and
a lovely little baby gardener
Mr6 helped plant the seeds.some chooks in the chook dome
working hard in the garden Mr6 being followed by his little shadow
on some of our garden paths.
These paths have worked really well
they are just newspaper laid on top
of the grass covered generously with sawdust
and have lasted about a year
- its time to re do them now.
and as we wander back
up to check on dinner,
one last look back over the garden

Mulberry Time

My Mr6 has been sick.

But is feeling better so yesterday afternoon we went for a walk in the paddocks

We went to see our favourite red gum,we have been watching the Pacific Herons
carrying branches and sticks and reeds up there
building a nest and wanted some photos.

We found the nest, but the herons went somewhere else,
they are being elusive and we never see them when we go out with the camera.

It was a beautiful afternoonand Mr6 took his dog Miss Meggy, who took her ball

unfortunately it sank in the little dam

Mr10 was the brave one who went in to find itHe is a very tactile boy and just had to feel that lovely mud

He is also a very cheeky boy!

He decided it was rather nice and visited the next dam as well

where he washed the mud off ,
Mr6 wisely staying clear of all the splashing

We wandered back to our place and took some photos

this one is the boys " hide out"

Next stop was the mulberry trees
the boys soon began to enjoy its treasures

Mr6 had hardly eaten anything for 2 days

and the ripening of the mulberries is a highlight of the year here

he told us the mulberry trees were healing him

every mulberry was packed with healing vitamins

and he feasted

so did Mr10

and they were also the first thing Mr6 kept down in 2 days

so they must have been healing for him

He is feeling much brighter today, and slept well last night.

Bird feeders

More art journaling today


The boys are doing some lovely work

Mr10 is really enjoying doing the 10 minute freewrites
( Writers Jungle)

and we made bird feeders


with pine cones covered in peanut butter


and rolled in seed

then hung through the garden with blessings to all our birdies.

Harvest

Mr6 was at a lose end today, I was busy doing some maths with Mr10 and he was finished, so he went out for a wander. A few minutes later he returned bearing an enormous sweet potato and was so excited he was jumping up and down. "Look what I found" he said as he dropped a big muddy tuber onto our table covered in maths sheets -

Mr10 jumped up to go and see and I followed with a basket.
When I got there they were leaping around in the sweet potato bed with exclamations like-


"I love gardening"


"This is the best day in my life"
(Mr6 is saying this one most days :-) )

"How did these get here?"

"You and Mum planted them"

"No, they were little ones"


These sweet potatoes are huge- the basket was soon swamped so we got the wheel barrow- not nearly as pretty in a photo though.

We have yet to dig the bed over, these ones were all on the surface, just under the mulch layer, the smaller ones came out as the big ones were being discovered.

Now to peruse some sweet potato recipes.
Mr6 has already asked for sweet potato soup, we are having a lot of soup lately, a big pot is usually in the slow cooker and it lasts a couple of days or longer.

In our garden today-

Some visitors in our garden today-


a double barred finch


and a busy little bee

and this evening-



2 'workers' shovelling corn


see the dust swirling around, and the hard hats-