School Carnival

Ella was pumped about the school athletics carnival. As the Fisher House Captain she was determine to give Fisher the best shot at winning by encouraging everyone to participate as much as they could. Must have had an effect as both Katy and Mira competed in every event!

Ella also competed in everything except a few of the running races as her shins have been bothering her. One of her proudest moments (I knew she was ecstatic was when I got a text message at work!) was when she threw a PB by 1.5m in javelin and broke the 43 year old school record in the process.

And on top of that, she found out a few weeks later the Fisher won!!

Sorry no photos of Katy - she was too busy competing!!

On The Home Front

A busy week of work and home life. Sandra and Dave are staying while their house has a make over inside with repainting of the interior. Andy jetted off to Melbourne for a few days with a very sore (possibly broken wrist). There were Easter meetings, medical appointments and a wedding anniversary!

Blessed with another Friday not needed at work! I was more than happy to potter around at home as there was plenty to do. I removed the crab apple to make way for a snow gum sapling (kindly gifted to us for help planting last weekend). 

I also took the opportunity to move the daphne and the hellebores in order to make way for the conversion of the side fence to a gate and path as part of the garage / mudroom renos that hopefully will take place in spring.

Caught up on a webinar series with Indi's help!

Panda came over for the weekend. Indi was happy about that!

Movement next-door with the arrival of the frames!

Split Family - Part 2 - Snow Gum Planting

While the others were at the orienteering camp, Al and I made our way up to Guthega. It was a relaxing drive stopping briefly in Jindabyne for burgers. On arrival at the lodge, we unpacked the full car. Huge amounts of toilet paper was stowed in the usual places ready for winter. Al had also stocked up on the pantry goods so we unpacked these too.

Saturday we attended the snow gum planting day instigated by a member of another lodge and organised by the Parks NSW. Why snow gums you may ask - well huge numbers of snow gums are dying. Over 90% of the Perisher resort had been affected. The culprit - a beetle! Read this article for more info.

The beetle likes to attack the snow gums whose trunks are at least 15cm in diameter. Snow gums are slow growing so that equates to tree that are older than 10 years. Once you are familiar to the tell tales signs of destruction these beetles have caused that is all you can see and it's depressing (see photo to the left with the dead snow gum in the middle with the ring lines on the trunk).

So while research is trying to figure out a way to deal with the beetles, we have taken nature into our own hands and planted 500 snow gums in specific areas in Guthega. The trees we planted were from seeds collected at Guthega and propagated in Bombala. These 40 cm tall sapling were about 3 years old.

Although we weren't required to dig any holes, it was hard going - fertilising, planting the snow gum, placing mulch and a protective barrier around each on fairly rough steep terrain. The 40 or so volunteers eventually found their niche as to their favourite job suitable to their ability. A sausage sizzles was provided for lunch between to the two planting session. While at the conclusion nibbles and drinks were offered as one of the park rangers gave us an informative chat on the dieback and beetles. A feel good day all up and hoping our sapling will survive and thrive.

Split Family - Part 1 - Orienteering Camp

Again the family split for the weekend - Andy and the girls (together with Rob and his kids) joined in at the ACT Junior Camp based in Cooma.

A huge group of kids and parents converged at the Snowy Mountains Tourist Park the hub for the 3 day camp. First session post dinner was night o at Mt Gladstone on the outskirts of town.

Saturday the group drove to Jerangle for a morning and afternoon sessions run by Rob and David Stocks. It was hot and the kids were glad to visit the river on the way home to cool off. Dinner was at the Cooma BowlO :) 

Post dinner was Armchair with Andy. The girls had been giving him stick all week about the title and what he should include in his talk :)  

Sunday saw the camp attend the O event at Tuggeranong Hill. It was a tough morning out - hot weather and steep terrain was punishment for all.

Audun Fristad Award

Ella and Katy received the Audun Fristad award at the final summer series event. 

Looking at the historical records, it seems the girls are following in their dad's footsteps as he received the same award back in 1986 & 1987!

Here are the details about the award taken from the ACT Orienteering website - 

The Audun Fristad awards are the oldest continuously presented Orienteering awards in the ACT. They were first presented in 1978 and are named after a former member of the Association. Audun was a Norwegian who loved his Orienteering. In fact he believed it is the greatest sport ever invented. In 1978, Audun almost took out the first “grand slam” of Australian orienteering. He contested the Australian Long Distance Championships and every State championship except WA. Audun won all except the ACT Championships which were held at Kowen Scarp and in so doing he was named the Silva Orienteer of the Year award with a then record of 29 points.

In 1978 Audun also introduced junior awards into the ACT orienteering community. These awards were intended to not only recognise excellence, but also to encourage promising juniors. Each year he would painstakingly go through the year’s results to find juniors whom he felt were worthy of his awards. This was in the days when orienteering events were usually only held on Sundays.

In 1983, the Association took over responsibility for these awards. They are now made solely as encouragement awards and a junior can only ever receive one. The aim is to recognise ten juniors each year, preferably five males and five females.

Enlighten 2023

While Katy was at a sleepover and I was out with friends, the other half of our family enjoyed Enlighten. Andy and Ella ventured out to meet up with Susie, Patrick and Mia for dinner and light show viewing. Twas a nice evening and the highlight was going inside Old Parliament House!  

School Photos 2023

Is this the last year of school photos for Ella? Not sure if they do school photos at college? One thing for certain is it will be the last one with braces for both girls.

 

Garden Projects

An odd non working day here and there allows for time in the garden. The dying summer vegetables have been removed. Only a few green tomatoes were picked - they really didn't have a good crop this year. The squash has been the very successful vegetable for 2022/23. Like zucchini's these beauties kept flourishing.

The winter vegetables have been sown and planted. Broad beans, kale, red cabbage, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower to name a few. I netted these to protect from possums and caterpillars, all under the watchful eye of Indi!

 

I found some dragonflies to replace the decrepit bird houses adorning the fence outside Katy's window.