As I meander most Wednesdays on my bike to and from work, I often notice different aspects of the landscape or environment but rarely do I stop. In the last few weeks I'm made an exception to this rule and stopped to admire the following things -
Meanwhile a few weeks later and probably due to all that heavy rain, red mushrooms had popped up everywhere in the Cork Oaks!
It's weird to think it's been that long since we tied the knot at a winery in the Perth Hills but there you go. A gift of china is the traditional present to celebrate 20 years of marriage or platinum for the modern twist. We did neither of these. The thought of trying to decide on doing something then organise the kids was energy zapping! However as the days ticked by, we were racked with guilt that it was looking like we were going to let this significant date slip by.
Andy spontaneously booked a dinner reservation and a B&B at Gundaroo a little place about 30 mins from Canberra. Nana came over for a sleepover at our place taking care of the girls and Indi. We relied on Nana and friends to help get the girls to their various netball commitments the next morning.
The following morning we weren't able to have a long lazy sleep in, however we did managed to find time to stop at the Knox, a local cafe in Watson for breakfast and coffee before heading off to collect Ella from netball.
Score continued unfortunately without Katy running for event 2 & 3 due to her fractured toe. We still went though - Katy to cheer on her team and I was helping out with organising volunteers.
On the final event held at Weston Park, Katy's toe had recovered enough to participate. Her team Mira, Hayden and Luca managed to place 2nd overall behind the other Year 6 Aranda team! All the Aranda teams did really well - especially the young Year 3 team on their first Score competition who finished 15th!
Indi celebrated her first birthday at Nana and Grandpa's place while we were having a busy weekend at Guthega. She had fun destroying a plastic soft drink bottle and eating fish for dinner!!
We volunteered our weekend to work on various jobs that needed to be done at the lodge. All under the careful supervision of Tony, the group of 20 or so people were allocated jobs. Andy with the help of Max demolished a semi rotten cupboard in the laundry, repaired the bad bit then installed a new set of shelves. Meanwhile Rob and I repainted room 7. Al with the help of Alma and Ella restocked and reorganised the stores. This involved a trip down to Woolworths in Jindabyne where they spent a whopping $1300. Apparently the checkout guy was ecstatic as it was his highest total that he had ever scanned. After taking over 30mins to process the three trolleys worth of stuff, he took a photo of the total!! The girls then also cleaned out the kitchen. Katy and Mira were responsible for the front garden under the guidance of Polly. It was a solid day and half of work with a great group of people. All jobs were achieved including the nearly 2 hours of stacking 2 tonne of firewood!!
It was a long 8 weeks at dog companion class. Indi and I weren't fussed that she was repeating but unfortunately the instructor was lets say not the most engaging. Anyway Indi manage to keep herself together and not get too excited by the other dogs to pass Bronze level!
My air plants finally arrived and are the perfect addition to my funky vase (thanks Cath!)
The waves could be heard crashing from our place but it wasn't until the sun rose in the morning that we realised just how close we were as seen by the view from the kitchen window -
Abby, Max, Mira and Katy 2011
Our family 2012
Max temperature for the day was 34°C - finally a real summers day and a scorcher by our standards! For the afternoon the kids wanted to visit the lolly shop at Mogo so we ambled over. We were all feeling the intense heat as we wandered around and although an ice cream was enjoyable it did little to cool us down. Several purchases were made before we rounded up everyone. Ella spotted a sewing shop on the outskirts of town so our car detoured for a look in there Turned out it was not only a shop selling sewing stuff but also a museum housing hundreds of old swing machines!!
Glad we got our summers beach day in as the heavens opened up once again on Sunday morning. Despite the rain, the boys decided they needed to spend several more hours on course stuff so a return trip to the map was necessary. For the rest of us there wasn't much for us to do but pack up, have coffee and head back to Canberra in the rain...
Planning a trip to the coast with us - then I can guarantee that it will rain! Our strike rate is currently 100% for rain while at the coast and not just a sprinkle that passes but rather torrential downpour which cuts our holiday short.
We set off for Broulee on Friday afternoon. The rain started near Braidwood and eased up coming down the Clyde. The group - Al & Rob plus kids, Bill, John and our family rendezvoused in Batemans Bay for fish'n'chip dinner on the foreshore.
Tuesday night midway through her gymnastics class, Katy landed awkwardly on the beam and hurt her little toe. Despite sitting out for some time to recover, she was unable to participate in the remainder of the session however was not allowed to come out to the car where I was recovering from my run.
At home, we looked at her toe and were alarmed at how bruised and swollen it had become in such a short time. We decided to head over to A&E after consuming dinner to see if we could organise an x-ray to determine whether it was broken or not. Unfortunately the emergency department was very busy and by 11pm we figured that x-ray department would only be doing urgent stuff so after talking with the triage nurse we headed home.
In the morning, Andy and Katy made their way over to the walk in clinic in Belconnen and were quickly seen by a nurse who wrote out a referral for the x-ray. They then went back to Calvary, waited only 15mins before being ushered in for the required imaging.
A few hours later the report came back and Katy's toe was indeed fractured! Luckily is was a simple fracture requiring no intervention. Advice was to buddy strap the toe, wear shoes with as much support and rigidity as possible and no sport for 6 weeks! No gym, volleyball, silks, orienteering or netball - our calendar suddenly looks very quiet!
We had a quiet long weekend for Canberra Day - the highlight having Panda come to stay! When those two aren't chasing another they are asleep!
As the school term slowly ticked away so did summer sport. First to finish was Futsal, followed closely by little athletics.
Autumn Score begins. Katy is in a team with Mira, Hayden and Luca. We were greeted with balloons dotting the sky on our early morning drive. The actual event ran smoothly with Katy's team placing 2nd behind the other Aranda PS year 6 team.
