Proudly presenting....

Our family has increased by 4 gorgeous little furry mammals. This brings the guineapig population in our garden to 7. These female guinea pigs made the big move from Balgowlah a couple of days ago and have been named Nibbles, Blackie, Brownie and Cloudy.
Not wanting to impose too much they brought their own accommodation in the form of a guinea pig Taj Mahal. I have never seen a 2 storey hutch before - these girls have a good set up with a dining/living area downstairs and a mezzanine level with sleeping quarters...... Sadly they are not in the best of health but we will soon have them feeling better. They spent much of today in their playpen doing a little weeding on our lawn for us. They were truly in clover.......

Here is Turtle out for his first trip with new rollerblades that we acquired through freecycle. The boy who gave them away thought they were too slow. Ideal, I thought....

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.....

Just fancied that as a title although I am not blue today at all - in fact quite the opposite. I just made a loaf of bread and some breadrolls, and besides feeling very accomplished, my tummy has that wonderfully warm, satisfied sensation that only comes from eating freshly baked bread with butter and Nutella melted into it.....mmmmmmmmm Worth about a gazillion points on the WeightWatchers dietplan, I'm sure.

Eating freshly baked bread reminds me of my mother who used to make the most wonderful bread all the time. I didn't pay enough attention to her methods at the time which would have saved some experimenting now... Come to think of it, I should have paid better attention to a lot of the things my mother did because she was one amazing woman and besides her bread I miss her wisdom and her humour, her humility and faith.

water storage

I went to the self-reliance group meeting on Water storage last night. Suzi was well prepared and I learned some essential things on the subject. Having been kicked into doing something about it, I went home and rescued some PETE bottles out of the recycling bin, washed them and filled them with sanitizing solution to prepare them for water storage use...... When filled there will be enough water for our family for one day...... but that's one more day's worth than we had yesterday.....

Mad scientists... part 3

Here is Turtle about to help himself to the "brain-jelly" at Doodlebug's party. The jelly was made with 6 packets of raspberry jelly, but with only a 1/4 of the water....... just to make sure it had the right consistency. A big hit with the boys!

QueenBees and Wannabees

What it is about some girls and their need to manipulate and control?
Having made it through childhood and adolescence alive but slightly scarred from the way girls treat each other, I must admit I worry about how my little girl will fare. My feeling of wanting to protect her is overwhelming.
She started pre-school this year, and I was shocked and saddened to see that the power play begins even with the 4 year olds. It seems that the girls who are the oldest sibling or in a family of only girls are the worst. Those, like my daughter, who have one or more older brothers seem to have more of a no-nonsense approach to their relationships. Long may this continue!

Mad scientists......

Doodlebug's birthday was celebrated in a style befitting an 8 yr old boy and 15 of his friends - making slime, giant bubbles, sherbet and liquid nitrogen icecream! The demonstrations were done by Sabrina from the CSIRO education centre and the boys had a great time. It was supposed to be held in the garden, but since we had about 2 months' worth of rain in one day, we held the science part in "the Bunker" under the house.....
Little Possum floated in and out a little. She was more interested in the progress of the party food upstairs and "looking after" the Twisties.
The party food included the usual party foods, but the specials were a jelly made in a brain shaped mould. I wasn't brave enough to use the recipe for a flesh tone jelly, but went with plain raspberry instead... Then a jug of cordial with dry ice in it and a volcano cake with dry ice steam coming out if it.
It all went well, and the guests went home clutching their little pots of slime and their party bags. Then it was blissfully quiet at our house.

Mad scientist

Doodlebug with his slime made by mixing Poly Vinyl Alcohol and borax....

of course, the next game was to pretend to do a big sneeze... I say no more.

Beethoven

I was listening to one of my favourite pieces of music - Beethoven's 7th Symphony. The 2nd movement (or part of it, I should say) is soft and melodious and very relaxing.
The symphony was written in 1803 which was 2 years after Beethoven's deafness had started to manifest itself. What would it be like to have such a passion and talent for music and then lose your hearing? I am fascinated at how he could still hear the music in his mind and heart after the hearing had gone. It inspires me to think that he continued to create and to use his talent despite the limits placed on him. He was not handicapped at all musically..... well, except that I wonder if he would still have pitched the choral parts to "Ode to joy" quite so high if he was still hearing...

Going home

This viking is going home - for a visit, at least! I will take the junior vikings home to Norway for 5 weeks next month - my horns are twitching with excitement! The 30 hr journey seems unbearably long, but it would take longer by longboat, so I suppose I ought to be grateful for modern transportation!

Where does the time go to?

The weeks seem to fly by. But the school holidays are soon upon us, and that will slow life down a little. First there is the birthday of Doodlebug . His party is on Saturday and we are hoping it will be a fun day. It is very much dependant on good weather as we are holding it in the garden. It feels wrong to live in a country in drought and then hope for no rain.........
The party is going to be a science party so hopefully it will be educational as well as fun.