The End of the Heatwave

The 13 day heatwave ended today. I don't think we could have taken much more of being cooped up inside. There are only so many games of doctors, offices and shops that one can manage without being driven completely crazy!

On a more serious note though the bushfires which have ravaged parts of NSW and Victoria have been horrifying. The death toll hit 181 at last count. It is so hard to believe that some of these fires would have been as a result of arson. We can only pray for the families involved at this time.

I was looking back at some earlier photos of William and Oliver and came across this one of William with his teddy. He was only one month old at that time.

Now here is Oliver this week with that very same teddy! Quite a difference in size!

As I mentioned, we have had a week of playing doctor. Here we can see Oliver playing the part of the patient. He looks suitably worried. We went through a lot of Wiggles bandaids that day.

Oliver is now the doctor and has come to William's aid. They had both been camping under the table and had skinned their knees.

Most things can be fixed with a cuddle!

Or if not with a cuddle then certainly with a nice hot cup of tea for both doctor and patient.

It looks like the patient has recovered! You will notice though, that he has a bruise in the middle of his forehead. He hit his head on a didgeridoo. I kid you not! William was given a cut-off but still very heavy didgeridoo by a stallowner at the Eumundi markets in Queensland. He used to be frightened of didgeridoos after I demonstrated how they worked one day at the Australian Geopgraphic shop in town. While we were on holidays he mustered up the courage to investigate didgeridoos more closely and for his troubles he was given one. The other day he had his didgeridoo out and accidentally hit his head on it with some force. He ended up with a lump and a big bruise.

Here we had another attempt at painting inside. You'd think I'd learn....................... I had the idea that I could dilute some paint and get the boys to blow the paint through a straw to achieve some interesting effects. By the time they had finished there were more interesting effects on their faces, clothes and the table than there were on the paper. After that I introduced my our next craft activity. Yes, it was the old glue the dried pasta and peas on the painted box to make a treasure box idea. I won't even tell you what happened with that idea except to say that I am still occasionally stepping on the odd hard chickpea.

I think we'll take a break from craft.


This morning we walked down to Mama Carmella's for our usual Sunday breakfast. The boys always like to play in the ambulance station grounds in this big old tree.

William was being a terror with this stick which he found.


Here he is demolishing his pancakes.

And then enjoying a leisurely read of the Sunday newspaper.

Before I finish my weekly update I must introduce little Maddelena who is now two months old. She and her mum, my dear friend Marianna, came over for coffee on Thursday.

Maddelena is Marianna and John's youngest child. She has three older brothers!

Scandinavian Hand Felting

Yesterday morning I attended a felting workshop at the WEA Centre. This is my creation. We learnt how to make a flat piece of felt with wool roving, silk/alpaca, warm soapy water and bubble wrap. It was a surprisingly strenuous activity! We also learnt how to make felt beads. I think I am going to make my felt into a clutch purse with some surface embroidery. Next Saturday we will be making a bigger project and learning how to make seamless hats, bags and shoes!

Our hardy chooks

Here are the latest updated photos of some of the chooks. This is the fellow we think is a cockerel. I guess we won't know for sure until he starts to crow. All of the chickens are in the same coop now. The transition was surprisingly easy. Dragon, the white silky is still at the bottom of the pecking order. She just looks too darn pretty to be a chook.

This is the chick named 'Tickled Pink' by Oliver, after his favourite cupcake. She has quite wavy feathers and 'bed hair'.

This one is named 'Dot' by Uncle Rowan. She is a funny little absent-minded sort of girl who scurries around everywhere.

Here we have our oldest girl, Mrs Diamond, who is the neighbourhood stickybeak and also at the top of the pecking order. The little ones are scared of her schoolmarm presence.


Lastly, here is Stella, a fine figure of a bird, who is somewhat standoffish.



They have all survived another day of terrible heat. I had water containers dotted around the yard today. The chooks all look so hot but they tend to burrow down into the cooler soil under the fruit trees and seem fairly content. Tomorrow the temperature drops to 39C so it will seem almost cool in comparison. Last night at midnight everyone in SA received a text message from the state government warning us to stay inside and drink plenty of water.

Boys will be Boys!

On Thursday when we were at Kirsty's house William, Oliver and Heath decided that they were going to raid Amelia's costume collection and they all dressed up as fairies! William sashayed around the room swishing his mauve dress while Oliver watched on, gracefully waving his arms like a butterfly.

Here we see Heath holding Maisy the Mouse and walking as if he had been on catwalks all of his life. He even has that somewhat vacant expression that models often adopt.

Heatwave

We are in the midst of another heatwave. On Tuesday this week the temperature was 45.7C and it has been 44C since. It is unbearably hot, dry and windy outside. I have had to let all of the chickens out to free-range all of every day simply so they can find a cooler spot under a tree. I have even been putting ice cubes in their water.

It has been very difficult to keep the boys amused inside. Yesterday we visited Kirsty and today we went to see Marianna but apart from that Britta and I have been trying to come up with interesting things for the boys to do inside. Today they enjoyed pasting, cutting and stamping and each made a colourful collage.

Ladybugs and Bees

Someone is always dressing up at our place. We have a couple of big boxes of dress-up clothes and I am adding to them all the time. I have found that op shops and garage sales can be a great source of costumes and accessories. Only last week we found a new St Vinnies op shop and I purchased a long red wig suitable for a clown. Here you can see the boys dressed as a bee and a ladybug playing in our garden.

Just Tickled Pink

It is the Australia Day long weekend this weekend. Rowan has come over from Sydney for a visit. Yesterday we went to one of Oliver's favourite places - 'Just Tickled Pink'. It is a cafe near our house which specialises in ultra-delicious cupcakes. Rowan kindly treated us all to a cupcake and coffee. William chose a Mars Bar cake, Rowan chose a Banana Caramel cake, Oliver selected their signature pink iced cake, and I chose a trifle cupcake. Inger showed great willpower and resisted. Oliver has a current passion for collecting china cups so he was in his element!

This shot shows just some of the pretty cups which adorn the cafe.

The cafe also acts as a gallery for the owner's personal collection of Audrey Hepburn memorabilia.


A selection of the mouth-watering home-made cupcakes.


Today we invited our dear friends Margaret and Peter and their two girls Kate and Alice over for a barbecue. The boys adore Kate and Alice and had a ball playing with them for the entire afternoon. It meant that the rest of us could have a fairly relaxed afternoon sipping champagne and chatting around the table out under our shady tree. It was just such a wonderful day. The boys fell asleep at 6.30pm while I was preparing their shower. We just slipped them into bed, grubby little feet and all so they could dream about their lovely day. They are very social little boys.