Thursdays

Although its an early start as - I have to scan my first patient at 7am, my shift finishes by 3pm which means I get to do school pick up. Despite usually being under the pump to get away (last two appointment slots on my list are usually filled by ward or emergency department patients so I'm reliant on the wardsman), I can get changed, ride at break neck speed (luckily school is less than 10min ride) and arrive to pick up Katy as the other parents are streaming down the path with their preschoolers.

Katy grabs her bike and we ride off together to find Ella who has usually only made it halfway to preschool and usually without her bike and is busy practising her moves on the monkey bars! Eventually we get going taking mum's secret way (the back way to Jamo) stopping at the shops for last minute purchases which often include a treat (ice cream, hot chocolate or something from the bakery).

From there we amble back home trying to avoid another monkey bar practice playground stop. At home the girls play whatever is the latest thing…..recently it's been playdough animals, cubby houses, craft with the recycling stuff along with some tv or iPad time. Meanwhile dinner is cooked in a relaxed manner!

So for these reasons I really love Thursdays :)

Little Lizard

Recently on a non preschool Wednesday for Katy, she enjoyed several hours with Nana at her house. They spent some time in the garden together and caught a lizard - probably a common garden skink! The said lizard made its way back to our house and was introduced to Ella.

The lizard and the girls became best of friends (well according to the girls!). They built the lizard a nice home in an old container filled with soil, rocks, foliage and various special items. I'm sure the lizard enjoyed the brief time it spent in its new home - just over 24 hours…..

What happened after 24 hours I hear you ask? Well the girls loved holding the lizard despite our insistence that it was best off in its new home. Soon enough lizard had gone for an adventure and Ella came out holding her telescope telling me that lizard was inside!! Looking into the barrel of the telescope, I could occasionally see the back outline of lizard. How did he get in here Ella I ask? In a matter of fact reply Ella said that they'd decided to let lizard climb around the telescope like play equipment but then he climbed inside.

Hmmm what to do now. I tried shaking lizard out to no avail. Our best option was to hope he would come out of the dark confined cosy space by leaving the telescope upright in a jar. Over the next day or so, lizard never appeared in the jar but had disappeared from the telescope.

Several days later while Andy was hanging out the washing inside, a limp (barely alive) lizard fell out of the clothes! The girls were happy to see lizard again despite his poor condition and we convinced them to place him somewhere nice outside hoping he'd make a miraculous recovery.

Visit to Sydney

Left Canberra straight after school bound for a weekend in Sydney staying with Cath, Eoin and Aoife. Driving along Lake George and over the Great Dividing Range, we were treated to a few brief snow showers, the second time for the day!

We opted to avoid the service centres detouring into Moss Vale for dinner and found an Italian restaurant making everyone happy! Continuing on we made it to Sydney around 8pm with Nadine, Sean and Lily arriving shortly after.

Saturday morning involved joining in with the normal Chalmers/Rothery routine - coffee followed by netball and then hanging around at the playground. Andy enjoyed a lovely run from the netball courts through Lane Cove National Park back to the house.

The afternoon was taken up with the main reason for the trip - Aoife's 7th Birthday Party held at CSIRO! The kids were kept entertained and engaged with 5 different activities all complimented with science concepts and facts.

First was turning white powder into fake snow followed by making their own bouncy ball. Next on the agenda was making slime. Katy discovered a little bit of balancing between the two liquids required to make the perfect slime!

The groups moved outside to launch rockets! Water bottles were filled with a small amount of water, inserted and attached into a rocket launcher, then pumped up with a bike pump before exploding high up into the air spraying water everywhere on the way! Despite the chilly conditions outside, the kids had loads of fun.

Back inside, the kids were introduced to liquid nitrogen and its effects in various ways with the finale of the science program was the science leader making ice cream with each kid receiving an ice cream to eat!!

The party was concluded with food and the all essential birthday cake - a platypus as requested by the birthday girl!

Sunday began once again at the coffee shop before driving a short distance to Bobbin Head in Kai-ring-gai Chase National Park. We enjoyed a short walk crossing the Cockle Creek by a cable stayed foot bridge. The path became a boardwalk continuing through the mangroves. Unfortunately the thousands of crabs we'd see (according to Cath) were obviously on holiday!

The path becomes rocky with a staircase winding through a narrow cleft in the rocks. A few minutes later we come to an Aboriginal axe grinding site. This significant and protected site has over 23 oval shaped grooves created by Aboriginals shaping axe heads.

We followed the path a little further arriving at a dry sandstone creek bed in the rainforest. The girls clamber over the rocks eventually being prevented to explore any more as the vegetation became too thick.

Then it was back to the start for snacks and an ice cream before embarking on our drive back to Canberra.

Caching with the Cousins

The remaining days of the school holidays involved cousin swapping. Josh and Mia joined Andy and the girls for a day. Inspired by the recent geocache find at Bemboka, Andy took the kids and dog in search for several geocaches on Mt Painter.

All rugged up the first geocache began at the Cook Memorial Sundial, a monument that was erected in 1970 to commemorate the bicentenary of Captain James Cook's discovery of the east coast of Australia. The cache however was not hidden here. To obtain the real coordinates involved solving a puzzle based on the wording on the plaque.

Andy thought the kids would be interested in cracking the code but their attention span and comprehension was short lived. Soon though they were climbing up the steep rocky slope immediately behind the houses getting closer to ground zero. A little bit of searching amongst the rocks soon revealed the cache.

Next cache was much simpler - a straightforward gps location. The kids were off, heading downhill towards Coulter Dr. This cache was in a quite obvious spot and discovered easily.

With the cache safely hidden again, the kids attention turned towards the horses in the adjacent paddock. While the others attempted to pat the horses and feed them grass, Katy kept her distance convinced that because she was the smallest in the group, the horse would be more likely to eat her….

From the horses the group wandered back through the suburb, pausing at Little Oink cafe for coffee, hot chocolate and to warm up before returning home.

Detour in Bemboka

Packing up to go home is always a task and a half. Trying to locate everyone's belongings, clean the house and keep the kids entertained is challenging. And then there is the long drive when you just want to be home… so we decided to break things up a little and find a geocache on the way back to Canberra.

Located one in Bemboka, a small village nestled at the base of Brown Mountain. As we left Tathra late morning, the 45min drive plus hunting for the cache allowed the opportunity to sample the food at the bakery for lunch.

The cache was positioned just on the outskirts of town at an old rest area on the banks of the Bemboka River. It was a relatively straightforward find with the kids taking turns of Al's phone to follow the compass. The contents were carefully scrutinised, treasures swapped and the cache returned to its hiding spot.

We continued the short distance to the river for a play. Once again stone skimming was the activity of choice with several of the kids managing to skim their stones for a few jumps across the water. however soon it was time to move on to make sure we arrived back in Canberra at a reasonable hour.

Our short holiday to Tathra was once again an enjoyable getaway with friends. Experiencing the coast mid winer was different but we managed to fill the days with many new experiences and lots of happy memories! The only downer was the for sale sign on the rental property….

Eden's Orcas and Whales

The Killer Whale Museum was full of lots of interesting information and well worth a visit.

From 1826 until the 1930's shore based whaling was conducted from Twofold Bay particularly by the Davidson Family. Around 1840's there were reportedly 50 orcas which were split 3 pods that co-operated together to catch whales. One pod stationed far out to sea would drive whales in towards the coast, another pod would attack the whale (swimming beneath it to prevent it from diving down while others would cover the blowhole) and another pod would be ahead of the whale in case it broke loose.

Three generations of the Davidson family worked closely with the orcas. Several orcas would swim into the mouth of the Kiah river adjacent to the Davidson homes and begin to breech or slap their tails on the water (known by the Davidsons at flop-tailing) to alert the whalers that whales were in the vicinity. The whalers would row their wooden boats following the orcas to the corralled whales.

After killing the whale, the Davidsons would tie an anchor and bouy to the whale leaving the spoils to the orcas who only ate the its tongue and lips. The next day the whale would float to the surface and the whalers would retrieve and tow the remains back to shore. This arrangement was known amongst the whalers at 'the law of the tongue.'

There were many stories about the strong relationship between the orcas and the whalers. The orcas markings and distinctive differences of their dorsal fins led to them being named. The most famous one begin Old Tom whoes dorsal fin was about 170cm tall! Old Tom not only would alert the whalers to the presence of whales but would often hold onto the rope attached to the anchor/whale either to be pulled around or to do the pulling! There were various stories of Old Tom and the other orcas protecting the whalers from sharks when their whaleboat capsized or they'd fallen overboard.

Another story involved the tragic drowning of Jack Davidson and his two sons while crossing from Twofold Bay. The bodies of the three were not immediately located. However over the following week Old Tom had been circling an area adjacent to the where the boat capsized. It was in this area that the bodies were eventually found.

Sadly Old Tom died in 1930, with his carcass found floating in Twofold Bay. The locals decided to preserve Old Tom's bones and they can be seen reassembled in the Killer Whale Museum. Interestingly with the reduction in orcas and the death of Old Tom, the shore based whaling essentially ceased around this time.

Action at Eden

Our destination today was 50km south to the explore the historic whaling town of Eden. Our first priority - a visit to the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre. Nestled amongst the working harbour of Snug Cove, this centre focuses on temperate marine education and research.

The children were entertained and educated about many aspects of the marine environment. Several small aquariums held a variety of local marine animals, with the octopus being the children's favourite. There were loads of hands on stuff from microscopes, to a beach combing table and a large collection of shells! Mira and Katy enjoyed the touch pool which contained a decorator crab, elephant snail, slate pencil urchin, waratah anenome, sea snails and a star fish. Ella discovered the library while I particularly like the seaweed light boxes!

The visit finished with the children participating in a cuttlebone carving session. To begin the session, the volunteer talked about cuttlefish. Closely related to octopus and squid, cuttlefish are know as the chameleons of the sea. Apparently they have an amazing ability to rapidly change the colour, pattern and shape of their skin in order to communicate with other cuttlefish, camouflage themselves or to warn off predators. The cuttlebone is the internal shell of the cuttlefish and it is this feature which differentiates it from a squid.

Anyway the children were shown how to use various tools to carve a pattern or design into the cuttlebone. Ella and Max were straight into it. Katy and Mira needed a little more assistance. Once the design process was complete, the cuttlebone had wire and timber attached in order for each masterpiece to be hung up. Although finished at the centre, our girls tweaked their designs several days later in the car on the way back to Canberra by using coloured pencils which worked really well. A great craft idea to keep in mind when were are at the beach next time.

After a bite to eat, we wandered up to Rotary Park Lookout which has fantastic panoramic views across Twofold Bay to Boyds Tower and Mount Imlay. Twofold Bay is the 3rd deepest harbour in the southern hemisphere and and rich in krill making is a perfect spot for humpback whales (and their calves) to feed and rest during their journey southwards. Despite being out of whale watching season, we scanned the waters in hope to see a whale or two without any luck.

We continued to stroll around the headland pausing for a few minutes for the children to climb trees and play hide and seek. While we were chatting a gentleman walked by and then doubled back to us. He told us that he worked as a volunteer for Marine Rescue NSW and if we liked he could give us a tour of the rescue tower! About 20 minutes later we were in the tower hearing about life as a marine rescue volunteer. The kids used his binoculars to spot a group of seals which inhabited a nearby rocky outcrop. A lovely opportunity!

As the day was drawing to an end, we thought we could fit one more thing in - a trip to the Killer Whale Museum. Eden. More on that next…..