Crumpled Home

Despite the hot weather, we made it up to Gingin for the grape harvest, but Grammy, Poppa, Kath and Brad had already picked all the grapes and crushed them the day before we got there! We made the most of it anyway, picking a lot of figs and table grapes that were ready to eat. Mum cooked up some fig jam and we had a big sewing ’sesh’ during the heat of the day, before going for an explore out in the paddock.

Our incredibly brave**, heroic** and good-looking** dad rescued us from this marauding beast** that had been ransacking the countryside and was intent on destroying the farm.

We found this guy having a drink from the dog's water bowl. He's a bobtail lizard which are pretty common around here.

**Hyperbole employed as official privilege of the author

Continue reading

Last weekend, we took another trip down south — this time much shorter, but still lots of fun. We went exploring a Karri forest, visited a wildlife park and climbed some huge rocks.

Not siblings... Just friends. These are three of the many rescued joeys at the wildlife park.

Continue reading

We took a bit of a break last week and head off to the Southwest. It was very relaxing and the weather was just fantastic. The days were filled with horse riding, beach trips, exploring and even a couple of fishing trips.

Grammy and Poppa were there with the Melbourne cousins for the first couple of days, but couldn’t stay the whole time.

Grammy, LR, RJ and Daddy checked out Ngilgi cave. This huge room is called the amphitheatre and has great accoustics (especially for people who appreciate yelling children).

Continue reading

Mum was away working this weekend, so it was a bit crazy at home. LR had her big piano recital, so we spent the morning playing around to relax. Afterwards, we went to the ‘farm-zoo’ and got ice-cream!

Forced smiles? Maybe?

Continue reading

On the weekend we visited a couple of places and went mulberry picking. It’s a messy, messy job, and people were only too happy to have us come along and make a dent in the huge number of berries falling from their trees. Grammy came along to help out and we ended up with a few buckets full.

RJ helps get the mulberries into the bucket.

LR helps Mum by keeping the bucket steady.

Grammy came along too. She was usually helping out on the smaller ladder.

Mum really gets up into those trees.

RJ climbed this tree so he could reach the berries better.

Grammy brings the bucket over so that RJ can drop his berries right in.

LR explored the highest reaches of the tree, picking a huge number of berries.

The curse of the mulberry picker... Purple hands!!!

The reward... Mulberries!

Here’s a smattering of pictures from the first half of the month: RJ’s sudden fascination with Superman, a visit to K and J’s place, trips to Gingin, lots of tree climbing, legos, marbles and painting, oh my!

Compared to his obsession with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, RJ’s interest in Superman is fairly mild. You’re more likely to catch him pretending to be biologist Nigel Marven.

Don't fear, Superman is on the way.

RJ and I made some Superman badges. I told him, "We don't need no steenkin badges!" but he just wouldn't listen.

K and J’s have an amazing treehouse. It’s multi-level, and is outfitted with a flying-fox, a giant tyre swing, a climbing wall and harnesses and attachment points for everything.

LR and K ride the tyre swing to pretty amazing heights.

LR tackles the climbing wall at K's place.

RJ and J discuss some of the problems they've been having at home.

LR’s tree has grown into one of the best climbing trees imaginable – kid capacity, 15. We’ll find out for sure at this year’s Halloween party.

RJ and LR found an egg shell under LR's tree. Does that mean there's a nest up there somewhere? They've searched all the lower branches and haven't spotted it yet, so maybe not.

RJ climbs up without assistance these days. The monkey genes... they run deep.

Some other recent moments…

Sometimes he just has to yell it out. Negotiating with a hungry three year old who needs a nap is not always possible.

LR tries out Dad's camera while RJ attempts to escape.

LR and RJ worked on this massive castle project. We still haven't managed to use every piece of lego yet.

RJ and Mum adjust their complicated marble run and sling marbles all around the room.

LR adding some details to her big canvas, "The Planet System". It depicts an asteroid crashing into a prehistoric volcanic landscape leading to the collapse of the dinosaur populations on Earth.

A few more pictures from our last trip to Gingin. Our friend E stopped by to visit and we had a great time playing in the shed and chasing the pinballs around the fields. The next day we had to prune the grape vines to get them ready for the next growing season. It should be a great crop this year!

RJ gives LR a lift on the block and tackle.

E, RJ and LR decided to bury a small finch, instead of feeding it to Mr. Bitey

Pinball wizards!

Playing fetch with the kids. Sticks don't work, but giant pinballs do!

Look out Poppa! Floating pinballs are dangerous!

Poppa had a bat take residence in his computer.

Mum gets to work on one of the more pathetic grape vines.

LR gets the low branches; Grammy gets the high ones.

RJ helps chop the weeds... unless it's one that he thinks is cute.

Scarlet helps by sniffing everything.

LR harvests the olives, lemons and rose hips.

These olives need to be pickled before we can eat them.

LR carried the bucket everywhere. Strong kid!

We stopped by the park last week on the way home before dinner. Surprise, surprise — I grabbed a few photos.

High-velocity boy is quickly chased down by lightning-girl.

You'll have to carry me! ... Umm... No.

12 feet up with no proper foot-holds and not a care in the world.

How are we going to get across there?

Let's go across!

See RJ? You just have to jump across like this.

How to cross a stream in 5 seconds or less!

Look over there! A kookaburra!

If that fountain starts up again, we'll be drenched!

This is the fun crowd I get to hang around with.

Maybe we should have brought some more snacks?

That was fun. Time to head for home.