Thursday, July 23, 2009

not neglecting our blog - no really!

We're currently in far North Queensland!


We decided we had to escape winters clutches and as such, have headed pretty much all the way up Australia! We have succeeded, it's Summer here, although the locals say it's cold. 



We're spending our days doing touristy stuff, like going to Cairns Tropical Zoo, Hartley's crocodile farm, and Dream World as we went through Brisbane. Spikee has been loving all the crocodiles, and so have I! I think Stylish is impressed too but she maintains her uber cool heading for teenage disinterest level in public. Although she did accidentally crack a smile when they had their photo taken with a baby crocodile, and Spikee was mesmerised, and positively BEAMING in the photo!



At night the kids run rampage in the garden finding frogs, geckos and *shudder* cane toads. I always knew there were lots of cane toads but seeing them is really something else. They are as revolting as their pictures suggest, ugly, warty, and unfortunate looking creatures. Stylish is hell bent on seeing a green tree frog in the wild and the womyn we're staying with says that when it rains they climb on her windows, so we live in hope. I'd like to see one too, apparently they're huge!




A few more quiet days are coming up, we're going to go to the local beach tomorrow, but I hear you can't swim at this time of year coz there are sting rays in the water. And fresh water swimming is out of the question when you've seen some of the gigantic crocodiles we've seen the last few days. The purpose of our visit to the beach is to find fire wood so we can have a BBQ, but I' m not sure how Stylish will take the non swimming news.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

de-schooled, or pretty darn near it!

Still no lists! 


I find myself unable to list all the ways my daughter has changed since leaving the institution. Our relationship is entirely different, and it's almost as if I have suddenly - over the course of nearl a year - acquired a new daughter! One of the interesting changes has been her interest in "girlyness" which has started to show lately. It's like she suddenly feels safe to be interested in the more socially conditioned interets of girls which she has always fought so hard to reject. For her recent 11th birthday she asked if she could get her ears pierced. She now has small purple stones in gold studs, and they're very pretty. Hearteningly though, she is not all consumed by her new "girlification", and the first set of earrings we bought her for when her ears have healed sufficiently, are small silver frog studs, they're very "her".



I keep meaning to take a photo of our gardening but just haven't gotten around to it. Suffice it to say the veggie garden is coming along ok. We've only killed the bok-choy so far, everything else is alive and well. 


We will go to the museum tomorrow. it is Stylish's Grandma's birthday, my mother, and although she's dead, I think she'd like to think of us going to the museum on her birthday. No doubt photos will follow so I must make sure to take some of the garden before updating! it's not a spectacular project, but it's satisfying nonetheless.