Day163 - The children are here

My beloved grandchildren arrived this afternoon for a little stay. Hard to keep my grandson (aged 10) off the computer but he had great fun with Google Earth tonight. The other pic is a wordless picture book called the Flower Man I bought for my 6 year old grand daughter. She didn't mind it but when we had finished discussing the pictures and the evolving story, she asked me to read a "proper" book - so I read one chapter of Charlottes Web - so appealing.

Day 162 - the crossword

Mum's staying with us at the moment and she is for ever doing something - reading, painting, watching ABC programs, chatting on the phone or doing the crossword.She is quite addicted to crosswords and I'm quite jealous of her word knowledge. At her philosophy class at the U3A, she is presently engaged in a dialectic with her teacher about who or what can we look to as a guide and inspiration to get us through the present tough times. Her brainwave the other night was "to follow our conscience" which I thought could leave you on shakey ground as some people don't seem to worry about a conscience.Anyway, when I'm nearly 87 I hope to care enough about future generations to wonder who will inspire them to care about each other and their planet.

Day 161 Baby Selvi - my new niece

My new niece with her grandma and uncle and aunt(my bro and his wife). I wanted to scan these pics but couldn't get to the scanner- other bossy people were using it.

Day 160 - 84 Charing Cross Rd - the play

I didn't get to take my photo until the end of the play - when Helene Hanff finally arrives in London from America and goes to the bookshop she has been buying books from by correspondence for the last 20 years. The people have gone or died and the shop has been closed, the bookshelves emptied. So this photo doesn't quite capture the full splendour of the earlier set. However,a wonderfully devised and enacted play by our local "1812" theatre group.

School's out!

Two weeks holiday! Really need a break - this midyear stretch is always extra challenging what with exams and reports and all the year 12 impositions. Have quite a bit of work to do over the hols but hopefully can pick away at it piecemeal - my preferred approach.

Day 158 - haircut

I keep my curly hair short - my hair has always grown out rather than down. I have been recently named Mrs Lama by a charming, very talented, high functioning autistic woman called Donna who comes every year to speak to our students on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. She wasn't being rude, this is simply the way she can recognize me each year because she can't remember faces. Anyway, I have my boofy locks trimmed fairly regularly by Holly who is a lovely young woman, very intelligent and thoughtful. I actually taught her in year 10 and year 12 and she was quite an academic student, a good reader and strong writer. She went to uni for about 6 months but then decided it wasn't for her and became a hairdresser instead. But she told me today she was going to train to be a hairdressing teacher and work in a TAFE. Her mum's a retired art teacher and her brother a high school maths teacher so she will continue a family tradition.She's looking forward to the more challenging activity and I'm sure she'll be very suited to it.
It was a bit tricky taking this photo and I couldn't avoid the flash in the bathroom mirror

Day 157 Dummy spitting

Oh dear,think it's about time for a break. spat the dummy today at my year7's some of whom were being silly in the computer room. I had spent quite a while setting up this activity using pics from yesterday's excursion using Big Huge Labs. Should have been a good fun last lesson of the term for them. But a number of silly little things were playing some loud screechy game and I decided that THAT was THAT. I told them to log off and we went back to the classroom and had a spelling test. How mean was that? I feel bad about it now - they weren't ALL being obnoxious. Oh well, maybe they'll be extra good next term. Today's pic is a Mosaic from Scienceworks I had on their class blog to inspire them... thank goodness tomorrow is my day off and that leaves just my 6 on Friday.

Day 156 - a visit to Scienceworks and Melbourne Planetarium, Spotswood

Accompanied yr7's to Scienceworks today, over the Westgate Bridge (gives me the creeps) to Spotswood.Fascinating place, kids seemed to get a lot out of it. On the way home took some speedy shots from the bus of green countryside, Upwey South / Lysterfield - you can see the burnt forest of trees in the left background - February fires got very close to houses.

Now or then?

I did take some wintry pics today that were meant for my blog. But I've just realised I can email these photos from our Greek holiday (2 years ago) from my phone to my computer! Yes, I know, I'm not very mobile phone savvy. Anyway, these are some photos I really took (not just pilfered from some website)but just not today. But it's where I wish I could be today - if that justifies my use of them!

Day 154 - Pics from Arnhem Land

My older daughter has just returned from an amazing 3 weeks in Arnhem Land with a community of women whose source of income is traditional basket weaving.Regular eco tours into this area are available for brave and intrepid travellers to witness first hand and to learn the skills passed down from the ancestors so these Yolongu folk can continue living with dignity on their ancestral Homelands. These photos are off a flickr site and from the website of the Arnhem Land Weavers
My daughter has lots of her own photos but I haven't been able to acquire any as yet.

Day 153 - a trip to Healeville to tango

Saturday, 20th June -we went to a tango gig at Healesville Memorial Hall. My son was playing in a tango orchestra and there was an old style dance floor where we could tango or what ever. Really nice old worldy feel about it. The pic of the orchestra is from my phone hence poor quality.

Day 152 - A talented young woman

A young woman who was in my yr12 English class about 6 years ago is making her mark in the art world. Read about her at http://craft-victoria.blogspot.com/2009/06/introducing-brydie-dyson.html
Pictured is one of her paper jewellery creations.
I did not take this pic needless to say. It is from the same web site mentioned above.

Day 151 - Well being daughter

My younger daughter is organizing a well being day for young artists in the hills. She was very excited to get this promo article in this week's edition of the local paper.

Day 150 Home Time

As I wait for my lift home, here is the winter view I can see.

Some of my yr7's at Homegroup today

Day 148 - garden in the dark

You have to be so quick to get a daylight picture at the moment. The agave plant is a transplant from Thora, near Coffs Harbour, northern NSW

Day 147 the junk has gone!

I can see my lounge floor again! We have basically repacked the kitchen and I sorted out heaps of old stuff that I haven't used for years and will be throwing out. It's great to be able to see the dining room table and floor area again.Compare this photo to Day 123.

Day 146 - Selvi is 3 weeks

Saw my new neice - Selvi, who is now 3 weeks old - very beautiful. You can see her mum, Sevim, in the background.

Day 145 -the worst is over - for now...

As this is all I've been looking at lately, I thought it would be an appropriate pic for today. AND I HAVE NOW FINISHED! At least that's all for now, next it's the proof reading - but the worst is over for this time round anyway.

Day 144 the laptop seat

It's called the book seat but it's just right to rest the laptop on when I sit up on my bed, bolstered up with pillows. My bedroom is the warmest room in the house so I retreated here today to work on some more reports.I now have only one class to go!

Day 143 - Including the kitchen sink

Without a functioning sink and running water, a kitchen lacks its raison d'etre. Now I have a sink that works and my old hotplates that did not need replacing have been reinstalled. So - we're nearly in business. Just a few minor but important finishing items. The biggest job is actually re-packing the kitchen. The loungeroom is still full of kitchen stuff and really, only half of it needs to go back. But this will require many hours of sifting and sorting - time I don't have until PRE - post report era!

Day 141 - the obliging fern

Died right back in the summer, now they're growing wildly - will have to prune them back when my life becomes normal again (post report writing.)The ferns grew themselves in this old cement laundry trough from my in-laws old house.

Day 140 Our chickens

Chickens are growing up but not laying yet.

Day 139 - More of the Same

Marking exams on my new kitchen bench amongst the fruit. There's still a gap where the hotplates are going and the kitchen sink and dishwasher are not connected yet. But we're getting there.I did go for a swim today and a shop but otherwise it's just marking and reporting. I'm looking forward to having a normal life again in about one week.

Day 137 - Yurt taking shape

Day 136 - Grandkiddies visit!

Their mother is in Arnham Land staying with a dry community of basket weavers for 2 weeks - my daughter the intrepid adventurer - 3 months pregnant but never one to knock back this amazing opportunity. Dad went to the football so a quiet night with Nani and Papou.I was quite impressed with Baya's computer game The Age of Empires. sort of a Second Life feel about it.

Day 135 In the dark

Yup, I know it's a dark pic. My webcam needed more light but this is me sitting at the kitchen bench which has its new stone top! It's called "organic white" whatever that means. But I love it - it's inspiring me to get prepared for my yr 12 class in the morning. We're doing "Bombshells" a series of 6 monologues by Joanna Murray-Smith. Originally performed by Caroline O'Connor for the MTC, currently being performed by MOI for my yr12 class! I think they are suitably blown away by my performances...

Day 134 - Time for Reflection

Didn't sleep well last night - too worried about my computer that had been attacked by a Facebook virus that I think I made worse by opening up false antivirus advertising that was more spam. Anyway, the lovely man in out tech dept.worked on it all day running anti virus software and now it's all clean. Thank goodness. Apparently I had lots of existing problems and this Facebook spam was the last straw. Anyway,I finally came home late afternoon and, in the last few moments before darkness, noticed the yellow leaves of the grapevine, the last of the autumn colours. Took time out to smell the roses for a bit.

Day 133 - A glog for our Class Blog

Day 132 - Coping in chaos

Well,predictably, tradespeople let you down. There's been a delay on the progress of our kitchen renovations and we are living rather chaotically - but coping. My study has become the kitchen sink area - nice view of the front of our property. My usual workspaces, either an upstairs desk or the diningroom table, are covered with les objects de la cuisine / pragmata apti cousina (I'm feeling multi lingual at the moment). We can't return all the kitchen paraphanalia yet till the stone bench top has been completed (that's the delay) We have no hotplates, no kitchen sink - imagine...Other pic shows the christening of the new wall oven - at least that's working. There's soup that mum made us and a supermarket lasagna. We wash up in the laundry!