Advantages of Technology

This year's advent calendar needed a bit of thought. As we were leaving Canberra on 7th December bound for WA and would be separated from Ella until the 12th December, I was unable to do the typical crafty homemade advent calendar. Luckily I stumbled across an online DIY advent calendar. It ticked all the boxes (easily accessible, transportable and both girls could open a door each day independently of each other) plus had a bonus of embedding YouTube clips.

I was able to create this years advent calendar and meld it with our travels too then share the link to both girls. The unopened calendar looks like this with the doors unlocking each day.

Spring Snow Overnight Hike

Katy was asked by her good friend Mira to join her for a weekend in the melting snow at Guthega. Together with Lily and Al, they left Canberra on Friday afternoon stopping in Jindabyne for dinner.

Conditions up at the mountains were mild so the gang of girls and Al set off Saturday morning after completing a few jobs around the lodge. Walking up to Illawong, the girls crossed the snowy before beginning the climb up. Base camp was established next to the tarn near Little Twynam. Leaving their gear behind and donning snow shoes, they headed up to the Mt Twynam trig. The total hike was 10km.

Dinner was a quick pasta affair as the sun set and the temperature plummeted. Everyone retreated to the tents and the warmth of the sleeping bags. Not much sleep was to be had as the wind whipped up battering the tents.

The return hike was relatively quick with the gang arriving back at the lodge mid morning. Showers and food were had before the drive home. A happy, tired Katy arrived back home in the afternoon. We were all very jealous after seeing the photos of this fantastic adventure in the spring snow!

Garden Harvest

The broad beans are in abundance and so I harvest them before the possums raid them. Unfortunately Andy is on one of his 3 work trips in November and the girls aren't that keen on broad beans so I'm struggling to use them all up. I made up a few bags of greens (broad beans, rainbow chard and cos lettuce) plus a dozen and half of eggs for my work colleagues. They were all very appreciative.

Andy is currently in Perth working visiting friends!

All Schools Team

Ella was recently selected in the ACT All Schools Athletics Team to compete in Adelaide in early December. We are all very proud and excited for her however the selection has cause some chaos. You see, our family is booked to travel to Perth for Xmas leaving Canberra in early December for a month long holiday! The other complication is that our family has planned a two week tour of the SW - leaving in a camper van soon after our arrival in Perth!

Ella is determined to go to the competitions and normally she would travel with the team. However thanks to covid, this year the athletes are require to make their own arrangements. At first we thought she could travel with one of her cousins - unfortunately one didn't make the team and other made the team but has chosen not to compete. Thankfully Nana came to the rescue and kindly offered to accompany Ella to Adelaide.

Thus we have rescheduled her flights and Nana's flight and sorted out accomodation in Adelaide. Once the competition has finished, Ella will fly unaccompanied to Perth where Grandad will pick her up from the airport. She'll sleep at the Grandies house for a night before returning to the airport to catch a flight to Esperance where we will collect her. Life is so complicated!!

Anyway the upshot of being selected is that Ella continues to focus on her training and athletics. It's lovely to see that she has the confident at Little aths to help coach the little ones.

Leaning Tower of Eucalypt

With all this rain, the grevillea shrub in the front garden has fallen over resulting in the adjacent eucalypt being pushed onto the maple. Although the grevillea blossoms with beautiful flowers and is a great screening plant it has been taking over and now this was the last straw. It had to go. A quick afternoon gardening session saw the said grevillea removed. The eucalyptus tree needed a little help to stay upright so we utilised the slack line and hope that after a few months it will reestablish itself and continue to grow straight rather than at a 45° angle! The front garden is looking rather airy now that both the grevillea and acacia are gone. Hopefully the two new smaller grevillea that have been planted as replacements will fill the gaps.

Glad to be back being active despite it being only walking. Indi is pretty happy about it too! Today we wandered around Mt Rogers while orienteering was on. Not much distance covered in half an hour but fun to be exploring this hill in the long grass on a sunny evening!

An Interesting Shape!

I was fairly excited to finish my beanie. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment though when I tried it on! It looked more like a fascia sitting on my head than a beanie. Katy and Indi had a try too and they both were unable to make it work. Back to the drawing board...

Back to Honeysuckle Creek

While the rest of the family were enjoying the wet slippery conditions at Honeysuckle Creek in the Jim Sawkins Classic, I did an out and back walk along the fire trail. The morning thunderstorm cleared and brought a softness to the forest. The orienteering began with a mass start and both Ella and Katy made a few mistakes early on. Katy recovered rejoining her friends while Ella lost the pack. She did find Grandpa near the middle of the course. Running the same course, they then had a hare and tortoise race with Ella only pipping Grandpa in the finish chute!

On my walk I was able to appreciate the forest a little more. The clumps of indigofera australis with their bright pink flowers stood out amongst the granite boulders. I managed to keep my shoes dry crossing an unexpected creek too. Winning all round!!

 Indi and Leo went to the hairdresser together. Big thanks to Cath for taking them! Both scrubbed up well.

Summer Series

Although you wouldn't really know it's summer (with all this rain and ocold weather) the Orienteering Summer Series has begun. Wednesday nights involve a mad rush to try to get to there! Katy has volunteered, together with a fews friend to be the offical welcome crew so she is required to be there at 4.45. Meanwhile Ella has taken on a more serious approach with her runs with impressive results so far!

Bring on the Green Vegies

The rain does have benefits - the vegie patch is taking off! Indi just loves watching the bees - she literally could do this for hours!! And thanks to the bees there are lots of fruits budding too - plums, nectarines, raspberries and blueberries! This also prompted the nets to come out protected the new fruit form the birds and possums.

  

 

 

 

New Challenges

Without being able to do any form of running, walking or cycling, I've turn my attention to knitting a cable beanie on circular needles. It's been challenging to say the least as I've neither knitted cable before nor knitted on circular needles!

It has taken 6 attempts to start the beanie. Most of these have been related to adjusting the amount of stitches to the weight of wool I am using which is bigger than the one on the pattern. Then when I finally got the number of stitches right, I mucked up my first row of cabling so badly I had to start again!

It certainly does require a bit of concentration. It's looking fairly good and I'm about halfway through.