Summer is Creeping In

This post has been a little slow making it out in the world.  We have had a fairly busy term with outings and various things going on, and so I got this half here, and then life happened....

Games Workshop miniature by Gabriel.

Some early ideas and brainstorming for Gabriel's yr. 11 next year.

Beautiful evening in Fremantle enjoying the start of Summer, and getting some rock climbing in.

Taking a look about Perth's Heritage buildings.  We really enjoyed seeing the change in this building, which was once the Gas and Electric building, but which we remembered as an ugly (maybe 1980s) bank.

Inklette loom arrived in the post, didn't take long to assemble and get started.

A small cross stitch project by Arden.

Science experiment with ice.

My crafting...making some bags

Learning pattern drafting

And a guest....a red wattlebird come to visit our balcony.

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2025

This post has reminded me that I have set up the inklette loom for me to try (finally!) but the pattern is a little non-convenational.  Hopefully that doesn't cause me too much trouble.

Title-less

Due to some issues with resources (I've been having difficulty finding lodestone/magnetite)- we've stepped away from physics from a few weeks- and Willow is doing a block on medieval history. The block has been very interesting so far- we've been using Charles Kovac's book 'The Age of Discovery' for the basis of the lesson. There's been a progression through the stories of Jesus based off the progression of Rome and monks creating beautiful works telling Jesus' story.

This is Willow's painting of Jesus' birth.


And her illuminated letter.


Gabriel thought he'd have a try too.


A castle design.


This week we progressed onto Islam and Judaism, and did some Islamic patterns.


Willow also did some writing- both creative and factual- she's currently working on a story about viking times, and she also wrote a page about Albert the Great.

Gabriel has just come to the end of a block on ratios and fractions, and will be doing his final block of the year, on the Norse myths. We are planning a play for our final week, which will be fun, as we haven't done a play in quite a while.

Gabriel has also progressed nicely through his cushion and should be finishing the lion soon.


We've been a bit disappointed to find this week that The Herdsman has closed it city shop, due to lack of popularity. It seems good quality food hasn't really taken off here quite that much. Seems like it's a good decade behind Adelaide- I've been quite surprised by how progressive Adelaide's food culture is by comparison. I will have to get out to Organic on Charles more often over the summer.

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2025

LOL Perth food has been a frustration for the whole time we've been here.  We find something that suits us, and it moves or closes down, or they change their philosophy (particularly after covid this happened!)  Although we do now go to Manning Market for most of our shopping, and we don't really have to use Coles or Woolworths anymore!  Which is very pleasing!  

Holiday Time

Well our first term in Perth has finished, and we are now on holidays. The Royal Perth show starts this weekend, and so we have plans to head off to that. I'm looking forward to exploring Perth further, over the next two weeks.

Last weekend Parklife was happening across from our place, so we headed out for the day. The Onwilliam festival was happening as part of Perth Fashion week, so we spent most of the day wandering around Northbridge. We all really enjoyed it, the kids particularly liked going around to collect the badges and get their passports stamped. It was also nice to see so many interesting craftspeople, selling their stuff. Afterwards we headed to South Perth for dinner, and a small work along the river before catching the last ferry back across.

Willow has just finished a two week block on astronomy, which has worked out quite nicely. Hopefully we can get out for a walk tomorrow night and do a bit of star gazing too. We're better a spotting the southern cross now that we know to look out for alpha and beta centaurus, and we spotted venus setting last week which was nice too. We haven't really added any further constellations that we can spot, so I'd like to try and see if we can do that tomorrow night too. But the block has certainly improved our understanding of the movement of the stars and planets, and we've been fortunate to have a homeschool outing to the Observatory in the next few weeks.

Willow's painting of the Southern Cross with it's pointers.


Arden's star painting. He's become very focused when painting.


Willow is also getting quite experimental with her poetry writing. She decided to try some older english for this.
Venus
Oh, Venus, thou lovely one, the evening star,
the goddess of love and beauty,
how brightly thou doth shine in the sunset,
kissing us goodnight every so often,
thou art like the Dove, bringing peace and beauty to Earth,
like the rainbow I doth see,
never more beauteous I hath seen, than the Evening Star.

Gabriel has been getting through the animal block, and we have the last week to finish, after the break, where we look at man. Again we've been fortunate in that over the holidays there are some great kids workshops run, at various centres, and so Willow and Gabriel will be off to an afternoon with raptors. Gabriel has also just finished his zebra on his cross-stitch cushion. It's coming along very beautifully.



Willow has just had a trial sew up of her horse toy. A few adjustments are needed but hopefully she will be finished it quite soon. She has also been doing some crocheting recently, as part of the yarn bombing of Subiaco, for Christmas.

A few more pictures.
Willow's painting of Venus rising.


My painting of Venus setting.


Homeschooler's tile around the Bell Tower.

Some Recent Work

Willow's swan poem.



Gabriel's Eagle poem.



Gabriel's celtic knot sword picture.



Gabriel is progressing through his cushion.



My pin cushion is finally finished!

At home in Perth

Perth, from the South side of the River



So we're settled into our new apartment in Perth. It's been a few weeks, but the ADSL only arrived recently, so it makes it easier to 'connect' with the rest of the world. The apartment is comfortable, and the space suits our needs, plus we have two balconies overlooking a park, which is great. My only minor concerns, is our storage space is a little small (hopefully we'll be able to sort a way to balance things) and we're on the second floor- even with airconditioning I'm not sure that's going to be great come summer.

Otherwise we've been getting out and exploring the city, as well as doing some schoolwork. Our trip across the Nullabor took almost two days by train, and it was quite relaxing on the whole, plus the view of the stars at night was spectacular.

The first few weeks here, Damien had lots happening at work, so we were only getting to the farmer's market together. We've been heading to the Subiaco market every Saturday so far, and have found the selection quite good, though it's much smaller than the Adelaide market and has a different feel. This week we're planning to head to the City Farm, to check out their weekend market.

We've also been out to meet some homeschoolers, both times at a playground, and so far the playgrounds here have been amazing. They seem to have retained more playgrounds with equipment for older kids. The pirate ship at Applecross really went down well, and it was in such a beautiful location, overlooking the Swan River.

A black swan with her cygnets.


During all this we've been doing maths and English around here. Willow has been looking at the structure of sentences, and doing some writing. I also took her to her first performance of Shakespeare- Julius Caesar. Gabriel has finished his writing block on the Norse Myths, and has moved back onto fractions. We've also been getting into some more complex celtic knots, and drawing the King's crown for geometry. Craft has seen Gabriel finish the first picture on his cushion, and Willow move onto designing her pattern, for a toy horse.

Willow's picture of Kilhuch and King Arthur, to complement her writing for the week.



Willow's model unicorn


My cross stitch is finally nearly finished!