It's all about the food...I mean, the view!

When we go down to Margaret River, you could probably guess that for me, it's all about the food. This time was no different. We didn't even stop to check in to our rental accommodation before we went straight to the Amberley Estate for lunch. What a wonderful start to our stay and a great introduction to the local wine region for Mary!


Since that stop, we've been joking that like the woman on the Ellen Degeneres Show (starts at minute 2:28), Mary loves Jesus, but she drinks a little. She really enjoyed the Amberley Chenin Blanc (hello, any of Mary's friends who can find Amberley stateside!) and of course she liked her lunch too. We visited one winery each day, and we discovered two fantastic breakfast spots. While Artezen in Dunsborough offered up the best breakfast by far (you MUST eat their blueberry pancakes with neufchatel and passion fruit puree!), the winner of the best view goes to Bunker's Beach Cafe.



The morning we went there, we woke up to a cold fog. So much for the "great view" the guidebook had promised, we thought, but we had a reservation so off we went. We drove out of the fog along the way and enjoyed a gorgeous view while we enjoyed a basic (but tasty) breakfast (and juice, of course)


I took a picture of the view from our table, and you can see the fog here:



The next day, we went back for afternoon snacks and were greeted with this beautiful (fog-free) view:




The two other wineries we visited were Cullen (a favorite from visits past) and Wise, a new-to-us winery with an amazing view of the Cape Naturaliste area. Too bad the restaurant isn't kid-friendly enough to entice us back. Sigh. If you are an adults-only group, enjoy your beautiful view and fantastic food. Seriously.



The best food discovery by far was the Yallingup Woodfired Bakery. Holy moly. If you are headed down south, please please please bring me back some of their bread. Mary has offered to drive back herself to get it, and she would even be willing to drive on the left for the prize. It's that good. The bakery isn't marked for tourists, but my bloodhound instincts allowed me to find it anyway, and wow is all I have to say. Yum. Must.

What I've been doing instead of blogging

Please excuse the interruption to postings this week. I really did get my motivation back, but I've also been trying to clear a long-standing project from my plate (and from my wee brain). A couple of months ago (eek), I agreed to make child-sized chef's hats for each child in Ellie's class. You read that correctly: I agreed (offered, even!) to make 24 child-sized chef's hats. Yes, I am insane. Yes, it took me ages. It was so much work that I lost motivation. I have so little project time (unless I opted for less sleep, which makes everyone around here miserable) and it was all being consumed by the hats. I began referring to them as "the damned chef's hats" and then shortened my whining to "the DCH" so I could gripe in front of Ellie without her knowledge. At no point did I begrudge them the hats. They are actually really cute and soooo adorable on the heads of eager 3-5 year olds. But the process and the obligation...that got to me.





Anyway, with Markus's help, I finally knocked out the rest last night. 24 child-sized chef's hats, complete and completely adorable. And adored! Last week, the teacher assigned the first dozen hats, and the kids were so excited and proud that motivation came flying back to me ten-fold. Finishing the last hats was actually fun! Still, it did take up all my available project time that could be used for sewing, knitting or blogging. I'm back now. Really.

In case the more crafty among you are interested, I found the pattern here. The pattern calls for quilting-weight cotton and a 24-inch circle for the poof in the hat.


After a prototype (modeled by Stephanie above), I changed to using white cotton drill, the fabric of professional chefs' uniforms. I found the result far more satisfying. I also found the 24-inch circle was too much poof for my liking, and I eventually narrowed it down to 18-inches. That used a lot less fabric (remember, I had to make 24...and two trips to the fabric store) and made it more like a muffin top than a big floppy top. If you are only making one or two, choose any diameter between 18 and 24 inches and I'm sure you'll be happy.

I think I'll have a salad...

Oh dear

I just dragged almost 300 pictures over to flickr for your perusal. That act, more than anything else, made me realize how much I miss by not blogging. So many stories have gone unshared! So many moments captured and then hidden in the computer! I have rediscovered my motivation! Now, do I address the backlog or just move forward?

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all you mothers (and those of you with mothers!) a Happy Mother's Day!

We are freshly returned from a long weekend down in Dunsborough and Margaret River. We wanted Grandmary to see the local wine region, and we hope she wasn't disappointed!


Something tells me she wasn't.

On past trips when we headed down south, we stayed at Clearwater Escape rentals in Dunsborough. This time, we opted for a farm stay, thinking that would appeal greatly to the girls, as well as giving them space to run in the afternoons after the atypical amount of time spent in the car each day. From the girls' perspective, we couldn't have done better. They were over the moon! Thrilled! Excited! Happy! The adults were less enthused with our accommodation. The house was perfectly fine for something not expensive (discounting, of course, the strong smell emanating from the kitchen), and since it sleeps up to 12, it wouldn't be expensive if that many people split it. As Markus put it, if we were a dozen college kids sharing for a weekend, we couldn't have done much better. As it was, Grandmary kept saying she felt like she was at camp (I did too, and I've never been to camp), not that she was complaining...she'd stayed in worse places before. Oh my, how embarrassing. Well, as I said, the girls were thrilled. We adults focused on the main redeeming feature, which was the fireplace I used to keep us toasty in the evenings. We saw this:


For the girls, it looked more like this:



We all enjoyed and appreciated this:



As always, it is just nice to get away for a while. We were all ready to come home on Sunday morning after three nights there, but we all are looking back at what was a great weekend in our hearts.

Postcards from a picture-perfect day

**I have shared these at the other private blog on posterous. I chose to password protect our Blogger site because that one kept giving me error messages, but that might have been a fluke. I had no trouble today, so I may eventually transition over there. You are welcome to check it out (their photo display is much nicer than blogger). The password there is blitzpampers.**

Is this thing on?

Hard to know these days! I've been writing so irregularly that I bet you haven't been checking as often.
And the longer I go without writing, the harder it is to get started. Worrying trend!
I'm going to try my best to get back on schedule here. Grandmary has talked with me a few times already about the blog (and lack of postings), and her words remind me of its purpose and value. I have definitely found that blogging has been like a habit. While I was doing it regularly, it was easy and obvious. I noticed and even felt the lack when I didn't make the time. After a while, the habit lagged and so did my awareness of it. I missed blogging in a vague way, but I didn't know how to get back on the wagon. In order to get me going tonight, I'll just bring you up to date with us in a nutshell.

Just to let you know, we are here. We are fine. Grandmary arrived safely on Tuesday afternoon, remarkably free of the horrid effects of jet lag. We're in awe of that, actually. She is a trooper and jumped right into WA time. Amazing.
(makes me feel like a terrible wuss for suffering for oh, about three WEEKS after my US trip)

Ellie missed school on Tuesday, went a full day on Wednesday plus after school play with friends that day...and Thursday morning we were right back to the non-Ellie, awful behaviors that worried me so last term (though, in fairness, the awful faded quickly; alas, the tears have not...she was sobbing when I picked her up early today). I was able to schedule an observation for next Tuesday morning, and I have a meeting with her teacher one-on-one the next day. I have got to get to the bottom of this!

Ellie remembers and loves Grandmary, and she was so happy to see her walk off the plane! Stephanie, on the other hand, hasn't seen Grandmary since she was a wee baby in Holland (only a couple of months old), so she doesn't know her. You might recall that Stephanie is very wary of strangers. Since we've been Down Under, we have had next-to-no visitors (Markus's mom and sister came soon after we arrived, but no one since...well over a year). None of us are used to an extra person in the house. The first night, Stephanie had a terrible time resting until I opted to stay the night in her room (with her clutching my finger in her little fist for the first two plus hours). The second day, she seemed happy to see Grandmary for a while...but that didn't last the day. I have to say that I've been amazed she has handled it as well as she has done. She really does have a strong aversion to strangers, and this one is here all the time! Of course, the upswing is that makes this stranger much less of a stranger very quickly. I think everything will be normal soon. Grandmary is bearing it beautifully well. I can't imagine how hard it is for her, since she does know Stephanie and loves her. She is very patient and is letting Stephanie come to her in her own time. That helps a lot!

In order to give Grandmary time to settle (though she doesn't seem to need it!), we are sticking close to home this week. Next week, we will head "down south" for our own long weekend in the Margaret River wine region. In both of our previous trips, we stayed at simple vacation rentals in Dunsborough. I couldn't remember the name of the place, and in my google searching, I discovered Dunsborough Rail Carriages. We opted for their farm house. Their rentals are on a 100 acre property, and they apparently have some wild kangaroos that have become so habituated to humans that the owners leave kangaroo feed in all the rentals. We think the girls (especially animal-lover Stephanie) will be over the moon! Plus, this is Grandmary's first trip Down Under. She needs to see some kangaroos.

Tomorrow morning is my knitting group, so I'm taking Grandmary with me to meet my peeps. It's actually a knitting and crocheting group, so Grandmary (master crocheter) will fit right in! They are really looking forward to meeting her and asked in advance if they can call her "Grandmary" too.

Because that's the kind of party animals we are

Chef's assistant

A few weeks ago, I finally made myself sit down and sew a couple of aprons for the girls. I had meant to ever since making them for Ellie's class, and somehow it never reached the top of the priority list until Ellie was invited to a cooking party for a friend's birthday. I am so happy with the Montessori apron pattern on Sew Liberated (thank you, Meg! so kind of you to make it available for free!). The aprons (and their owners) are pretty darn cute, if you ask me.



As much as Ellie loves to feel useful, she has never cared much for cooking (this still surprises me, though I suspect it's the unruly mess factor). Stephanie, on the other hand, is all for it! Just about any time I'm working in the kitchen now, she will wander over and announce, "I need my chair!" She presses the button to start the food processor. She stirs (very carefully) on the stove. This picture was taken during breakfast prep the other morning (sweet potato oatmeal in progress). It's so fun having such a sweet little helper!

Off the needles

I've finished Stephanie's vest, again. I knit Stephanie a Neighborly vest using some gorgeous, soft wool. When it came off the needles, I was so proud and the compliments rolled in...until I tried it on her. Too short! Sigh. I was so ready to do my next project that I decided to get over it. I proceeded to knit Ellie's Neighborly, and (you guessed it) TOO SHORT. It was time to whine to my knitting peeps. Marianne, the lady who taught me to knit, looked me squarely in the eye and asked how short they were.
Just a couple of inches, I said. Both of them. Must be the pattern.
She kept looking me in the eye.
What?
How tall are you, she asked? How long is your torso?
Ah-ha moment! (that's what she was waiting for). My girls have long torsos too! I will always need to add a couple of inches to their handmade garments. Good thing to learn, actually. And thankfully, it's easy to fix with a knitted garment. I had to rip back and add several more rows. Here's the result:



I haven't managed to wriggle her into it yet (as you know, she prefers to be sans clothing), but I'm pretty sure it will be long enough now. Ellie's is still on the needles, but I hope to finish this weekend. Here's what it looks like, blocked but too-short:

Playing hookie

School resumed after Easter holiday this week. Monday was a teacher work day, and the kids went back on Tuesday. Well, most kids went back on Tuesday. Ellie had an extra day off. I just let her play hookie for a day, and it was great! The weather was beautiful, so we had three picnics in the backyard (morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack), replanted her cubby house window boxes and generally enjoyed the day. (The picnic basket was a score from an op-shop visit that morning. Ellie is so proud of it!)


Last term was a difficult one for Ellie. She was so ready to go back after the Christmas/summer break, but over the term, things deteriorated. Although her teacher reported seeing no change in Ellie during the day (perfect behavior as always), we saw some dramatic changes at home. She became very fragile, teary, tantrum-y, and extremely tired. She was a serious handful and didn't even know how to manage herself. She begged to stay home some days and wanted early pick-up on others. She didn't want to learn anymore, which is a big red flag in itself if you know Ellie. Something(s) was really not right, and for the first time ever, I considered pulling her out and homeschooling. I have a lot of theories as to what the problems might be, but Markus keeps reminding me not to jump to conclusions. I hope to do a series of observations soon to see things for myself.


Ellie is an extremely sensitive little soul, and I know interactions with others, whatever the place or occasion, will present challenges for her. It's unlikely we will ever find her The Perfect Place, but to see her attitude toward her school go from sky-high to rock-bottom in weeks was very upsetting to me as her mother (gross understatement there, actually). The good news is the Easter holiday brought her back to herself and let me understand a bit more how to help her. Now, I need to get at the root of the issue(s) and figure out the next steps, if any need taking. No buts about it (sorry, couldn't resist).


Markus is off on Friday and Monday for ANZAC Day, so we're playing hookie again, and again on Tuesday, because Grandmary is coming! Our first visitor from the States (providing she can actually be coaxed into getting on the plane Sunday afternoon)!

New idea(s)

Blogger has a feature that allows me to select who can read this blog. Until this point, I've always had it set so that anyone can read it. To select readers, I have to individually enter approved readers' email addresses. From there, I'm not sure how those readers check in. I'm going to give it a whirl and someone will have to let me know. As of tomorrow, I'm going to restrict access to this blog site and give that a trial run. I had tried a different blog with posterous. Maybe I'm unlucky, but I keep getting so many error messages there that it completely wastes my posting time. I will try keeping this one with all its backlog, but restricting its audience a bit. Please let me know if you'd like to be included, and please be sure I have your best email address, as that is the means by which you will gain access. We'll see how we go!

I'm a bit nervous telling you this, but I have another blog too. In all of my pondering in the past few months, I decided I wanted a space of my own (that's why I'm nervous telling you about it). You can find me at http://heldinimchaos.typepad.com. I am happy to have this space. It is public, and I plan to leave it accessible to all. It is the blog I will reference when I comment on other people's posts or give as my blog address in the future. There isn't much there yet, but you are welcome to come have a visit. It would be wonderful to hear your words from time to time, if you are so inclined.

Playing in the park

This morning, we went for second breakfast at Lawley's Bakery (light sourdough toast with jam and babycinos) and then wandered over to the playground near the lake. We were there for ages, enjoying the warm fresh air and the bright morning sun. After a while, we noticed we were being watched...


Rainbow lorikeets are so handsome! I moved in to take his picture, and I heard a little voice behind me saying, "Oh! Oh! Help! Help me!" There was no real urgency in the voice, so I turned around casually to find this:


The sight made me laugh so hard that Ellie came running over to see what was happening. Then, she wanted to try it too:


Do we know how to have fun or what?

Beach morning

A few weeks ago, we woke up to the first of many glorious early autumn mornings. It was a weekend, it was early, there was no wind, so we headed to the beach!


(sand wall created by storm surf days before)


(view down Swanbourne Beach towards Cottesloe)


(self-portrait; I'm so long and lanky)



(my loves relaxing; currently my desktop photo)

Grr

I spent a lot of time this morning uploading some new posts to the new blog...only to receive error message after error message. This does not inspire confidence in that site or make me at all happy, given that any blogging time I have these days is quite limited. Argh. I just don't know what the solution is. I am very tempted to abandon the whole blogging ordeal...except I really don't want to. I have to find a way to make this work. I don't know how, but I have to find a way. Grrrr.

Note to self

No matter how challenging the day might be, it is not a good idea to eat three large brownies.

Now with password protection

Hi there! Still out waffling about this blog situation, but I have to listen to reason when so many of you suggest password protection. The older the girls get, the more I wonder about how much I should share of their lives in a public forum. On the other hand, I have personally derived so much benefit from access to some truly wonderful blogs out there, and I feel it's only fair to be public in some way myself. I may run two blogs (one public and one private); as I said, I'm still waffling. In the meantime, I just made my first private blog post on a site with password protection. You'll have to drop me a line to gain access. I ask in advance that you please do not "keep me logged in" on a public computer or share the password without first asking me; doing so would defeat the purpose, even if you are sure I would approve. I would like to know who is viewing the private site. That being said, I hope you enjoy! This blog I've had all along will definitely stay live until I post otherwise.

Melbourne Museum

And the most impressive use of technology in a kid-friendly museum goes to:

Autumn has come

The mornings and nighttimes are crisp and cool.
The sun warms the air and the earth during the day.
Autumn has come, and we welcome it!

A few words for Qantas

To date, we've taken four Qantas flights with the girls: round-trip to Sydney and round-trip to Melbourne. On all flights, the in-flight entertainment was shown on the big screens and the screens running along the ceiling in the aisles rather than individual screens with personal options. This is no surprise on any domestic airline, and in itself, is no reason to complain. But the movie choices. There is a problem with those.

On the flight to Sydney, the movie was "Wolverine". It was so violent and scary that it made the girls cry. We did our best to distract them, but it's a bit hard to hide the images when they are projected on a wall-sized screen two seats away (and several smaller screens all around the plane). Thankfully, on the other Sydney flight, they were sleeping for the most part so I don't remember the video at all. On the way to Melbourne, the movie was "Nine". While I personally enjoyed that one, I did not enjoy my four-year-old daughter watching the preludes to sex (no actual sex shown), the scantily clan women of his fantasies and the strip tease/dancing scenes. But our flight home from Melbourne took the cake. That movie was "The Lovely Bones". I was so upset about that one that I complained to the flight manager onboard. I needed to know how the films were selected, given that you have no opportunity to opt out of viewing. This is a movie about a girl who is raped and murdered by her neighbor, and then the fall-out with her family paralleling her own afterlife story. NOT APPROPRIATE. No, the actual scene wasn't shown, but our children are not dumb. Ellie understood (even without access to sound) that something very upsetting was happening and became distressed. There was scene after objectionable scene, not least of which was when the father was brutally beaten with a flashlight and then a baseball bat...all for everyone on the plane to watch in horror. We tried everything we could to keep Ellie's eyes off the (multiple) screens, but she saw far more than I could possibly accept. Only on walking her to the back of the plane were the images out of view, but they were there again as we went back to our seats. At many points, it was bad enough that we physically covered her eyes, but you know how it is with making something forbidden. It became all the more engrossing. Having not seen the movie previously myself (in an active choice to opt out of the content), I was distressed by what I saw and would have wished not to have seen it...and that's from a 33-year-old woman. My daughters are 4 and 2! Qantas, I am appalled. I know you try to be current with movie selections, but how about The Fantastic Mr. Fox for a midday family flight rather than THAT?!

I lodged a formal complaint onboard and have subsequently done so through the customer service site. I have no issue with these movies being shown as options on personal screens. But when there is no way for anyone to opt out, the issue of appropriate content MUST be considered. No amount of editing can make appropriate a movie about the rape and murder of a young girl. Qantas, you messed up big time with that one.

Where have I been?

Hi-ho! It's been a while since I've written in this space. I guess I have reached a strange blog burn-out. Not long after my Perth storm post, I received my first truly unpleasant comments on this blog. While I wasn't offended (they were just nasty with no sense or reason), I was put off from sharing in a way that is accessible to such people. Then, it seemed I came across blog after blog where people were having their content stolen. In the creepiest cases, people were finding their images were stolen and passed off as someone else's children! Very disturbing! Suddenly, putting myself and my family out in this public forum seemed far less appealing. I became unsure of what I wanted to share and with whom I was sharing it. Truth be told, I still don't know. I know our friends and family far away enjoy having this medium for checking in with us and being a part of our lives, and I would hate to lose that connection. I'm not sure what to do about the issues. Anonymity seems obvious, but it's not why I write. For the moment, I'm still pondering. If you have (constructive, appropriate) thoughts on this, please share them!

Melbun

Over the Easter weekend, we made a family trip to Melbourne. I'd been wanting to visit Melbourne since leaving Sydney. The two cities have a rivalry for best Aussie city, and I wanted to experience the difference for myself. The more I asked around, the more rave reviews I got for Melbourne. The overwhelming answer was Melbourne was a shopping mecca. When I mentioned I might be going to Melbourne solo (Markus doesn't care much for city trips), I can't tell you how many women were quick to offer to join me. Of course, in the end, Markus decided escaping Perth was more important than the actual destination, so off we all went together for a few days in Melbourne (pronounced "Melbun", not "Melburn", if you want to pass the Aussie test).

Before I left, a girlfriend advised me that Melbourne isn't a pretty city, but it has so much on that you could happily be there for a year and not exhaust your options. I think I have to agree. We stayed downtown in a fantastic location in that it was accessible to many desirable spots, but it was like being downtown in any nondescript city. I may upset a lot of locals when I say this, but Melbourne isn't very pretty. It does, however, have so many other draws that you forgive its appearance without a second thought. The public transportation network was awesome! A shuttle service took us from the airport to the central train station ($56 round trip for family of four), and from there a free shuttle took people to their respective hotels. This saved us from the perils of taxis without carseats (and the expense involved), and the girls loved riding the red bus. We were so amazed at the free hotel shuttle. It is offered by the airport shuttle company, not the individual hotels, which is pretty impressive. From our apartment-hotel (the Quest Hero), we easily walked to Parliament and caught the free tourist tram on the City Circle line which took us just about everywhere else we wanted to go.

We arrived on Saturday late afternoon and left early Wednesday morning, so that gave us three full days there, two of which were public holidays due to Easter. Amazingly, that didn't impact us much at all. The museum, aquarium and zoo were open over the holiday (we checked in advance), so the girls were happy. Actually, we didn't make it to the zoo. We went to the museum on day one, the aquarium on day two, and then back to the museum on day three because they enjoyed it so much!

My girlfriend was stunned that I went to Melbourne and didn't do a bit of shopping, but our trip was perfect without it. What I really wanted was some quality family time away from Perth for a while, and we got just that. We were blessed with excellent weather (far from a given in Melbourne, apparently), fantastic food options at hours that suited the kiddos (stunner!), and lots of nice, new things to see and do. So, what's my verdict on the best Aussie city (keeping in mind I've only seen three)? It depends on what you're after. Sydney has a magnificent harbor and no one could argue with its visual appeal as a city, but Melbourne has a diversity, a heart and a soul that we found in the fantastic Sydney neighborhood where we stayed but not in the city overall. While it doesn't look particularly fabulous, Melbourne definitely felt more European, and it reigns superior in art, theater, shopping, and dining. I suggest you visit and decide for yourself.

We Survived The Great Storm of Perth 22/03/2010

Yesterday, we experienced our first real rain in months. As fate would have it, yesterday's rain turned out to be part of the worst storm Perth has seen in almost 20 years. It snuck up on us, going from dark clouds and lightening to golf-ball-sized hail in a matter of minutes. And then there was the deluge. The noise in the extension was deafening as hail pounded the tin roof. Stephanie snoozed away in a late afternoon nap, while Ellie watched with mounting trepidation as the storm raged. Around our house, the hail heavily battered trees and knocked down lots of small branches and leaves (it was closer to dime-sized here, thankfully; the worst was downtown and the heavily damaged UWA campus). Watching the hail hit the pool was amazing, and it was kinda fun watching it bounce around on the trampoline. Once we knew Markus wasn't being beaten by it on his bicycle, we were able to relax and watch it go.



At the end of the day, it was your average summer thunderstorm in the Southern US, only they aren't used to that kind of weather here.
At all.

The mayhem it caused was horrific. Unfortunately, many areas were far worse off than we were. The storm caused a mudslide in King's Park that ran into some luxury apartments. UWA had a lot of devastation. Several houses had collapsed roofs or broken windows or skylights, letting in tons of rain and damaging ceilings. Other homes flooded and many cars were totaled by the hail. In our area, there wasn't too much damage to speak of, but we learned a few things about the house. The skylight still leaks, for one. The indecision about The Mushroom Room was fortuitous; it flooded again, just as before. We lost power in all the outlets in the house; the safety switch tripped repeatedly from water leaking into the electrical system somewhere. The rest of the house lost power a couple of hours later anyway. For bonus, the drain in the laundry room floor backed up and filled the room with smelly yellow water, leaving first that room and then the whole house smelling like a public toilet. As I cleaned up this morning, we discovered the source of our electrical woes when I unplugged the washing machine and water poured out of the outlet. Markus stayed home to help me tame the mayhem, and everything is back to order now. The house looks and smells spanking clean, and the power is fully restored, though not in time to save the contents of the fridge.

I looked up a news story about it online this morning, and I was raw-ther amused to know that over 11,000 people spent their evening last night setting up and joining a facebook group called "I Survived the Great Storm of Perth 22/03/2010." It was a thunderstorm, people. With golf ball sized hail, I grant you, but still.
I have to wonder how large that facebook group will be when the 150,000 people without power get back online.

Actual crime in the bubble

We often refer to our life in Perth's western suburbs as bubble living, because really, it is such an isolated, protected little bubble. Personally, I love the fact that we are raising our two young children in a place where the biggest woes include parking challenges and objectionably bulbous fences. But today we have actual crime to deal with, and I tell ya, I'm not used to it anymore!

There is a criminal at large in the western suburbs. I found this out the hard way (since I don't do TV or radio) on my drive from Ellie's school to Stephanie's playgroup. We went through Swanbourne, or at least meant to go through but couldn't because of roadblocks. Stuck in traffic near a good cafe meant I stopped and let Stephanie run around for a while. That's where I learned that a dangerous (and presumed armed, though that wasn't certain) carjacker that led police on an almost day-long car chase yesterday (in three different hijacked vehicles, as he crashed or was blocked in various spots) escaped from the hospital where he was being treated for injuries. Those injuries can't be too severe, because he's had the police after him all day. I heard helicopters as of 7am and wondered what that was all about. Now I know. He was in Swanbourne for a while, so they completely closed that area down. Now, he's apparently moved along somehow because I've had notice from Ellie's school in Mosman Park (two towns over) that they have locked down the school. I can still hear helicopters, and it's 1pm. I have no idea where he is, and apparently the police aren't doing much better. Apparently, there are over 100 police officers on his trail. Either this guy is very smart or the police are really inept (sorry guys, but the thought is there; you just aren't used to this sort of thing). Whatever the situation, I really hope they catch him soon. I'm supposed to pick Ellie up from school in a little while, and I'd love to be able to do so. He is welcome to take my car if it came to that, but the idea of him trying to do so with one or both of the girls in the back...it makes my blood run cold. I'd rather him be behind bars, thank you very much.

***Updates***
45 minutes later, a new text from Ellie's school saying "lockdown is over, offender apprehended". Way to go, boys in blue! An earlier news report said that the man was not restrained or handcuffed at the hospital when he made his escape. I'm betting that's a mistake they won't be making twice.

Sculpture by the Sea

This morning, Stephanie and I had another playdate with our friends. This time, we met at a playground near the beach in Cottesloe, and then we strolled over to take a look at the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. Call me an uncultured swine, but I'm not much of one for modern art. When I look at some big, angular metal thing, I just don't get how that is supposed to be about human angst and the suffering that connects us all or some such nonsense. Sorry, but I'm a classical art girl. I like subject matter to be straight-forward. But I can and do appreciate technique, skill and sheer effort that goes into creation. There were some sculptures that were not my cup of tea, but some were downright awesome. Follow me along this one from the side, to an angle, to the front:




This one was a clever thumb at all the (real) bureaucratic signs that litter the beach.


It was a beautiful day to be out. Yesterday was a picture-perfect early autumn day, which left today with a lovely cool start. Summer may be slowly drawing to a close. I brought home a happy but quite tired baby Stephanie, and she soon went down for a nap. After a few minutes of protest, she was quiet. I made myself some lunch and wrote a long overdue letter before I heard her talking to herself. She'd been in there for about an hour, but she hadn't been asleep. I opened the door to the extension and immediately was hit with a powerful scent, almost like disinfectant but milder. With lavender? Was it a new soap in the bathroom? I couldn't place it. Then, I was greeted with this sight:


See how shiny she looks in the flash? That's because she'd found the tub of Baby Vicks (gently scented with lavender) and smeared it all over her face. It was a few centimeters thick in places. It was all over her hands, in her hair from twirling...and she was very proud that she had done it all by herself! I had to laugh. Bathtime! And now that she's dry again, I can tell that it's still all in her hair. How am I supposed to get that out?

A worthy quote for worn-out mamas

"I didn't want to pass anything on to them, anything they'd be better off without. At those times, I would lie on the floor in the dark, with the curtains drawn and the door closed. I would say, "Mummy has a headache," "Mummy's working." But they didn't seem to need that protection, they seemed to take everything in, look at it straight, accept everything. "Mummy's in there lying on the floor. She'll be fine tomorrow," I heard Sarah tell Anne when one was ten and the other was four. And so I was fine. Such faith, like the faith in sunrise or the phases of the moon, sustained me."
--from Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood

Art time inspired by Collage Collage

Recently, sharilyn of lovelydesign wrote on her blog about a wonderful shop in Vancouver called Collage Collage. I wish we had a shop like that here! I want to open one myself! I felt mightily inspired looking at pictures of the place, so I decided to replicate it on a small scale at home. I have soooooo many art supplies that I've collected over the years from necessity (buying my own stuff when I was a teacher) and personal obsession (I really love new supplies). Markus will vouch for the fact that I never throw anything away, so (much to his chagrin) we have stuff coming out of our ears. The really shameful conclusion was that I didn't even know what I had. The Great Mushroom Room Reintegration started me digging through it all, and Collage Collage showed me what to do with it. So far, I've used all the pretty glass jam jars I've been saving, but I think I will need to add larger jars to my collection to finish up.


This afternoon, I set up the kitchen table for an art project while Ellie was at school. I spread out a cheap plastic tablecloth and selected some cardstock, glue and two jam jars of goodness. The girls were thrilled! Although we got home relatively late (and cranky) due to a long (fun) playdate, their faces lit up when they saw the table and they got right to work.


Markus and I were so stunned by Stephanie's precise, careful painting of the glue that I had to make a movie of it. I made sure to include Ellie's work in the end too.

Fever...with Muppets

Markus has been listening to Michael Buble as background music lately. It's nice, mellow stuff, but I always start to giggle when the iPod settles on "Fever". Every time I hear that song, I see Animal and Rita Moreno in my head. Now, courtesy of YouTube, you can see why I giggle too:

Spoiled, but not rotten

This morning, Stephanie and I went to the beach and played in the sand with friends after dropping Ellie off at school. It was a beautiful day, and we had great fun!


On the way home, Stephanie was asking after Ellie and Markus ("Where Ellie? Where Papa?"). When I told her they were at school and at work, she asked why. "Because today is a school day and a work day," I explained...and I was struck with the realization of how blessed and lucky we are to be able to spend the morning playing at the beach while others go to work and to school. How spoiled we are!
And then I realized it would be more spoiled to have these opportunities and not take them.

Dentist visit

After more months than I care to admit, we have finally been to the dentist for a check-up, all four of us. Ellie was geared up and ready to hate it. She was stressed and tense and waiting for the right moment to have a total meltdown. We could see it brewing, so we sent her in with Markus so she could watch his check-up and cleaning. Then, we decided it was Stephanie's turn. It was Stephanie's very first visit to the dentist, so I sat in the chair and she laid across my lap and put her head in the dentist's lap for her check-up. She wasn't sure about it, but she didn't fuss and all was fine. Then, it was Ellie's turn. Don't you know there was a clear look on her face that said, "Dammit, now I can't have a fit because Stephanie did just fine!" She reluctantly climbed into the chair and even more reluctantly cooperated for a check-up.


I have to give at least part of the credit to our new dentist, Sally, who is young (younger than me, which made me feel pretty old) and super-cute (check her out on the left of Ellie's photo). She was completely non-threatening, and the girls were charmed by her. We'll attempt the cleaning next time.

Artsy spree

As part of my reorganizing and reintegrating mission with The Mushroom Room, I've been going through all my extensive arts and crafts materials. I feel so inspired! At first, I was thinking it would be a lovely quiet reading space, but now I want to turn it into an art room. I think the new carpet is just begging to be destroyed in that way, yes?

The mushroom room

Six months ago, we came home from our week in Sydney to find the study looking like this:


The carpet was ripped out immediately and the built-in wooden box was removed. Then, the room sat unusable until the slab dried out and a decision was made about what do to with it.
As of yesterday afternoon, the room looks like this:


The carpet men installed a new carpet, in the last activity of room repairs that began two weeks ago (including sealing the slab in hopes of not repeating the process this winter). Now the dusting and reorganizing begins, and we can reintegrate that space into our home.
Hey, it only took six months.

Assembled quilt top

Last Monday, there was a break in the quilt class due to Australian Labour Day. Thank goodness is all I say! I have been a headless chicken ever since I started that class. Mucking up our evening routine on Monday nights (always the most challenging night of the week anyway) has done me in completely. The timing takes me past my window of tired, so I end up staying up way too late and the whole week is thrown off.
BUT.
I am happy to be learning what we are learning. It is what I wanted from the class, and I'm happy to have Markus's support in doing it, despite the crazy. And last night, I finished my homework from two weeks ago: I finally assembled my quilt top (pre-border, which I still need to choose and buy).


This quilt will be slightly smaller than a twin-size bed, so it's more of a lap quilt. This will not be the quilt for Ellie's birthday, which allows me to learn with impunity. I don't fret about imperfections. I don't fret about fabric choice. It's very freeing, actually, and ya know what? It's quite pretty. When I finished my work on it last night, I held it up for Markus to see. His reaction? "Wow!" He really likes it.
Bless him, I think he was surprised.

Hidden update

I wrote an update on baby Stephanie on her birthday, but I didn't hit "publish" until a couple of days later when I had the pictures organized. The date of the post is her birthday (Feb 27), so you can scroll down to have a look and get to know her better, or you can simply click here.

Camping (or The Woe of the Unhappy Camper)

The Fremantle Doctor (the wind that blows in across the sea from near Fremantle, so named because it makes you feel better) was away for the past week or two, and the weather was most unpleasant. Last Thursday was particularly appalling, and my delicate flower self got heat sickness (migranes and other details you'd rather be spared). The wind, when we've had one, has been hot and not at all refreshing. We went from eating three meals a day outside to none, from swimming every day to avoiding even the pool because the air was so burning hot. The outback was outside. Yow. It makes you appreciate what England did to her prisoners by dumping them off here so long ago. What a harsh place! Thank goodness, the doctor has returned. The doors and windows are flung open to the refreshing wind, and we can breathe again (and sleep and relax and enjoy...).

Despite the fact that February had one of the coolest starts on record (lovely 70s), the overall summer has been one of the hottest on record. We know we are in trouble this winter, because (at least until last week) we didn't find it all that bad. We didn't even use the air conditioner much. We actually don't like it anymore, and we only turned it on in the hottest evenings to knock the worst out of the house before bed. Of course, if we aren't finding summer too hot, that means we've adjusted to the warm and we're probably going to find winter very cold indeed. The hot weather got a lot of locals moaning about longing for the end of summer. Bring on winter! Bring on the rain! I'm ready to be cold, they said. Not me. But I tell ya, I will look forward to the end of bug season.

Maybe it has been the heat, but we have had ridiculous bug populations this summer. Flies, mosquitos, cockroaches and spiders...they are taking over my sanity. The cockroaches have no shame and skitter boldly around until I make Markus finish them off. Mosquitos dive-bomb my head in the night as I try to sleep. I don't know where they come from, but I can't seem to keep them out of the house. Aussie flies are particularly ballsy and do not respect personal space at all. And then there are the spiders. A couple of weeks ago, I opened the bathroom drawer only to hear (yes, he was solid enough to make a sound!) a white-tail spider plop from the top of the drawer onto my toothpaste tube. White-tails are nasty poisonous. I was most unthrilled. This came a few days after doing in a sizeable redback on our back table (also nasty poisonous). I'm not writing this to put off any potential visitors (the numbers are unusual, mind you), but what I am saying is that I am no longer interested in camping indoors. Too many bugs in my house! Too much HOT in my house! If I want to go camping, I will pick a beautiful remote location in the great outdoors. I do not wish to camp inside.

Delicate flower

Oh Jane, I feel you.

Hip hip hooray!

Baby Stephanie had two birthday celebrations yesterday: a birthday breakfast picnic in the morning and cake and ice cream in the afternoon. We sang and blew out candles twice, because she loves the birthday song so much. She has especially embraced shouting, "Hip hip hooray!" after the birthday song, as you will see about half-way through this wonderful afternoon cake clip: