Monday, March 21, 2016

Growing Up Fast

Someone wise once said the days are long and the years are short! As testament to that we farewelled Ella off on her first school camp. The year 3 and 4 students travelled together to Birragai for 3 days of fun. Most students seemed pretty excited about the prospect with the constant chatter about camp which I'm sure started in the first week of school (seven weeks ago!)

All seemed to go well. Ella returned home in one piece chatting about giant swings, completing various challenges and cooking damper on a stick (something to consider doing next camping holiday.) She was tired but happy with the experience.

Meanwhile back home, the house was quieter and Katy seemed a little put out wondering what on earth would she would do without her big sister!! A post dinner trip out to Max Brennar for a dessert of chocolate and ice cream with another lost-without-my-big-brother friend seemed to improve this situation!




Breaking Routine

March is such a wonderful month in Canberra with many exciting things to do like the Balloon Spectacular (which we missed), Skyfire (too busy for that too), Canberra Day (we were painting)...well you get the idea lots on and we can't seem to fit any of it in!! Except we did venture (a weekday night!) to Enlighten - a first experience for the whole family.

We converged at the National Library - Andy and the girls in the car and me on my bike coming straight from work. It was a gorgeously warm evening to enjoy dinner at the Night Noodle markets. We sampled a variety of yummy dishes. Highlight was the waffle on a stick with chocolate sauce and ice cream.



Walking through the marble cutting that links Reconciliation Place to Commonwealth Place, we arrive at Lake Burley Griffin as the sun is setting. Casually we head east along the lake edge making our way to the National Gallery, the furthest point from the car, for the 8pm light up. We timed it perfectly only pausing for a minute or so before the building lit up with the first image.





Centered around the iconic buildings within the Parliamentary Triangle, selected artists translate or transform their work into architectural projections and sometimes animations. Each building has a clip of images on rotation taking several minutes to view.

The National Gallery -



The National Portrait Gallery -





Questacon -




The National Library -


The photos of Old Parliament House were a little blurry as we were too far away and we didn't bother doing a drive by Parliament House. All in all a lovely late night and glad we avoided the crowds by going mid week. Another event to look forward to in 2017.

Lovely Isa Visits

The girls were surprised and thrilled to have Isa pick them up from school last week. It was only a short visit for Isa who was making her way back to San Diego via Canberra after the Antarctic field trip she was on returned to Hobart a week earlier than expected. A lovely afternoon catching up followed by a relaxing dinner. Perhaps next time we see Isa, it will be in her current home town....


Friday, March 18, 2016

Assembly Excitement

It was a double whammy at the recent whole school assembly. Andy was able to watch Katy with all the Year 1 students provide an entertaining assembly as well as see Ella be presented with a SRC (student representative counsel) band after being voted by her class to represent 3TF.



Australian Life

We had Swedish friends staying with us over the weekend. Andy first met Anders in 2002 in Ville Franche at a conference. Anders is now retired but was an academic at Stockholm University specialising in flow through straights (Andy's PhD topic). We visited Anders and Ida in Stockholm in the summer of 2002. They took us by boat from Vaxholm to their summer house located nearby on a small island somewhere in the Stockholm archipelago.

 

Now 14 years later they arrived in Australia via a 3 week cruise from San Fransisco, Hawaii and the South Pacific. Anders and Ida were keen to experience aussie life while joining in our normal activities. On their first evening we had a lovely bbq on the front deck in the last of warm summer weather.

Saturday we ventured down to Little Aths, with Anders and Ida watching the girls before heading off on a walking adventure up Mt Painter. A short time later we reconvened at the local cafe. It was Cathy's 40th party (write up to follow shortly) that evening so drove via the kangaroo paddocks to check out the local kangaroos. It was a little disappointing that it was still too hot so only a handful of roo were there although Ida and Anders thought they were great! Anders and Ida really enjoyed the party chatting to all the guests.

On Sunday we drove out to Namadgi for the ACT middle distance orienteering champs. While we ran around, Anders and Ida explored the surrounding bush.



After the event we stopped at Lanyon Homestead, a wonderful old homestead with stunning views of the Brindabella range. A perfect spot for lunch before Anders and Ida began their return journey back home.










Thursday, March 17, 2016

Gnarled Potatoes

Potatoes are fun to grow cause you can't see what is happening beneath the soil, so when it's time to dig them up its like opening a present from nature. In previous years I had planted Royal Blue potatoes in September however the renos meant the veggie patch was neglected until early November. The variety of seed potatoes at Bunnings was also limited. I couldn't find the Royal Blue so settled for Pink Eye variety.

Soon the leaves emerged however I wasn't very vigilant with hilling up the crop which apparently encourages more tubers to sprout. Towards the end of summer, the leaves begin to wilt and turn yellow, a sign that the crop is ready to be harvested.

And so the time had come to do some digging! s I carefully lifted the soil and watched the potatoes emerge. They were very bumpy with quite large eyes. The crop was definitely smaller than previous years however there are enough potatoes in the cupboard to avoid potatoe shopping for several months.

Talking about other veggies, our self seeded tomato plant located near the wood pile is going great guns. It has had the best and longest crop of tomatoes ever. We have also had good success with several roma type tomato plants. We had no zucchinis at all and relied on other peoples surplus. The eggplants did ok. Soon it will be time to replenish the soil with compost, sheep poo and plant green manure over winter.

More Favourite Things

Currently beading has become a bit of a thing in our house thanks to a quick crash course with Kelly and the donation of a no-longer-needed bead collection from Aunty Cathy. Ella in particular loves to create various pieces of jewellery from necklaces to bracelets to earrings. Often these are colour co-ordinated with her outfit for the day. As you can imagine one can spend numerous hours  spilling, sorting, arranging and rearranging ones beads.




When Katy isn't joining in on the beading action, she has taken to writing. She has created to do lists, stories and planning her talk time (as seen in photo). I love reading her work!


Translation - Good Morning 1RL. Today I am going to talk about where my famiy come from. My Mum comes from Perth. My Dad, my sister and me come from Australia. We celebrate birthdays and Christmas. Thank you for listening. Is there any questions or comments?

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Scorching February

Summer left with a final sting a run of 5 consecutive days above 32°C in late February including a 38°C. Now I know all Perth people are probably rolling their eyes saying that's nothing compared to their consecutive 40+°C days. All I can say is at least you have the beach to cool off in.

However we discovered a little gem of a place here in Canberra to cool off at. After picking the girls up from school, we headed straight down to Lake Burley Griffin with the intention of swimming at the normal spot at Black Mountain Peninsula, however while driving down discussing this, it was suggested we venture somewhere new. Racking my mind for a great spot, I decided to try in Weston Park.

It was a risk as I wasn't sure about the swimming spots, BBQ's (I'd intended on cooking dinner there) and toilets. Anyway we arrived at a little bay on the eastern side of the peninsula, nicely shaded by the trees. I spotted a BBQ and toilets close by while the girls attention instantly zoomed in on the swimming area with two pontoons!!

Quickly everyone changed into swimmers and we headed down to explore. Amazingly we shared this beautiful bay with only a couple of other people!! The water was refreshing and we swam out to the pontoon together spending large chunk of time jumping off it. People seem to come and go with several swimming their dogs out to the other pontoon!

Eventually it was time to go back in. While playing in the shallow another dad and his two younger boys turned up with their canoe. It was like bees to honey with Ella and Katy obviously wanting to have a go. The family was very accommodating and soon the girls were paddling away.

It was finally time to cook dinner, a simple BBQ with salad and bread rolls before heading back into the water for a final swim before heading home!

I can honestly say that we had an absolutely awesome afternoon, one of the best that I can remember and it is definitely on the list of things to do next summer.





Paper thin

The European wasp nest has been removed, the wall plastered, sanded and painted again! Here is what was between us the the wasps. Yep a couple of layers of paint!! Fingers crossed that hopefully it's the first and last time we encounter them.


Bird Crazy

Recently Ella has become quiet obsessed with birds. Luckily for Ella Australia in known as the Land of Parrots, with over 56 species (from the 300 worldwide) residing here.Not sure where the interest was sparked but we now noticed birds whenever we are out!



This passion has edged it's way into school...this poem made its way into the school newsletter!


So as a treat while Andy was travelling, we made our way over to the Walk in Aviary located a short drive from our place. Privately owned, the walk in aviary houses approximately 400 birds from 50 species. On entry we were each given a tub of mealworms and tray of sliced apples to feed to any bird interested, Despite the midday warm conditions we had numerous (mostly parrots) eat from our plates except for the Golden Pheasant who was tucked up in the branches having a midday snooze! The girls even managed to convince a few to jump on their arm.









Meanwhile back at home after several nights work, we finished Ella's 1000 piece macaw jigsaw puzzle she got for christmas, Also we purchased some wild bird seed for Ella's bird feeder which had resulted in several crimson and eastern rosellas visiting our garden. They are beautiful to watch.

Not satisfied with that Ella has now begun suggesting that she is old enough to have her own bird.....what's wrong with the chickens I say!





Thursday, March 3, 2016

Away, Away

After being home for the weekend, Andy is once again off overseas. This time it is a two week trip to the US. First stop - Los Alamos in New Mexico to work with a colleague who previously was at ANU. The second week was spent in New Orleans at the Ocean Sciences Conference. Sounded like hard work as you can see from the photos Andy sent to us!!

  


Meanwhile we kept up with the traditional sleepover movie night. The girls tested out the new lounge which magically transforms into a bed, well actually two and I got the prized mattress on the floor!