Summer kids

Summer downunder is an absolute wonder for those of us more accustomed to marked seasons and only a few months of the year when flip flops and shorts are the order of the day. So, here is Abby with our first watermelon ripe from our little garden after only 6.5 weeks from planting! Seed packet instructions give planting dates of spring, summer, fall and early winter for successful crops. By my reckoning, that means gardening pretty much 300 days a year!

Summer on the northern beaches also means pretty flat seas, with waves hardly suitable for surfing. However, last week a southerly blow drove some big waves into the beaches and our rock pools looked like washing machines on the cotton setting. Surfers materialized seemingly out of nowhere and one day on the bus we counted 7 long boards and 3 boogie boards. At Nippers on Sunday, the beach sign post said, "Beach closed. Dangerous Surf". There were at least 20 surfers out in the maelstrom of white water of course and when the Nippers arrived, the lifies took the sign down and the kids were all splashing gleefully in the water. Abby took her first big ride on a boogie board even through the heavy surf, and there I was, without a camera!




Summer also means multiple trips to my fave garden shop, Flower Power. As we were looking around last week, we spotted a red-bellied black snake hiding among the lilly ponds. Swell. It's one of the world's 10 most deadly snakes, and there it was! A fellow shopper opined that it was only a baby, being less than 1 meter in length, and he wondered where its mamma was...likely to be something like 3 meters. I headed out to the flowering plant area and left the snake wrangling to the mates.

The kids took several classes at the Coastal Evironmental Centre during summer hols, including water rockets day for Jack and his buddy. Using a 2-liter pop bottle, the kids fashioned a nose cone from Play Doh and covered the bottle with a paper wrap. Then we went out to the nearby oval (play fields are called ovals because that's where rugby is played) and using a specially adapted bicycle pump, the kids topped off the bottles, filled about half way with water, with pressurized air. When the air tube was disconnected, the force of the air leaving the bottle pushed the rocket into the air. Or sideways. Or in loops. And spraying the delighted rocketeers with water.

The beach is excellent any day of summer, of course, and living only a 5-minute walk from one of Australia's premier beaches makes life very fine. A local scientist, Dr Andy Short, has made the study of coastal Australia his life's work. He has personally visited all 11.580 of Australia's beaches and prepared baseline reports on size, sand type, gradient and more. That is amazing! Living near the coast as most Aussies do, knowing as much as possible about the beaches is critical as ocean levels have risen.


While Abby, Milly, Tracy and I went to Mamma Mia, Jack and Dan visited several museums. There was a special exhibit about legendary and mythical creatures at one and Jack was thrilled to see a display about a well-known Pokemon player. If you don't have boys, you might not know about these made-up creatures and the elaborate games andtoys that go along with them. Jack &and his mates love playing Pokemon games on their hand-held game devices.



For Abby and her mates, its been sleepovers, guinea pigs and gardens. Little, if any, sleeping goes on at sleepovers; giggling girls manage to spend most of the night whispering and being silly.

The guinea pigs went outside on an overcast afternoon, andenjoyed the tickly grass in our front lawn. Buffalo grass, I think, very tough and drought/flood resistant. However, it wasn't long before a couple of exceedingly large ravens appeared in the gum tree over the lawn and were making the oddest noises. The piggies were terrified and I suspect the bird

vocalizations were something like, "we can get you!"

We have a shortage of doll clothes which are the correct size for the piggies, but there are always flowers. Plus the piggies can eat their fine gowns after the girls go giggling off to find another summer activity.

Here are a couple of fun items. The image to the right is of a coral reef, as you may be able to discern. However, the twist is that it is made of crochet stitches by a group of math wizards!

Angel Place, a small alley in downtown Sydney, features an installation known as "Forgotten Songs" as part of Sydney's summer festival. It features a canopy of empty birdcages hanging in the sky, accompanied by the sounds of Sydney's lost birds which may have lived in this area, before the city including this laneway, replaced their native habitats. Very evocative.

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