Sixty-one

Without getting too excited about it, we announce that Peter has reached 61. To mark this, we had a bit of a party time at the Fairfield Boathouse. It was a super choice as a venue as you can see by the previous post showing that we all did a bit of rowing on the Yarra. Here we were consuming scones with jam and cream. Above is the moment before the food was attacked. Nice. We made ourselves quite at home.

River Rowing

Peter had a birthday this weekend and we celebrated it on the Yarra River, the Fairfield Boathouse to be exact. It was a super day and we all had a great time having numerous launches taking different passengers each time (and some every time). Each picture seemed to tell a slightly different story so we've posted them all and hope your browsers can cope with the download hit. Enjoy.

Chaplain's Message

This year Peter's school put its weekly newsletter online. It is well presented and carries well written articles including the one above by Peter as school chaplain. So Whittlesea Primary is really out there in the wider world for all to see! The following newsletter link should work each week, with a new issue popping up over the previous. Exciting stuff.

Urban Sketching February

These sketches follow on from last month's blog collection. The blog structure seems like a nice place to store their record. They are all done in this sequence except for the pencil one drawn in 1984 (third down). It has been good for Peter to be motivated to contribute to the Urban Sketches FaceBook group. That is where they first appear and it helps Peter do it some time each week.

The Big Sing

Barb joined with other singers from her Mernda group to join with at least a thousand other singers in the Melbourne Recital Hall for its 5th Birthday Celebration. The well known music director Jonathan Welsh (of Choir of Hard Knocks fame) led the whole auditorium (divided into Soprano, Tenner, Alto and Baritone). No one was there for the ride. Jonathan led this enormous group skillfully in three complicated songs, firstly by going over each part carefully then "going for it". The Big Sing was available on the internet as live streaming for anyone who knew about it. How about that!

Dried Out

The sun has been relentless over our land. Our elephant leaf plant now looks like it is a deciduous plant coming into Autumn. The heat has scarred it, has scarred our land.

Grass is no longer green. Water usage does not allow it. Powdery dry even at sunrise.

At sunset there is a smokey haze. Hundreds of fires fill the air with a foreboding plume.

Country Music

We celebrated our 37th engagement anniversary at the Whittlesea Bowls Club with fine food and fine country music, part of The Whittlesea Country Music Festival weekend program. The first set of songs were given by 13 year old Kaitlyn Thomas, just back from the Tamworth festival. The next two sets were presented by Merelyn and David Carter, also back from Tamworth. Carter & Carter had a super supporting band: http://www.carterandcarter.com.au
It was a wonderful night country music by local artists to mark the occasion.