Gembrook Visit

We made it up to Gembrook midway through last Saturday afternoon for a visit that fitted in with Funk time and ours. The first thing we saw was the cute little street fruit shop at the foot of the drive. Jas had already made a small load of money earlier and had augmented the fruit numbers in the hope for more. Though it is not an easy place to stop by in a car, people do it, take a few and leave some money. We had fun outside before the sun set and continued inside watching the kids play games on their uncle's tablet. They seem to know a lot when it comes to electronic games. This is at least balanced by the physical and real games earlier.

Drum inspection.

Mending work

The kitchen renovation looking good.

Stripy ready for bed.

Tallarook Free-build

Just like at the other school, Peter also gave the kids a "free-build" activity. They were happy enough with that and there were plenty of unusually shaped pieces of wood to select from the trays to make something with. These pictures are just a sprinkling of the wonderful creativity that surfaced from about thirty students at a lunch time last week. Well done kids.

Whittlesea Free-build

Sometimes Peter has not the time (or the energy) to create kits. When this happens he usually provides each child with a flat ply board to do "whatever" on it. One child called it "free-build" and the name does make sense and probably used similarly in other creative contexts. It is wonderful to see such creativity come to the surface at times such as these.

Mercury in the Sky

Peter has finally seen Mercury with the naked eye. This planet (arrowed) is not seen so much in the sky because of its close orbit around the sun. On this occasion its position was to the side of the sun and the sun had set. As twilight turned to night it became clear for all to see. The brighter planet to the right of it is Jupiter and Venus can be seen just above the trees. That was a magic moment for Peter a few nights ago.

Thomas the Tank Engine Cake

Our next door neighbour made a birthday cake for her three year old son. It was so impressive that we had to show it to the world. There is such creativity where there is love.... and with it the secret heart of an artist.

New Printer

This is a short blog about purchasing a new printer. Our old laser printer developed "old drum" repeating patterns over the print. The HP printer had become too old for easy service support so our prints were always below par with repeating text on both sides of the paper. So we researched and purchased a Brother printer with wifi. That allowed us to locate it in our laundry about the only place left of available space. Peter designed and built a special shelf for it.

Games Night

While Michelle was with us we took out Peter's board game. This was designed in the 1980's and was a family hit then. After many years of being overlooked on games night it had its chance. We were not disappointed. Simon won and became a multimillionaire in the process. Hmmm does he know something that has alluded Peter.

Michelle's Visit

Michelle came down to spend a week with us before returning to Canada. It was a lovely visit and she packed in a lot having quality time with both old friends and family.

Whittlesea Quads

These kits were also available at Whittlesea and the kids bravely got into it. Peter had to show most what went where because he misplaced the assembly drawing instructions. The students did well given this handicap.

Tallarook Quads

Though these woodcraft kits were a little complicated, most of the kids managed to do it without Peter's assistance. There was almost the right amount. A few students who came in late did miss out.

Backyard Blitz

At the end of last month four of us tackled the back yard in a powerful way. The result was a huge amount of cuttings that we still have not properly minimised. But it sill was an impressive effort happening while still in the grip of winter. We also managed to remove part of a dead tree from falling into our neighbour's year. A good day all round and we treated ourselves to a restaurant tea. Nice.