Dragonlady Grotto

Holidays are over

2012-01-26T13:41:00.001+10:00

Now that we are after-hours caretakers of a charitable home we don't have a lot of time to get away together - especially not if we want to be away for more than a couple of hours. Usually Mr Sunshine has to teach on weekdays and I have commitments to grandchildren and a Bible Study group. So while schools were on Christmas holiday break we took the opportunity to get out during the day when we could.

In early January we had a relaxing day trip to Tully with Cheetah. Tully is the rainfall capital of Australia, although there have been times when (shock, horror) they have been accused of topping up their official rain gauge in order to maintain that reputation. Obviously having the highest rainfall is a great source of community pride - even more important than maintaining your communal meteorological integrity. Things have settled down these days and it's all water under the bridge.

So proud are they of their achievements in the race to the top of the precipitation stakes that they built a giant gum boot with a spiral staircase inside. That is Mr Sunshine looking out from the top of the boot and Cheetah sitting on the foot. The sign inside the boot tells you all of the important data about Tully's rainfall.

From the top of the boot you get an excellent view of the Tully Sugar Mill. Sugar cane, banana, paw paw and pineapple farms blanket the landscape from Rollingstone to the Daintree, but sugar cane dominates. Unfortunately sugar cane is also responsible for a dark stain on Queensland's history when Pacific Islanders were tricked into leaving their islands and forced into virtual slavery on many farms.

An unexpected delight of the day was the colony of woven bird nests near the giant gum boot. I have since found out that they are Metallic Starlings (also called Shining Starlings). Apparently their colonies can grow so large and heavy that they bring down tree branches and as the nests lay crushed and scattered on the ground the goannas, bandicoots, rats and snakes clean up the mess of injured birds and nestlings. Note to self: this idea could be sold to the creators of Angry Birds.

On the way home we saw a sign to Murray Falls which neither of us had ever heard of so we rounded out the day by taking a 20 kilometer detour that was well worth the effort. Apart from the main falls, there is a series of rapids and pools that turbulate like a washing machine. Here I have to apologise for not having a better photo, but we were under attack while trying to enjoy the spectacular scenery. March flies the size of baby elephants bit us and tormented us until we gave up and left.

Note to self: never, ever go bush without insect repellent!

Ladybug Days

2012-01-12T18:24:00.002+10:00

Juliet is working on a couple of days a week. Actually, as mum of 1 year old Ladybug, she is working 7 days a week. That is what mums do. But Juliet has a job that she gets paid for as well which is a bonus, except that I'm sure she misses little Ladybug while she is away at work and Ladybug misses her too. On the day that I have her we do our best to keep Ladybug busy and entertained, but it's not hard because she is a very good Ladybug.

A couple of weeks ago Ladybug borrowed our boss's toy clown called Buttons. Buttons did very well playing with Ladybug and making sure she was happy.

This week we decided to go to the McTavish home while they were away on holidays and play with the cousins toys and not just the toys. Like all little girls, Ladybug likes shoes, but she is not a slave to fashion. She really liked spending the day in Monkey's joggers and socks even though she had two pairs of shoes of her own in her bag.

Aunty MMcT's childproof cupboard doors were another source of fun. Apparently rattling them very fast makes a great noise.

Best of all there was the boys' bunk beds. They have a camo net around the bottom bunk which is fun to hide behind and say, "Heyooohhhh", in a singsong voice over and over and Lion has a huge toy Lion that you can snuggle up to and pretend to go to sleep.

Even better than "best of all" is the top bunk. Up there you can be taller than everyone, especially Grannysaurus. It's so high that Ladybug could almost touch the stars on the ceiling.

You can feel very brave being soooo high up even if it is a tiny bit scary.

Going Quackers

2011-12-04T14:13:00.005+10:00

It was THE Saturday night that Dragon had been waiting for. The big kindy night where they do their end of year production. It was to be combined with my church's Carols by Candlelight under the rain trees and mango trees in the playground. Up to 300 people attend most years. Dragon had a speaking part too. He was to be the inn-keeper. You know the one - the good inn-keeper who didn't kick the young pregnant mum out on a winter's night, but let them stay in his warm stable.

Mummy McTavish thought it would be a good idea if Grannysaurus went along to help with the boys since Wolf McTavish had to go to work. So it was all planned until... I received an email from my church letting us know that the evening had to be cancelled due to the possibility of rain. Mummy McTavish wasn't entirely convinced because she had not received notification from the kindy, so we decided to go ahead as planned and resort to plan B if we had to.

We arrived at kindy/church to find the kindy teachers sending everyone home because it really was cancelled. Big disappointment for the boys, but when we told them about Plan B they quickly recovered. Plan B was to go back to the Dragonlady Grotto, pick up some stale bread and head down to the river to feed the ducks, turtles and fish.

It promised some great photo opportunities with the boys in their Christmas shirts. Wrong(ish)!
Three excited boys standing still for more than 0.5 seconds - impossible!
Three little blow flies all looking at the camera at the same time - impossible!
Three little comedians all smiling angelically at the same time - impossible!

I took a few photos, but not the carefully composed family groups that I had in mind, so I decided to put them in a slide show for you.

The most exciting part of the afternoon for the boys? What could be more exciting than a shopping trolley dumped in the river by vandals? To think - some poor kids only get to go to Sea World and Dream World. They don't know what they are missing out on.

Oh, and the rain? Check out the sky in the photos, but it did rain eventually - late that night and the next morning.

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Stealing his thunder

2011-12-02T18:51:00.000+10:00

It was Mr Sunshine's birthday recently, so we all met up at Romeo and Juliet's place to have tea together and celebrate. After a delightful dinner (where, as usual, I forgot to put some of the food out and found the potato salad and coleslaw still untouched in their containers as we were packing up) it was time for THE CAKE - a rich choc mousse concoction from Cakes on Carthew. The grandkids all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to Grandad and for a happy family photo. Just as the song ended and Mr Sunshine got ready to blow out his candle, Lion gave in to a tempting impulse and beat him to it.

I love the look on Mr Sunshine's face. How did I capture the split second instant as the flame flickered before it snuffed out? I'm glad you asked because the timing is entirely due to ~~my great knowledge and skill as a photographer~~ really, really good luck.

Poor Mr Sunshine - all puffed up and nowhere to blow.

Moving up

2011-11-22T12:20:00.000+10:00

I have been a slack blogger. I admit it - guilty as charged. I could say I have some good excuses, but they are still excuses and it isn't as though I couldn't have written something. But "something" isn't necessarily worth reading. There are a lot of things I can't write about now.
I can't write much about our natural environment because we are no longer living at the beach. We have moved back into town as caretakers for a charity organisation. It is probably best that I say little about that in case I breach some security or privacy protocols of which I am ignorant.
So I can't write about where I live.
I can't write much about the grandchildren since I have so few new photos of them to post because I wasn't snapping any. I had an eye problem that dragged on for months that made photography difficult. That is now 95% fixed.
Then there was the coughing virus and the tendinitis in my right hand (my camera weighs over a kilogram - ouch) and the packing up and moving and a week in Brisbane for a family funeral.
In other words, life just got in the way for a while.

Now I'm back in form and doing things to make the creative juices flow. A day with Juliet and Ladybug helped. My grandkids are all sooooo photogenic. [Totally unbiased grandparent opinion.]

As we were passing the helipad at the hospital we saw the emergency helicopter had landed. We decided to wait and watch it take off. We were not disappointed. One of the crew waved to Ladybug and blew her lots of kisses. He was a sweetie! He kept waving as the helicopter lifted off. He was high in the air and still waving when he finally had to close the door.

One last photo because it intrigues me that the blades of the helicopter appear so distorted. I'm not sure if it is just the phone camera lens causing it or if it is a genuine distortion of the blades caused by the uplift, downdraft or whatever.

Only the blades are distorted so I don't think it is a lens distortion. If there are any aerodynamics engineers out there, feel free to leave an explanation in my comments.

More of nature

2011-08-25T14:57:00.000+10:00

Something you don't see every day.

Blue winged kookaburras are common here at the beach, but I think our blue winged kooka's have the most spectacular colours of any I have ever seen. This fellow was snapped with the camera flash (I know the experts detest direct flash, but I don't carry around a ton of camera gear - mainly because I don't own a ton of camera gear).

It was late in the afternoon and the natural light wasn't picking up the iridescence of his blue feathers, so it had to be a flash. I'm not sorry. It has turned out to be my favourite kookaburra photo.

Another new favourite photo.

I photographed this water lily as the late afternoon sun was fading fast. The pond was already in shadow, but the petals were catching the last few rays. No flash for this one, just soft natural light and lucky timing.

Soon the McTavish clan are going to see some dinosaurs. Lets hope for some great photos on their blog when they get back. It's been a busy time for all of us lately, but blogging should return to normal soon. Normal is a very relative term, isn't it?

The Museum Trip

2011-08-22T11:01:00.000+10:00

Mummy McTavish needed time off from children to ~~shop, drink coffee, meet her friend E~~, prepare the boys bedroom for their new bunk beds. So I took them and Nanny (great-grandmother to the boys) to the museum. It has some fantastic, hands-on gizmos for little boys to ~~play~~ interact with, especially in the science section. It's all science really, but you know what I mean. Dragon is making music with some bottles in the first picture.

The model of The Pandora takes up most of the first floor and the highlight of the day was the firing of the replica canon. The presenter asked Dragon which boat they should aim at (the museum is situated on the creek bank overlooking a marina and the canon faces the huge windows). Dragon pointed out a red boat on the opposite bank and was so focused on seeing it blow up that he missed out on all of the activity of preparing the canon and "lighting" the fuse. He didn't miss the bang, but I suspect that he was a bit disappointed when the red boat didn't sink.

While they were there they apparently were put in chains for some misdemeanor and thrown into Pandora's Box. Fortunately I had them released from custody, but not before I took their photos. Monkey looks like a violent and ruthless mutineer if ever I saw one. Don't you agree?

Dragon is such a hardened criminal that he can still smile while being chained up in the dingey, smelly ship's hold. He seems to have grown an extra pair of hands too. Strange things happen at sea. . . .

No wonder they turned into criminals when even their great-grandmother couldn't go straight and ended up in Pandora's Box also.

We had a great time and the boys were very good, but I didn't take many photos because I had my hands pretty full with grandma duties.

Beach Refugee

2011-07-30T13:21:00.001+10:00

No, not us this time.

Meet Myrtle.

I discovered Myrtle lying on the beach when I went for a walk yesterday afternoon. She (or he, I know nothing about turtle gender) did not look very well. At first I thought she was already dead, but when I gently lifted one of her flippers she tried to turn around and do a ~~runner~~ paddler. Poor Myrtle was in a very bad way. What to do? What to do?

Usually I would have my mobile with me, but I'd left it at home. I stood and watched her for a few minutes and it was obvious she didn't have the energy to get herself back to sea. I knew that sick and dead sea turtles had been found on Townsville beaches recently. Cyclone Yasi gets the blame again and rightly so. The rough seas whipped up by the cyclone had destroyed most of the sea grass that the turtles feed on and now, six months later, turtles were starving and dying. Poor Myrtle. There was only one thing for it. Pick her up and take her home and phone for help from there.

Myrtle might be starving and underweight, but she was still heavy. Fortunately I was only a couple of hundred yards from home where I put Myrtle in the bath tub. She took up most of the bath tub. After several phone calls I spoke to someone who told me that she was a green turtle and to cover her with an old bag or hessian and keep her wet with warm water. Not having any hessian she got my ~~good~~ recently worn out Actil sheets. I think she looks like a well dressed turtle. He also told me that the algae on her carapace was not a good sign. The barnacles were more normal, but still not great to have on her head and flippers.

Myrtle spent the night in the tub and in the morning it did look as though she was an ex-turtle. She wasn't moving at all. When someone rang from the EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) Mr Sunshine told them that we thought she had died. Just before I left for an appointment, I lifted her little flipper to have one last look at her and just to be sure she wasn't playing possum. She moved her head - ever so slightly, but she was alive. While I was out the EPA man came to pick up Myrtle's mortal remains and Mr Sunshine produced a live turtle. They took Myrtle out into the sun, poured some more warm water over her and let the sun warm her up. She perked up a bit. It was a good sign.

The news is that Townsville's Reef HQ already has so many convalescing green turtles that Myrtle will probably be sent up to Cairns. Apparently we are reasonably good turtle carers, but we could have kept her on some foam (maybe one of my pillows??) to take a weight off her lower carapace and we could have warmed her up more. You live and learn.

The best news is that with expert care, she will probably fully recover.

Promise of good things to come

2011-07-28T11:55:00.001+10:00

The mango trees are covered in blossom and already have hundreds of tiny fruit. Many of the fruitlets (is that a word?) will fall off or be blown off by the wind. Last year all of the fruit fell before it matured. It was the worst year ever for mango growers. So far this season looks very promising.

My favourite way of eating mango is after they have been dehydrated. I have a food dryer and I'm planning to have it go into mass production this summer :-) I may share the produce with friends and family. That is after I put aside several truckloads for myself. I told you I really do like dried mango.

Speaking of the promise of good things to come, I took this photo of a path down to the sea yesterday. I love the "light at the end of the tunnel" atmosphere. I was hoping to get a nice sunset photo. Mostly cloudless skies are not producing the best sunsets, but I'm glad I snapped this one.

Even though the sunsets may not be as spectacular as I hope for, I've included the last photo so that you know they are not rubbish either.

Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel is a good omen.

Gorgeous Birds

2011-07-26T12:53:00.001+10:00

These days I don't see as much of the grandkids as I used to, so I take an interest in the other families around the beach.

The photo collage gives you little glimpse of some of our neighbours. There are many, many more who prefer to be heard and not seen. In fact the air is usually so full of birdsong that I rarely put my music on. Back in town I often had music playing as an alternative to listening to air and road traffic noises.

You already know my favourites are the Brahminy Kite family. Their baby is now flying, but I haven't seen him in action yet. The Nankeen Night Heron regularly roosts in the top canopy of our biggest mango tree. He would prefer to be closer to the sea, but was probably forced to improvise following Cyclone Yasi and the lack of foliage left on most trees. Blue Winged Kookaburras regularly wake us up with their strange half laugh. They are also called Barking Kookaburras, but whoever came up with that name must have had a strange dog.

Spangled Drongos are an enigma. Someone said they are called Drongos after silly people, because they fly south in the winter (i.e. for northern hemisphere readers - our south is the coldest part of the country) making them appear silly. Some other 'expert' claimed that silly people are labelled Drongos after the birds. Which came first? I don't know.

Like I said, it's just a glimpse.

It really is a bird watcher's paradise as long as you want to watch the feathered variety. The only non-feathered variety is a migratory species usually referred to as the Grey Nomad. They are very common at this time of year, sometimes forming huge flocks that create problems for traffic and National Parks rangers.

They don't tolerate the heat of summer and when the weather warms up they all return to their nests.

Misunderstood

2011-07-19T14:40:00.001+10:00

Not me.

This beautiful fellow.

Can you see him at the bottom of the fence? He was about 1.5 meters long.

Many people think every snake is a bad snake. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt when it is safe to do so. I believe this is a harmless green tree snake. I tried to get closer to be sure, but he disappeared in the blink of an eye. I didn't even see which way he went.

Some people call them yellow-bellied black snakes and think they are poisonous like red-bellied black snakes, but there is no such creature in Australia as a yellow-bellied black snake - just the poor misunderstood tree snake.

I was fortunate enough to be looking out of the kitchen window when I spotted him.

He made my day.

Recovery Mode

2011-07-16T16:14:00.000+10:00

Cyclone Yasi was over five months ago, but the memory lingers on at the beach. Hundreds of trees like this one on the foreshore have roots exposed by the erosion that has left a small embankment separating the foreshore and the sand. They are the lucky ones.

Many didn't make it. Some survived the initial onslaught only to be weakened and unable to survive the dry season.

To be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a bit the same. The storm that was the GFC cost us our life savings, our home, our business and a chunk of our superannuation. It also cost us hundreds of hours of lost sleep. Like cyclone Yasi, it isn't really over yet. We are still in recovery mode.

Our future is very uncertain. Suitable employment seems to be eluding us. We live in a borrowed house. Our grandchildren are a fifty minute drive away instead of a five minute drive away. And we are not young anymore. There is a strong possibility that we may have to move much further away from family for Mr Sunshine to find a job. Being "not young anymore" makes the likelihood of a career change unlikely. I don't know which one of these things is the hardest to deal with. All of them are depressing and we have good days and bad days. Today is not a good day.

Mostly I am very optimistic and upbeat, but not today. This may be because we have been discussing other options - like taking up university study again for either of us. Even that would not guarantee a job, but it might get me a student allowance for a few years (Austudy) - not exactly a lucrative option. Mr Sunshine thinks I should study just for the fun of it. I would enjoy it, but it would also encroach on my grandparenting time and that would hurt. Even though I would chose study aimed at a writing career (can I say that when retirement age is only about ~~4 years away~~ 9 years away, b*****y government's eligibility changes), it would actually also encroach on the time available to do the writing I want to do.

Anyone got any ideas?

The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson

2011-07-12T13:14:00.000+10:00

"The Eagle" was one of my favourite and easiest to memorise poems from high school. Our eagles may not be clasping any crags, just gum tree branches, and the mountain walls are 20 kilometers away, but the rest is pretty true. They do seem to have a lonely existence. Even the chick sits alone in his eerie most of the day while one of his parents looks on from a distance and the other is out hunting. I have not yet seen any two of them get within meters of each other. Although at night I can only see one adult and I suspect that the other is in the nearby eerie keeping her chick warm.

The bottom two pictures are to give you some idea of how my poor camera is struggling to bring them up close. I have a 200mm telephoto lens that is doing a mighty job and a wobbly tripod that is doing its best, but these lovely birds like to be really high. So if the photos are not pin sharp, I hope you will bear with me.

If I can get a photo of one of them falling like a thunderbolt I will share it with you, but, like a thunderbolt, it happens very fast and furious. The bird is away with a fish almost before I have the camera at eye level.

The Eagle

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Tiny Time Team

2011-07-10T13:52:00.000+10:00

If you haven't seen Time Team on the television you are missing out on archeology at its most entertaining. The McTavish boys have been keen archaeologists thanks to Tony Robinson and crew. A few weeks ago when they visited us, Lion did some digging in the garden and under the trees and eventually became frustrated and threw in the trowel because he couldn't find any archeology.

A devoted Grannysaurus could not leave it at that. If the boys wanted to find archeology, then archeology had to be found. So mysteriously archeology started to find its way under the big mango tree. Very sensible of previous civilizations to leave their relics in the shade. Old tools, hose fittings, coins, bones and odds and ends were lying just below the surface waiting to be discovered apparently. So when the boys returned for another sleepover, we decided to put in two trenches. What do you know - they found plenty of archeology. The most exciting finds were the "dating evidence" (the coins).

As usual Dragon was the King of Silly Faces. Unfortunately Cheetah didn't star in any of the photos of the day because he was the official photographer. I love his photo of Lion in the middle top of the collage.

Morning tea was Anzac biscuits again thanks to Cheetah's kitchen skill.

Would you believe that four year old Dragon actually accused me of putting the archeology in the ground? No flies on that boy!

Cheetah Feature

2011-07-02T15:13:00.001+10:00

As I said in a previous post, Cheetah, our oldest grandchild and for a long time an OG (only grandchild), came and stayed with us for a few days of the school holidays. He wasn't a slacker either. I asked him if he wanted to prune the mango tree where some of the branches hung too low. He didn't have to be asked twice when it comes to using big tools. In no time at all he had a pile of branches nearly as tall as himself. (see footnote) This wasn't all he did.

He also dug holes, raked leaves, took out the compost, baked bread, made macaroni cheese for dinner and baked Anzac biscuits for his family. Anzac biscuits are an Aussie icon, a bit like oatmeal cookies if you are an American, but tastier. You can see Cheetah with some cooked biscuits still on the tray in the far RH picture below.

At times we did let him out of the kitchen to have some rest and relaxation playing computer games or exercising on an old drum (maybe we should rename him Hamster). We also had an outing to the Cassowary Coast to do some bushwalking at Jourama Falls National Park. Note to self - never again take energetic, impulsive grandchildren to places with steep cliffs, loose rocks or cold, deep water. They might survive, but my nerves may never be the same.

While the day was still young we kept driving and had lunch in Ingham and a quick visit to Cardwell. Cardwell was one of the towns in the line of fire from cyclone Yasi and suffered badly. The environmental and building damage is still in evidence and will be for years in places. But... it is still a beautiful little beach-side town. The view of Hinchinbrook Island is a classic picturesque seascape.

Next week we get him back for four more days.

I wonder if the septic tank needs to be re-dug.

Footnote - our electricity company was also pruning trees around power lines in the vicinity and the mango tree did have branches close to powerlines. It is possible that Cheetah's huge pile of mango clippings had some help from a nice man with a chain saw and a sense of humour.

Wouldn't you know it. . .

2011-06-25T18:16:00.000+10:00

We have had fantastic weather. Cool nights and mild to warm days without a cloud in sight. The trouble is that for a great sunset you really need some clouds - not too many or you can't see anything. I've been watching the sky like a seasoned sailor waiting for the right conditions to get the perfect sunset photo. This afternoon looked very promising so at about 5.15 I set off with the camera up to "the point". The point is where the river meets the sea a couple of hundred metres up the road from home.

Everything was shaping up beautifully until my second photo. I was planning a longer exposure to see what the effect would be on the water and I was hoping for a nice, golden blur. Nothing. Flat battery. Annoyingly, I had charged up the spare battery only a few hours earlier, but I left it at home.

So this is it folks. Out of a grand total of two photos, this was the best. I am pretty happy with it and there will be other opportunities.

Remember I promised to keep you posted about our neighbours, a pair of brahminy kites? I think they might be expectant parents. This is what I saw this morning.

My interest in her was not appreciated. When a bird of prey glares at you, you know you've been glared at.

I'll be keeping a close eye on them and keep you posted.

In Lieu of New Header

2011-06-19T18:55:00.000+10:00

A new header for my blog is a fairly time consuming thing. It's not that I'm time poor. It's just a matter of priority. I will produce a new header in the not too distant future (I hope). In the mean time you need to know that one of the grandchildren is missing from my header. She is nearly a year old. That's how slack I've been. So here is one of the latest photos of our little Ladybug with her mummy, Juliette. You can visit their blog here.

All of our family have bloggy nom de plumes for security and it is always a BIG decision when we have to decide on a new one for a new grandchild. After all, it has to reflect some of their character and be positive. None of them will ever be a "Spider" if I have my way. Our Ladybug is soooo cute and colourful - like her namesake.

Of course since the last header update the other five have grown too. So you were wondering if I have any recent photos of them too. I'm so glad you asked. Here is Little Bear looking gorgeous as usual, but sort of quiet, even pensive, definitely NOT as usual. Don't be fooled by the photo! Little Bear is the most impulsive and ~~overactive~~ energetic of all of the grandchildren. She can be giggly, teary, cranky, haughty, sweet, charming, cuddly - and all within the space of a minute.

Here is Monkey in a pose that I often see, but will never take for granted - running towards me with outstretched arms, usually yelling "Mammar!" as loud as he can at the same time. How can you not love that? That's Mr Sunshine and Dragon in the background.

Here are Monkey's big brothers with their cousin Little Bear. That is Dragon in the middle and Lion on the end. Lion is a bit like the Lion in the Wizard of Oz in that he often has that serious, slightly worried expression. He can be very serious for a little fellow, but he also has the most adorable loving and cuddly nature with a great sense of humour. Dragon is always ready for fun and it is much more rare to catch him with a worried look.

That only leaves Cheetah - the oldest - our first grandchild. Cheetah was an OG (only grandchild) for 5 years before Lion came along. I'll leave him out for now because soon he will be having a little holiday with us and I will make sure I feature him then.
Maybe with some fresh photos I'll find the time to update the header. Maybe.

Meet the neighbours

2011-06-11T17:21:00.001+10:00

Not all of the neighbours. We do have quite a few very interesting neighbours, but these are two of my favourites. They are Brahminy Kites, otherwise known as Fish Eagles or Red-backed Sea Eagles. They are the most intense chestnut colour with a pure white head. I think they are really gorgeous and I hope to get much better photos of them in the future. As Mr Sunshine and I went for our beach walks, I sometimes spotted one of them in a certain tree - the tallest tree in that part of the neighbourhood. Then one day as I was photographing him. His mate flew in to join him. That was even better.

On the way back I was checking to see if they were still there. They weren't, but then I glanced over at a slightly smaller tree nearby and saw their nest. How I had missed it before I don't know. It is several feet across and very high. No wonder they look at me in a very suspicious manner when I stop to take their photo. They have a lot at stake with a home to protect.

Needles to say, I will be watching this for further developments. I'll keep you posted if there is anything to report.

Monkey Meets THE STIG

2011-06-09T11:08:00.001+10:00

What do you mean it's not the real Stig? Of course it is. Just look at Monkey's expression. Would he look that impressed if it wasn't the real Stig?

Mind you, the Stig was feeling a little flat that day. He was standing at the back of a Townsville bookshop mostly on his own until Monkey came along. I'm sure we brightened up his day. It made Monkey's day.

As we left, the Stig was really cool. He didn't move a muscle or wave, just stood there. But he still looked a little flat. Maybe he needs to be a little less rigid at times.

Beach Crowd

2011-06-07T13:51:00.000+10:00

Mr Sunshine is such a funny man. He was having some fun with my camera and said, "You'll have to put this picture on your blog because the beach is so crowded today". That's the crowd in the photo. We do usually have more room to ourselves it's true, but really we don't mind sharing the beach with crowds like this.

We had Lion and Dragon with us for an overnight stay. Too short really. Dragon got into the spirit of a beach holiday with this lei he found among the toys.

Both boys enjoyed crushing aluminium cans with Mr Sunshine's "bommy-knockers". Is that a real word? I hope it's not rude. We collect them for the Leprosy Mission (cans, not bommy-knockers) and they sell them to metal merchants to raise money. If the cans are crushed they don't take up so much storage space and little boys just love hammering the living daylights out of anything as Lion's grin proves. I swear these boys keep getting more handsome.

They didn't spend all of their time doing hard yakka. Some of the time was spent playing at the beach. We built a race track in the sand for the toy grader and dump truck to whiz around.

Obviously, the crowd had thinned out a bit by this time.

Mystery Footsteps In the Kitchen

2011-05-24T15:03:00.000+10:00

Mr Sunshine was dozing in his recliner (it happens when you get old, doesn't it?) and I was reading when I heard something walking around in my kitchen. There were other sounds too that I couldn't make out. Sort of scraping sounds. Maybe it was a bird trying to steal some rubbish from the kitchen tidy. Maybe it was a possum, but possums are usually asleep during the day. It sounded too heavy to be a mouse or rat and too noisy to be a snake, but it was odd.
As I got up to investigate the chair made a squeaking noise and my mysterious visitor heard it and disappeared before I could see him (or her). I hadn't seen a bird fly off as I thought I would and that just added to the mystery because I was thinking it sounded like bird feet on the vinyl.
In the next few days I heard it again several times. Usually as I walked in from outside something would scuttle away before I could see it.

Not today. Today he just wasn't fast enough or maybe he was getting slower from the cool weather or not having anything to eat for a few days. Here he is - or she is. I don't know how to tell the difference. How about I call her "she" because she is beautiful and she has been very discreet?
She is a sand goanna, also called a yellow spotted monitor, over 60 cm (2 ft) long from nose tip to tail tip and she just couldn't find her way out. She is only an adolescent. When she is full grown, she will be more than twice as long as she is now, like her friend who lives under the neighbours house. The one next door would be nearly as long as me if I lay down next to her. I'm not going to do that in the near future. I estimate she is about 1.5 metres (5 ft).
Soon two of the grandsons are having a sleepover here. They love wildlife, but a goanna in the house just might freak them out so we won't tell them where she was.

I'll just tell them about the one next door.

Butterfly

2011-05-11T12:25:00.000+10:00

I know that I posted about birdwing butterflies recently. I know that there are a million things I should be doing rather than chasing butterflies around with a compact camera. But I couldn't resist this fellow who let me get pretty close. Unfortunately I only have Mr Sunshine's camera and this is the best it can do, but I'm still pretty pleased with it.

You know you have left the big smoke when...

2011-03-28T15:02:00.001+10:00

...you drop in at the local community hall/op shop and nearly every one in the neighbourhood is in there line dancing.

...the local kids' park is home to kangaroos. This old man kangaroo looks with complete disdain on my intrusion into his domain. (Note his Willy Wagtail mate hitching a ride. I didn't see the bird until I downloaded my photos.)

...and there is really no need for the man-made silhouette of a kangaroo when the real thing is willing to pose - and much better looking.

...when we can leave our brand new letterbox just sitting on a box on the footpath and it doesn't get stolen or trashed.

...when you see lots of these beautiful creatures fluttering about. This male Birdwing Butterfly followed his lady around fluttering directly above her to show off his colours every time she stopped to sipped some nectar. She seemed to be more interested in the flowers than than her suitor. He was much bigger than my hand span. She was even bigger, but less colourful.

...when you have several kilometers of this without another person in site.

It's a tough life, isn't it?

Party day

2011-03-25T15:58:00.001+10:00

Uncle Romeo and Auntie Juliet decided to have a combined birthday party this year. It was a great idea. Juliet had everyone organised to bring an item of food and it worked out beautifully with minimum fuss. It was a VERY hot day so the children only spent a very short time in the sunshine.

After a little bit of ball throwing, Little Bear, Dragon and Monkey spotted Romeo's open shed. Of course it was probably full of exciting things just waiting to be discovered.

Behind the shed is the fence and behind the fence is the neighbour's yard and in the neighbours yard is a big dog with a big bark. The dog could not get into Romeo's yard, but the kids didn't know that. They also didn't know that the dog wasn't actually inside the shed. He just sounded like it.

As I took the last photo, Monkey burst into terrified tears and I put the camera down and gave him lots of cuddles. It's tough being a granny :)

When it was time for cake, scary dogs were forgotten. Little Bear didn't want to miss out on blowing out the candles even though it was not her birthday.

Of course the youngest member of the family, Ladybug, didn't miss out on any fun with five bigger cousins to keep her entertained.

It was a great day. Happy Birthday Uncle Romeo and Auntie Juliet.

Moving on

2011-02-27T14:04:00.000+10:00

There were times that this house drove us nuts.

Like when the roof used to leak before we got it replaced.

And when the rain used to come flowing through the back door before we sorted out how to stop it.

And... and... and...

But it is also filled with wonderful memories of grandchildren at play

And doing some serious jiving.

And learning to drive a compact model.

Sleepovers at Grandma's house.

Cooking up a storm in Grandma's kitchen.

Making a splash in the "swimming pool" on the footpath.

And helping Grandad in the garden.

It has been a great 18 years, but it is time to move on and make some new memories.

Soon...

2011-02-19T17:06:00.001+10:00

Less than two weeks to go. . .

then our house will belong to someone else
"Grandma's park" will no longer be "Grandma's park"
the bank will be repaid and off our backs
the threat of having our house repossessed will be over
the packing will be completed
the giving away of everything we cannot store or keep will be completed
most of our financial debts will be fulfilled
the most stressful time of our lives will be over
most of the tears will be over
the photos will be all we have to remember our home of 18 years
But (staying positive) we will be living at the beach. Thank God for MIL's with beach huts.

'Tis a Puzzlement

2011-01-13T14:43:00.000+10:00

Nothing to do with the King and I from where I stole the quote, but a jigsaw puzzlement.

The jigsaw has 1000 pieces and took many hours to complete. I had no guiding picture to work from. Just a bag of 1000 pieces. It was meant to be a mystery puzzle with a twist. Completing the jigsaw was supposed to provide the final clue to 'Murder on the Hindenburg'.

Unfortunately I don't have a clue because the book with the story relating to the picture was not in the box. The picture on the box had absolutely nothing relating to the picture in the puzzle. At least I completed the puzzle and there were no missing pieces. I will never know who was murdered and who was murderer. 'Ttis a puzzlement.

We lost the battle

2011-01-05T16:06:00.000+10:00

I'm back. For us personally, 2010 was a terrible year in some ways although having a new granddaughter and seeing all of the grandchildren thriving is definitely a redeeming feature of our "annus horriblis". More on that at a later date.
The photo is of a sign that appeared in our park early last year. Can you believe that a children's park that is home to a children's football team and is next to a primary school (ages 4-12) and a toy library is going to have a licenced clubhouse? We signed the petition. We wrote a letter. We went to two public meetings. Many of our neighbours did the same. And we lost.
In a city were public drunkenness is a problem. In a country that spends millions of dollars dealing with the illness, violence, crime and every other negative outcome of unrestrained alcohol consumption. . . we lost. Our petitions fell on deaf ears.
The real losers are the kids who will grow up thinking that sport and alcohol are inseparable because their football club says they are by their actions. To have a good time you have to have alcohol. To raise funds for your club you have to sell alcohol. That is the message to kids.
I could say a lot more, but you get my drift.

Tap . . .Tap . . . Tappity . . . Tappity . . .

2010-07-11T16:48:00.000+10:00

Child-minding for the McTavish grandkids again and never a dull moment with these boys. Lion looked in my shoe cupboard and "found" some "tap" shoes. Hard plastic soles are the closest thing we have to tap shoes around here. I can remember when I was a little girl that the cobbler (we had real cobblers back then) put little metal bits on the sides of the heels of my shoes because I kept wearing them down. They really did tap after that. So many of life's little pleasures have been lost.
Anyway, Lion and Dragon started to improvise a little dance. By the time I found my camera and some dancing music (karaoke Christmas was the best I could find at short notice) they were starting to lose interest, but with the promise of some chocolate biscuits for morning tea, their enthusiasm returned. For a little while at least.
I prefer not hear my own voice recorded, but it can't be helped. I reckon I should be offered a job doing voice-over for cartoon and computer animations because I can do a great wicked witch impersonation.
If you listen really carefully you will hear a little squeak from Monkey in the background.

That time of year again

2010-07-05T14:57:00.000+10:00

It's rosella time.

Not the parrots, the bushes, which means. . . the jam (or jelly if you want the American translation).

Often, we in the tropics bemoan the fact that we don't have many of the beautiful flowers and fruits that our temperate climate cousins enjoy. I know I do. But sometimes there are little compensations. Rosella jam is one of them. It is actually made from the colourful bract that contains the seed. The seed is used for providing the pectin in the jam making process, but they are then discarded after the jam is made and not left in the jam.

What does it taste like? That is difficult to describe. It has a tang - a bit like raspberry or marmalade, but it has a flavour like nothing else. The perfect balance of sweet and sour really. Maybe a bit like rose hips with zing. No, that doesn't describe it. You'll have to get some and try it.

Another wonderful thing about rosellas is they are good for you. Really good! Research has (apparently) proven that rosella juice can lower blood pressure and has cancer fighting properties. I'm always a bit sceptical of these types of claims until I know who did the research and who paid for it and how it was done. But since rosella jam tastes so great, I'll gobble it down and if it does me some good that is a double bonus.

Another bonus - they self-seed and thrive on neglect.

My rosellas are living proof of that.

The Wheels Fell Off

2010-06-26T13:22:00.001+10:00

That could be the story of my life.

The wheels fell off.

I'm not depressed- just being realistic about some aspects of my life.

Mr Sunshine and Romeo have been working very hard. They average 15 hour days some days and 7 days a week most weeks. This is ~~all~~ mostly thanks to the global financial meltdown. More on that later.

Today I thought I would do my bit. Mr Sunshine is rarely home until after dark so that makes mowing the yard a bit difficult. I used to do all of the gardening and mowing. Eventually Mr Sunshine took over most of the mowing ~~when I got old and weak~~, ~~too lazy~~, the grass became really thick and difficult to mow.

Today I did get all of the front yard and most of the footpath mowed before disaster struck. Somewhere in the long grass on the footpath is a little bit of metal like a tiny metal hub cap. Without it I can go no further.

Actually only one wheel fell off this time, but it is not the first time that this has happened to this mower.

Now to some other metaphorical wheels that have fallen off. Last weekend our whole family went to the beautiful tropical paradise known as Magnetic Island for the wedding of Mr Sunshine's niece. We had a wonderful time. The grandchildren had a great time.

Here we are - a very rare pic that has the children, their spouses and the grandchildren all in one photo. We are a handsome lot and I'm not being biased ;) I love the way we are mostly colour coordinated - entirely by accident.

Then we came home. . . to the sound of running water and the gently swoosh of waves. . . under my bedroom floor boards where no waves were ever meant to be. The floor boards are bamboo and they are supposed to be a lovely light creamy colour. They are not supposed to have grey and brown discolouration.

The sound of running water seemed to be coming from everywhere. On Monday the plumber took a bit of ~~a punt~~ an educated guess and cut a hole in the wall of our shower recess. It was a good guess because he was within a hand span of where the pipe was busted and spraying out water (as it had been all weekend while we were away). He was relieved because it usually took longer and more holes in walls and floors to find a leak. On Tuesday morning the insurance assessor arrived and checked out the damage and sent his report away. Now we wait. We have been through this before. Two years ago it was the drainage pipe that leaked and wrecked the floor boards. The insurance company replaced them. The floor was only installed three and a half years ago. We are starting to wonder if the house is cursed.

We have lived here for 17 years and had up to 7 leaks in the roof which wrecked part of the ceiling. During one severe downpour we had 9 or 10 buckets and pans throughout the house catching the water as it came through the ceiling. It was a nightmare. We replaced the roof. We have had water rushing in our back door and through our laundry and rumpus room in heavy rain. I had to call the SES for sand bags, but they couldn't get here because the roads were too flooded. We have had to replace wall panels and timber beams in walls that were affected by wood rot and termites. When the wall panels were removed we found the skeletons of about 24 rats (they probably ate the termites before dying of starvation or rat bait) in the walls. Apparently they jump down from the palm fronds which overhang the house and get in under the edges of the roof. We have had a swarm of bees temporarily set up home inside our back wall. We still have paint peeling from our ceiling throughout most of the house although it was completely repainted only three years ago. The new paint is not peeling. It is the original paint coming off under the newer paint and leaving the bare ceiling panels exposed. I have miles of sticky tape holding the ceiling paint together. Really! We have had bikes stolen from the yard on about 4 occasions and an attempted break-in that shattered a front window. On another occasion someone broke in while we were all asleep and went through all of the desk and file drawers in Mr Sunshine's study and damaged a laptop which they left lying on the living room floor. They only stole one can of coke. Probably kids. That is the major things that I can remember. Along the way there have been numerous minor irritations.

Then there was the GFC. With our usual great sense of timing we had just gone heavily into debt to buy a business that caters to the top end of the market. We do glass splashbacks and two-pack spray painting for cabinetmakers, builders and private customers. These are luxury items and luxury items got crossed off most folks' lists when the economy wobbled. Two major builders went bankrupt owing us thousands. Thousands of locals lost heavily when Storm Financial went under and spending came to a standstill. Two of our tradesmen left us and set up a competing business and poached our customers. Then we had to deal with equipment breakdowns that never happen one at a time, but arrive en mass.

The wheels ~~always~~ fall off. Not always. We are still fighting to stay in business and, God-willing, we will survive. We have great kids and the most lovable grandchildren. We have wonderful friends who have helped us and prayed for us. We live in a beautiful, free country. For at least 90% of the world's people, life is much harder than ours.

We count our blessings and our greatest blessings are in the group photo above.

Whose birthday?

2010-06-07T22:02:00.000+10:00

This Wednesday will be someone's birthday and she will be 29. Isn't that exciting?? If you go to this blog you might be able to guess whose birthday it is.

When I look at photos of my kids when they were little, I often wish I could turn back the clock. It all seemed to pass so quickly. Too quickly. And yet 29 years have passed since I was in that labour ward having the surprise of my life - a painless labour. Well, until the last few minutes that is. But I wouldn't complain about that. [No I wasn't on any drugs either.]

I could tell you so much more, but I might not be very popular in certain quarters if I start airing ~~too many~~ family secrets on the world wide web. Of course I could just make some up ;)

Do you think those three little boys over at Samster-dot-com have picked up some of their mother's looks? I hope so.

Happy Birthday for Wednesday Mummy McT.

Flower power

2010-06-05T14:18:00.002+10:00

The truth is . . . I was looking for a plug-in for photoshop so that I could straighten some crooked images. I didn't find what I wanted. I found some other cool stuff instead. Like this kaleidoscope plug-in and it was free.

My garden is looking very neglected and sad at the moment and I love flowers. So, I simply made more flowers using photoshop. Easy. Some very mediocre photos came alive with this plug-in.

I took these photos back when the garden was blooming just before Romeo's wedding to Juliet. It's been all down hill since then - for my garden, not for the happy couple.

The top photo is a rose. (Variety - Duet. It also has a beautiful scent.)

The next photo is an aster.

The bottom photo is a weeping bottle brush (Callistemon viminalis).

I wish my garden looked this colourful.
BIG SIGH.

New Skills

2010-06-04T08:16:00.000+10:00

Bap. Bap. Bap.

That's Monkey's new word. We thought it meant Clap. Clap. Clap. But it is an all-purpose word. It can also mean Bye. Bye. Bye. And is accompanied by a smile and a wave.

Monkey's other new skill is clapping. He is very pleased with his new skill.
Can't you tell?

Ockerism exposed

2010-05-30T14:23:00.000+10:00

Warning!

Educational content

(well, sort of)

Okay. . . so it is not the most flattering pic of Mr Sunshine. I can't help it if he stood in front of the camera while I was taking a picture of something ~~even more rounded~~. Sorry Mr Sunshine, that was uncalled for. Actually Mr Sunshine does not look exactly like the gentleman in the photo (circa 2008). He is now several kilograms lighter and if I continue to be such a slack cook, he may yet lose even more weight and his doctor will be pleased.

The photo was taken at the Beaconsfield Mining Museum in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. The whole world heard about Beaconsfield a few years ago when a couple of miners were rescued alive, after being trapped nearly a kilometer underground for two long weeks in a tiny (1.5 X 1.2 meters) metal cage.

But this is about the Furphy. The photo is of a genuine Furphy and that's no Furphy. Let me explain. . . . in Australia a Furphy is any misinformation, whether intentional lies or accidental. The original Furphy was a water tank pulled by a horse and cart as in the photo. During WW1 they were used to cart drinking water for our soldiers. I thought it was pretty exciting seeing a real Furfy, the stuff of legend so to speak, but I'm easily pleased.

How did a water cart become a euphemism for misinformation? I don't think anyone really knows for sure. Wikipedia gives some theories about this so I won't repeat what they say. Since it stems from WW1, I can't help thinking that it also could have something to do with wartime secrecy and propaganda. After all, propaganda is all about the dissemination of Furfies (misinformation, not water tanks) in order to confuse the enemy.

Oh, and if you don't know what an ockerism is then you obviously are not Australian. An ocker is an all-Australian bloke - a bit of a rough diamond. Ockerisms are Australian slang terms used by ockers and others - like 'ocker' for instance and 'furphy' and 'bottler' and 'dag' and 'yobbo' and 'galah' and 'budgie smugglers'. What do they all mean? If we told you we'd have to kill you.

Then you would be cactus, mate, and that's no bull dust.

Dragon McTavish - the Charmer

2010-05-27T20:56:00.001+10:00

There wasn't much happening so I went back to some old photographs for inspiration.

Enjoy some light relief.

Click on the icon in the bottom LH corner to see the video.

Draft Header

2010-05-26T22:55:00.003+10:00

I've been working on a new header picture. It still needs a bit of touching up, but you get the general idea.

The problem is that the template I'm using doesn't allow for editing the header. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I'll get over it or else I'll get around it some how. Wait and see.

New skills

2010-05-24T21:27:00.000+10:00

The last few days have been a little frustrating to say the least. . . frustrating in a bloggy way.

You may have noticed.

I thought it was time to update the ankle-biters' photos in my header. Monkey has grown so quickly that he would hardly be recognisable from his previous little baby photo. So I created a new header and it didn't fit the header frame. I changed the background and it narrowed my writing space down and left huge margins on the sides. It also cut off some of my photo collage of my mum, which forced me to shrink it to fit. All in all, my blog ended up looking embarrassingly amateurish.

Of course I am an amateur, but that is no excuse. I don't mind being an amateur. I just don't want to look like an amateur.

The good news is that I found out how to widen the bits I needed to widen and changed my background to one broad page instead of columns and I'm much happier.

[Try to imagine me doing a happy dance around my computer]

Now the grandkids fit neatly in the header frame - I will change it though. It was another failed experiment, but I will reuse the photos of them because they are sooo cute. There will be more changes. Gradually and carefully.

Happy (belated) Mothers' Day

2010-05-22T10:40:00.004+10:00

This is my Mum. I created the collage weeks ago, intending to post it for Mothers' Day. Unfortunately life got busier and busier and although I phoned Mum on Mothers' Day, I didn't do a Mothers' Day post. It was going to be a nice one - full of positives that I have to be thankful for and letting Mum know what her strengths are. I was going to put a lot of thought into it.

[BIG SIGH]

I don't seem to get a lot of time for thoughtful stuff like that.

Still, Mum needs to know that she is thought about and appreciated and loved, so I post the collage now and hopefully the thoughtful stuff will find a window of opportunity later.

A Baptism

2010-05-06T18:46:00.003+10:00

Baby fingers and toes are so cute and photograph-able. I love the way her little fingers are just as pink as her gorgeous little dress.
Sunday May 2 was a big day in the lives of two little babies. Mr Sunshine's twin great niece and great nephew were baptised. The little man was a good baby who slept a lot - like good babies do. His little sister (a minute younger) bawled into the minister's clip-on microphone as he held her and at the celebratory morning tea, spent quite a lot of time awake. So we have more girlie pics than little boy pics, sadly.

You can see that she wasn't unhappy all of the time. That smile was for her Grandad D. He was putty in her tiny little hands.

I would love to know what their big brother was thinking when he pulled that funny face during the service.

Battle of wills

2010-05-02T16:10:00.000+10:00

Today Monkey met his match. All of our grandchildren have strong wills (from Mr Sunshine's side).

Meet Mr Sunshine's mum - one of the great grandmas to my grandchildren. Our grandchildren have been blessed with a virtual plethora of grandparents. Great grandma loves her grandchildren and great grandchildren, but she is not about to be pushed around by any of them.

No matter how cute they are ;)

Minding Grandchildren 101 - The Sleepover

2010-05-01T11:45:00.003+10:00

Today's post title should be accompanied by music - dramatic music - the sort of music you might hear in the introduction of a very scary movie. The sound of the music would fill you with dread even before you knew what would follow.

Last weekend was the Chimera and DH's anniversary. It was a special one and they decided to have a second honeymoon at the place where they spent their first honeymoon. No one takes the kids on a honeymoon, do they? That is what grandparents are for.

This would be great - three whole days AND NIGHTS with Cheetah and Little Bear under the same roof.

Yes, THREE NIGHTS! Cheetah has slept at the Dragonlady Grotto many times in the past and regarded his mother's old bedroom as his room because he spent so much time here. It had his toys, his quilt, his spare clothes, his dresser. Sleeping here was never a problem for Cheetah.

But Little Bear has only slept here once before. She missed her house. She missed her own bed. She missed her mummy and daddy. She couldn't fall asleep. She tried the bed in Cheetah's room, but it wasn't her familiar bed. She was up and down like a yo-yo, in and out of the bedroom, wanting a tissue to blow her nose, a drink of water, a cuddle, a book - anything to avoid sleep.

Cheetah was patient, but he was overtired too. Mr Sunshine was being patient, but he was getting tired. Grannysaurus was patient in a "biting-my-tongue-and-counting-to-ten" kind of way. Little Bear is only two and she was trying to be reasonable in a two-year-old kind of way. It is amazing how long a really tired child can stave off sleep even though bigger, older and tougher individuals are buckling at the knees, drooping at the eyelids and ready to collapse. Little Bear's mother taught me that. . . oh, about 30 years ago.

Eventually, I folded my quilt into quarters to improvise a mattress on the floor in my own bedroom and put Little Bear there and I stayed in the room and reassured her that I would be sleeping there all night. It didn't work instantly, but it did work and for the next three nights, that was where Little Bear slept. On the third night we had Little Bear and Cheetah on the floor in our bedroom - no honeymoon for us ;)

Three days with the children gave me a generous number of photo opportunities. The collage gives a bit of insight into Little Bear's charming personality. I deliberately left the blurriest one in the middle because that is what we mostly saw of Little Bear - a blur whizzing by. She is the proverbial blow fly, never sitting still for longer than a few seconds. Getting an unblurry photo of her was almost as big a challenge as getting her to sleep.

Cheetah is not a blowfly. I could have taken hundreds of crisp shots of his back dramatically silhouetted against the light of my computer screen. He does like playing computer games (which I was constantly monitoring for suitability). But I didn't take any photos like that, just a few when he emerged occasionally.

I forgot to mention that with Cheetah and Little Bear came Jo Jo, the cockatiel. Jo Jo has learnt that whistling gets attention and sometimes buys him a few minutes of freedom. He whistled a lot. That feathery little bonnet at a rakish angle on Little Bear's head is Jo Jo - not his best angle.

Finally a Sunday afternoon picnic tea at the Strand got everyone out of the house and some valuable cousin-bonding time with the McTavish clan. Note the bags under the eyes on Little Bear in the bottom pic. Her mummy told me that she crashed when she finally got home to her own bed.

Can you see the gleam of idol worship in the way Lion looks at Cheetah? I'm glad that he is a worthy role model.

They are a gorgeous bunch of grandkids and I'm not the least bit biased.

Skippy

2010-04-18T17:32:00.000+10:00

How time has flown! This is Romeo in 1992 - his first year of school. Romeo was five years old. He is now 23.

Skippy was the name given to the Agile Wallaby joey he is holding in the pillow slip. Skippy's mother was hit and killed by a car and Skippy was found, hopping around, on the side of the road, looking very lonely, vulnerable and confused. Baby wallabies are born in a very underdeveloped state - hairless and tiny. When Skippy was adopted by Romeo's class he had very little hair. By the time this photo was taken he had grown quite a bit and settled in to classroom life very nicely.

Romeo's lovely teacher Mrs W, (her son had found Skippy) got permission to care for Skippy because he is a protected species and had to get a special milk formula that suited his metabolism. She hung a pillow slip in the classroom for him (a fresh one every day) and he would execute a careful somersault into it in the same way that he would have rolled into his mother's pouch. At night Mrs W took him home to care for him.

Not only did Skippy thrive in the classroom, the children learnt to care for him and learnt a lot about marsupials. Mrs W is still a great teacher who takes advantage of situations (like caring for Skippy) to create a theme for the students. Arithmetic, writing, music, reading, poetry - all had a marsupial theme until Skippy grew into a healthy young wallaby and had to go to a new home to prepare for his release back into the wild. Lots of learning took place while Skippy bounced around between the desks and busied himself getting to know the children.

Yesterday I bumped into Mrs W at the shopping centre and we spent at least an hour standing in the aisle (trying not to inconvenience other shoppers) while we reminisced and caught up on all of the news about our respective families. Mrs W taught each of our kids in infant classes and knows as much about their childhoods as we know ourselves. For each of them she will always be their favourite teacher.

I wonder how long wallabies live and if Skippy or his progeny are still hopping around somewhere in our great outdoors?

Beneath Hill 60 Premier

2010-04-17T11:28:00.002+10:00

This week the movie premiered in Townsville where it was shot last year.

It interests me because it is a bit of lesser-known Australian history and because I have a need-to-know.
Dad's Uncle Thomas (click for more information) was a tunneller in the war. He was recruited in Tasmania where he was a miner. He suffered from mustard gas poisoning twice in Belgium and was repatriated home to Tassy. He died a few days before the Armistice was signed.

In his last weeks of life, the Australian Defence Force denied Thomas' application for a pension. They (whoever "they" are) claimed that his "rheumatism" was a pre-existing illness even though they gave him a clean bill of health when he signed up only two years earlier. This information is in his records which are accessible from the Australian Archives online. Was this an injustice? I believe so.

Brave, fit men signed up, compelled by noble motives, to do a dangerous, frightening and dirty job which took them far from their loved ones. To return, frail and ill, traumatised and dying and be denied a pension by a penny-pinching government - that's betrayal.

Maybe the movie will fill in some gaps for me.

Lion Wisdom

2010-04-12T22:49:00.002+10:00

Grannysaurus file photo

Lion wisdom [while sweeping the pavers at Aunty Chimera's barbecue area with a broom]:

"Something's wrong with this vacuum cleaner. It doesn't suck very well."

Is it in the genes?

2010-04-09T08:41:00.000+10:00

Do they have their grandfather's eyes?

Cheetah's green friend

2010-04-07T18:26:00.002+10:00

WARNING

If you have a frog phobia, you might not want to view these pics:)

These days, I don't see as much of the Chimera grandchildren as I do of the McTavish grandchildren. The result is that my blog doesn't feature Cheetah and Little Bear as much as the other ankle-biters. So today, for no particular reason, I decided to find a favourite pic of Cheetah to feature in a post.

I have many favourite pics of Cheetah because he is so photogenic with his pixie face and big blue eyes. Can't you imagine him as an elf-lordling?

I can remember when this little frog landed on him nearly 18 months ago whilst he was playing in the McTavish cubby house. We all love frogs - although Mr Sunshine has a frog phobia, he still thinks they are cute to look at. As long as they keep their distance and don't give him THE LOOK - you know. . . that LOOK that means, "I'm about to jump and I'm looking for a suitable landing site." Fortunately none of the grand-kiddies have inherited his phobia. [They have all inherited my spider phobia :( ]

Cheetah was obviously delighted that the little green guy was being so chummy and was disappointed when he jumped away. They say that frogs are a sign of a healthy environment. The McTavish back yard must be very healthy indeed. They have heaps of them - in the pot plants, under leaves, in the crevices and even in the barbecue. You have to do an inspection before turning on the gas. At times the outdoor area has a distinctive amphibian fragrance from the number of frogs. If you have frogs you will know this fragrance.

Kermit posed for one last close up before hopping on his way.

Dad

2010-04-05T13:15:00.001+10:00

This is one for the family. Dad passed away in February 2005. I didn't realise how many photos I had of him until I was playing around with Picasa3's facial recognition feature. Then with the click of a button and about 2 minutes of rearranging and I made this collage.
I haven't scanned all of my old film photographs yet either.
These pics span about 50 years of Dad's life.

Minding Grandchildren 101 - The Park

2010-04-04T12:38:00.003+10:00

Why the park?

A. They aren't messing up the house while they are in the park.

B. They use up some of that bountiful energy supply and (hopefully) sleep more soundly at night.

C. Fresh air is good for them and us.

D. Exercise is good for them and us.

E. They just love to go to the park and think we are the best grandparents in the world for taking them.

F. Add more of your own reasons by leaving a comment.

The red brick house that you can't see behind the trees is the Dragon Lady Grotto. This is only a fraction of our park. It's big enough for 2 Rugby League fields and we figure that it's about 1 kilometer in circumference. So, aren't we lucky to have so much playground for the grandchildren? The down side is that until this time of year it's too hot to make use of it until late in the day.

On Saturday we looked after the McTavish grandchildren again. For more than an hour we were in the park and even Monkey had a great time. He forgot all about his obsession with food for the whole time.

There is a cycle path around the park and various (adult size) gym equipment also dotted around the park close to the path. Lion can just reach the handle bars on this one. I'm pretty pleased that I managed to catch the action with my camera.

Another action shot I'm fairly happy with is this one of Dragon playing hopscotch, but I think it would have been better if I'd got down really low - like on my belly - to get the feel of the distance between his feet and the ground.

Of course it can't be all sunshine and Lion had a momentary funk when Dragon's weight stabilised the roundabout thingo and stopped it from turning for him. I told him to keep frowning because I wanted a good 'grumpy' photo. So, naturally, he started laughing and giggling, but not before I "shot" this one.

Usually they want to stay in the park forever and we have tears when it is time to leave. The really amazing thing was that this time they were happy to leave and come home with us. Maybe they were getting hungry after all.

Weird Australian History About Bunnies.

2010-04-02T16:52:00.002+10:00

This photo was taken in about 1956 in a VERY small town called Ringarooma in North East Tasmania. That is me on the end behind my cousin and my (late) Nanna is watching us. Nanna owned a dairy farm on the outskirts of the town. All of my family know where Ringarooma is of course. The geographic information is for readers who have never heard of it.

In Australia, towns are measured by how many pubs they have. Ringarooma is a one pub town. It's a small town by anyone's standards.

The next photo is the Ringarooma pub, circa 1956. These days it looks a little less fresh than it did back then.

My 'weird Australian history' is about the general area in the 1920's. The photos are just to give you a general idea of the area and to help cast your mind back.

We all know that there were no rabbits in Australia before European colonisation. But in the early days, some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to bring bunnies from Europe out to this country. Before you could say "here comes Peter Cotton-tail" Australia was overrun with rabbits and they were a plague and a menace. In the 1920's the folk in the Ringarooma area were fed up and started a baiting campaign. I don't know what their poison was, but it effectively killed truckloads of rabbits. Unfortunately it effectively killed truckloads of magpie birds also because they ate the dead rabbits and possibly the baits as well. Unlike the rabbits, the magpies were virtually eradicated from the area.

Back then, folk did not always think through the consequences and environmental impact of their actions. There was an impact because the magpies ate moths and butterflies and caterpillars and now there were very few predators for the moths, butterflies and caterpillars. Caterpillar populations exploded all over the countryside. In 1926 they denuded the land of every scrap of vegetation.

Now for the weird history so pay attention. . . The caterpillars were so thick on the ground that they even covered the railway tracks. They made the railway tracks so gross that trains couldn't run until the tracks were clear.

That's right - Caterpillars stopped the trains.
I think that's weird.

Footnote: Obviously I was not the photographer. My mother took the photographs with her little Kodak Brownie camera.

Sunday drivers

2010-03-29T21:28:00.002+10:00

Actually it wasn't a Sunday. By the way- what is the origin of the 'Sunday driver' equals 'an accident looking for a place to happen driver'? Is it something to do with Sunday drivers being sightseers and therefore not focused on the road and traffic? But back to my story-

Actually the pictures are the story. Mummy McT took the photos and I made them into a collage (with a little help from Picasa3). Get a load of that lawn. That's how everything looked after weeks of good (a bit too good at times) rain. Well maybe not EVERY thing, but everything green and growing took on an almost surreal brilliance. I have never seen so much of the countryside looking quite that fluorescent shade of green before. We get so used to grass looking a sort of washed out light tan colour and eucalyptus and wattle trees tend to cope with the severe sun by having grayish foliage, that the greenness of the grass looks positively unnatural. But back to my story-

Mummy McT and Chimera took all of the children to the park directly over the road for them to have a play with their trikes and scooters and for Cheetah to practise on his new (at Christmas) RipStik. Poor Cheetah. It was much harder than he was expecting and it seemed that he really did have two left feet. I'm sure practise will get him there in the end.

As for his younger cousins, Dragon and Lion, they have about 12 and 14 years to go before they can get their driver's licences. Let's hope their concentration and coordination improves by then.

In case you are wondering, there were plenty of wheels to go around and Little Bear and baby Monkey were there too.

Monkey's wheels were on his stroller of course.

Minding grandchildren 101

2010-03-27T08:23:00.003+10:00

I have been a very bad blogger. Long ago I decided that I would use pictures to tell the story, with minimal waffle from me. What should I do when I haven't had time to get out and about with my camera? [Although my camera is quite often out and about without me. Stay posted to Samster.com to see what my camera has been up to lately.]
Finally I decided to browse my photo folders for inspiration.

Lesson 1: Look silly for them.

Little Bear is usually very easily entertained. Like most little girls, she is happy as long as she has someone to ~~push around~~ play with. I am convinced that as long as children can find an adult who is willing to embarrass or make a fool of themselves for them they will be content. Just watch the faces people pull when talking to babies, to say nothing of the gobbledygook they speak. You get the picture?

Sorry Mr Sunshine.

Chain Saw Sunday

2010-01-31T10:59:00.001+10:00

Yes, today Townsville is buzzing - literally. The chainsaws are out and people are clearing away the fallen branches, fallen trees and other debris left behind by Tropical Cyclone Olga. We didn't get the cyclone here, just the edge of the rain depression that she degenerated into. The edge of the depression had a ton of rain in it and enough wind to fell more than a few trees.

After a week of flooding rain turning the ground to a soupy mud, it doesn't take a lot of wind to down a tree.

In the top pic, I tried to capture the movement of the trees during one of the late afternoon gusts. It is hard to capture the wind :)

Can you see that topless palm tree, third from the back? It's top is lying out of sight on the footpath on right hand side. I'm happy that its top is not on my car. The wind was blowing in the right direction for me :)

Something else that is out of sight is Mt Stuart. It should be filling in most of the rear of the photograph, but it is obliterated by rain and cloud.

A few seconds after I took this photograph, I heard a loud cracking sound and turned around in time to see a large section of a huge African Tulip tree, on another nearby property, come crashing down. ~~The tree still stands~~. Sorry, I just checked again and the remnants of the tree are being cut down as I type and the scent of freshly sawn timber fills the air. It was impressive to witness its fall. About a quarter of the tree's canopy broke away. It looked so light and graceful, but probably weighed several tons and would have demolished anything underneath it. It was between two rows of houses, so I can't see if it did hit anything. I hope not.

Our drive to and from church today showed just how patchy the storm was. Some areas were littered with debris and others had hardly a leaf out of place. Many areas were without power for hours. Some are still without power. Fortunately we never lost power for a second.

Just as well . . . I was watching Nanny McPhee on the telly. It's one of my favourite movies.

I love the rain

2010-01-30T17:47:00.002+10:00

I love to see kids, big and small, safely enjoying the puddles in the park.

I don't love to hear of children being drowned or injured because they played near storm water drains or fast flowing streams.

I love to see bright coloured rain coats.

I love the surprises the rain brings like this little dog in his bright yellow raincoat.

I love the view from my windows, of everything looking wet and clean.

I don't love getting out in the pouring rain and getting covered in mud, to dig that trench you can see in the bottom, RH side, so that water could flow out of our entertainment area (and stop coming in the back door).

I love the way a good downpour washes away the built up crud on the roads that makes them slippery when they get only a little bit wet.

I don't love to see brainless, idiots in 4WD's cruising around too fast for the conditions, creating large bow waves that force water to flow into peoples' houses.

And I can live with this . . .

It was on its last legs before Tropical Cyclone Olga began leisurely pirouetting around and across Queensland and the Northern Territory. I won't blame Olga. I'm sure glad that we noticed it wobbling and Mr Sunshine took the car out from under it an hour or two before it collapsed.

A little while ago one of our lovely neighbours phoned and asked me to park my car up on his raised driveway. Now I won't even have to wade through our swampy front yard to get in and out of my car.

Tale of a Tail

2010-01-24T11:38:00.000+10:00

You don't need to tell me that this is not the greatest photo of a black cockatoo. It does capture the colour of his/her tail though. I did complain about them not cooperating with me and letting me photograph their tails in this post. So, on a later visit to Balgal Beach I stalked them while they were feeding in a casurina tree and getting up to all sorts of mischief at the same time. The cockatoos that is, not me. This was the best tail photo I snapped.

You can see why any photography enthusiast would want to capture that. I'll keep trying to do better though.

Photographing what's not there

2010-01-13T18:53:00.004+10:00

Mr Sunshine and I took a trip to The Towers (also known as The World and real name, Charters Towers) on Tuesday. It was work related, but we decided to make a day of it. Charters Towers is an historic gold mining town about 1 1/2 hours drive inland from Townsville. The country around it is usually dry and dusty, but recent rains have made everything green.
The photo, above, was snapped through the windscreen, just as we were getting back into Townsville. I had been trying for miles to get a photo of the mirages which come and go on the highway. Because we were travelling towards them at about 110 km per hour, it only gave me a window of a second or two to get a photo of the elusive mirages. I did get several photos, but none as clear as the one above. Believe me that road is bone dry. It hadn't rained all day and it was hot, hot, hot. If there had been any water on the road it would have long since dried up. In each of the mirages that I caught on camera you can see blurry reflections of trees and nearby cars in the "water" which adds to the realism of having a genuine puddle of water. I'm just happy to get a photo of something that isn't really there.

This was the other strange thing - not the blurry blob near the centre, that is a chip in the windscreen :). The white lines do not curve at all, but when the road had a dip at just the right angle it would create this strange visual effect as though the road sort of slims down and then broadens out again. The road is uniform in width and the shoulders of the road and the white lines continue in a straight line.

It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you see with your own eyes.

Solitary Lion

2010-01-12T17:26:00.001+10:00

Monday was Dragon's very first day of kindy. Mummy McTavish was taking Dragon to kindy and then having coffee with friends. Lion could tag along with Mummy if he wanted OR he could spend some one to one time with Grannysaurus. He chose Grannysaurus.

Can you guess what we did? Some of it is easy to guess. Lion wanted to check out the streetsweeper ads on the internet. Doesn't evey 5 year old boy memorise streetsweeper ads? We did that for a while and discovered some mini walk-behind models that Lion hadn't seen before. That was exciting ;)

Babycino and an anzac biscuit (USA translation - cookie) were his choice for morning tea. Not for me - I had coke. Then back to the computer to check out the games on the LEGO website. It is a great safe place for little fellows of all ages. You can build things, colour in things, create things, play games (or play more sophisticated games if you are a big boy).

Lastly we did not do any baking in spite of the last clue in the photo collage. Lion has discovered that Grannysaurus' really old flour sifter can double as a grinder. So he empties the peppercorns into it and creates ground pepper for me. I do have a pepper grinder or two, but this is more fun and I don't use it for anything else anymore.

Do you want to know one sad thing about my sifter? Two years ago, when we were on holidays in Tasmania, I saw an identical sifter for sale in an antique store :(

I have learnt from experience that once Lion starts school, opportunities like this will be much rarer.

So we made the most of it and stayed out of the sun.

Monkey at the beach

2010-01-11T18:23:00.006+10:00

If you have read the two previous posts, you will know that it was VERY hot and steamy when we went to the beach last Friday. When it comes to keeping Monkey cool, nothing beats the old fashioned (and very old) Baby Bouncinette. The netting allows every bit of air circulation to get through and keep Monkey as cool as possible, especially considering it has developed some extra large holes in the netting :)

I think that these are an Australian invention. Does anyone know if other countries have them?

When it cooled down enough to go down to the water, Monkey didn't exactly fall in love with his first experience of the ocean. Look at those seriously curled up toes.

Fortunately Grandad didn't force the issue and a cuddle soon made everything alright.

It was just as well that Dragon, who could really relate to the whole "ocean is a scary place" issue was on hand to cheer up his little brother.

After a suitable interval, Grandma thought it might be worth another test dip. It didn't seem quite so scary this time, but he was still a bit wary.

Meanwhile Lion, as you can see in the background, thought he would take the opportunity to walk to South America. The Pacific Ocean was no barrier. The screaming Mummy and Grandparents proved to be a more formidable barrier and he was grounded to the foreshore for a while.
My wet shorts are from trying to keep up with Lion's previous little ventures into deep water. This time I wasn't prepared to risk trying to rescue him while holding little Monkey without falling in.

Instead of tears, Monkey's last dip in the sea only produced an air of studious contemplation.

Dragon at the beach

2010-01-10T12:33:00.000+10:00

See those rosy cheeks? That was not sunburn or wind burn or from energetic running around. That was just because it was sooooo stinking hot! These boys really needed a dip in the nice, cool sea. Unfortunately nice, cool sea is at least 1000 km away, so they were looking forward to a dip in the hopefully-not-too-warm-sea. The specks of dirt on Dragon's face are bits of sand from trying to play in a tiny bit of shade that the eaves created near the side of the house. Perspiration made it impossible to wipe them away because they just stuck like mud.

While waiting for the sun to die down a bit, Dragon and Lion produced some beautiful drawings - very generously given as gifts to Mummy McTavish and Grandma.

When we were finally able to get down to the beach, Dragon was not really very keen on the sea (shallow as it was) or the waves (tiny as they were). He had a little bit of a paddle, but did not let go of Grandma's hand for even a few seconds.

When Grandad said that he was going for a walk, that was great news for Dragon. He liked walking on the beach and it avoided the stress of being expected to actually enjoy the scary water. Off he went with Grandad.

You could not describe it as a brisk walk, especially since there is a childrens' playground behind the trees about half way along. Somehow Dragon managed to twist Grandad's arm to spend about 20 minutes at the playground.

Soon after Dragon and Grandad's return, big brother Lion was confined to the shore for being disobedient and causing his Mummy and grandparents unnecessary worry. Lion dug a hole in the sand. Dragon helped by fetching buckets of water to pour into the hole. The problem was that Dragon still did not want to go into the water, but he was counting on the waves coming up to the bucket. The annoying waves always stopped short of the bucket. Just look at those disappointed, sagging shoulders.

With a bit of help from Grandad and Grandma, a few bucket-fulls were collected and a safe, little artificial beach was created by the boys. "Little" is probably an understatement as you can see from the bottom photo.

Dragon got in trouble from Lion for putting some sand into his pool, which Lion began to feverishly dig out. How do you tell the difference between the original sand and the unwanted, added sand?

That is Lion wisdom that is too lofty for mere mortals and little brothers to understand.

Lion at the beach

2010-01-09T11:19:00.004+10:00

You can tell that it was a seriously hot and steamy day when we went to the beach with Mummy McTavish and the three little McTavishes.

The sad thing for the kids, is that they look forward to the beach so much, but when we get there, the sun is far too fierce to go out until late in the day. Lion has such lovely milky skin, we would hate to see him get sunburnt. So the boys play in the beach house and try not to be too impatient and sad. Every now and then, you can't help but let your feelings show though.

Finally it is time. Lion wastes no time in getting dressed and heading straight for the water. For a long time he played happily on his own in the sea while Grandma rolled her shorts up shorter and shorter and still got wetter and wetter trying not to let Lion get too far out of reach.

The problem here, is that he has no fear of the water. In spite of Mummy McT and Grandma and Grandad all calling him to stop (and the other family sharing the stinger enclosure all staring at the noisy people all yelling like fish wives), Lion kept wading into deeper water and pretending not to hear.

Unfortunately for Lion, this happened once too often and he was confined to shore for some time. He made the most of it by getting Dragon and Grandad to fetch buckets of water for him. If Lion can't go to the ocean, the ocean must come to Lion.

Finally it was time to go home, so while Mummy McT gave Monkey a "top up" feed, Lion was allowed back in the sea for one last swim. That tiny yellow blur in front of Dragon is Lion.

I hope they slept well last night. I know I did :)

Just Little Bear

2010-01-05T22:27:00.001+10:00

Cheetah is having a holiday with grandparents on his dad's side of the family. So this week and next, Little Bear is an only child. This afternoon she came for a visit and so she had Grandma, Grandad and Mummy all to herself.
She made the most of it.

First, she rushed straight past Grandma, so she could get inside and see who else might be there, what there was to play with and what mischief she could get up to.

Once inside, she realised that there were no little cousins here today. She had no one to play with, but she did have the whole house at her disposal.

And not just the house. Grandad was home. So she chased him with a butterfly net (or butt fly net if Dragon is talking) until she caught him.

That was so much fun that she decided to catch herself too.

Next she did one of her favourite things and put herself in the stroller and buckled herself in. She just likes to sit in it, not necessarily go anywhere. That lasts for about 30 seconds and then she wants someone to unbuckle her because she can't do it herself. One day we might leave her in there for . . .
say . . . five minutes, but I don't think I could stand the racket for even that short time.

I told her that I would only unbuckle her if she gave a really nice smile for the camera.

Worked well, didn't it? I'll have to remember that little manipulation.

Then it was Grandad's turn to do some catching. Believe it or not, she was saying "Cheese" while hanging upside down. I guess she must have wanted this one snapped.

Last, she managed to squeeze in a bit of Jacaranda tree climbing before going home. This is big brother, Cheetah's, favourite thing to do when he comes over. Well . . . sitting in the Jacaranda tree and playing computer games, but not at the same time. We do have a several computers, but so far we have not installed one in the Jacaranda tree. I'm sure Cheetah would think that was a great idea though.

Little Bear didn't really want her photo taken in the tree and kept trying to turn away. I kept saying, "Don't forget to hold on tight!" In the end, she did hold on and I got a photo of her looking at the camera.

It was getting late when we buckled her into her car seat and waved good bye, and I'm guessing that she was unhappy about something because we could still hear her yelling at Mummy when the car was half way down the street.

That's our Little ~~Grizzly~~ Bear.

New Year's Resolve

2010-01-03T12:42:00.000+10:00

While we were at Balgal Beach, we visited our good friends B & E. Don't they look content and relaxed? It was good to catch up and see them so unstressed as 2009 was not a very easy year for them. In fact I don't know if I could say that they have had an easy year since I've known them. They've done things like going off to a remote area of the Philippines for months at a time to help with language translation so that the folk there could eventually read the Bible in their own language. They've battled illness ~~and advancing age~~ and belt-tightening due to the GFC eating away at their superanuation and we all had problems with Biblically illiterate egomaniacs in church and parachurch heirarchies. That's not new. I believe it's been happening for about 2000 years. But not to B and E for 2000 years. They are not ~~quite~~ that old.
They can still smile.
They shared this with us, so I thought it was worth sharing with everyone who visits my blog -

Recipe For A Happy New Year

Author Unknown

To leave the old with a burst of song

To recall the right and forgive the wrong;

To forget the thing that binds you fast

To the vain regrets of the year that's past;

To have the strength to let go your hold

Of the not worthwhile of the days grown old,

To dare to go forth with a purpose true,

To the unknown task of the year that's new;

To help your brother along the road

To do his work and lift his load;

To add your gift to the world's good cheer,

Is to have and to give a Happy New Year.

Happy New Year 2010

Balgal Beach

2010-01-02T18:58:00.000+10:00

How many places can you have this much beach to yourself at the height of Summer? I would guess-timate that there is a couple of kilometers of beach there, but there is one other person on the beach - way down in the distance on the RH side. Too small to see without a microscope. Let's be honest. It had been raining on and off for days. That bit of blue sky was the most we had seen in days. The sea had been a bit choppy and quite a bit of seaweed and sea grass was washed up on the beach in spots. And . . . it is stinger season.
For those folk who don't know about our stingers. Let me tell you, they are fairly small as jelly fish go, but they are deadly. Not metaphorically deadly, but DEADLY. There is a stinger enclosure (to keep the stingers out, not in) about half way down the beach but it can't be seen in the photo. So you can still swim, but it is too hot most of the day to stay in the sun for more than a few minutes. Sunburn is another big problem. But in the cool of the afternoon there is no better place to be.

Today, the black cockatoos were having a ball feasting on sea almonds (I think that is what they are called) that fall off the trees. These birds are about twice the size of a crow and when they fly, their tail feathers fan out to reveal that brilliant red patch underneath. Like all cockatoos, they are very entertaining to watch. I couldn't get them to cooperate for a photo of those magnificent tails, unfortunately.

The weather was steamy and the clouds hung low around the mountains and hills in a way that makes you feel this is what the tropics are meant to be like. Believe me there are real crocodiles in there. I wouldn't go swimming in this part of the creek. I wouldn't let a dog swim there either. Crocodiles are known to be partial to a bit of canine cuisine. In the recent past, dingos have been seen coming down to the creek for a drink. Maybe the crocs ate them all ;)

I can't resist the rocks out at the point. They have so many interesting shapes and there are always tiny fish or crabs ~~running~~ swimming for cover as you approach their small world.

The creek was swollen and running swiftly. Not great for swimming because a lot of weed and silt is being washed through, but there were some brave souls trying it out. Crocodiles don't ~~usually~~ come this far up the creek. It is too shallow and rugged for them to get here ~~so far~~.

All in all, just another beautiful day in paradise.

School shopping

2010-01-01T11:46:00.001+10:00

No, this is not a picture of Mummy McT doing Lion's school shopping.

This was after the event. I didn't go school shopping (ie. shopping for the stationery which Lion needs for school). I stayed home with Little Bear and Dragon so that the mummies (Mummy McTavish and Chimera) and school boys (Lion and Cheetah) and baby Monkey could get the shopping done a little more efficiently. Appart from MMcT leaving the list at my place, I think it all went well. Back at home I had a chance to take a few more photos.

I know that the top photo is toooo off-centre and crooked, but it is so hard to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time that I considered centred and straight to be luxuries I didn't have time to worry about.

This is my favourite photo of the day. It is difficult to catch Little Bear looking straight into the lense and to have such a happy animated expression is the icing on the cake. Why does she have her thumbs on her teeth - who knows? Holding her dentures in maybe??? It just adds to the cuteness.

Admission: Mummy McT actually snapped the bottom photo. Fortunately she inherited my interest in photography and not my talent :)

Dried Mango

2009-12-30T16:15:00.003+10:00

I know. It's not a catchy title, but it gets the point across.

It wasn't just a case of showing off the fruit of my labour (lousy pun fully intended). I wanted to practise using flash compensation and white balance adjustment that I was reading about in my new camera book. These are not new concepts to me, but I haven't taken full advantage of them even though my camera is very well equipped to handle them. Too well equipped in some ways. It can do so much that I tend to balk at using some of the nifty stuff and just go for automatic settings.
I have no excuse.
My first 35 mm SLR camera was fully manual. You had to do everything yourself and understand focal lengths, shutter speeds, apertures, depth of fields, etc., etc., to take every single photo. My flash unit was just as basic and so I had to read the distance on the lens after I had carefully focused and use that as a guide to set the camera's aperture for every flash photo. The flash unit had no adjustments at all.
Somehow I found that easier than the automatic everything that my Nikon does. Strange? Maybe I'm just a product of my generation.
Anyway back to the mango . . . I'm not a food stylist, otherwise I would probably have sprayed it with glycerin to give it a nice moist shine. That might have helped the photo but it wouldn't have helped my mango. I would have several different light sources and I would have arranged the pieces very carefully like a hair dresser preparing a coiffure. Instead, I've just slightly tweaked the white balance (so that the colours are true to life), and added a tiny bit of flash to lighten the shadows. I think it could have done with more flash as the shadows still seem too obvious.
It's a start.
Nanny M D - this will be your mango as soon as I get around to vac packing it and sending it :)

Post Christmas

2009-12-29T16:14:00.000+10:00

This is one of my Christmas presents. It came by a circuitous route from the McTavish clan. Mummy McT obtained it kind of indirectly through the Book Depository. They are similar mob to Amazon and I think MMcT would agree with me that they can be recommended. This book came from the UK to Townsville in 9 days flat - no postage and handling cost, no hidden cost at all. From a local book shop it was going to cost me about $72AU and I'd even paid the deposit which I later got refunded. From the Book Depository it cost much less than half that. It was even less than Amazon, so check them out if you are buying books.

I have been slowly working my way through it. I don't think it will turn me into a much better photographer, but maybe a more efficient one with a few less stuff ups. Already, I've learnt a few new things that I didn't know or wasn't sure about even though I've had my camera for more than a year.

Mr Sunshine and I were looking after the McTavish grandkids the other day and I took one or two photos. (One of my cousin's daughters called me Mrs Kodak Moment a couple of years ago. I wonder why?)

Just as I was snapping this pic. Monkey gave that fleeting quirky little smile. It lasted much less than a second, but the camera caught it ~~by accident~~ due to my lightening fast reflexes.

That is a remote control that Dragon is holding. You can just see the tail of the car in the bottom RH corner. Lion and Dragon love it now that they are old enough to understand the controls a little. The car is slightly noisy, but not as noisy as the squeals of excitement from Dragon and Lion. Believe it or not, that is Mr Sunshine actually sleeping on the recliner in the background. I don't know how he did it. The boys had a ball until the battery went flat, then we moved on to another game.

I played hide and seek with Lion and Dragon. This was Dragon's first hiding place. I'm not sure he has fully grasped the idea of hiding.

One last photo: Lion wanted his photo taken in a super-hero pose. I'm always happy to have grandchildren stay still long enough for a photo in whatever pose they want so here he is. Note the beads of perspiration on his forehead. Super-heroes seem to be able to work up a sweat even inside with the air con on.

Christmas past

2009-12-26T17:18:00.000+10:00

Now that it is all over for another year - here are some highlights.

Lion taking seriously the job of decorating the Dragonlady Grotto tree. He held his arms way back for a big throw and follow through with the tinsel. And here is the result. . .

Not bad, was he?

Of course everyone wants to see how much Monkey has grown. With so many rellies to fight over him, ~~his feet didn't touch the ground~~ ~~all day~~. Since he is a long way from walking that doesn't seem right, but you get the picture. Grandad got in plenty of cuddles.

Big cousin, Cheetah, is always special but since he got a cool iPod from Santa he got extra attention.

Cheetah also did a great job as the official gift distributor. The tree is to his left around the corner.

It looks like Monkey approves of Grannysaurus' gift from Romeo and Juliet.

The McTavish boys looked cool in their Christmas shirts made by their creative mum.

Dragon couldn't believe his eyes when he unwrapped his gift from Cheetah, Aunty Chimera, Uncle DH and Little Bear. He had drooled over this in the shop and never thought he would own it. It was serendipity. His smile says it all and he didn't forget to say thank you.

After waking up with a fever (yet again) Little Bear was given her new medicine that worked like magic. Christmas day was saved for her. Later Christmas night she practised her feminine wiles on Uncle Romeo while Monkey, very discreetly, had his Christmas tea.

By half way through the day, Monkey looked like he was sooo over smiling for the camera, but he didn't mind Uncle Romeo getting in lots of baby minding practice.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T22:45:00.001+10:00

As usual I had a bit of fun with photoshop creating this year's Christmas card for our business. That's Mr Sunshine on the top left. Romeo on the top right and Grannysaurus on the bottom right. The other 3 are who we had left of our staff due to the global financial meltdown. In fact the young woman bottom left has now found other employment also and I have had to learn to handle all of the clerical side of the business. It has been a steep learning curve. Office work and I go together like oil and water. So now there are just five of us where there used to be eight workers - not counting myself as initially I had no role to play and I was still working for the church.

Fortunately the last couple of months have seen a turn around in demand for our work and things are starting to look more hopeful. We are not entirely out of the woods yet and we have a huge amount of catching up to do to repay our debts (mostly to the bank, the tax man and ourselves - especially ourselves), but we can see a light at the end of the tunnel and we are hoping that it is not the headlight of an oncoming train.
The truth is that in spite of the dificulties, we have many, many blessings to count. Five lively, lovely, healthy grandchildren and three great kids who have great spouses and are happily married and all of us healthy and only a five minute drive from each other is more than many families have and we are grateful for all of it.

Christmas is a little more austere than we have had for a while, but the good news is that we are not beaten ~~yet~~. And we are certainly not starving - too many friends and relatives for that :)

2010 is looking okay ~~so far~~.

I hope the coming year is a good one for all of you and that 2009 will be looked back on as a just ~~a nightmare,~~ ~~bad dream,~~ an interesting learning experience.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Mango high

2009-12-21T11:26:00.001+10:00

My house seems to be cocooned in a bubble of very sweet and delicious mango aroma. Why?
Well, I'm glad you asked. In the last week I have peeled and sliced more than three dozen mangos. Where have they all gone? I'm glad you asked that too :)
They have all gone into my food dehydrator. All of those mangos have been reduced to a few (too few) tupperware containers of very yummy dried mango. As you may know, mangos are a very sweet fruit. Drying them intensifies the natural sugar. That is, by removing the water content, the natural sugar concentration is greatly increased, producing one of the sweetest dried fruits you will ever taste.

If I can bear to part with any of it, I'll be sending some down to the mexicans (southern relatives). That is a big IF at this stage.

I have become an expert mango peeler, slicer and drier. I can tell you that about 5 mm slices work best; that the best way to peel them is with a knife and a large spoon; that you have to be very careful with the knife because peeled mangos are extremely slippery to handle; that drying them for several hours on medium and then turning the dryer down to low for another 12 hours creates the best colour and softest texture.
What esle would you like to know?
They are very more-ish. My information says that they will keep for at least a year in the refrigerator. Will I have any left in my refrigerator by this time next year? I'll be surprised if I have any left this time next ~~month~~ week.
In the mean time I love the fact that as you approach my front door you are enveloped in intoxicating mango perfume. Inside the house, you could have a sugar high from just breathing.
Sorry - no photos because I forgot to charge the camera betteries, but maybe I'll throw a "finished product" photo in a future post.

Those eyes.

2009-12-07T19:04:00.000+10:00

I know I'm biased, but who could resist those gorgeous Lion eyes.
Photo by Mummy McT by the way.

Before I married, I belonged to a family where blue eyes were totally non-existant. We didn't just have brown eyes, we had quite dark brown eys - without exception. Then I married a blue-eyed Mr. Sunshine and we had brown-eyed children.
[Brown eyes are a dominant gene]
But our daughters married non-brown-eyed men and our grandchilren get a lucky dip in the gene pool of eye colour. I suppose it has something to do with double recessive genes, but genetics can get quite complex, so I won't make any pronouncements.
Bottom line - the mix so far has been serendipitous for the grandchildren. They all have gorgeous eyes.

Heaven or . . .

2009-12-05T17:40:00.000+10:00

One of our major local shopping centres underwent a huge renovation that culminated in a grand opening a few weeks ago. We didn't go. It was a madhouse on the BIG DAY. I guess everybody thought they would get a bargain.

When I finally was talked into going by Mummy McT and the boys, I took Lion and Dragon in my car. Part of the reno involved the construction of a new roof-top car park accessed by a pretty impressive ramp. We followed MMcT onto the ramp.

As we drove up the ramp we could see nothing but blue sky and Lion said (with AWE),

"Grandma, it looks like we are going up to Heaven!"

Well yes, it really does Lion.

When we got to the top, there were plenty of cars and, in the area we had chosen to park, someone had cleaned out their car and dumped a heap of litter that must have taken weeks to collect. As we got out of the car, I asked Lion, "Does this look like Heaven?"

In a very sad and disappointed voice he answered, "Nooooooo"

Confession: I added "TO HEAVEN" to the top photo. It may have been omitted from the original sign.

DON'T DON'T DON'T Feed the trolls!

2009-11-26T15:14:00.000+10:00

The ABC posted this news item today. (click to read) It is the best advice I've heard for all of those people who have been hounded by offensive, abusive, insulting, judgemental and usually anonymous commentors on their blogs. They are like the schoolyard bullies who get their thrill from the response of their victim. No response - no thrill and they go and bug someone else.
People who do this are cowards hiding behind their anonymity. They complain of censorship if they are ignored or deleted, but this is a manipulation because they do not respect other folks' rights to disagree with them. Freedom of speech is valuable, but it is not a licence to be offensive.
Trolling is obviously a growing problem if the some online news media are turning off their comments section.
The writer gives this advice:
"The good old motto is 'don't feed the troll'. Don't acknowledge them, don't give them attention, don't react because that's what they want."

Summertime

2009-11-22T10:18:00.001+10:00

Officially it's still Spring, but we don't really have Spring here - just dry season and wet season. In the dry season it can get cool, never cold. In the wet season it gets hot. Not blistering dry heat but, but steamy, sauna-like, sticky heat. It's starting to get like that, but we've had some gentle breezes to make it much more bearable - very pleasant. It will get worse. Much worse. February is usually the most unbearable month.
There is some recompense to the heat. One of them is the Frangipani. About 200 years ago a botanist described them as a set of antlers bedecked with posies. They have been the subject of many artworks, but there is one thing art cannot show you. The fragrance. Every time I step outside the air is filled with their gorgeous scent. Frangipani-scented perfumes never do it justice.
The grandchildren love to pick up a fallen flower with brown edges around the petals (they seem to accept imperfections in flowers and people) and make a special presentation of it to me.
That makes them smell even sweeter.

Dragon birthday post

2009-11-19T21:50:00.001+10:00

I did it for Lion and intended to do it for his little brother Dragon. So better late than never :) Dragon's 3rd birthday was weeks ago.

This is his birthday post from his Grannysaurus.

Honestly, I don't know why my family put up with me when I take so long to do things.

Poor little Romeo once waited months for the tooth fairy to remember that there was a tooth waiting to be collected because I forgot to let her know. They must be a very forgiving family.

But on with this short picture history of our darling Dragon.

In the top pic he is one day old. Already you could see what a spunk he was going to be.

Next picture is baby Dragon being cuddled by his big cousin Cheetah. He is about 3 days old. Not Cheetah, Dragon. Cheetah is 7 here. After that is baby ~~Jesus with Mary and Joseph~~ Dragon with Mummy and Wolf McTavish at the Stable on the Strand (an annual major Townsville Christmas event that unites churches and community) in December 2006 when Dragon played a pivotal role for a short time. He played his part well, but doesn't Mummy McT look tired?

I had to include a picture with his big brother Lion. They are such good mates and the beach is one of their favourite places. They were all dressed up for the beach wedding of Aunty Juliette's big sister.

Last pic is baby Dragon in the arms of Aunty Chimera getting his photo taken with his friend Ralph and Ralph's dad, King Rick. Ralph and Dragon and Lion are still all good mates and love to get together for a play as often as they can ~~nag their long suffering mothers into it.~~

A belated Happy Birthday Dragon!

You can meet Ralph here.

Prophetic?

2009-10-31T16:51:00.003+10:00

In my last post in honour of Lion's birthday, I included a pic of a little Lion watching the heavy machinery in my street a few years ago. It was strangely prophetic. . .
Today Lion and Dragon have their birthday party for their mates. Last week was the family birthday party. They live in the cul de sac of a longish street. Two days before their birthday party the city council decided to dig up most of the street in order to replace the road surface. The road had been so poorly made in the first place that they have removed at least 50 cm deep from the surface of their road and several surrounding roads.
The result - Mums (and/or Dads) with little kids and toteing birthday gifts became confused due to "ROAD CLOSED" signs and have had to walk some distance. Aunty with twins expected in a few months also had to walk with panicy hysterical toddler in tow (possibly upset by the machinery noise?).
Thank you City Council. Great timing!
Naturally it decided to rain today too, for the first time in months.
At least we won't blame the City Council for that.

Lion's Birthday

2009-10-25T21:15:00.002+10:00

It's Lion's birthday on Monday 26th and it's an important one - the big 5. That means that in a few months he will be a big school boy. In honour of his birthday I thought I would find some of my favourite Lion baby/toddler photos. The first one is Lion and Mr Sunshine at the TV towers on Mt Stuart.
The next was a really exciting time (if you are a little boy) when Grannysaurus' street was full of BIG machines because the city council decided we needed new curbing and asphalt. There were many far worse streets around that didn't get fixed, but Lion was happy.

The bottom one is Lion at the beach. He loves the beach. Isn't he a sweetie?

Happy birthday Lion!

Bring back the smile

2009-10-19T21:52:00.002+10:00

I love the way her smile lights up her eyes in this photo.

Actually she can still smile some of the time. This afternoon she was even giggling as she placed a cold, wet face washer on grandma's bare belly. Of course I had to overact a lot about how cold it was -the air temp was about 27 Celsius.

But Little Bear is not well and hasn't been 100 percent for months. She really didn't like wearing the pee collecting gizmo in her nappy this afternoon. Being sick is the pits when you are two. Let's just hope that the antibiotics fix the unknown bugs that are causing repeat high fevers and night time vomiting and chest infections. Let's also hope that the high doses and extended time on antibiotics don't knock her immune system out of whack even more.

Let's pray that Little Bear can be back to her lively, happy, impish self asap.
I'm just greedy for more of that gorgeous smile.

Dragon Dreams

2009-10-19T08:53:00.002+10:00

I don't need to be told that this is NOT the most flattering pic of me, but any pic with our little Dragon is a good pic. He is so darn cute.
On Friday his Mummy was not feeling great so I picked up Dragon and he came to work with me. I can do that because Mr Sunshine, Romeo (previously Jingles) and I own the business. I didn't get much work done, but I was there and I answered the phone.

On the way to work I did my usual thing when I have grandchildren in the car - my racing car sound effects. You know, brrrrmmmm brrrrmmmm through the gear changes and eeeeeeeeeee around corners, making sure to include the Doppler effect and any other relevant stuff. Later in the morning Dragon came to me with a very serious look and tone and said in his cute deep voice, "Grandma, I'm a dump truck today". I told him that I love dump trucks and gave him a cuddle and off he went to do some more drawing. At no time did he actually act like a dump truck, but dump trucks don't have to act like dump trucks. They just are.

Later in the day we left work, went to the bank and went to my home for a nap - both of us. Dragon slept on Grandad's side of the bed and I read him a story or two and fell asleep on my side of the bed. About an hour later I was woken by a strange whining sound coming from Dragon and I thought he was having a bad dream. The whining sound was then interupted by brrmmmm sounds and then more whining sounds and another brrrrmmmm sound. When Dragon woke up I asked him if he had been having a bad dream. "No," he assured me, he was having a good dream. He was dreaming he was a dump truck.

I guess this dump truck was doing some pretty fast cornering.

A Work in Progress

2009-10-03T18:05:00.000+10:00

I know it's taken me a while, but today I added Monkey to the header. Then I accidentally deleted the entire header altogether and I couldn't retrieve it. :(
I got around that by just putting the header picture back, but it's all wrong and looks very bare. Also I couldn't find the width of the template I was using so that is guesswork and therefore not right either.
Oh well . . . it's all a learning curve. Eventually I will get it right.

Also, am I blind or is there no spell checker on the new blogger tool bar?

Cheetah and Snoopy

2009-10-02T21:54:00.000+10:00

I don't get many opportunities to do a post with Cheetah so here he is and he is holding his new best friend. Snoopy the dog is actually owned by Uncle and Aunty Jingles who will from now on be referred to as Romeo and Juliet. Check out Juliet's blog here.

So far Snoopy is an only child, but I'm sure that state of affairs won't last forever ;)

Loving Cousins & Siblings

2009-09-23T21:54:00.000+10:00

Little Bear had just eaten a chocolate biscuit when she decided that cousin Monkey needed some loving -

Cheetah wanted to pose for a photo on the back of Grandad's ute ('pick-up' for those who don't speak Australian) when Dragon saw an opportunity to pose with one of his favourite people.

All of the children think it is special to play on the tray of the ute, while it is stationary of course. Little Bear and Dragon found they could beat out a cool duet rhythm on the roof of the cab.

Dragon getting gardening tips from Lion, the ~~garden destroyer~~ helpful little pruner -

In spite of occasional little jealousies over things like who gets to cuddle baby Monkey or Grandma or Grandad, they really get on well. The older ones are very helpful and tolerant of the younger ones and I feel really blessed to have such gorgeous grandkids.

Troublemaker Monkey

2009-09-22T20:37:00.001+10:00

This is Little Bear.

This is Dragon.

and this is THE LOOK Little Bear gave Dragon -

THE LOOK means,

"Back off, I was here first!" or maybe,

"Nyah! nyah! nyah! nyah!" or maybe,

"Eat your heart out, Loser!"

And this is the cause of the dissension.

Troublemaker, Monkey.

Baby Yoda, I think this is.

2009-09-20T22:55:00.002+10:00

Today we had the whole clan - well our little part of the clan - at home for afternoon tea. I finally got to see Yoda. . . I mean Monkey, with his eyes open. Well they are sort of open. He is a sleepy baby when he is out and about. He is a snuggley little guy though. I'm sure MMcT (and Wolf) have successfully produced another cuddle bug.

More photos to come in the next few days. I promise.

Not enough baby.

2009-09-17T20:30:00.001+10:00

Since all of my photos of Monkey McTavish are now 2 weeks or more old. I think it is high time that I visited the McTavish household and took some new Monkey photos. In the mean time, maybe Mummy McTavish will post some current photos. I'm sure he has already changed a lot.

That is a hint :)

Bear Cub

2009-09-11T21:40:00.009+10:00

Today Little Bear and Cheetah spent an afternoon and evening at the Dragonlady Grotto.

I think they enjoyed themselves.

Cheetah spent most of the time playing a computer game, that is when he wasn't eating.

Little Bear practised opening and closing the gate. It worked better with her tongue out.

Little Bear also practised tree climbing and using her feminine wiles on Grandad. He was her obedient slave.

Time for a little posing.....

........and lots of giggling......

.......and eating some yummy choc chip muffins. The muffin cups get turned into "the dreaded cup cake monster" who tries to tickle and causes lots more giggling.

Then, being a very INDEPENDENT YOUNG LADY, Little Bear washes her own face.......
........ as well as all of the dusty patio furniture with my nice white washer.

It used to be white, like when I got it out of the drawer.

She's beautiful with or without choc muffin on her face.

Monkey McTavish

2009-09-05T08:44:00.008+10:00

Isn't he just beautiful? No need to answer that because we know.

He is a good baby. His brothers are besotted with him especially Dragon who can't get enough of holding him, stroking his face, staring doe-eyed at him . . .

Of course Mummy and Daddy are pretty happy about it all too. Like I said, he is a good baby. He likes to sleep (so far). Therein lies my problem.

I just want to get a photo with his eyes OPEN.

Hurry up and . . . . wait.

2009-09-01T19:27:00.004+10:00

Waiting . . .

Waiting . . .

Waiting . . .

And then . . .

Welcome Baby McTavish!

Overwhelmed with love.