Mamoths at the Australian Museum

Mamoth bone hut-

A mummy and a baby mamoth

Mr5 and I recently were in Sydney so we visited the museum.

Unlikely Friends

Emerald is preening Minx

Minx is purring

Minx is rolling around so Emi can get all over her

They seem to love each other and Emerald races up to Minx as soon as she sees her, Minx buts her head into Emerald and rolls on top of her, Emi jumps out just in time then jumps back on top of Minx.

They are lovely but I am locking Em into her cage when they can't be directly supervised or when one of them gets a bit rowdy.

The Grafton Agricultural Show 2009

Our Family went to the local show today.

First of all we went to see the dobermans-


We love dobermanns, they are our favourite breed. We oohed and aahed and patted the puppies through their cages and walked around and looked at all the dogs.
The Red Setters caught our eye, reminding us of "Lord Red" in the Jack Russell dog detective books.
We also had a chat to some whippets and looked at some Chinese crested dogs, the hairless ones.

We love dogs and all animals here but the dog shows seem a bit too structured and serious for this dobie loving family- mind you next year when the show is on again I will certainly pop in to have a little look at those lovely dobermanns.

When we got to the main showground Mr10 dragged us straight in to the bird pavilion to see the parrots and we befriended a lovely galah, called Pinky and a talkative eclectus who won our hearts. There were lots of new breeds for us to look at and some beautiful colours, there were even three lorikeets and one of them looked just like our beloved Emerald.


We wandered around looking at the local produce and the various displays- the boys were really interested in the Navy and the Army cadets, Mr10 got to try on some camo gear, and Mr5 made a friend at the SES stand who is going to send him out some books about what to do in floods and storms.

One of the highlights for all of us was the snake man, he put on an excellent show with his venomous snakes and cheeky little Bearded Dragon.


We really enjoyed his talk, his beautiful reptiles and his obvious passion for educating everyone about snakes on the east coast. He was awesome. You can check him out at Steve McEwan's Reptile World
We also enjoyed the lapidary display and watching the wood choppers, they are amazing!

Next it was on to the main pavilion where the boys had put in some entries.
It was fantastic to see so many entries in the kids section, and the work was great, so much variety and different ideas to look at, we spotted Mr5s nomads hut and went over to have a look and it was champion exhibit! in the model and sculpture section. WOW !!!


It was all excitement to find their other entries and we soon spotted Mr10s Australian animals hand painted cushion, sporting a blue ribbon- 1st place , the boys were thrilled


Next we saw Mr5s viking with a Special Commendation and Mr10s Sydney at Night also with a Blue Ribbon.


It is so lovely for the boys to have this recognition from outside our 'homeschool' but seeing 4 out of 6 entries with ribbons on them was such an unexpected thrill.


After all that excitement the boys wanted a ride on the dodgem cars


It was getting late in the afternoon and we still had so much to see and do so we went to look at all the animals, the baby ones in the petting zoo were very cute


The alpacca's were lovely, the goats a bit smelly and we missed the cows, they must have been yesterday and the horse events were on all day in the ring.

We were feeling rather weary but popped back into the bird pavilion to see how the judging had gone, our friend Pinky had a blue ribbon, and so did the eclectus parrot but he didn't want to chat anymore, and Pinky didn't want to have a scratch or a cuddle, I think they were very over it and just wanted to go home.

Mr10 enjoyed meeting one more type of animal and had a go on a mechanical bucking bull!


He did really well and stayed on for quite a long time.

We had a fabulous family day out,
but it was so nice to get home, have a nice peaceful cup of tea, and cuddle and pat our own animals.

Foggy Mornings

I am having a serious attempt at improving my health and have been on a low carb eating plan for a few weeks now- Things are going well and I am losing kilos- yay.
The boys and I are also walking for an hour most mornings.
We were walking on the road but it was stressful- worrying about the traffic, the boys and the dogs was no way to start the day.


So we have started to go down to the river, it is at least an hours walk with a good hill climb on the way back and lots of little hills and different terrains down on the river flats.



We go early so we can get into our school work and finish up early, we all like our afternoons free to follow our own interests, and sometimes we need to be out early and I really want to get our walk in at least 5 days a week.

Now that the rain has stopped it is really foggy.


No it is not the edge of the world.
There is a mighty big river down there, and a huge cliff face towering up on the other side, all veiled in the thick fog.


Its just there says Mr5 standing on the river bank.


It is so quiet and beautiful.


The dogs are loving the regular walking and the absolute freedom to run and romp through the fog and swim in the river-

Mr10s Poem

Luck...
Ebbs and Flows
like the tide
it comes and goes....

He just came racing inside from catching giant "monsterguts" grasshoppers to tell me he made up this poem in his head.... for the grasshopper who got away.

Isn't he clever?

and now he has added

As the eternal river flows
through space and time..

Back into the swing of things....

We all survived my week at Artsfest. I had a fantastic time and loved going out everyday to do my own thing- its only been 10 years or so since I did that type of thing-
My wonderful friend Rhondella held the fort and looked after the boys- Thanks Rhondella! The boys enjoyed their week as well and I think Rhondella even had a bit of a break from her own hectic life while she was out here or out "bush" as she calls it.

Mr10 has been spending lots of time with Emi and trying to teach her all sorts of new tricks, sometimes she wolf whistles and sometimes she laughs like Mr5 and sometimes she makes noises like Minxy our pussy cat, she is learning so much, He has also been taking Emerald outside to browse in the callistemons and grevilleas-


She is a brave little bird and quite enjoys it, she gets so excited hopping around from flower to flower and calling out to all the other parrots flying around.


It is cooling off here, now the rain has finally stopped, the beds are made up with nice snuggly flannelet sheets and the quilts are back. The days have been spectacular though.

We are getting back into our homeschool routine this week and the boys started back at swimming today and when we came home Daddy had hung an interesting load out on our clothesline-


We have been making Easels

It is our local Agricultural show next week and the boys are madly finishing off things to go into the show so this week is shaping up to be busy-

Artsfest

I am off to Artsfest this week!

I have a wonderful friend coming to stay and look after my boys for the week
and I have packed my kit and gathered my supplies.

I am excited.

I will be doing Mignon Parkers Workshop

I will be very busy over the next week so will post a blog update after Artsfest.

Garden Ramble

The boys and I have been wandering in our sorry soggy garden


and found some treasures hiding in amongst the mud and weeds

There are some amazing fungi growing at the moment
~these ones are growing out of palm tree logs we are using as garden edges.

A few lovely ripe capsicums Mr10 has grown

Mr5s Sage

My Favourite- the Italian Parsley

Some Lemon Basil

Some 'volunteer' cherry tomatoes

Our fig tree is bravely fruiting like mad in all of the rain


The Paw Paw is loving all the wet and growing lots of delicious fruits

And Mr5 harvested the tomatoes for
'a tomato sandwich'


I think he might get a few!

A Break in the Weather

Last weekend, the weather was wet and rainy but the boys all had cabin fever and needed to get out, I stayed home to do some art work and they headed up to Lismore to do some jobs and visit The House with No Steps waterpark.

The day was cold and rainy but they got lucky with a break in the weather and had a ball anyway.