We celebrated the forthcoming summer with a few new bags of sand in our sandpit. The beach comes to our back garden!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
New sand in the sandpit
We celebrated the forthcoming summer with a few new bags of sand in our sandpit. The beach comes to our back garden!
Mantis Ant (Australian Wildlife Encounters No.7)
There's no denying that Australia is full of creepy-crawlies. six of the ten most venomous snakes live here as well as a menagerie of cockroaches, mosquitoes, scorpions and spiders.
In truth though most Australians live in suburban cities and a lot of Australia's insects and bugs are pretty shy.
I'm absolutely certain that if you went wandering around the thousands of miles of outback something would sooner or later bite, sting or scratch you, but nothing (except for perhaps sharks and crocs) is going to hunt you down. (erm well ok maybe the mosquitoes)
Having said all that digging in our garden is always an experience. In the UK you occasionally unearth a worm, garden snail and woodlouse or two, here the creatures coming to the surface are invariably more exotic and surprising to my English eyes.
I occasionally come across the odd red-back spider (which DOES scare the bejesus out of me) and there's a fair number of bugs flying around that would similarly terrify me if they landed on my face.
Last week we witnessed huge number of soldier beetles flying onto the blossom laden trees and at the weekend I spotted a few ants on a plant outside of our front door which turned out to be (I think) mantis ants. I looked them up and found they are remarkably voracious. It made me glad to know they were only 5mm in size! Here's a picture I took of one before I learned that they were actually very good at jumping!
In truth though most Australians live in suburban cities and a lot of Australia's insects and bugs are pretty shy.
I'm absolutely certain that if you went wandering around the thousands of miles of outback something would sooner or later bite, sting or scratch you, but nothing (except for perhaps sharks and crocs) is going to hunt you down. (erm well ok maybe the mosquitoes)
Having said all that digging in our garden is always an experience. In the UK you occasionally unearth a worm, garden snail and woodlouse or two, here the creatures coming to the surface are invariably more exotic and surprising to my English eyes.
I occasionally come across the odd red-back spider (which DOES scare the bejesus out of me) and there's a fair number of bugs flying around that would similarly terrify me if they landed on my face.
Last week we witnessed huge number of soldier beetles flying onto the blossom laden trees and at the weekend I spotted a few ants on a plant outside of our front door which turned out to be (I think) mantis ants. I looked them up and found they are remarkably voracious. It made me glad to know they were only 5mm in size! Here's a picture I took of one before I learned that they were actually very good at jumping!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
A Butterfly and a Tiger
We went along to Holy Trinty's Fayre yesterday where the kids enjoyed some face painting. I'm always amazed how still they sit when someone is painting their face.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Panoramic Pictures of our holiday to WA
Our new camera has a natty panorama feature which allows you to take multiple pictures which it then stitches together to make a picture which is wider than usual and takes in more of the view. The problem is they are difficult to display anywhere - Blogger only allows 'standard' images.
I managed to suss out how to add scroll bars, so here's some pics from our holiday in 'panorama' style.
Moses Rock Beach
Hamelin Bay Wines (we stopped here for a spot of lunch) the view over the vineyard was beautiful (not really done justice by this picture)- this is actually a 360 degree view
Overlooking Cape Naturaliste
Amy and Audrey on the descent to Jewel Cave
I managed to suss out how to add scroll bars, so here's some pics from our holiday in 'panorama' style.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Queen Comes to Canberra
The Queen* came to Canberra this week. She's here for the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in Perth and they're trekking her and Phillip around the country at break-neck speed. The Queen is 85 and Phil 90 so it's possibly their last trip over here.
She came to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial and the four of us went along to watch. As is typical with these occasions you don't see much more of them than their faces behind a tinted Range Rover window. In fairness I think they did a bit of a walk-about when they arrived but it was raining when they left so they headed off for tea and cake leaving us commoners to huddle under umbrellas. They drove by at 11.15am - the lady standing next to us had been there since 8.30am..
Here's a couple of pics
Even after we had seen them I'm not altogether sure that Eli really 'got it'. On the way back to the car he kept asking 'When are we going to see the King?'. It was too hard to explain.
*I must confess to unbridled ambivalence towards the Royal Family.
There are obviously loads of pros and cons to their existence. Ridiculous suggestions that they bring in tourists to Britain vs the demonstration of the effectiveness of a 'neutral' head of state vs a politically motivated one vs the inbred and privileged nature of the role vs a constitutional monarch in a guilded cage etc etc. It's all a little dull. To be honest since I've been in Australia my view has softened as I've been grateful that a much smaller slice of my tax is going to pay for them as well. I still suspect that Johnny Rotten had it about right when he sang 'God Save the Queen' in 1977.
It does makes me chuckle that she's head of State in Australia and appears on our coins and $5 note. I can't really be bothered to consider if it's right or wrong but I do agree that it serves to lift the tone of the place a bit. Having a 4 year old daughter who talks incessantly about Princess Catherine also helps.
Anyway, enough of that.
She came to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial and the four of us went along to watch. As is typical with these occasions you don't see much more of them than their faces behind a tinted Range Rover window. In fairness I think they did a bit of a walk-about when they arrived but it was raining when they left so they headed off for tea and cake leaving us commoners to huddle under umbrellas. They drove by at 11.15am - the lady standing next to us had been there since 8.30am..
Here's a couple of pics
Even after we had seen them I'm not altogether sure that Eli really 'got it'. On the way back to the car he kept asking 'When are we going to see the King?'. It was too hard to explain.
*I must confess to unbridled ambivalence towards the Royal Family.
There are obviously loads of pros and cons to their existence. Ridiculous suggestions that they bring in tourists to Britain vs the demonstration of the effectiveness of a 'neutral' head of state vs a politically motivated one vs the inbred and privileged nature of the role vs a constitutional monarch in a guilded cage etc etc. It's all a little dull. To be honest since I've been in Australia my view has softened as I've been grateful that a much smaller slice of my tax is going to pay for them as well. I still suspect that Johnny Rotten had it about right when he sang 'God Save the Queen' in 1977.
It does makes me chuckle that she's head of State in Australia and appears on our coins and $5 note. I can't really be bothered to consider if it's right or wrong but I do agree that it serves to lift the tone of the place a bit. Having a 4 year old daughter who talks incessantly about Princess Catherine also helps.
Anyway, enough of that.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Holiday to Perth and Margaret River
The four of us headed West to Perth and then onto Margaret River for a week's holiday.
I had to go to a conference for a few days in Perth so Amy took the kids round the beautiful city while I was tied up in a dull conference suite. As well as many hours in the hotel pool (which the kids loved) they visited Kings Park which overlooks the city and then spent days at Fremantle and Rottnest.
Rottnest is an island just 20k off the coast of Perth. It's a small sandy island which they reached by ferry. The island has a population of around 10,000 quokkas on it. They are small kangaroo-esque marsupials which only live on Rottnest.
When the island was discovered by the Dutch in 1696 (the Dutch got to WA before Cook landed in NSW) he thought they were rats, hence Rottnest (i.e Rats nest island which has a whole different connotation to it). Fortunately the Dutch were mistaken and the kids spotted a number of them on their trip.
After my conference had finished we hired a car and drove the 4 or so hours south to Margaret River.
It's a stunning part of the world. Beautiful green hills giving way to sand dunes and blue sea. A lot of the coast is protected and development free. White sand and crashing waves, pretty flowers and trees lining small country roads.
We tried to take in a number of vineyards on our trip (wine for the adults, beach for the kids) - there was an incredible number of them. I must admit though a quick trip to the Cellar Door of a vineyard for a tasting or three makes parenthood considerably easier!
We spent a lovely afternoon at Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse a really amazing spot on the extreme South West of Australia. It's a point where two oceans (the Indian and Southern Oceans) meet - you can actually see their waters meeting. It was manually operated up until 1982 - one of the last in the world.
We also visited 3 caves, Mammoth, Lake and Jewel. All full of stalactites and stalagmites. The area is situated on huge seam of limestone and so the caves were breathtaking in their size and stature. All of them involved precarious steps through narrow rocks to get into them (not exactly 'caving' but certainly challenging with 2 children in tow). Audrey and Eli loved the caves. Each trip featured an obligatory 'lights out' session where the guide cut the lights so we could experience 100% darkness (which was VERY dark).
We spent time on the beach in Hamelin Bay, Redgate Beach as well as the beach at Moses Rock, where Audrey and Eli splashed for hours (I'm sure they'd still be there now if they could be) in the rock-pools. I swam in the sea a few times, but to be honest I never got much above my waist. Three people had been eaten by shark(s?) in the last three months in WA - an American as recently as last weekend and so I was a lot more tentative than usual. Even the odd bit of seaweed brushing my legs made me jumpy!
We also visited Busselton Jetty. A huge structure going 1841 metres out to sea (I'm sure it must be visible from space like the Great Wall of China!). Since shipping/logging has died out in the area the end of the jetty has been converted into an underwater observatory where you can view the reef which has formed at the end of the jetty piles. There were huge schools of fish. It surpassed any aquarium. Here the fish were looking out at us rather than us looking in at them!
As well as wine we indulged in ice cream (Simmos Ice Creamery) and lovely chocolate from the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and now back at work I can feel the belt on my trousers is considerably tighter!
The journey home was a sad one. Audrey and Eli who had been incredibly well behaved on the flight out (drawing several comments of praise from fellow passengers) were more grouchy and tired on our return.
I'm not sure when we'll next head to that part of the world (it's a long way from Canberra both physically and metaphorically too I guess) but we really loved our holiday and came back refreshed and happy.
I was going to put a big string of pictures here, but thought I'd put a video instead. Hope you like it.
I had to go to a conference for a few days in Perth so Amy took the kids round the beautiful city while I was tied up in a dull conference suite. As well as many hours in the hotel pool (which the kids loved) they visited Kings Park which overlooks the city and then spent days at Fremantle and Rottnest.
Rottnest is an island just 20k off the coast of Perth. It's a small sandy island which they reached by ferry. The island has a population of around 10,000 quokkas on it. They are small kangaroo-esque marsupials which only live on Rottnest.
When the island was discovered by the Dutch in 1696 (the Dutch got to WA before Cook landed in NSW) he thought they were rats, hence Rottnest (i.e Rats nest island which has a whole different connotation to it). Fortunately the Dutch were mistaken and the kids spotted a number of them on their trip.
After my conference had finished we hired a car and drove the 4 or so hours south to Margaret River.
It's a stunning part of the world. Beautiful green hills giving way to sand dunes and blue sea. A lot of the coast is protected and development free. White sand and crashing waves, pretty flowers and trees lining small country roads.
We tried to take in a number of vineyards on our trip (wine for the adults, beach for the kids) - there was an incredible number of them. I must admit though a quick trip to the Cellar Door of a vineyard for a tasting or three makes parenthood considerably easier!
We spent a lovely afternoon at Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse a really amazing spot on the extreme South West of Australia. It's a point where two oceans (the Indian and Southern Oceans) meet - you can actually see their waters meeting. It was manually operated up until 1982 - one of the last in the world.
We also visited 3 caves, Mammoth, Lake and Jewel. All full of stalactites and stalagmites. The area is situated on huge seam of limestone and so the caves were breathtaking in their size and stature. All of them involved precarious steps through narrow rocks to get into them (not exactly 'caving' but certainly challenging with 2 children in tow). Audrey and Eli loved the caves. Each trip featured an obligatory 'lights out' session where the guide cut the lights so we could experience 100% darkness (which was VERY dark).
We spent time on the beach in Hamelin Bay, Redgate Beach as well as the beach at Moses Rock, where Audrey and Eli splashed for hours (I'm sure they'd still be there now if they could be) in the rock-pools. I swam in the sea a few times, but to be honest I never got much above my waist. Three people had been eaten by shark(s?) in the last three months in WA - an American as recently as last weekend and so I was a lot more tentative than usual. Even the odd bit of seaweed brushing my legs made me jumpy!
We also visited Busselton Jetty. A huge structure going 1841 metres out to sea (I'm sure it must be visible from space like the Great Wall of China!). Since shipping/logging has died out in the area the end of the jetty has been converted into an underwater observatory where you can view the reef which has formed at the end of the jetty piles. There were huge schools of fish. It surpassed any aquarium. Here the fish were looking out at us rather than us looking in at them!
As well as wine we indulged in ice cream (Simmos Ice Creamery) and lovely chocolate from the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and now back at work I can feel the belt on my trousers is considerably tighter!
The journey home was a sad one. Audrey and Eli who had been incredibly well behaved on the flight out (drawing several comments of praise from fellow passengers) were more grouchy and tired on our return.
I'm not sure when we'll next head to that part of the world (it's a long way from Canberra both physically and metaphorically too I guess) but we really loved our holiday and came back refreshed and happy.
I was going to put a big string of pictures here, but thought I'd put a video instead. Hope you like it.
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