Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Christmas

Santa did find us!

Our day went something like this....

Santa sacks



Off to Cottesloe for a swim and breakfast meeting an assortment of WA orienteers. Lovely to see many friendly familiar faces :)




Back home for official presents.




 An afternoon siesta before going to Michelle and Daryl's place for dinner.



Perth Morning Schedule

Holiday life in Perth always starts the same way......wake up, off to beach, stop for coffee on way home. Nice!!


Ella's account of Penguin Island




Today at 9:00 we set off for Penguin Island with our friends Ashley and Nathan. Penguin Island is a bird sanctuary. We go there by boat. We saw many animals such as, King's Skinks, Silver gulls, Sooty oystercatchers, masked terns and fairy penguins. As soon as we got there we put our bags down and went for a walk around the island. On the way we saw baby silver gulls, lizards fighting and beautiful views all round.

After we had morning tea then went to a penguin feed where they fed rescued penguins. One named Jerry was found in a fishing net and had a hook though her eye and was blinded in that eye. Her mate of 10 years, Skipper died. The penguin community was all very sad and Jerry was devastated. Two days later another penguin moved in a they have been together ever since.

Fairy penguins are the smallest of all penguins standing 44cm tall. The emperor penguin stands 1m being the largest of all penguins. There are17 different types of penguins Emperor, King, Erect-crested, Macaroni, Fairy, African, Adelie, Chinstrap, Fiordland, Galapagos, Gentoo, Humboldt, Magalatic, Rockhopper, Royal, snares and Yellow-eyed.

After that we had lunch and went swimming. The water was beautiful. We made up a new game called water tips which is tips in the water after playing in the water.

It was a great day out and our warm jumpers weren't needed!!

Goodbye Amy

Nearly 18 years ago to the day, Annwen and I drove out to a pet shop in Midland and purchased a miniature apricot and white poodle as a Christmas present for my Mum. This small little fluff ball became known as Amy.

She made friends with Holly, the German Shepherd and Meg, my first border collie. Out living both of them, she then became friends (mostly) with Lady, a rescue german shepherd.


In recent years old age crept up on Amy and as I left with each visit, I thought it would be the last time I would see her. yet as the next trip came around she was still there....a little more deaf, a little more blind but as cuddly as ever! The girls adored her too.


Unfortunately last Thursday, unbeknownst to us, we had our last cuddle with Amy. As we headed off to Penguin Island, she went to the vet to undergo a simple operation to remove a lump from her lip. Once sedated however, the vet discovered, it wasn't a simple lump but Amy had cancer in her jaw with many lumps in her mouth. And so the only kind thing was to put her to sleep. We were all devastated with this outcome.

Thanks for the memories Amy - you will be sorely missed.

More Christmas Fun

Nana didn't do the traditional thing and put up her tree on the 1st December. Instead opting to wait until the girls arrived. Katy (Amy and Mila, the dog from next door) did the tree decorating, while Ella created a Christmas wonderland on the bookcase with all of Nana's special treasures!





Later on we had fun with Annwen, Ashley and Nathan. A picnic dinner followed by watching the movie Elf at the Murdoch Community Outdoor Cinema.


Saturday, December 24, 2016

Penguin Island


 Last time we came to Perth we toured Rottnest Island - this year we decided to try Penguin Island. A few of the differences are that:
 - the ferry ride is 5 minutes rather than 50;
 - it has penguins not quokka;
 - no bikes, but a nice walking track;
 - it takes half an hour to circumnavigate, rather than a full day ...

I think you get the picture.
Actually, it was a lovely island with heaps of bird life (of keen interest to Ella in particular), some education on the lives of little penguins (including feeding some rescue penguins) and a great beach for swimming. We spent the day with Annwen and family, and the kids has a great time together. The only drawback was a little bit of sunburn, particularly on the back of legs, which might limit us for a little while...


Summer Holiday Trip - Leg 1

We flew out from Canberra on Monday night taking the direct flight to Perth. What a difference 2 years makes, with both girls still wide awake when we touched down at midnight! Ella loved taking photos of the clouds, while Katy's observations and comments made me realise how special flying really is!


















Not much sleeping was to be done. We were down at South Beach swimming out to the pontoon by 8.15am then next morning! A wonderful way to begin the day especially with the forecasted 35°C! Although Summer in Canberra hadn't really hit, we certainly won't be disappointed in Perth.



Awesomeness

I've got to say that I love working with fantastic people....thanks to everyone at CFAC (Canberra Fetal Assessment Centre), GMI (Garran Medical Imaging) and Dr Sim Hom Tam's rooms for a great year! Only managed to get 2 out of the 3 groups - will try harder in 2017!


Friday, December 23, 2016

Lighting Up Christmas

A few years ago we saw an awesome display of Christmas Lights in Civic. Reminiscing, we added it to the advent calendar. On Friday night we were joined by Susie, Patrick, Josh and Mia for dinner in Civic before heading off to see the lights. We were pretty disappointed with this years display. A row of trees with lights wrapped around their trunks and branches was the extent of the display. Very disappointing really. In our wandering we did stumble upon the lighting of the Christmas Tree.





Hogg Family Christmas

Christmas was celebrated early by the Hogg clan as half of the family would be absent from Canberra on Christmas Day. Going against tradition, we gathered at the Cotter. Blessed with a warm Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed swimming, a bit of cricket and a delicious BBQ dinner.



Thursday, December 22, 2016

Our advent calendar took the opportunity to use the Outdoor Cinema, Sunset Cinemas at the Botanical gardens as a fun family experience. On our arrival we noticed these cicada exoskeletons on the tree next to the car! The adult cicadas were higher in tree making quiet a racket!

We took a picnic dinner, enjoyed a beer/cider while chatting to friends waiting for the sun to set so the movie could begin. It was a cool Canberra evening but luckily warm jumpers and a blanket to snuggle under were packed.

Tonights screening was Pete's Dragon, a nice kids movie. The movie was well received by our girls but with an 8.20pm start, it turned out to be a vary late night! Luckily it wasn't a school night.




More Christmas Craft

A few months ago, I brainstormed crafty projects for potential Christmas gifts. It was fun and inspiring discovering various ideas. With every intention of getting in early, our lives became busier as Christmas crept closer and these projects got temporarily shelved waiting for an opportunity. Of course it came down to the last minute and the numerous ideas whittled down to two!

Ella was keen on making more bird seed feeders with native bird seed glued together with an anzac biscuit mix. A project we had completed previously.

Our second project was making our own soy wax candles. We gathered our equipment. I decided that the melting and pouring was too dangerous for littler people, so Katy was in charge of decorating our candles.

The process was quite simple despite the various problems one may encounter while completing this project. Luckily for us our candles turned our pretty good and just in time for the Hogg family early Christmas gathering!







It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Thanks to the girls efforts our house is feeling very festive.






Even the Silky Oak in the backyard has been putting on a show! It's golden flowers remind me of WA's Christmas Tree, the Native Mistletoe which bursts out in orange blooms at this time of year. No doubt we will see some when we visit very soon!