Planting wishes

I bought this for my niece who has grown beans and helped plant herbs and bulbs, and picked tomatoes – and, having recently moved into her new home, will soon have a garden to grow.

It’s a handmade greeting card which when planted grows into a bunch of mixed herbs. The card is made from waste paper and embedded with seeds, and the design is printed with water-based ink.

It’s made by a local company called Growing Paper and you can see a range of their other paper products at http://www.growingpaper.co.za.

She can plant it with all my wishes that it’ll soon grow into a thriving pot full of basil, wild rocket and thyme.

Drawing games

I taught my niece this game when she was very little. She’s eleven now and she still loves it – she gets everyone drawing, especially when she sleeps over during the holidays. 

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then in half again. The first person to draw draws the head and neck, the second person draws the upper body down to the waist, the third draws the hips and thighs, and the last draws the calves and feet. Each person folds back their drawing so that the next person doesn’t see it and at the end someone – in our family always the youngest! – unfolds the piece of paper to see what kind of crazy creature’s been created.

I love that she can still have so much fun – despite all the TV shows and computer games competing for her attention – with a scrap piece of paper and coloured pencils...