A couple of feathers stuck in their hair and your child is instantly Geronimo or Pocahontas.
Long clusters of berries make beautiful earrings and a cicada skin is the perfect brooch.
Mother Nature provides the most diverse and fabulous "props box" for young children. Nearly every object found outside can become something special.
Encourage your child to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the magic in the mundane and enchantment in the everyday.
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
Carl Sagan
Tick, tock goes the clock. Children and time….
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” ~Albert Einstein My daughter has become quite the clock-watcher of late as she has been learning about “time” at school. She is particularly fascinated by clocks with roman numerals and was spellbound when I managed to produce an old Mickey Mouse alarm...
Simple pleasures…
“Life can be rich without riches. And it can be full without a cupboard overflowing with toys or a drawer stuffed with computer games.” Next week marks 10 years since I became a mother. Whilst I was overjoyed at having a healthy baby boy, (followed closely by a beautiful little girl just 16 months later),...
Gardening and plants … through a child’s eyes
Gardening and plants have long been a passion of mine. I’ve spoken before about how my obsession began and my desire to instill a love of the natural world in my children. I spend much time explaining to them that plants are integral to our emotional, spiritual and physical health. And whilst I’m not a...
1000 things to do with green tomatoes before you die…
GREEN TOMATO RELISH FOR DUMMIES With a glut of green tomatoes at our farm and the first frost threatening to turn them all to slush, we recently harvested the last of our heirloom tomatoes. As is the way when you have a productive veggie patch and no real skill on managing your harvests, we got...
Plants you can play with #4 – the magic of grasses
I love grasses. There are over 600 genera and some 10,000 species of grass around the world. It’s my view that they are amongst the most important family of plants on the planet. They have a multitude of uses and functions ranging from purely ornamental to agricultural. They form our staple food grains and cereal...
Sowing the seeds of future passions…
“The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies.” - Gertrude Jekyll When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my Grandfather. He was a professional gardener and would quite often take me to his place of work, which I adored. I would help him pull out weeds and...
Nature as Teacher – building resilience and memories
During the summer holidays my son (9) spent a week with his Grandmama at a Victorian beach where I spent much of my childhood. He had, in his words, “the most sick and excellent time.” He had Grandma pretty much to himself which meant he could eat whatever he wanted, go to bed late and...
















