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
We took a trip out to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre. The highlight was the 11 story leaning tower where you can drop water balloons into an incredibly cratered sand pit below. There are lots of other science experiments to explore too. We followed up with a night walk to spot some of the local nocturnal animals. We ended the night looking through telescopes at some of the features of the night sky. Great fun!
RJ looks deep into the black hole simulator.
No Mum! Kids don't go down there! They'll be spaghettified!
LR and Dad push the Bernoulli Principle to its limits.
The mums get the exciting job of filling a bucket full of water balloons.
It's a very, very long way down -- about 11 flights of stairs.
The kids begin the onslaught. Balloon after balloon is dropped onto the zone of destruction below.
E gets a closer look at a butterfly's wings.
LR gets a microscopic view of another specimen.
The face of sadness... E won something in the raffle. LR did not. Life is just so very unfair.
RJ agreed with LR... It is SO unfair... or maybe it's just way past their bedtimes...
We all went out with flashlights on a night stalk to spot animals.
The Leaning Tower of Gingin teeters towards one of the domes housing the big telescopes.
It’s September and the wildflowers have gone crazy. We took a quick trip up to Gingin to wish Grammy a happy birthday and spent an afternoon with Poppa helping him with his electronics and designing our own robots.
RJ and LR work on a birthday present for Grammy.
LR admires a huge bunch of daisies.
The almond and other fruit trees in the garden are all flowering.
The field is filled with a carpet of yellow flowers.
LR performs her amazing disappearing stick trick.
Please put down the camera. We want to do something fun.
It's either from a dragon... or a cow.
LR solders a resistor for Poppa.
RJ clips some leads for Poppa.
LR shows off her latest masterpiece - now hanging prominently in her room.
Dad and RJ worked together on cutting, gluing and colouring his robot.
RJ made himself a pair of "mad scientist glasses" -- out of some plastic packaging.
LR and RJ keep each other company during the scary bits of a movie.
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.
On the weekend, we stopped at a chalk outcropping near Gingin to hunt for fossils. Our main goal was to find some shark teeth, but we weren’t successful. We did find a large assortment of crinoid bits, sea urchin spines, pieces of giant clams, and rhizoliths.
We headed across the fields to the chalk outcropping.
"Wait for me!" The thick mud in the field slowed RJ down a bit.
"Where'd they go?" RJ got to the top and had to search for the other members of our expedition.
LR was already hard at work digging out crinoid stems down in the abandonded quarry.
RJ was desperate to find some shark teeth. "The hammer goes BOOM!"
At one point, RJ found slugs everywhere.
"Can we keep them? They're cute."
Stomp! Squish! Stomp! Squish! Stomp! Squish!
With a bucket full of fossils and some very muddy boots, it was time to head home.
This cute little guy is a Cormocephalus hartmeyeri (centipede) and will be staying with us for a little while. We found him just wandering along a path while we were up at Gingin. He’s about 15cm (7 inches) long and has a delightful poisonous bite, so he doesn’t get many cuddles. He’s visiting the kids’ schools, which their teachers are not too thrilled about. The fearless Carina performed the species identification which involved a lot of close inspection.
So far we’ve discovered that he loves to eat chicken and slaters (pill bugs). We’ve nicknamed him, “Mr Bitey”.
We found this cute little guy wandering along the path while we were out this weekend. He's staying with us at home for a little while.
