Day 66 - Chickens growing up

I thought you might be interested to see how our chickens are growing. We had 4 but the littlest one just curled up and died a few weeks ago.That made us very sad. After all the carting around we did during our fire evacuations - maybe that's what upset her.In his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan describes how chickens - being moved around in an "Eggmobile" can contribute to an amazing cycle of fertilising and sanitising cow pastures (feeding on protein enriched grubs and insects)as well as producing delicious and nutritious eggs. I need to find some fresh cow patties!

Day 65 pot plants

Monday, 30th March. Still too dry, water levels in dams going down too fast. Fushias are a b'day gift from Stephen and Gabriel. The blue tins are old oil tins a la Grecian idea - see old pics from our Grecian holiday 2 years ago.

Day 64 Yert progress and Harmony Festival

Been a busy Sunday. Quite a lot of progress made on the yert with reinforcing for the wall supports working well.Then dinner at the Wild Thyme, Warburton and an amazing concert to finish off the Harmony Festival with Tashi Lhunpo Monks, Tenzin Choegyal Michael, Jay and Tim Blake along with a wonderful couple - Sacred Earth.Such enchanting and peaceful music.

Day 63 Isaac' s party at Earthly Pleasures

Isaac threw a party in the backyard of beautiful Earthly Pleasures restaurant for his 25th b'day. Here he is playing violin with Carmen on flute and Penelope in foreground, fresh from a day of filming her gothic horror fun movie.

Day 62 - first magnolia for the year

The Magnolia flowering season always seems very fleeting but I'm surprised at the early appearance of this first flower. Maybe the drought and hot weather have confused the plant a bit.

Day 61 - Author - Michael Pollan

Current book I'm reading is the second book I have read by this author, American environmentalist, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma. About half way through it and unfortunately won't finish it for the bookclub discussion tomorrow night. Have finished Pollan's The Botany of Desire which I very much enjoyed. He is a great writer, has meticulously researched all his findings which are both fascinating and disturbing- how we are eating ourselves and our universe into a black hole. But he does give us cause to be optimistic - and now even Obama has read his book and is digging up the White House lawns to grow organic and local produce.

The little piano awaits me

This is a little piano my father gave me about 30 years ago. My 3 children all learned to play on it and as a young adult I had lessons for about 3 years but then gave it away. However, I have returned to it over the last year and am really enjoying picking outsimple tunes and playing them ad nauseum until I feel confident with them- although I can't play without the music sheets. We have another piano in the house that plays concert pitch. This one is a semi tone out - I can't detect it but my musician / perfectionist son can't tolerate it.

Day 59 International PLP f2f conference

PLP Conference, Toorak College, with Will Richardson - a very affirming and exciting day. Lots of ideas and inspirations - maybe we can make a difference!

Dat 58 - Frankston sojourn

Drove down to Frankston with Sue and Marie Jose for a PLP conference at Toorak College in the morning. Dinner at Frankston restaurant, staying overnight at a motel. Took the rosella pic at school but the sunset is Frankston and the people are connected to tomorrow's conference.

Day 57 - Fallen branches in our front yard

With the drought stressed gum trees and then a bit of wind - branches start to drop. It's a bit scary - hopefully our good luck won't run out on us.

Day 56 Papou entertains

Nick had just put together a delicious rabbit stew with a rabbit that Baya had caught in Warburton - hence the wet patch on his shirt. I caught him and Ishaa sorting some old photos on the kitchen table. Baya is still attached to the computer in the background - but we did go for a swim in the afternoon and then a visit to great Nana who lives in Oakleigh.Other pic shows Nick and Ishaa chatting in the loungeroom

Day 55 - Grandson on the computer

Baya and his sister are staying with us for a couple of days while their parents have some time to themselves - in old Hobart town. Ishaa and I went for a lovely evening's stroll up the back but without the camera. Back inside - Baya was on the computer playing an online game he loves.

Day 54 - A sunny afternoon

My day off I went outside to collect the mail and realised what a delightful afternoon it was. The garden and patio looked quite picturesque in the afternoon sunshine.

Day 53 - Trip towards the big smoke

Headed down to Richmond today with Sue to catch a free movie. Called into Ikea which was very amazing - hadn't been for years. Passed the Violineri in Bridge Rd.

Day 52 - School Athletics Day and rain clouds

Other years we've held the aths day in September - and it's been cold and wet. Had it in March this year - and it was still cold and wet - but not that cold and we need the rain.Here a tug of war is taking place.

Day 51 - Green fronds emerging from the burnt brown.

For the 32 years we have been on this property, tree ferns have done well for maybe the last 27 years. Over the last few summers, we have lost many of our tree ferns. Summers have been increasingly fierce and rainfall noticeably absent. Maybe we should just forget about this rainforest loving vegetation. After one of the hottest summers on record however, the recent cooler weather and rain has encouraged this poor dried out tree fern to start sprouting some new fronds. Amazing how forgiving some plants can be.

Day 50!

Day 50 and I'm still in the race! Well it's not a race but it is certainly a challenge to keep this up. Today for my subject, I spied an ornament that we bought many years ago but she looks as good as ever. Purchased in Crete in 1975, our first trip to Greece, before the children were born. She is (obviously a copy) the Minoan Snake Goddess - a dominant goddess of fertility from the wonderful Minoan culture based in Knossos, Crete,around 1600 BCE

Days 48 and 49

Precious grand daughter sleeping at our place, Friday night. Saturday morning more heavy rain, very welcome.

Day 46 and 47

Cheating a bit here. Yesterday and last night just too hectic -Exhausting day followed by second evening of Year 12 Oral presentations and then yr 7 Meet the parents meeting. Came home and took a couple of pics but no energy to turn the computer on. Wonderful big moon last night - photo does not do it justice. Old framed photo of a young couple I once knew - back in 1971.(I don't know why the photo insisted on being longways -the original is around the right way.) Since unpacking all my "precious things" after the evacuation scare, I've been re-arranging and re-discovering my old photos.
Other photos is the view outside my lounge room where I am sitting now. Includes lovely dangling leadlight gum leaves - b'day pressie from my friend Sue.

Day 45 March 10th Leaving school late

Today was the first evening of the year 12 English oral presentations. We had two sessions each of about 6 students per session. They gave persuasive talks often using powerpoint as a backup. I found the presentations enjoyable and entertaining - second and last one tomorrow night. By the time I was leaving school it was nearly 8pm and this is how the sky looked.

Day 44 - 9th March

I had to unpack all our photos and precious items we had taken to my sister-in-law's today - from when we evacuated last week. I ended up having a general big clean up / throwing out session. At the bottom of some drawers I found some old newspapers reporting on the big fires in our area 12 years ago. That time a house in our street burnt down and we had to make a run for it. Of course the fires we have just had were far more devastating and deadly.

Day 43 - Breakfast at the RSL

We went for breakfast at the local RSL. Never been before, a bit wary of war glorification.There was this amazing old photo of all these ANZAC soldiers posing on the pyramid of Cheops before departing for Turkey. The caption beneath the photo describes how 4 out of every 5 soldier died during the disastrous Galipolli campaign.

Day 42, 7th March - Yurt progress

Slowly but surely the yurt is growing walls and taking shape. Rain water has collected in the floor space where the bricks have still to be layed and it's not going anywhere - we'll have to try and sweep it out.

Day 41 - the day Melbourne quaked

A 4.7 earth tremor shook Melbourne a few minutes before 9pm, Friday, 6th March. I hopped onto Twitter within minutes and gradually built up more info on the event - its size, epicentre etc. The conventional media was much slower to report on it.I also had fun following the Twitter updates collated by someone at 774

Day 40 - March 5th

My b'day - oh, another one! But it is my day off and the rain has come and this is what I am celebrating. Lots of 365 folk have been posting rainy day pics but the rain has stopped - I missed out. Anyway I prowled around the garden and noted the evidence of rain on the grateful plants. Even the succulents are grateful. Here are some cuttings mum gave me that I've put into the painted cooking oil tins.

Day 39 - Back to normality and new blogs begin

Thankfully the fire danger has finally passed. today we had decent rain - the first for over 2 months. And the temperature has plummeted - it's quite cold!
Today my yr7 class began their blogs using 21classes. It was a bit of a business getting them to log in and find the emails I sent them so they could get into their blogs - but for most of them it was a successful first venture into the world of blogging

Day 38 - School Closed Again

School was closed for a second time in as many weeks because of concerns about extreme weather - high winds and fire danger. We heeded the warnings and left our fire prone area to stay with my brother and his wife in their beautiful house in Croyden. Pics shows their garden and the view of the Dandenongs from their porch.Happily the danger passed uneventfully and now it is RAINING - oh happiness!

Day 37 Peer Support

Year 11 students have been specially trained and groups of 2 - 3 students have a small group of yr7 students to look after for a session each week. They play interactive games and generally have a fun time. Teachers have to wander from group to group just keeping an eye on things.