botanical painting

 turn this...

into this...

with these botanical illustration experiment ideas...

plant measuring stick

There was no art class this week as it is school holidays but here is a project we did a few weeks ago in conjunction with our sunflower seedlings 

turn this... 

into this...

with these plant measuring stick instructions...

sunflower seedlings

 turn this...

into this...

with these seed raising instructions...

measure

Today in our Art Class we will be doing some gardening and some measuring so come along if you feel like doing some exploration.
image from here

butterfly kite

turn this...

into this...

with these butterfly kite instructions...

caterpillar

turn this...

into this...

with these paper caterpillar instructions...

pets

If you are coming to this mornings Art Class there is an option to take home a very small and not very needy "pet". So bring a glass jar or container if you are interested. Hope to see you there.

my web site

madeleinegriffith.com

Well its been a long time coming. In fact I have been paying for the domain name for a good five years and although I have some computer skills the thought of code and scripts sent me spinning. So a few weeks ago I decided to just get started and of course things have progressed a lot in the last five years and it was a lot easier than I though. So here it is. A website of some of the things I have done and some of the things I do. It is quite a nice feeling to see it all together rather than scattered across my hard drive.  There may be a rogue apostrophe or two but you get the the idea. Let me know if you find any....

violet balm

turn this ...

into this...

with these Violet Balm instructions...

Autumn leaves...or a quick lesson in why leaves change colour

turn this...

into this...

and find out why leaves change colour in Autumn with these

 Autumn leaf play dough instructions... 

black bird

We had a little black bird that had built a nest and laid four speckled blue eggs right by our front door. We came back after a weekend away and the nest was ransacked and all the eggs broken poor thing. This weekend we found a brand new nest and eggs in our apple tree. We are all thrilled. It finally feels like Spring and it is wonderful.
I am looking forward to tomorrows Art class and hope to see you there.

terrarium

This week in our art/science class we did a bit of gardening and all the children made terrariums. It was really fun and muddy and here is all you need to make it yourself.

turn this...

into this...

with these terrarium making instructions...

Art class number 3

This week we will be making things in glass jars I have a few but if anyone has some and wants to bring them along to share that would be wonderful. The bigger the better, something like a pickle jar is perfect. There will also be dirt involved. Hope to see you there!

whole larder love

I love checking in on Rohan Anderson's blog Whole Larder Love. It is always full of seasonal foraging and cooking and earthy adventure. He also has a wonderful book and takes workshops teaching all sorts of pioneer skills. Excellent.

seedlings

turn this...

into this...

with these seedling egg instructions...

I've been through the desert like an egg with no shell..

We found an egg with no shell in the hen house and I have to say its freaked me out a little. It was the strangest feeling seeing something so familiar feel so different. You could see the yolk through the membrane when you held it up to the light. It feels like some voodoo omen or something....what does it mean?

Autumn Natural History Lessons

At the moment we have two little activities on the go which are enthralling. One is watching some slug eggs we found develop. We can see the little embryo's inside getting bigger each day. The other is some lentils we sprouted which have turned out to be surprisingly beautiful and we now have a miniature alien forest which seems to be thriving.

Sweet Potato

I am a pretty good gardener but somehow I have the kiss of death on indoor plants. I don't know what it is they can be glossy and perfect and with in weeks of being in my house get all rangy and drop their leaves. Recently a sweet potato sprouted in my veggie basket, I do realise that says something for the state of my veggie basket. Any how it had the prettiest heart shaped leaves so I put it in a pot and now it is the most gorgeous plant. I have just moved it inside so we will see how long it lasts but in the meantime it is looking fantastic.

Law of the Jungle

My vegetable garden is going great guns and it makes me so happy to see all those different plants flourishing away, quietly going about their business and making us food, no longer do I buy potatoes, spring onions, tomatoes, basil or zucchini. Rogue pumpkin vines keep springing up from long discarded seeds from the compost bin and I had started to develop a theory that the ones that sprouted on their own accord never bore fruit. A particularly large one was threatening to engulf the back yard and seeing the tiny pumpkins shrivel and fall from the vine made me think it was a good for nothing plant sucking precious nutrients from my corn. I had my hand around its prickly neck about to tug it out of the ground and then though I may as well leave it for a day or two and see if any of the new fruits stick. Well Pumpkin you showed me, I now have hefty pumpkins peaking out all over the place.
It looks like we are heading for a bumper crop this Autumn. Hooray!

Gardening is Dangerous

It is still amazingly hot here. All the Indian Minor birds have their beaks wide open panting, while the rest of the birds seem to have hidden silently in the branches, too hot to let out a peep.
We were on the way to the beach yesterday afternoon and I kicked a gardening fork which went 2.5cm into my foot and got stuck, I yanked it out, bleed everywhere got scooped up by my boyfriend who thought I had been bitten by a snake and stitched up at the doctors. Now I am bed bound with my foot on a pillow, resting away while through the blinds the world gets baked. The blinds are very beautiful so it’s not so bad. The good news is I can swim so later I will hobble down and dip in the sea. I am not very good at resting but it hurts too much to get up so that helps to keep me horizontal.