C was given a pretty pot of plant by Aunt Ven and she felt inspired to want to grow more.

Hence we went to get the materials she needed and finally, she got down to putting everything together. They are her precious plants now. :)

I learned about this workshop last year but because C was under age, I had to hold the thought of signing her up. But I was constantly on the lookout for the registration of this workshop and when it was opened in March this year, I told Aunt Ven about it and we took the opportunity to sign the kids up.

Just look at how excited they were when they went to pick up their space suit. 

They were up really early for this workshop as it was held all the way at the Singapore Science Centre. Breakfast to start the day was at MacDonald's. 

After that, they quickly suited up and waited...

Their instructor, Tim, who would take them through the 2-day workshop.

Just one of the many items C came back with. She "learned so many things" (in her own words) and even told us about how the astronauts went to the bath room. Here she had ice cream meant for astronauts. When and Daddy tasted them, Daddy's eyes widened and he commented, "They still melt in your mouth despite not being cold." 

The 2-days workshop ended with a prize presentation and graduation ceremony. Tim explained what the space cadets had done in the course of the week and then proceeded to award them with their certificates. 

The children were very pleased!

Now, they had earned their wings.

Brion with a very satisfied and contented look. :) 

Well done, children! The next workshop will be in a couple of years but they will be looking out for it too. :)

When C was a lot younger, we brought her to a farm and got her caterpillars. That was because she wanted a pet so badly but we knew she wasn't ready for a real pet. I also know parents would be the ones who end up taking care of the animals even when the children promise the heavens and skies that they would be responsible. Hence, the caterpillars.

Grand Mummy who has a little garden growing at her place, has to deal with these caterpillars on a very regular basis; you see, she has a lime tree and for some reason, butterflies are attracted to this plant and they lay a lot of eggs on the leaves. Each week, Grand Mummy would have to remove these caterpillars or her plant would die.

This weekend, we saw that there were at least 5 butterflies in the container and Grand Mummy had deliberately waited for her grand children to be around before she released them. Short video because my phone went dead after that.


Away they flew from Natalie Lian on Vimeo.


When I told Grand Mummy that we bought caterpillars for C in the past, she laughed.

We have been busy... busy packing and packing... both at work and more at home because we are running out of time. But meanwhile, our log has been growing well. :)

Cycle 4 - on 1 December. 

We quickly harvested the mushrooms on 3 December as we would be away for a week and didn't want the mushrooms to dry out on the log. 

So that afternoon, I prepared chawanmushi with them. We have been experimenting with different preparation styles and each turned out well, thankfully. 

C loved it! I didn't expect her to eat the mushroom whole like that but she did and in fact, she stole mine too. Haha. 

For a mere $15, we have harvested the mushroom 4 times and it was definitely a worthy investment. I am sure there will be more mushrooms to come and I will also probably try another type of mushrooms in the future but that will have to wait till the GREAT BIG MOVE. 

Our log has produced 3 cycles of mushrooms! :)

Many pin heads were already sprouting when we checked on the log on 20 November. It seems like they are growing a lot faster now as each cycle progresses.

By 22 November, they were large enough for harvest.

Grand Mummy coated them with a batter of egg and fried them. They made really tasty snacks. :)

The log is resting right now and we are already seeing a lot of the white cottony stuff which means, we will be seeing another cycle of mushrooms soon. Yeah!

After 2 weeks of resting in the store room, the log was ready for Cycle 2. 

Only 2 days later with the daily showering if the log, pin heads started appearing. We didn't have to wait very long this time round.

Okay, I got the date wrong. It was supposed to be "November" but some how I got the month wrong. It was not very good but we actually forgot to shower the log in the evening. 

But the mushrooms blossomed nevertheless and thankfully too. C was quite happy to see them.

 This time round, the harvest wasn't as bountiful as Cycle 1 but it was still decent for a dish.

We brought the mushrooms over to Grand Mummy. She missed the mushrooms the previous time and we didn't want her to this time. Grand Mummy prepared mushrooms omelette and C ate so much during dinner. Good stuff! :)

C had a lot of homework to finish tonight but she quickly did that so that she could do this... .

first harvest from Natalie Lian on Vimeo.

These are our home grown abalone mushrooms. We will be having them for dinner one of these days. :)

 C, mighty pleased with her veggies and she was asking if she could grow another batch. Well, the log is supposed to last us at least 3 cycles so we'll see.

The log now, bald and rid of the mushrooms. We dried it with kitchen towels and then wrapped it up with cling wrap. Then it was put in the store room and it will stay there for 2 weeks. 

So ends our Cycle 1.

In the morning, there were only tiny pin heads, even though they were so many of them.

Some 12 hours later,

Eyes wide open, literally because we hadn't expected to see this. I told C that they reminded me of Shrek's ears than mushrooms and she burst out laughing. 

Then in the evening, the mushroom had grown a lot bigger. 1 of them fell off and we were wondering if the mushrooms were ready for harvest. 

For slightly more than 2 weeks, C and I religiously water the log.

Because the only place dark enough for the log was in the store room, the log stayed in there during the day. But in the evening, I moved it out to the toilet for the damp and moist air and I have been moving it in and out of the store room these 2 weeks. Every now and then, I also give it a good shower under the tap. But for these 15 days, there were still no sign of "life".

Val and Jus, my pals at work, were teasing me and wondering how I managed to kill fungus. Daddy was also saying that we had failed in our attempt. C was getting discouraged as well.

Then, on the morning of 20 October, I went to the toilet to take a look at the log and much to my delight, I saw pin heads!

They were tiny, so tiny... but no doubt, pin heads. I quickly showered the log under the tap and then woke C up.

This morning, most of the exposed log had pin heads on it and they were growing really fast. C was really excited because she hadn't expected the growth to take place so quickly. 

2 weeks earlier, we were worried that we had killed the log because there wasn't any activity. Yet now, we see this. I was telling C that we can't hurry Mother Nature; when she is ready, she will do her job and all we need on our part, is to be patient. :)

Really looking forward to seeing the log this evening... Will post pictures!

"Today is 8 October!"

Cheryl reminded me. "We need to check up on our mushroom, you know." In the evening, after her dance, dinner and bath, we brought the log out from the store room.

Not much activity yet though we saw mycelia. I think the storeroom, although a dark place, isn't quite damp enough to allow the pin heads to grow. So I will be transferring the log to another location this evening. Hopefully, we will see tiny pin heads the next time we check. 

I bought a DIY mushroom kit recently as C was into this "urban farmer" phase. She planted some chives and  coriander at Grand Mummy's but I think the seeds have been around for too long a time and hence didn't grow. Then the recently completed Science project she did with the kidney beans really got her fueled up so she was terribly excited when I told her what I got for her.

  The log is packed nicely with sawdust. C asked me suspiciously whether mushroom could really grow from that tiny mouth at the top. :) I assured her that they would if we followed all the instructions correctly and gave it tender, loving care. 

So the first thing we did was to remove the cap. With a sterilised spoon, we scooped the mycelia which resembled fungus off the top layer, until we saw fresh sawdust. Then I helped her tie the bag up again and replaced the cap. Finally, we placed the entire log in the store room where it was dark and humid. 

We would be checking on the log again on 8 and 10 October and hopefully, we would see white mycelia and pinheads looking back at us.

20 September 2012

C returned with some materials and excitedly told me that she needed to do it "immediately". I was wondering what was that important... then I saw this:

 

She has a Science project to embark on. :)

We thought it was a brilliant idea to expose these young children to Science even though they really only need to study the subject when they are in Primary 3. Anyone would find it interesting to know how plants grow or how our bodies function. When she was much younger, we also did other experiments like making a volcano and watching it erupt. The other one we did was to find out if egg floats in normal water and brine. 

C has to grow some kidney beans for this project. The objective for the project was to find out if sunlight was needed for the kidney beans to grow.

She was given 10 kidney beans and she had to soak them through the night before placing them on the wet cotton pads. There were 2 containers and one was labeled "Set A - with sun" while the other "Set B - without sun". That is right, she was to investigate if these kidney beans needed sunlight to grow.

23 September 2012

Container B (top): Not much activity could be seen after 3 days.

Container A (bottom): We saw that a sprout has grown.

24 September 2012

Container B (top): C was surprised to see that the kidney beans kept in the cupboard had grown. 

Container A (bottom): Another shoot has sprouted from yet another bean. 

Despite being kept in the dark cupboard, the kidney beans, young shoots sprouted.

25 September 2012

Container B (top): Now, all three of us were amazed at the speed of growth of these beans in the cupboard. They have grown rather large compared to those left out in the open exposed to the sun.
Container A (bottom): Growth of the beans seemed slow in comparison.

But C noticed that the ones exposed to the sun looked green and healthier compared to those kept in the cupboard which had a yellow tint and looked pale.

26 September 2012

Container A (top): They looked so plum and juicy. We also saw young shoots.

Container B (bottom): Wow! The tiny bean stalk was not tiny anymore but very tall. However, it looked so yellow and pale and definitely malnourished.  

27 September 2012

Container B (top): The bean stalk had grown even taller and it looked really terrible. 

Container A (bottom): Lovely green and the leaves were also beginning to grow. 

C recording her observations down. Well, an experiment is not complete until some investigation has taken place and not only that it is important to note down the findings. She has a week to complete her investigation and to prove her hypothesis right. :) 

Since she started on this project, she has been quite meticulous and will look at the plants first thing she returns from school. Now that she is all done, she will be able to hand her work in come Monday.