Winter break

Our winter break was not as productive on my part as I was hoping, but I did get to do quite a bit of lego building and assisting.

We got out to the "snow" experience in the city.  Arden and Irving particularly enjoyed it.

Willow started working in a cafe- Wassup dog.

We took some walks along the Swan River.

Touched up our blackboard.

Finished customising a skateboard for Arden.

Plus Irving started to try out some skateboarding.

I got some interesting books in the post.

Winter Solstice

This morning Damien, Gabriel and I got up rather early, but not quite early enough to celebrate the shortest day.  We're not early risers round here, so we set the alarm for 1/2 hour before sunrise, since there's no hills to the east of us, as in Adelaide, it was already bright when we got up.  However we had a pleasant chilly start to the morning (it was only around 3degrees this morning), with candles lit, hot soup and hot tea for breakfast.  Arden slept through it, and Willow wasn't here, as she's in Adelaide.

After our breakfast feast, we made rafts, which we took down to Claisebrook to try out.  We had quite a bit of fun, chasing after the rafts.

Mini raft for Arden.

 Gabriel's raft

Setting sail

 Sunk!

We're already planning some amendments to our design.

We spent most of the rest of the day out doors.  We played some basketball, and did maths in the sun.  Seems that Gabriel might do maths faster if we're sitting outside, we're planning on doing it again next week, to see how it goes.

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2025

It's just been Winter solstice here, and we still start with an early morning.  Yesterday was very rainy, so we delayed til today, so that we were able to do our current tradition of an early morning fire on the balcony.  Sadly we didn't do damper in the embers this year, but Damien did make some delicious no knead bread.

Time for a Break

Today was our last bit of planned school work before leaving Adelaide next week. It's been a little hectic around here, with socialising, school work, packing, inspections, finding a new home and sending Damien off to Perth. He's been there 4 days now, and we're all glad to be at the half way point, and are counting down til he gets back.

I thought it was funny that one of the coldest and wettest days we've had this year occurred with Damien interstate, I'm sure he's sorry to have missed it, even with all his fun experiences and adventures around Perth.


Willow has just come to the end of her block on Ancient Rome.


And here's her latest geometry.



Gabriel is working on the structure of english at the moment. Here's his picture of Thor throwing Miolnir at Hrungir.


And finally Gabriel's progress on his cushion.

Holidays

We are having our winter holiday break, and although it's only our second day I feel very pleased. The term has been busy and full of interesting occurrences. Plus, unusually this year, it really feels like winter. I think it's the first time it's felt wintery since we've been back from living in Scotland. Certainly other years it has been cold- but often not in the wintery kind of way, where it's cold at night as well as during the day. More in the Spring time kind of way, cold at night and gloriously sunny and mild during the day.

We went out for a walk to the shops on Wednesday, when it was rainy, it was great fun getting out in the wet. And there was an amazing hail storm, that gushed in. Plus we found a blue tongue lizard stuck in the gutter unable to move. I picked it up, and relocated him to a garden nearby. He was quite lucky- we moved just as the rain and hail storm came, I am sure he would have drowned otherwise.

I have to see about show entries this week. Willow and Gabriel have a few plans, but we may need to review them- depending on timing. Mostly I am not sure if Willow's socks will be able to be entered. One is done, but I am wondering if the other one can be completed in time.