Maclean Floods January 2011

Some images of the flooding here in Jan 2011We were so lucky, we have a river that does flood regularly, but it was a nice slow and gentle flood, living in our house during the peak was like being on a houseboat, the sparkling water reflecting into our safe and cosy house. It was so quiet with all the roads blocked apart from all the helicopters in the day time. The bats were not bothered at all.We were gripped to the media though, watching and listening with shock and horror at what was happening elsewhere in our poor flooded country.

Out and About~the local trawlers were tied up to the bridge over South Arm, out of the main Clarence River flowthe road to Lawrence

The Maclean showground

the levee bank

our engorged river

this house is on the other side of the river normally, not in the middle of it.

Some views of our backyard~

very waterfront for 5 days, this is around the peak and the water just went for miles and miles in every direction.

Some of our special backyard visitors~

Yaegl significant Aboriginal cultural sites

The boys and I have started our new year of homeschooling.

Mr12 is starting high school level work at home and Mr7 is doing year 2-ish work. We are using some wonderful curriculum materials and the boys are very keen to use it.

One of the topics we are doing is Australian History and using 2 different spines-

Our Sunburnt Country from Downunder Literature

and

Australia, the wide brown land for me! from Adnil Press



we are starting out with Aboriginal history and headed off today on a tour of our local Aboriginal Peoples Significant sites. Our local mob are the Yaegl people around the lower Clarence but we might also look at Bundgalung people who traditionally occupied land north of the mighty mighty Clarence Rv and spend some time with some Gumbaynggirr people who have a wonderful cultural centre at Arrawarra and a yummy bush tucker cafe.

Our tour today was a self drive one


and we picked up a little pamphlet from the Maclean tourist info at Ferry Park


We learned so much
this is Ulugundahi Island behind the boys
it was an aboriginal mission in the early 1900s and Ulugundahi means ear in the local Yaegl language because the island is shaped like an ear.


This is Reedy Creek, the first Goorie camping area in Yamba
Mr7 thinks the semi permanent structures on the beach would be much nicer to live in back then than the big brick residences that dominate this lovely area today.





walking through our magnificent coastal bushland

we ended up on some magnificent beaches


and the boys found some sticks!

Mr12 had to test out his strength, picking up huge logs and rocks and pushing and pulling at everything he thought might budge.

So this was our wonderful homeschool classroom this afternoon

2 Healthy Babies

Our lovelyEmerald hatched out 2 healthy baby chicks and we fed them and raised them and they grew up and left home and joined the wild flock way before we were ready :(We do know they are both well and alive and they come to visit Emerald and live out there with Saphire, and we don't really mind, they are happy , healthy and free and you can't wish much more than that for your children.

Miss Emerald has an Egg!

Our lovely Emerald and her handsome Sapphire have finally laid an egg. We have been watching all the mating and nesting behaviour and have been eagerly awaiting the first egg, so it was with great joy Mr11 ran down the hallway to share the good news first thing this morning.

Sapphire has been very vocal and active all over the neighborhood this morning , we think he must be telling everyone. Our birds have free access in and out of their cage, so he really can share his good news all over the neighborhood.
Mr7 also observed the kookaburra couple we have been watching in one of our trees and noticed the gentleman kooka feeding his lady this morning, just like Saph has been feeding Em this morning, so he has surmised they might have laid their first egg this morning as well.

This has of course interrupted our day and our chocolate study, we simply had to research every thing about lorikeet breeding and there are endless questions about kookaburra breeding still to be answered, but I have manged to lure the boys back to the table with a bowl of chocolate salad, this is a bit of a Rockpool tradition, and is basically a bowl with mixed pieces of block chocolate in it and it did the trick nicely and they are now writing up and drawing food webs.

Chocolate

It is the first day of term for NSW school students today, and it has been raining heavily for weeks, everything is wet and mushy, so it was a happy homeschool family who could stay at home today and watch the rain falling out our windows, although we did feel sorry for the kids trudging along to school whilst we were in our nice warm house and about to learn all about

C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E

I found a 12 lesson study guide at the Chocolate Exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago complete with history, recipes and quotes.I added a couple of likely lads, and some lovely books from the libray and we are set and as chocolate comes from the rainforest, we have a sweet week of school this week.

We have been getting some lovely visitors from the rainforest as well
This friendly lady King Parrot, or Queen Parrot as the boys call her is almost eating out of my hand and she gets right into Emeralds cage, but only when our rowdy lorikeets are not home. I wonder if she might be an escaped pet she is so quiet and friendly.

I am having a lot of trouble getting to update this blog living here, the only internet connection I have is a very very slow dial up and it doesn't cope very well with pictures. So I am sorry but blogging will be very erratic here at the moment and so will visiting everyone elses blogs.

Rainforest Unit study planning stage

In this post I am going to store information for an upcoming unit study we will be doing, we are going to learn about rainforests- particularly Australian rainforests and flying foxes.

Rainforest Explorer contains a wealth of activities and resources about the Wet Tropics rainforests and their plants and animals. The library is packed with resources including rainforest videos, wildlife photos and activity sheets.

The many different activities are designed for use by both students and teachers. All activities are tailored to suit the Queensland school curriculum. There are also lots of great activities for after school or if your family plan to visit the rainforest.

You can browse through three different sections:

• Preparatory to Year 3
• Year 4 to Year 7
• Year 8 to Year 9.

A Wonderful Squidoo Lens on Rainforests

Homeschool Share have a lovely unit on The Great Kapok Tree

Drawing lessons rainforest animals

Gondwana Rainforest types of Australia

Enchanted learning
Rainforest
Bats

Bats- creatures of the night

Loads of Bat links

Stellaluna resources
In search of Stellalunas family
Homeschool share unit

Visiting Homeschool Family

Beaches to explore

Gardens to visit

Paths to follow

Rainforests to discover

Adventures to have

Friendships to build

lots of fun

beautiful weather

time to just be together

We have loved having our homeschool friends come to stay, and are looking forward to the next visit.

Sugar Cane Fire

We had great timing last night on our way home and passed a sugar cane field as the farmer was burning it.
The power of the fire was awesome
the roar of soundthe heat

Meanderings

This bridge can be seen from our new house and Mr11 has an ongoing love of bridges so he is thrilled to have this bridge in view when ever he wants to look.

It is called McFarlane Bridge and was opened in 1906 and the curved track for the counterweights was based on the work of 18th century French engineer B F de Belidor, all of this is fascinating stuff for my bridge loving history buff, but Mr7 and I are more interested in the pair of Brahmany Kites who nest up there in that purpose built nest cradle, you can see one perched on top of the big wheel and the other one in the nest, It will soon be spring and we will certainly be keeping an eye on what happens up there.

We are living in a sugar cane farming area here and the cane fields are bright green and vast, it is harvest time and on dusk the farmers burn the fields, creating an amazing orange glow, it is a brief burn though they are really only burning off all the blades of this giant grass to make the harvesting of the cane easier. We also have showers of black ashen grass blades, that are strangely beautiful (as pointed out by my friend Amala.)
The harvest machinery has been really interesting to the boys as well, loads of cane trucks rumble past on their way to and from the nearby sugar mill and the machinery in the fields as we drive by always starts a discussion.

We can see this boat from our home,
we live over there on the other side.

and this is a sunset last week, looking out our dining room window, it is very beautiful here.

Sadly we are unable to have ADSL broadband here and mobile wifi is patchy and slow so we are reduced to dial up and the slow uploading of pics.

A Beautiful Blogger Award

Thank you my lovely friend Alecat from Serenades and Solace for awarding me as a beautiful blogger- I am honoured.

The regulations state the recipient of the beautiful blogger award must:
*Add a link and a note of thanks to the person giving the award,
*Pass the award onto the most beautiful blogs you love
*Share 7 things about yourself.


Blogging is such a peculiar pastime, I often feel like I am sitting here in my pj's and jotting down my thoughts or our days homeschool adventures and it is quite a solo experience, but when I read all of your lovely comments or am given an award or as has occasionally happened I meet a reader in real life I realise how nice that feedback is, how lovely to have others interested in what the boys and I are doing and even inspired by our activities. So thank you Alecat for your award and for sharing all you do on your lovely blog, I am often inspired by what you and Maestro and Mariposa are doing and it has been a lovely journey we have travelled together as we have developed our friendship online.

There are many beautiful Blogs that I love.
Here are 7.
Joannes beautiful photographs at Framed are a rare but special treat.

Moonbindery is a very talented and inspiring maker of hand made books.

Monika and her Bohemian Shadows is a delight, I enjoy her art, her thoughts and the inspirations she shares.

India Flint is an incredibly talented artist who does magic with natural dyes, her beautiful blog is not all those who wander are lost

I love to read what Ariad and her gorgeous kids are up to at Rainbow Love Farm

Kez's blog is another great blog I enjoy as a peek into anothers homeschool.

And the last but certainly not least beautiful blog I will share today is Barnacle Goose Paperwork's another fabulously talented artist writer and bookmaker.

And 7 things about me.

~I have just moved into a beautiful warm house with stunning river views and I am so happy about that. I have a drafting table and some shelf space permanently devoted to my art space- yay!

~After years and years without a bath tub I am having 4 or 5 long soaks in the tub each week. I take something to read and a cuppa and lie back in the warm and fragrant bubbles and R E L A X ahhh

~Some of my best friends live in my computer, I am a member of The Rockpool Homeschool forum and Milliandes art community for women and both of these online communities are wonderful safe supportive places than nourish me and many many other women. I feel blessed to have these communities in my life.

~I love to cook and to experiment with new recipes, we have been eating lots of fish from the local co op and I want to make a nice fish curry in the next few days.

~ I have a huge colony of red headed flying foxes living in some remnant rain forest near my home and I love them. I love the musky animal smell and the noises and the thousands of bats that flow through the sky just after sunset, and I love the ones that get in my garden and wake me at night, their cheerful chatter delights me, just don't tell the locals ; )

~I have pulled a muscle in my b.. last night at scouts, my gluteus maximus I think it is called and am hobbling around, but it was a great reason for a soak in the bath today. I hope it does not take too long to heal.

~I adore my kids and love our homeschooling lifestyle. I love seeing them learn, develop and grow.

~I am preparing a body of work and a portfolio to apply to a local art gallery to be an exhibiting artist in their gallery.