Buttons

 Recently I have been making embroidered buttons. There are four types of coverable buttons I have used, all plastic, all metal, and half and half of two sorts. And I made one Dorset button, but that is different.

Drawings

Atlantis

Turtle

Rey

Hermione

Finn

Alice

The white queen

The grey havens

Kylo Ren

Captain Phasma

The winter solider

Wood carving

I recently found a log of very nice wood, it might be cherry I'm not sure, it was part white and part brown, medium hardness and very pretty. And it kept me occupied for the whole holidays.

Before sanding

 And after

And this is what I am working on now.

Bird feeder 3

This is a recipe for bird cake, I don't know any other name for it but it probably has one. Bird cake attracts waxeyes, chaffinches, sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinches and starlings. If you live in warmer climes (like the north island) you might get myna birds too.   

You will need:
1 part suet
1 part wild bird seed

Melt the suet over medium heat, when melted take off the heat and stir in the bird seed, you can add extra bird seed if you think it needs it. Pour into a plastic container and leave to set overnight. When it is set press it out of the container and put it on your bird table.

Chilli sauce

I invented some chilli sauce, it was an amalgamation of various recipes I found on the internet, it is quite strong so you could reduce the number of chillies. The quantities are very approximate.

10-20 chilies, I used a variety called wildfire (from the garden center)

1/2 - 3/4 Cup white vinegar,

a whole lime, skin and all

salt

1-2 t cumin

1-2 t coriander seed

a little bit of tomato

1-2 T ginger

9 cloves garlic

1-2 onion

Cook until very soft, about 2 hours, then whiz in the food processor until smooth.

Bird feeder 2

This bird feeder is very simple, you just need a flat space and a dish.

Mix 100g sugar with 1l water, red food colouring is not essential but it makes it more attractive to birds. Pour the syrup into the dish, put it some where flat and wait for the birds. This feeder attracts Waxeyes, Bellbirds and Tui (I haven't had any Tui yet)

The gardens

Yesterday we went to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. It was a lovely sunny spring day, not common around here, the spring flowers were just starting,

 Most of the rhododendrons weren't flowering yet, but they were still very impressive. 

 The boys found a geo cache.

this tree grew in a rather peculiar way

this looks very like a fairy lawn

And hidden deep amongst the roots of a humongous tree I found a tiny door...

 

fairy houses

One day last summer I went into a part of the garden I hadn't been for a while, and there I found a tiny house. After examining the house closely I concluded it must be a fairy house, because it is well known that mice live in holes and I don't known of any other animal that size.

This is the first house I found

Mouse pea

A rose petal bed, this fairy must be very frivolous 

After I found this house I went in search of more houses, under the sweet pea wigwam I found a fairy meeting place, moss floor with small daises growing in it. 

The lastly I found this house under the pumpkin leaves,

a wooden floor

This fairy is more practical

Oxalis bulbs and mouse peas

Strawberry jam and a small mushroom

 The houses were gone the next time I looked...