Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Phoenix rising

According to our friends at Wikipedia, a phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends).


It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again.

The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek).

It is said that the bird's cry is that of a beautiful song.

In very few stories they are able to change into humans.


Whatever!

This is my mum's new puppy, and her name is Phoenix. She is warm, her fur is like velvet and she has a lot of spare wrinkly skin to grow into...

Have you ever seen a forehead as delightful as this?

She wees on the floor sometimes, otherwise I might have to steal her.

Jen x

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Camping along the Goulburn River

As I mentioned in a previous post - Union Jack, The Hatchlings and I planned a camping trip for our summer holidays. Well, we've been, we've camped, we've conquered the wild outdoors of Acheron... and it was FANTASTIC!!

This is what our campsite looked like:

And when I sat outside on my ever-so-comfortable camping chair with a hot cup of tea in the morning - this is what I saw:


The Hatchlings enjoyed staring out at the beautiful vista too. Here they are at breakfast time, just chillin'.

When The Hatchlings weren't chillin', they were particularly keen on strolling down to the water's edge and launching as many stones as they could lay their hands on into the river. It might be genetic - I like throwing stones into the river too!

Every morning, usually between 10.30 and 12.00 we took to the tennis court with our lovely friends who were camping with us. No, change that - really we were camping with them. It was their camping trip - we just decided to gate crash!

Hatchling No.1 was more interested in the post tennis swim than the tennis itself. He lolled about under the shade of a beautiful gum tree while we sweated it out.

And the experience wouldn't have been complete without cricket...

Hatchling No.2's fielding ability was compromised only by his love of wearing his hat down LOW.

Hey! Who snuck in a photo of me? I'm the one who is found BEHIND the camera, remember?!
We were both caught at a weak moment - I facing the wrong end of the camera, Hatchling No.2 with his hat flipped up...

In the evening we had a campfire (of course!). Huh, who would have thought a group of little boys would be interested in a bucket full of cold ashes, and soot, and dust, and black stuff??

It's a mystery to me - you know, being a girl and everything...

It's official, we love camping. I don't know when the next camping adventure will be, but I hope it isn't too long to wait!

Jen xx

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

All in the name of h2o

See these faces?

They're the faces of two little Hatchlings who knew that two BIG water tanks were about to be delivered.

The Hatchlings also knew they'd see a bunch of blokes moving them across a steep hill (rather a perilous maneovre) in order to get them into Union Jack's desired water tank location. Union Jack's face looked much the same as the Hatchlings' faces that morning.

With the smaller tank already in place, the big 10,000 litre tank was delivered to our lovely neighbour's house. Their long driveway meant the tank was closer to where it needed to be that way.

Union Jack had a few ideas he needed to share with his willing assistants:
"Errr, it needs to go over there..."

Don't try this at home kids...

The tank man scuttled into and out of the tank like the seasoned professional that he is - much to the astonishment of the Hatchlings.

How many blokes does it take to move a water tank?

The tank was off and rolling (in a controlled manner) in no time.

There is no shortage of the male of the species around our place:
  • 4 big ones moving the tank,
  • 6 little ones watching them move it.

In a remarkably uneventful few minutes, the boys had the tank right where they wanted it. With a bit of a twist and a tilt - the tank made it to its new home.

"Easy" said Outback Joe.

He's got a mischievous face, that one. I reckon we'll see a bit more of Outback Joe before long...

Jen x

Saturday, January 2, 2010

1920s Chicago

Union Jack and I recently went to a Christmas party with a 1920s Chicago theme - this was the result...


I love dressing up!

Jen x