Gardening joy

This week Aria and I have spent some fantastic hours out in our sunny back yard garden. As I've mentioned before, the earth is so 'grounding' for her and she always seems to feel quite soothed by simply having the opportunity to play in the dirt. We've been greatly enjoying our time outside at our new home - it is such a large contrast to our previous abode that had no back yard at all. How wonderful it is to see this child relishing in the freedom of being able to roam around and create her own little world in nature. Mumma and Bubba have both been taking some long deep breaths!

I've really been able to see her imitative urges at work while we're outdoors, (She loved pulling out the flowers while Mama pulled out the weeds and pulling out the lavender that had just been planted!).

This garden Faerie was fascinated by the little things. It's so amazing to look at things from a child's perspective... when was the last time I really studied a clump of dirt?

After we raked and broke up the earth, Aria became utterly absorbed in planting lettuce seeds. She would open up her hand and say 'see, see' - asking me to sprinkle some seeds on her palm. After dropping them into the spot I'd prepared for each group of seeds she let out this little chipmunk giggle and dusted off her hand in an extremely satisfied kind of way. Now we are watering the 'sees' every day. I can't wait for her to actually see the magic that is yet to happen to these little seeds!

In our garden we also have our chicken, "bukbuk", who has been roaming around freely side by side with us. After the recent death of our cat (Aria's best friend - their relationship was just beautiful and we were all so sad to see morpheus go so suddenly) I thought we'd need to get another fluffly little pal soon. Surprisingly, this chook has completely filled the gap! Aria chats away while "bukbuk" follows her around. She loves feeding her and is always looking for her new friend. It's quite amazing just how fascinating this chook actually is! We love watching her scratching around the place creating little nests, pecking away and the funny way she walks and jerks her head around. I never thought chooks had such personality! She even puts herself to bed at night (which is such a relief as Michael and I are both kind of freaked out by birds and there's no way we could pick her up right now!)

What a joy our little 'bukbuk' is turning out to be!

Our gardening has also been talking place in doors. We have been sprouting alfalpha seeds, and because they change and sprout so quickly Aria is fascinated to see the difference each morning.

Elsewhere, some new window stars have brightened up our living space.

And lastly, on our morning walk today a neighbour pointed out that Aria looked like an adapted version of red riding hood. I guess so! It looks like the big bad wolf is chasing her in this shot though!

xx