Daisy's diamonds

On thursday while playing down in the little green paddock we call the Witches Garden, Willow came up to me with eyes wide open and said, 'Danella, come and see, come and see what Dakota found.  It's in the bushes and it's all flowery and beautiful.'

Next thing Dakota appears with Milana in toe. Dakota with a look on her face that said she could hardly believe not only what she had found, but also how beautiful it was.

I had imagined a little flower or blossom on a bush, yet in her hands was a string of cut glass beads of many different hues, shaped like flowers, daisies in fact.

To the eyes of all the little girls at the farm, the most beautiful treasure in the world had been found... ...jus like magic, right there in a bush where they were playing.

For me, as I took in every little face, it came with the realisation that those little flowers were strung last week round Daisy's neck and that the next day I'd be seeing her... ...I allowed some moments of wonderment before I had to break the news.

'Yes, what an amazing thing to find and yes, how beautiful they are... ...and finally, I even know where they came from.' 

Talk about feeling like bursting the bubble, with all little eyes on me.

I told the girls about Daisy and how she comes on friday and loves the farm too and has beautiful blonde hair and a smiley face and that those were here flowers they'd found... ...they were all listening.  I then asked whether I might be able to give those beads back to her the next day and told them how happy I'm sure Daisy would be to know they had found them and took such care of them.

Dakota was gorgeous.  With a long lingering look and little sigh... ...she gave them to me and said, when you tell her Danella, you can tell her Dakota found them.

Which of course I did.

Below, the other little gang on wednesday here for your viewing pleasure, (roll mouse and click on links like this to go to photo page) ...

farm 07.04.10 and 14.04.10k

On wednesday...

From Collages

On thursday...

From Collages

On friday...

From Collages

If you take a close peek above, you can see how quickly the shed is taking shape...

Beetles, bugs and 'bendy eyes' ...

So missing last friday, (good friday) and both Elodie and Dawn were a little trepidatious about climbing the Peppercorn tree and doing it 'by themselves'. We got over that hump with a lot of 'Yes, you can's said out loud... ...and Elodie presented me with her fourth or fifth beetle of the day. 

She is a real hoot, she finds them, watches them, picks them up and is so dexterous she can actually hold them by their a front leg... ...almost like one leg in each hand like she has a dancing partner.  'Wook at moi beedle' she says... ...and after a moment or two, 'I fink I'll take it wif me'.  Down the garden path with her beetle she goes and it soon becomes part of the day at the farm with us. Only for Elodie to flash it at me on occasion so I know it is still travelling with us for a while.

              
'Wook at moi beedle.'                                                  'Still got it.' 

Magnus and Daisy were fascinated by the sheeps poo.  Either one would find one, announce it and then they would both drop to their haunches in deep discussion about the poo.  Hmm, whose poo?  It's a big one. Yes. It's not smelly. Yes. Where did it come from?

Jock would soon join in and it was like a little conference of important matters that went on with each poo we encountered... ... ...and there were plenty.

He was so funny, out of the blue he produced a gold cadillac, (toy size) of course and I wondered where it had come from.  I asked, 'Where did you get that Jock?'  He replied, putting his hand to his chest to show me who and said, 'Me'.  He'd been carrying it all along in his pocket and just felt it was time to show us all.

Dawn at one point today was putting her sandals on, back to front and at the same time, Elodie put her shoes on, back to front.  I suggested to Dawn that maybe they would be more comfy if we swapped her shoes onto the other feet.  No, this wasn't going to happen, after all Elodie had the same, so maybe it was me that didn't know about shoes on feet.  Afer more conversation when they decided it might be a good idea, Dawn told me heaps about her feet and arms and other body bits and in amongst it all mentioned 'bendy eyes'.  I asked her who has 'bendy eyes'. She looked and said, 'No one'  I asked her what are 'bendy eyes' wondering about what it was she was saying and she answered.  You get them in your toes from the grass and they hurt... ...the penny dropped.  She had got down to her toes when telling me about body parts and just rolled on into telling me about 'bendy eyes', with her explanation I of course realised, bindi eyes!

From Collages

 

Hello Nell

From Collages

Five little angels together on thursday for Nell's first visit to the farm.  Such a pleasure to be with them all.  Very sweet, innocent loving play.  So much so, that when we all sat in the goats shelter and had a 'birthday party' for Nell at Willow's suggestion, we ended up with about five other children joining us at some point to be part of the fun we were having, the wonderful food we all ate and to join in the celebration. 

Bush babies

From Collages

No fools on April 1st for us ... ...

Well a couple of treats from our April Fools day from Winston and Milana...

Winston started off in the horse arena by building in the sand.  He carefully shaped little walls round a space and announced it was a boat into which he got and went for a ride. 

Next he jumped up on a plastic base nearby, that is used for poles for low horse jumps and announce a bridge.  He then dragged this base half the length of the horse arena and back and proudly looked at the track he'd made and let us all now know there was a road.

The girls all loved this.  Willow immediately set off down the road while Milana and Ava and Dakota checked out the bridge and the boat. 

After a while, Winston used more bases for the jumps and built a little house round himself.  He was so please with what he'd done and his first visitor was Ava, who kindly 'knocked' at Winston's door.  She loved the visit and he loved that she came and they both just fit in the little house.

Soon after, Ava started to line up the horse jump bases and she and Milana played happily together.  Milana was chatting to Ava and also herself and singing along too... ...Ava very happy with what they were making together.

I turned to see at one point and saw Milana, carefully decorating the edges with great care and attention... ...she looked up at me and smiled as if to say, 'Look how beautiful this is'.  As I took it all in, I noticed that she had carefully dismantled a sheeps poo into little balls and was using each little ball to decorate with.  Her innocent delight and pleasure alongside the sheep poo used to beautify was very funny... ...especially as Willow and Dakota took it all in at the same time as me and they found it so funny to see her using sheeps poo.

Milana of course took no offence, she just loved that what she was doing made Dakota and Willow laugh out loud as well!

From Collages