Ruby and Willow- Writing

This last month has been very hectic for Willow, and has seen her perform in Iolanthe, recover, and spend a very intense weekend running around after celebrities as a volunteer at Perth's Supernova.

Now that the excitement of all that has worn off, and she has finally been to the bank to open a new bank account, Willow has published her first short story, simply entitled "Ruby".

End of term 2

Amongst Iolanthe performances we managed to get a little bit of school work done, but mostly we spent the time recuperating from the intense performance schedule (9 performances in two weeks).  Fortunately there was a long weekend in the middle, and so Damien was at home that day.  During the second week Willow got a cold, with a hoarse voice, so she learnt all about being in the chorus and being unable to sing!

Arden had been working on a block on homes, during Iolanthe, and we had hoped to get out and see some of the local historical buildings during the show, but we decided to leave it til a bit later, since people were run down, and it was a very intense schedule for Arden.  Arden did manage to build a model of our home in lego though, based of floor plans that he drew up.

We've had Arden and Irving playing knights and princes around here a little bit recently, and this led into building block castles.  Note the drawbridge.

Arden and I have been working at a book of creation from the Bible this week.  Lots of english and lots of painting.  Working at nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc; writing the story up in cursive and painting an illustration for each section.  

Gabriel has been looking at steam and combustion engines, we have plans for a more practical component during the break, but mostly we focused on theory during Iolanthe.  Some of the steam videos Gabriel watched.  This page was meant to be mostly combustion engines, but ended up a mix of things engine related.  This week Gabriel has moved onto chemistry and distillation.  We're hoping to distill essential oils after the break, and as a lead up he's making cold infused frangipani oil (we're thinking of trying this again later in the year, when the frangipanis are more fragrant) and a lavender water.

Willow has been doing a little sewing again, and made herself a small purse.

 

Gabriel is currently hand sewing his tie, and Arden is making progress on his jammy pants. I've been making a new bra out of green gingham;  I'm making the straps much wider this time.  On the whole I've been happy with my previous bras, except the width of the straps.

 We found this wooden ironing board in the hard waste.  Was too nice a piece of wood to let it get thrown out.

Arden and Irving being fairies on winter Solstice.

Enjoying my breakfast the day after solstice;taking in the sun, before getting started for the day.

We had our first home education excursion for awhile out to the Supreme Court this week for a hypotheticals session.  Willow and Gabriel found the process quite interesting.  Since Arden and Irving were too young for the session,we had a few other errands to do, for Irving's birthday tomorrow, so we met up with everyone later.

Iolanthe has take over!!!

We are now in our second week of Gilbert and Sullivan performances, with Iolanthe.  Irving and I went to see the show last week,and fortunately for me Irving loved it, so I got to watch most of it.  Arden is enjoying his first time acting, and everyone has been returning filled with enthusiasm each night (which is great, because it is quite hectic, 9performances in a fortnight!)

Irving showing off his family in Iolanthe.

We found a beautiful vintage leatherette make-up case for Willow to use for Iolanthe.

We've mostly been taking it easy during the week; just doing a bit of new work (Arden has been looking at homes,  Gabriel; engines (steam and diesel), and focusing on people being well rested.

Some interesting dice construction play!

Another sketch from Gabriel's biology block. (I really liked this but fogot to take a picture of it before!)

Examining our rotary telephone.  (We have two, one doesn't dial- we've figured out what we think needs replacing, and are hoping to find a part)

Willow trialling fairy hair styles for Iolanthe.

Arden learning to sew.  A purse for his doll.

And me, baking, baking and baking. (I've been trying to make sure there are lots of good snacks being taken to Iolanthe- so no-one feels tempted to eat junk whilst there.)

Pear, jam and cream tart.

Pumpkin pie, with our new very creepy looking Jack-o-lantern.

Looking forward to getting back to our normal routine!

Seasons, food, fun and Technology

We finished Arden's block on seasonality and food last week and have now moved onto shelters. Today we focused on Aboriginal shelters, and the seasons. We had a lot of fun, with our last block, and Arden is certainly an enthusiastic cook; he is always discussing future plans for cooking and running his own cafe.

We've been following the moon, and watching it move through it's phases.  Irving is our most enthusiastic moon watcher!

Arden preparing parsley (for our gremolata- Italian green sauce) to have with our osso bucco

All served!

 Arden's form drawing, working on mandala style pictures.

Gabriel working on biology- sketching bones

Our Halloween Jack-o-Lantern ( we had a fun night out rockabilly dancing,  and then coming home to eat pumpkin pie and drink mulled wine)

Some more cheese- we had a few goes at mozzarella- started to get it, by our third try

Folding the curd

Arden working on making some pyjamas for himself

We just finished reading "Little House in the Big Wood", we've been quite inspired to try a few of the foods from it.  We had hasty pudding last week, made using masa flour and topped with cream and maple syrup and dried fruit and chocolate peanut butter!

With our constant "Harry Potter" obsession, Arden and I went out and collected him a very nice solid piece of wood to carve a wand.

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At work creating

We headed out to Wireless Hill last weekend to look at radio technology in Western Australia.  We have discovered that they do some interesting talks on radio technologies.  Gabriel is currently doing a science block, and this week we are looking at the development of the telegraph and telephone.  Today we started off with a series of videos on youtube.  This is my playlist that we've been watching; though not in the order I have them saved.

Willow and Damien have been very busy with rehearsal for "Iolanthe" and Gabriel and Arden both have small acting rolls in it.  Willow has also been working through her mythology essays, and looking into auditions and doing a lot of writing.

Cheese

This week has seen Arden and I back into following the seasons; and in particular the moon- focusing on it's rising and it's setting.  As well as doing this, we've also been learning to make cheese, starting with ricotta.  I'm not sure I'll ever want shop ricotta again our home made versions were sooo good.

This is ricotta number one, made with milk and an extra cup of cream.  *Everyone's* favourite.

Ricotta number two was made with my buttermilk, but since it was fresh buttermilk and not soured, we needed to add lemon juice for the curdling.  We felt this was average and only as good as the shop ricotta.  (One that I would normally think was worth baking with spices.)

This is ricotta number 3 made with our souring milk, almost as good as the extra cream ricotta from day 1.

We only strained our ricotta for 10-15mins to keep the creaminess in.  Ricotta is *soooo* easy to make and so much tastier home made I'm not sure I'll ever buy it again.

Gabriel and I have been making progress on our blues guitar, and I'm starting to feel like I can play a bit.  Haven't asked Gabriel how he feels he's going, but hopefully we're both getting somewhere!?  Arden has got a few songs that he's becoming familiar with on  harmonica as well as his Gilbert and Sullivan selection and his own creations now.  He's also coming along nicely with violin lessons with Willow; they are now starting to work on learning his first song.  Willow is singing Iolanthe endlessly; and of course so is Irving.  I'm sure before long it will be driving me as mad as Pirates did last year!

Gabriel is working on a biology block currently and reading "A Leg to Stand On" by Oliver Sacks.  He's also reading "Romeo and Juliet" for English, and I was hoping to find a copy of "Iolanthe" to read.

Arden is starting on his first hand sewing project; a pair of pyjamas for summer, and Gabriel is starting to put together his tie.  Irving has fallen in love with Arden's gingham pyjamas that I made, so I'm hoping to start him some this afternoon.

Willow has been busy singing and writing, and we need to sit down and have a focused chat again with Damien.  I find it hard at this time of year, when everyone's in a production, as it takes up quite a bit of free time.  Gabriel and Arden both have small rolls in Iolanthe, so it's just Irving and I hanging out this year!

Today we are showing Class Dismissed (again!).
https://www.facebook.com/events/799938486817918/

Yesterday was Samhain for the Southern Hemisphere, so we went Pumpkin shopping and had pumpkin pie and carved a lantern, and shared mulled wine, was a very pleasant end to the week.

Performance Central 2

Our Saturday evening;PIAF's opening event- HOME!

We were all pleased to be part of the Home opening.  The performance was the first I've seen where it felt like Australia celebrated it's Aboriginal story, good and bad, and all the other cultures that now call this place home.  It felt like perhaps we are starting to get it, that the Aboriginal people are as important as every other culture in this land. 

We also attended Lil Bizarro at the Fringe last weekend, which we loved!  All the performers were engaging and entertaining and did something a bit different from the usual circus show.

Damien and Willow both received offers for the Chorus of Iolanthe.  Reahearsals starting in March, which is great as it means that Willow can get to most of this terms musicianship classes.

Tonight we are off to the Get Lost Maze, most likely our last Fringe outing for this year.

Performance Central

This week has seen quite a bit of performance happening. 

Thursday last week, Irving and I were out in the city, when we were the lucky recipients of some tickets to see "William the Great" at Fringeworld.  So four of us headed out to their evening show, and it was fabulous!  There was a good variety of circus, and an amusing storyline that flowed well throughout the show.  Willow was pleasantly surprised to discover that Felix Pouliot, who taught her some chinese pole last year was in it.

Over the weekend Arden was invited to be a paperboy and busk harmonica in the Streetside festival in Northbridge.  From about 12noon til 5pm Arden walked up and down William st waving papers (from 1924!) yelling "paper!paper!" and various other headlines from the 1924 news.  Such as "Horse bolts down James St! Lands in Lorry!"  We did a little bit of research to help him out,which involved watching some old footage of paper boys, and then he got dressed up for the day.  He absolutely loved it and is apparently sorry that it's not possible to actually be a paper boy in this era.

Damien and Willow both auditioned for Gilbert and Sullivan's production of "Iolanthe" for this year, over the weekend.  Whilst they were out doing that Irving and I went for a walk around Elizabeth Quay, which wasn't overly pleasant, as there is *very* little shade there, the water playground wasn't working and it was an extremely hot day (42C), so I think in future we'll avoid visiting there in the heat.

This week we've been getting our lanterns ready for PIAF festival, with the rehearsal happening tonight for tomorrow's opening.  Arden isn't old enough to be in the official procession, but Willow and Gabriel will be in it, and all our lanterns will be hung up.  (Irving made one too with my help.)

Our lanterns looking ready. (They are coloured on the inside, so that they were glow beautifully!)

Irving working on his oil pastels, on a spare lantern.

This is the promo for the opening tomorrow night.