Fiji Holiday.

 G'Day all,
                Or should I say Bula! Warning. This is a long long post.
Yes we went on our Fiji holiday and have been home a week today. I loved it, but then again I knew I would, I have always had an interest in tropical islands. That might be a hangover from my very early life in the tropics or the influence of old movies and records which I loved growing up, I knew by heart the soundtrack to "South Pacific" which was in my parents music collection and of course played as a tele movie every school holidays.
Anyway, we got to experience some of those special islands ourselves.
Some Fiji info;  Fiji is a short 4 hr flight from Sydney. There is a 2 hour time difference. The population of Fiji is 900.000. Made up of 50% indigenous Fijians, 40% people of Indian descent, the other 10% is made up of Japanese, Asian and European people. Cannibalism was rife in the early days of Fiji but has not been practiced for the last few centuries. Wages here are very low, I was talking to a taxi driver and he told me that the people who work at the resorts earn $3 fiji an hour or $5  if they are supervisors. I was also talking to a lady called Lemba, she was one of the activities officers, who made me a woven hat from palm leaves, she said she was from Lautoka, which is the 2nd biggest city in Fiji and she was saying she had 3 children who lived with her parents from the ages of 3 to 11. She works at the Mana island resort (owned by the Japanese)  for 11 days straight, then goes home for 3 days off. I don't know if her accommodation, travel and keep is included as part of her wages or she has to pay extra for that but she lives in the staff village while working on the island.
 The majority of people are employed in agriculture., Fiji's main export industry in Sugar, they are also known for vanilla production. People live in villages governed by a village chief to whom they refer their problems rather than the police.I think it kind of nice to live in those villages where people know each other and their families for generations despite the state of some of the housing.
The Fijian people are a handsome race, or, I thought they were. They all seem to move with languid grace, appropriate to the climate I guess.They seem strong and well built and always singing and laughing whether it be as entertainment or just as they go about their daily activities. We were sung to in welcome, to share their culture and in leaving the lovely places we visited.  They particularly love children and are very good with them.
The video above is called a spear dance and was held as a welcome to us who took part in a tour that included a ride up the river to a traditional village, a visit to see the village school, have lunch, a swim in a waterfall, a ride on a bamboo raft and a very hairy  ride along the very interesting  Fijian roads, quite an experience is the traffic and road conditions over there! Hahahaha!
On our way to and from the resort on the main island were roadside stalls made from unfinished wood cut straight from the bush and tied and nailed together. On these stalls were stacked oranges and papaya. I looked at the oranges and thought they looked green, speckled and not very nice. The same oranges were included in our buffet meals. They were very sweet and had lots of seeds in them. I wondered what sort they were as they were quite different than the type we see in shops here. The papaya was beautiful too, tasting different to the ones we get here, but I guess the ones we get here had to be picked under ripe to travel as they are a very soft fruit.I also saw stalls with live mud crabs trussed up and bright luscious flowers for sale. Oranges, watermelon, melons and pineapple were a constant on the menus, and used to decorate the pretty cocktail drinks we tried, yummy. I should have taken more pics of those.

 Our first stop off was at the Warwick Resort on the coral coast of Viti Levu. Viti Levu is the biggest island of the Fijian group. The capital city is Suva and we landed at the airport which is in Nadi, which is pronounced with an extra n. So Nandi. Other languages confuse me, and I can't understand the differences between their spelling and the English spelling and pronunciation that I have in my head.  Oh well, hehehe.
the pic above is of the beach at the Warwick resort. It was interesting walking along here as many local villages front on to the beach as well and we watched local people walk straight out into the water and go fishing with nets and hand lines.Also along the roadsides we saw people carrying BIG bush knives and machetes, going to work the fields, I wouldn't want to mess with one of them.
On the way to the first place we stayed in we smiled to see the local bushfire brigade doing a burn off on the side of the hill. The fire was sizzling away and the firemen were laying down on the grass watching it, (supervising)  hahaha.

 Next few pics are of close up stuff along the beach near the Warwick. I like putting bits and bods together and taking close ups.

 Coral, sea urchin and starfish.

 I loved this twisty big old tree between the beach sand and the forest on the banks of a creek that ran into the sea.

 Another compilation pic.

 The creek that runs onto the beach up from the Warwick resort. Loved the lush tropical growth.  Some of the rocks you can see in the water are actually big lumps of long dead coral.

 Two big pots in the extensive landscaped grounds of the Warwick.

 The first 2 days we were there the weather wasn't too brilliant. But it didn't dampen our spirits, or the afternoon cocktail tasting. I think this was pineapple,coconut and raspberry? The building and atmosphere here was beautiful but I had the feeling that the greetings that were given by some staff here were not as genuine as they might have been and I had a bit of a bad experience here. I left my prescription glasses in the room and when I came back to the room after the cleaning lady had been through I couldn't find them. Next day we went on a tour up the river that I mentioned earlier and still couldn't find them so went without them. When we packed our things to go to Mana island they were nowhere and ditto when I did a thorough check when we unpacked again. We made several phone calls back to the Warwick and after some passing around we were told that the cleaner had accidently picked them up and put them in her pocket and taken them home with her. Which was unusual as she was wearing a sulu, the local version of a sarong skirt, so I am thinking there were no pockets in that. I was assured they would be returned and sent to Mana island and I could pick them up from there. After several more phone calls I was informed that I could pick them up from the airport on the way home to Australia. Anyway I did get them back. But it was very suspicious.

 Some of the flowers around the grounds of the Warwick Resort.
The red flower above was quite large, probably 10 to 12 cm long.Don't ask me their names.

 The people around the resort had these white lily thingies tucked in their hair.

 This looks like an iris of some kind.

 These orchids were grown on posts in coconut fibre out in the open.

 The photo above is taken on the tour we did up the river. The man is poling on a small bamboo raft. There were quite a few of these (large and small) tied up along the river banks.

 Photo above and below here are of the waterfall we went to on the tour. Some people jumped in and had a swim in the waterfall, I didn't, I am not very brave, I went in up to my waist on the stairs though.

 One of the two longboats we traveled in. It was really fun. The two guides sang and mucked around the whole time. In the bottom of each of the boats was a plastic bottle with the top half cut out, meant to be used for a bailing scoop. On the way back the faster boat kept dropping back and then running up along side ours and threatening to throw water at us. I think we all got pretty wet, it was fun going through the rapids too. Our guides were real entertainers.

 The village (Namuamua) we visited was a christian one. Although it seems that they hold dear their culture and live according to custom and tradition. We had lunch there and visited the school. This is one of the classrooms at lunchtime. Everyone in together. I was quite shocked at their lack of resources compared to what our Aussie kids have. As you know I work as a school cleaner, and see how much we do have. They lost all of their computers and many materials during the recent floods. We took some books and made money donations to the school as did some of the other tourists.
This village school had about 90 kids and the village has about 300 people. Schools in Fiji go from kindergarten to year 8 level. The village school is a boarding school as well. The people were very friendly and open, sharing what they had. I did find it a bit difficult (ouch) to sit on the mats during lunch and the welcome ceremony with my stiff legs and back.Afterwards they set up craft stalls, I bought a little wooden bowl, a sulu and a shell necklace.
I felt bad because they seemed to have so little compared to what we in western culture have but then thought no... they mightn't have much but what they do have that many of us have largely lost is strong family and tradition and community and if they had the things that we have they may lose much of that culture. So it is really a double edged sword I am judging by. Culture is a terrible thing to lose track of. Money driven.

 The lady in the red sulu (A Sulu is the fijian version of a sarong) was from America. She had a bag of lollies that she was sharing with the kids. Beautiful kids!

 Below is a picture of an old Bure in the village we visited. The new one is much the same but I liked the look of the old one. Bure =  fijian hut or house. Bula is hello. Vinaka is thank you, Moce is good bye. Moce is a bit strange, it is pronounced mo-they. See what I mean about spelling rules haha. They are the few words I can remember anyway.

 Photo below is of a Bure on the river bank that we passed.

 Pic below is of one of our guides and my hubby Peter when we had a ride on the bamboo raft.

 Riotous jungle growth along the river. You can't really see it in this pic but there is a waterfall behind there, one of many along the way.

 The next part of Fijian holiday was at  beautiful Mana island which is part of the Mamanuca group of islands. The photo above is taken from the catamaran we traveled on to the island.
 Mana island is the one in the distance. We spent 6 lovely nights here. I liked it much more than our stay at the Warwick resort. The food was nicer, the people nicer, atmosphere etc. If I return to Fiji I would chose here again as a destination. Not as posh as the Warwick but I liked it better. One of the staff told me about an old lady in her 80's that had been back twice a year for the full 40 years that the resort had been operating. The temperature was around 30 C but in the the summer it gets to 39c. Summer is wet season and cyclone season.
 The first thing that struck me here was the color. Perfect blues and the oh so unreal blue greens and turquoise of the water,emerald green vegetation and silky white sand surrounding us was just breath taking.
At Mana island we stayed in a free standing bure in the middle of the island. There was no T.V or radio and I didn't miss it one little bit. Though I must confess I took my tablet to read books and my MP3 player to listen to.
The island was serviced by a water desalination plant, We were warned that we should boil the water and that we might be best to take bottled water with us but, honestly, I have tasted worse water traveling around Australia to different towns. I couldn't see a problem with their water taste wise. Bottled water is available from the shop but is costly.
The bure we had has a thatched roof and exposed rafters inside, which is how many other fijian buildings that we saw seem to be built. Our bure had a stone half circle built onto the outside in which was enclosed an outdoor, open air shower. I thought I might be a bit uncomfortable with showering in the open air, but it was no problem, quite a novelty, except for the leaves from the tree above sticking to my feet and walking inside. We took our own tea and coffee.

Pic above is of South beach, pic below is North beach. Just look at that colour.

Below.... this is my spot.  Nothing better than laying in one of these hammocks reading and looking at the coconut trees swaying above you. Heavenly.  This hammock was a bit low to the ground but I found another that was higher to laze in.

Yes this is a red flower...you were right, hahaha. It is Fiji's winter at the moment so the flowers are not as numerous as they would be at different times of course. I didn't bother taking pics of the bougainvillea of the franjipani, everyone knows what they look like.

We did a circuit of the island on foot. This is the view from the lookout that overlooks south beach. The island has an airstrip up this end, we walked around it on the way to the lookout. The mozzies live up there in the bush too, they had a lovely feed of me, they were very friendly hahaha. Up near the lookout there were trees with dozens of tiny skinks running over them. Some of the larger skinks had bright blue iridescent tails.
Other tiny lizards, Geckos were making their funny little barking calls at night in the rafters of out Bure. They are so tiny and beautifully delicate, how can they make such a loud noise? Other wildlife on the island that I saw included doves, fruit bats, parrot finches, a beautiful bright emerald green with a red beak,red patch on their heads and above their tails where their wings cross over. I was also fascinated by the Bulbuls, they are Fiji's national bird, we watched a couple of them waiting for crumbs at the restaurant on south beach one afternoon. There were also some sea birds and herons, I saw black ones, grey ones and white ones, not all of them on Mana island though. As well as, in both places we stayed, were the introduced pesky nasty little Indian myna birds.

The pic above is also taken from the top of the lookout.South beach in the distance.

This old boat was sitting just at the top of north beach near the staff village.I liked the way rain water was pooled in the bottom and plants were growing  inside it.

Mana island has quite a few water activities available to play with. There is para-sailing. Semi submersible trips to view the coal reef that surrounds the island. Sailing ship trips, jet skis, kayaks, scuba diving and snorkeling, 2 swimming pools, a day spa. The yellow boat you can just see in the above photo was cool,the semi submersible, we went for a ride in it. The reef is full of tiny bright fish that you would otherwise only see in an aquarium. All colours shapes and sizes. The reef here is protected and part of a marine sanctuary. Coral planting has been carried out in recent years to regrow damage done by pollution, global warming tourism etc. They also have a program running to protect and record rare sea turtle egg laying and hatching on the island. Leather back turtles and green turtles live in the area.

This is a weird rock formation on one end of north beach. The islands are volcanic, I think this was basalt. Also laying on the beaches here was the volcanic rock, I think it is called tuff, it is like aerated stone  and sold in hardware shops here as barbeque rock. When we walked around the island a sweet little girl from the village,(about 9 yrs old I am guessing) guided us back along the path through here to the resort, she was so cute. Years ago I have scrambled around areas like this no problems, now I find it quite challenging to my old legs and tender feet, I must be getting old.

On one end of south beach there is another village and a pack packers area. (above pic) We walked around there too.On this walk we followed a path that went up over the hills and to the other side of the island. Along the way there was vegetable gardens amongst the greenery, banana trees, papaya, cassava and taro planted around. It seemed to me that there was a lot of subsistence type agriculture on the islands and also along the river that we toured up on the main island. The locals are quite poor and supplement their diet with home gardening. They told us that their cassava is the same as our potatoes, a food staple. Cassava is made into tapioca.
The resorts we stayed at had buffet type meals with theme nights.I paid for our meals before we got there so that made meal times much easier.It worked out as $50 australian each, for 3 meals a day. At the fijian theme nights I enjoyed trying different foods, I especially liked the smoky tasting taro. They cook in earth oven called lovo. The fire is lit inside a hole in the ground, let burn down to charcoal and ashes then lined with leaves, food placed inside, then covered with mats and more ashes and left to cook.
Entertainment was held in the main building each night at the resort. The resort band was nice and the highlight of the nights were the children (tourists) dancing and little boys trying to catch and jump on the disco lights, hahaha. One of the girls singing had a great voice. One night we went and looked at the board to see what was on and it said surprise . So we rocked up to see what it was. It was a surprise. Nobody came to entertain us, hahaha. All in good fun though. The night we left there was a bonfire on the beach. That was cool. The activities bloke had us divided into groups, there were New Zealanders, Aussies and a group of Americans and they had races on the beach, the Aussies won of course, mostly because we outnumbered the other groups by about 3 to 1, hahaha..

The next pic was taken at the Fijian Bure on Mana island where they have activities and crafts. An old lady with the hat and the goofy smile, I wonder who she is? While I was there the craft activities included, weaving fans and hats, making a broom and hunting, husking, drinking and making ice cream from coconuts.

These goats were on the beach in the village near the back packers area on south beach, I am guessing for their milk.
When we walked around the island up this end, we came across another small very exclusive, expensive looking resort, over 18s only....oh I bet it cost a pretty penny to stay there.

The pic above was taken from the windows of the semi submersible craft we had a ride on. The pic doesn't do the reef and tiny fish justice of course. Ssshhhh, don't tell anyone... but that old lady with the goofy smile fell off the semi submersible craft onto the platform when she came back after the ride,she got her toe caught on the edge of the boat and was most embarrassed. hehehe, shhhh. And the silly old chook also fell out of her kayak, despite having one of her own at home. Hahah, watch her ride this kayak!
The kayak was very hard to steer but worth the trouble because we could row out to and sit above the reef, because the water was quite clear, we could watch the tiny brightly coloured fish flitting in and out of the coral.

The next 2 photos are taken from the lookout above north beach on Mama island at sunset. The beach below is called sunset beach. Amongst those islands you can see in the distance is the island where the film "Castaway" with Tom Hanks was filmed. Because my sunglasses were missing, I bought a cheap pair of glasses, all they did was filter out all the yellow so they were not much use, anyway...... I took the second photo of these 2 sunset pics through the lens of the sunglasses and you can see how it filtered out almost all the yellow.

The guys below were singing to us as we were waiting for the boat to come to leave the island.

The boat below is the Seaspray. It takes people out on day trips and to a nearby uninhabited island on day trips. I should have done that, maybe I could have fallen off a third boat. Hehehe. Oh isn't that colour wonderful!

Pic below is of the same sunset, taken a bit earlier in the evening.

Th day we left, we had a few hours to kill before our flight so we caught a taxi into the center of Nadi to buy presents to take home for our family. Nadi a town of 40.000 people, so comparable in size to my home town of Wagga. The CBD was very busy, the road rules in Fiji are the same as Australian road rules but oh boy, I don't think they worry too much about obeying them, hahaha. In Nadi I didn't like the way many of the shop keepers tried to hassle us into their shops and sell us stuff. It made me uncomfortable, stubborn, not wanting to be bossed around by them and less eager to enter the shop instead of what they had intended.
 So my travel to a tropical island idea was satisfied. Then I came home again to mid winter. It was actually quite nice to feel the cold air on my face again when we returned to Canberra.
 Would I do it all again?
You Bet Ya!
That's all .
Love Linda.

National Arboretum, Canberra.

Sound on.

 G'Day,
           Yesterday I went out to have a look at the National Arboretum here in Canberra and was very impressed at it's" masterpiece in the making" type of idea.
Date, these pics were taken is 10th June 2012. One of the few days that it has been open to the public. Although it will be open each Sunday during Floriade, if you can get to see that and are interested.
 I bought a book while I was there so I could actually remember the details and quote them correctly.
O.K.
The National Arboretum was started in 2004 when a competition was launched to design the area.
The arboretum covers an area of 250 hectares that were specially allotted to the purpose.
The area was previously a pine plantation that was razed in the 2003 terrible bush fires that swept through the area.
 The winning designers were Taylor Cullity Lethlean Architects and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects with the winning concept being "100 Forests, 100 Gardens". A long term planting of rare, threatened and symbolic species of trees for study, preservation and future generations.
It is 6 km south west of the civic center of Canberra.
I think in that shaky looking video that I took half way up Dairy farmer's hill I erroneously said that there were 46 forests already planted of the 100. That was wrong, at the present time there are more than that. None except the Himalayan cedars are mature at this stage.
The official opening is to be held in 2013 which is Canberra's 100th birthday.
The finished site is also to be the official home of the national penzing and bonsai collection which is at present housed in the park in the center of Canberra. It will also include an information/visitors center and children's play area, cafe/ retail outlet, plus interpretative self guided and guided tours and an area to hold concerts and events. There have already been opera/music events held there, with more planned in the future. No, I haven't been to any .....yet.

 The pic above is of a sculpture in place of a wedge tail eagle and nest made from recycled steel. Larger than life, like it's subject. The wedge tail eagle is the biggest eagle in Australia and second in size only to the American bald eagle on the world scale.  It is placed at the summit of dairy farmer's hill. I walked up the steep side, puff puffing all the way , I should have driven along the road, hahaha. Oh well it was still a nice way to spend a sunny Sunday in winter, and a great way to put the old heart rate up. I made a few rest stops along the way. It was well worth it for the view. A 360 degree view across the whole area.

 Up the top of the hill are a few of these Aleppo pines which survived the 2003 bush fires. Aleppo pines have special significance as they are symbolic of the trees on Gallipoli, where Australian soldiers landed and were slaughtered during the first world war, but held the area regardless of their difficulties.
This pic is from the top of Dairy Farmer's hill, looking towards the civic center, you can see why Canberra is called the bush capital. The bare grassed areas you can see below the hill are nearly all planted with young trees to develop into the forests for the site.
Also impressive; you can see the dam at the bottom of the site. It is at the bottom of a thoughtfully terraced area that runs down between two hills, designed to slow running water in times of heavy rain and stop erosion plus hold the water in place so that it can be stored and used within the arboretum site.  It is also a great site for flying kites, as quite a few kids were doing yesterday. Other areas beside pathways and roads were covered in natural rock parquetry to also help in curbing erosion in those areas. The arboretum is watered entirely with non potable water.

These next two pics were taken inside the Discovery Garden. It is sponsored by ACTEW, the local electricity/gas/water, services company.
 Hmmm so this is where our money goes. But .... in their favor, they do a lot for the community in support and sponsorship of many events. The garden itself is an educational one, designed  to show that plant placement, plant choice, design and watering etc can be all important to success and conservation of the environment we live in.

 The next pic is of a sculpture made in rusted steel, installed at the top of the hill (don't know it's name) at the other end of the arboretum. It actually says "Wide Brown Land" which is a line from the poem by Dororthea MacKellar called  "My Country"! Cool eh! I walked about a 1/4 of the way down the hill to get this pic but still couldn't fit all of it in.

 Just to the north and at the top of the hill, to the Wide Brown Land sculpture, is a matured forest area of Himalayan Cedar trees. Inside this forested area of the arboretum is a picnic and BBQ area and underneath the trees were many of these fantastic red mushrooms. Poisonous of course but very pretty. It is a pity though that many of them had been stomped on. By adults or children, I wonder. What a waste.

 Mushroom's view of the Himalayan Cedars.

Driving around the whole site later, I saw the planted areas which were sign posted with names and descriptions of the trees there as well as the reason for the plantings and some of that species uses. Very well done.
One lady, a helper, that I was talking to, said to me that many of the trees there would not be mature for 50 years. Beyond my life time.
 But can you imagine the beauty of walking through the forest of silver birch trees down at the bottom of the hill when they are mature. At the height of their autumn beauty with their bright golden leaves fluttering and falling around you in a gentle breeze?
Or the forest of Arbutus with their bright red fruits above you, when the trees at the steep side of dairy farmer's hill is mature?
Or standing within the dappled sunlight in a forest of one of the many eucalypti forests on a hot summer day and breathing deeply of their resinous scent?
 The colors, scents and movement of the beauty of a forest. Albeit, a man made one, are magical.
Pure Magic!
 I am sure over the coming years I will return to the arboretum many times to watch it's progress.
Playing tourist in my own back yard and learning while I do so.
 That's all.
Love Linda.

I will.

G'Day,
Last night I did quite a lot of reading on depression. Today I feel as if I am stronger than I have been feeling, and worrying that my behaviour has maybe effected the people around me negatively. I worry that my husbands depression may return. I will try to be less impatient and communicate better with the people around me (Mum). I will try to be more positive. I will try to not let my worries and frustration over flow onto the other people in my house because of it.
Yeah well I tried. But bloody hell it is so F****g frustrating with my Mum here. If I talk to her she asks me to repeat 3 times, then I have to go back to the beginning of each sentence and re explain it all to her over again. If I talk to her it opens the door to a never ending rattling of words and advice straight back that , Yes! I repeat! Never ends. She has no sense of what she is saying being wrong or intrusive or prejudiced or negative, she never has. And I can feel the old bloody pressure rise and my frustration along with it. It is so hard. I always have to be the strong one and consider every one else's feelings and shut off my own needs in case I worry someone else. Oh my, this post has turned bad hasn't it.
I have a duty of care towards her and it drags me down. You see a poor old lady, I see a mindless torment. You see a angry impatient selfish daughter, I see no future without frustration. You see, a romantic notion of looking after elders in a society where many are put aside in nursing homes and mistreated. I agree with that one, nursing homes aren't always nice places, I worked in one for many years, but it really isn't a loving fairy tale existence to do it yourself either. It is bloody hard. Nursing homes are cruel places, where patients are made to fit the mold of routine etc and sit there waiting to die. But they do get medical, physical and social care that they otherwise might miss by staying in their own homes. I don't know about other countries, but here they are also very very expensive. Doing that to my Mum is out of the question for me.
Yes I know all the cliche's, I have heard them, seen them, felt them. I know I am not being a nice person. Walk a mile in my shoes.
I love my Mum, but by god, she drives me mad!

Words Words Words.....

G'Day,
I have always found great fun and amusement in words. We depend on them don't we. Language rules our every action and interaction, no matter which language is our language of origin. In particular I get a lot of fun out of other people using the wrong word. No I am not saying I am better and know all there is to know, I am no great brain or expert on such things. But...what I really love is when in conversation, people to whom I am talking try to sound intelligent and use what they think is a really big word then get the word wrong and use it with the incorrect meaning.
Here is for an example, the difference between two similar words. "My husband Bert had a prostrate operation last week, oh the poor old fella has had such a rough time of it." Love it!
Well...... if I had an operation on my nether regions, I am sure it would be much more comfortable if I were prostrate than standing, ha ha.
Last week I was in the local west field shopping mall and looking through one of those Asian style cheapish shops, you know the ones with the gadgets, everything you might want for your house and lifestyle if you knew what you wanted it for? Anyway, in one section of the shop there was a cleaning gadget section which contained cleaning cloths of various varieties, woolen dusters that would fall apart the first time you used them or get hooked in the top of your favorite antique ornament and send it crashing to the floor. Plastic brooms, mops, window squeegees, dust pans and brooms, etc. One item took my attention . It was a plastic floor cleaning tool with a sponge blade on the end. The translation on the packaging said "For warm, clean, homeless feel"
Really funny translation.
Another thing that I have found great joy in is the words that children use when they are learning to master language. My own kids bring many sayings and word variations forth from my memories of their youngest years. Mistakes in word meanings and pronunciation. My second son Dave when he was 2 or 3 years old could not pronounce some word sounds namely Tr. He always said them with an FW in front. So Train was fwain, truck was fwuck etc. We were trying to coach him one day and were saying different words for him to pronounce "Davey say train for Mummy" He replied "Fwain". OK Say "Train tracks" Reply..."Fwain fwacks, haha you get the idea. Next we tried Crackers, which became Fwackers, then I thought hmm, maybe a c word to show him the difference. So I said, say "Cat" so he put the word cat and crackers together, which had us all rolling around laughing ( picturing a cat with crackers, we call fireworks, crackers here) he didn't like that, so he had a bit of a meltdown which made us laugh all the more. Poor little kid. Why didn't we have a video camera in those days? Oh I am still laughing about that, he was so gorgeous.
My youngest child Annie was also a mistress of word play when she was around the same age. Some of her word changes are ones that I still use in my head when thinking to myself and they always make me smile . So cute. She use to call vegemite, megebite. Disappeared became misappeared. If we asked her where something was and she didn't know she would hold her hands out wide and look up at you, shake her head from side to side, with very wide open eyes say, "It's misappeared!" So funny. Similar meaning, which was quite clever of her, but not quite right, hahaha.
Another story of her when she was probably 3 years old. We took the kids to visit my husband's grandmother who was very old at the time. We introduced Nanna Lander as Daddy's grandma. She thought for a while and in her mind must have been working out the concept of great grandmother. She could see that Nanna Lander wasn't the same person as her other Grandma or Nanny so she turned back and said " Oh you are my Nanny- Granny!" Hahaha.
The children I sometimes see while at work come out with great things too. One of my funniest memories happened a few years ago. My son, with whom I work was walking past some kindergarten children one afternoon . He has long red/brown hair and a reddish beard. One little boy stood staring, open mouthed and swiveled to watch my son go past. Then turned to his little companion and said in awe "Did you see that, he is a wookie!" Wookie being that big hairy critter from the star wars movies.
A few weeks ago, we arrived at one of the schools, and a group of children were waiting around for their bus number to be called to go home. I entered one little boy's classroom and he stuck his head around the door and said "Hello" Then called to his playmate to say "Hey Adam! Look it's the Mopper" Ha ha so funny. Well...I guess that's better than being called the rubbish lady, which is what one little girl referred to me as, at another site we clean. I did correct her , she now calls me the cleaner. Kids are so funny.
You have got to love the way little kids minds work haven't you?
I hope you have a lovely Easter break. Today is Good Friday. I made another batch of yummy fig jam. The figs are still going but getting closer to the end of this season's fruiting. There have been so many this year that I think even the little silver eye birds are getting sick of them, lol.
I managed to wipe a few things off my to do list for today, I really need to go wash my baby car. Instead I am here on the computer. Better get to it!
That's about all.
Bye
Love Linda.

Autumn Garden

G'Day,
          I have'nt posted about what is happening in the back yard lately. So here, goes.
Autumn is here and daylight savings ended over the weekend so it will get dark earlier. The days have started to become shorter over the past few weeks, and become cooler, but we still have been having some warm late summer days amongst them. This weekend was beautiful Saturday we had 26C Sunday we had showers in the afternoon and it was cooler. Some of the deciduous trees around Canberra have colored up with the autumn change, many are yet to come.
Anyway, enough innane talk about the weather, I am sure everyone knows what autumn is like.
I am trying to do my first post in here from my new baby computer. It is correctly called a tablet so it is quite different from the other one we have therefore I have to re-learn some things, please be patient. The photos I have included were taken just a short while ago around my yard.
I also haven't worked out where the spelling correct button has gone, so there will be mistakes. I will try to fix them but....oh well you know me.
I haven't worked all this out yet. I don't know how to put the text in between the photos. So Um? They include red cyclamen, oregano in flower, zucchini flower with lady bug, figs, gardenia, diosma, lavender, iceberg rose, one last azalea, and easter daisies.
The other few pics I have included here are of some bowls I have been working on. I have been decorating them over the weekend with some colored slips ( liquid clay) . A work in progress. The little lidded containers are finished, they were pretty but both of the lids are glazed closed, oh well, I can pretend, hahaha. If I hadn't told you that in here you wouldn't have known and you might have thought I was a good potter or something.

New!

G'Day,

Ello!

G'Day,
As evidenced by the previous post's date I have slacked off in my blog.
I had a look around some of my favorites tonight and realised how much I have been missing it, and some of the people I have got to know here in computer land.
What have I been up to?
Well the normal bits and pieces I guess. Though I have been neglectful of some of the things that gave me joy and entertainment lately. My blog, my plants to name 2 of them.
Yesterday I went for a drive down to Bateman's bay in the rain. The driving, which is usually a joy to me, was a bit more challenging. There was quite a bit of damage to the roads along the way and the rain was quite heavy most of the way home, not good on windy steep escarpment roads. There is a huge weather happening here, at the moment. More water than the south east of Australia has had the misfortune of experiencing for many a year. Last year there was lots of rain but the flooding was more localized than this year. At this moment 3/4 or New South Wales is flooded. Huge! Nearby where I live hasn't been as badly affected as further inland. Just over the border is the town of Queanbeyan, the Molongolo river has been flooding, which in turn flows into and fills Lake Burley Griffin in the center of Canberra. The lake is closed. We have had some flooding here in Canberra which closed roads and damage but not as terrible as what is happening the last few days in my old home town of Wagga. The river is expected to get to a record high there tomorrow around lunchtime. North Wagga is being evacuated, Lake Albert is cut off as are many of the roads into and out of and around the city. Many of the towns around the river are similarly affected. Lockhart, Jugiong, Gundagi, Uranquinty, The Rock, Griffith, Leeton, Hanwood, Yoogali, Grong Grong. and so forth, right down the Murrumbidgee river system and it's tributaries. Most, if not all of the water storage dams around N.S.W. and the A.C.T. are over flowing and resulting in rises of river heights to add to the huge amounts of rain La Nina has been sending us. Yeah....... I know there are some funny town names around there if you haven't heard of them before hahaha.
It was a bit clearer here in Canberra this afternoon. According to the bureau of meteorology tomorrow is clear but then we have 3 more days of rain predicted. My back lawn squelches when you walk on it at the moment.I went out there this arvo to pick some herbs and vegetables for tea and the grass is high and very green, unusual for this time of year when summer's heat has normally dried everything out.
Tea was lovely though, and we sat out on the back deck to eat. I did freshly picked green beans, lightly cooked and seasoned with Italian salad dressing and tied in bundles with a long bit of spring onion top, served cold. Some tiny potatoes cut in 1/4 and made into a potato salad (mayo, mustard, dill, parsley, spring onion, olive oil). Another salad made from my fresh roma tomatoes, basil and spring onion from the garden. Fresh prawns I bought at the bay yesterday, served in their shells. And I also bought some fish down there which I did in a beer batter and they were yum too. See Mum can be creative when she takes the time.
I really love this time of year when I can go outside and pick things from the garden to cook with. So much better than shop bought, and more satisfying too because you grew it yourself.
When My kids were little I had this thing where I thought kids should be able to go outside and pick things to eat straight from the garden, and they did too. But none of them as yet seem to be the least bit interested in gardening themselves. Oh well, maybe as they get older they will show more interest.....um, maybe.
Last week I was very proud of myself. I have been saving everything for a while now from one of my cleaning jobs with the idea of taking a holiday to escape Canberra's winter, which can be quite harsh, for Australia, being at the foot hills of the snowy mountains. Anyway I had this idea that I would escape to a tropical island in winter. I paid for Peter and I to go to Fiji in June this year. Made up of 3 nights on the main island Viti Levu, and 6 nights on a small island resort, Mana Island. I couldn't make a decision after reading and re-reading many pamphlets and travel books as well as looking on the computer for a month and gave up. There are just too many tempting places to choose from in Fiji, so I went along to the travel agents in the nearby shopping centre and asked for them to put together a package, told them my ideas, and that is what he came up with. Costs $4750 all up, includes flights, transfers, accommodation and all meals on Mana island. Yes I know it could have been done cheaper, but I wanted nice. I can't wait for June. Whooo Hoo!!! Now I have to keep saving for lots of lovely spending money.
Apart from that I bought tickets to go and see John Butler next month. Should be good eh.
Other news; My baby is leaving and going to the other side of the country at the end of Easter. She has completed her university degree and will be moving to Kalgoorlie. I don't like that she will be more than just a few hours away from me as she is now. Too far away if she needs me or I need her. I don't like it, but she is making her own life and moving forwards I guess. I am a sook.
My second boy David is starting a new job which he is very happy about. He had intended to move to Melbourne to go to University next year and study engineering. A friend of his recommended him for a job where he works. The job is an assistant to a company who does Geo- technical engineering and it will lead to an apprenticeship with on the job training as an engineer. So it is a better option for him than going to Melbourne. My eldest son Mike is thinking of moving to Sydney to be with his girlfriend if he can get a job there. So I might become an empty nester. It seems so strange to imagine that we may soon have a house to ourselves after so many years.
In the unlikely event that someone actually reads this blog any more, after me being so neglectful of it, I hope you are well and happy in your lives.
Good Night.
Love Linda.