Cheetah Feature

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.

Cheetah's green friend

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.

Dragon birthday post

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.

Cheetah and Snoopy

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 ;)

Ansel Adams in the making

I was feeling a bit sad that Cheetah often seemed to miss out on being posted on my blog. The main reason being that he is usually at school when I am out and about with my camera. But this weekend he stayed with us for a sleep-over on Friday night, so on Saturday after visiting the McT clan for a play, I asked him if he wanted to take some pictures of himself with my camera and remote control.

We pulled down our huge roller blind to act as a backdrop and set up the tripod and camera and, hey presto! we had our studio. I was there mainly to prevent him from tripping over the tripod in his haste to check his settings and review his photos and sending my precious camera onto the unforgiving tiles, but I did give some tuition along the way. During the studio session part of the exercise, Cheetah learned a bit about white balance, composition and depth of field. 89 photos later. . . and he was ready to hand over the remote and download the photos.























Not content with just being a child prodigy photographer, he wanted to learn and do his own photo editing as well. The results are here to be seen. Entirely his own ideas and his own work. We opened up Picasa 3 (great free photo editor from google), I gave him a few minutes to experiment and get the hang of the program and his imagination obviously took over.

I only intervened when he wanted to post a reward on the wanted poster. Paranoid Grannysaurus could just imagine some nutter taking it seriously. I still feel a bit twitchy about the "dead or alive" issue.

It's hard to believe that these creative pics are all entirely his own work at 9 years old, but I promise you they are.

I'm sure he would love to read your comments if you are as impressed with his artistic flair as I am.


This won't be the last time that I feature Cheetah's art on this blog. Not now that I know what he can do.