Holidays and Copperwork

Irving and I had a really lovely extended Winter break.  We  had our regular classes to attend surrounded by a few excursions, and some interesting extended learning at home, and a trip as a family down to SW Western Australia, to visit Willow and her fiance.

We had our Winter solstice celebration with a fire on the balcony, but sadly no ember baked damper this year, as it had been quite wet overnight, and so having a fire was a last minute decision.  We instead had freshly baked home made bread.

We got some last minute tickets to join our home school group, and headed with them to see the Teracotta Warriors at the WA Museum.  The whole exhibition was amazing, and the presence of the larger warriors  was formidable.

Irving turned 12, and we had a lovely family day celebrating with him, and Willow made him a fabulous birthday cake this year.

Blackforest Birthday Cake

Irving and I learnt about harvesting Aloe Vera, and the need to drain the aloin from the freshly picked leaves to make it edible.  It was fascinating finding the sticky yellow substance had drained out after leaving the leaf to strain.

Leaves Draining

We tested and cleaned out this coffee machine, that we found in the hard waste, and discovered that it works, is missing the tamphead, which should be easy enough to replace, and needs a little attention to the finial on the top.  So that's part of our next jobs to get it functioning again.

DeLonghi coffee machine

There were lots of toasted marshmallows eaten during our stay with Willow, as they have a woodfire stove and the weather was adequately cold for our visit.  When we came back to Perth, it seemed to have finally gotten cold here too!  We had a lovely time visiting Manjimup, Busselton, Pemberton, Northcliffe and exploring the SW in general.  Particularly on our way home, when we kept making spontaneous stops into small towns along the way.

Marshmallows

We headed to Busselton, found some great shops for tea, healthfood, jewellery- buying a few too many things probably, and then headed to a local jetty for Irving to do some fishing with Willow's fiance.

Off to do some fishing

Out on the jetty.

We really loved our visit to the Manjimup Electricity Museum.  In fact I think it's the best Museum that I've been to in a while.  Much better than the WA Museum.  The electrical  tech side is well integrated, given it is about electricity they engage with it really well.  And it was an amusing and pleasant surprise to discover that a lot of the tech was from the old East Perth Power station, which is not too far from where we live.

We got to the Southern Forests Chocolate Company near Pemberton, and had the best chocolate that we've had in WA IMO.  They definitely rival our friend, Steven ter Horst in Adelaide (visit to Steven's shop here).

Out front the Southern Forests Chocolate company

Truffle selection

Arden sadly didn't make the trip with us, as he had a surprise last minute event via airforce cadets, and headed off to a camp for the week.  In fact he had quite an eventful lead up to his week away, as he got his learners permit, and he also got a retail job, working for the chain, City Beach.

Irving and I did quite a bit more copper work over the break, and one of Arden's and Irving's friends has joined us in our latest sessions.

Learning to saw copper.

Circular bowls and experimenting with pickling- using vinegar to keep it kitchen friendly!

Irving's left, mine on the right.

My bowl.

Irving's varying square shaped bowls.

We've been watching a lot of youtube videos to expand our copperwork knowledge, and we found this one particularly interesting and inspiring.  We loved that this man had taken up the traditional method of making and repairing old copper pots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTztlpAcips

https://duparquet.com/coppercare

Irving and I have been reading "The Secret Garden".  Such a great book, and it's still fascinating to remember having discovered that people back then learnt cursive first if they were educated, and that printing may have been tricky.

Irving and I spent quite a bit of time having quiet coffee dates, where we took our current reading and headed out for a coffee with our books.  I've been learning about bicarb soda since finishing reading Portal.  Both books are quite fascinating, and I think Portal is a particularly valuable read on birth, as it explores many of the untalked about aspects of bringing life into the world.

Arden finally finished this Guns'n'Roses jigsaw puzzle.  He was finding the black rather challenging!

We found one of our favourite coffee vans down by our stretch of the river, which was a lovely surprise.  They have fabulous Polish pastries.

Term 4 in a Nutshell

This term has seen us doing a broad range of activities as we wrap up our planned school work for 2016.

A large part of Arden's activities have involved looking at fibres, how they're made and making a piece of clothing.  We've done work with wool and cotton this  year.  Spinning our own wool using a drop spindle, and using the wool to know with.  Arden is currently knitting Christmas decorations.  He's also done some weaving this year, and has spent much of the year, sewing pyjamas by hand.

Our spun wool drying.

Jammy top in progress. (I just need to finish the buttonholes for him now!)

One of our other themes, has been looking at buildings and structures.  Damien and Irving and I all head out to visit the Old Mill, and take a look around the building, as well as see how they used to mill grain there.  We had been to the Old Mill before (when we first moved to Perth) however at that time Damien was so busy with work that he was unable to come with us.

Grind stone at the Old Mill

Appreciating the Swan River from the South side

We also visited Woodbridge House in recent weeks, a beautiful old mansion, and we were quite sad to see how few are left in Perth and how under appreciated that they are.  Sadly Woodbridge House's lattice work and paint were in poor repair, and given how many beautiful homes of this style, Damien and I grew up surrounded by and visiting, being from Adelaide, we were sad to see that this house, being unique in its style in WA, was not being appreciated for its story by enough people.

Stopping for coffee at Woodbridge House.

Arden and I have also being doing some work with a dip pen, in the aim of supporting him creating beautiful print and cursive.  I found with Gabriel that the friction of the dip pen was useful for slowing his writing, and enabling it to come out clearer and crisper.  I thought that this might also be helpful for Arden, and it certainly worked!  I am thinking that we might focus on using a dip pen most of next year, and also do some drawings with it.

Dip pen writing

Dip pen sketches by Arden

Dip pen sketches by me (left and right handed- I've been learning to write right handed whilst helping Arden with his writing.)

Willow has spent a bit of time filming the youtube series, "Focus" that she will be in, this term, as well as doing a lot of music preparation for her audition at WAAPA last week.  She's also taken a bit of interest in making make-up and has made her own lip gloss recently.  She's been continuing with learning to use the sewing machine, and recently made her own bra.

Willow's sewing.

Whilst Willow was busy with filming and hanging out with Damien, Gabriel, Arden and Irving and I, headed out to Perth heritage days festival, and toured some of the historic buildings around the city.

Government House (the Gardens were beautiful!)

The old Palace Hotel

And Gabriel and Arden took a ride on an old fire truck!

Gabriel has been doing a lot of studying of WW1, and this past week he and Willow went to the Spirit of Australia ANZAC exhibition.  He has also spent quite a bit of this last semester studying transport, and it's evolution.  We picked up a model 4cylinder motor to construct recently and are in the early stages of construction.

Working on the engine model.

Attaching the cylinders to the crankshaft

Gabriel also had an opportunity to do a metal smithing class, which he was very please about!  He's been asking me where he could do jewellery making for a while, and we felt lucky to finally find somewhere.

Gabriel's metal work

I've been doing a lot of sewing recently, and it seems that in recent years I've discovered my passions; rock and roll/rockabilly dancing and sewing!  I've been loving sewing since I've made friends with my machine ( we were a bit at war to start with...)

Jammy shorts for myself.

Irving in his new jammies.

A cushion cover

Pockets for pants!

The pants the pockets belong to!

Irving getting fast and splashy on his balance bike.

A new space craft for Benny!

Australian Ringneck eating flowers in Midland.

And finally another cow in Perth's cow parade.

-

2025

Irving also hand-sewed  some pyjamas a couple of years ago.  His were in linen.  He learnt to use the sewing machine the same year.

Pyjamas.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/10/term-3.html

Machine sewing.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/12/end-of-term.html

We did some Historic excursion to National Trust properties including Woodbridge House earlier this year.  Those excursions can be found here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/06/gradually-getting-into-swing-of-things.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/06/we-made-it.html