Day 53 Looking for John Green...

Day 52 Party in the valley...

Today my son had a birthday party to go to. His friend lives in the Yarra Valley and his family owns one of the vineyards there. Today (Saturday) was a beautiful autumn day here and when we went out early afternoon to drop him off I forgot to take my camera (many wasted opportunities there!) They live perched high on a hill and the view across the valley and the many vineyards was really very beautiful so I said well I will remember my camera when we come back out to collect him. Which I did, and as we wound our way back up the hill and then pulled over to take some snaps I realised that my battery was flat.... grrrrr! The vineyard is very old and has some lovely old buildings and so I used my phone camera (again) to take some photos. This one is the only one that came out OK but does not really do it justice. Next thing on my shopping list - 2nd battery for my camera.

Day 51 Friday going home...

End of the working week and coming home from the shops - it's cold, it's dark and I look forward to being at home. Photo taken sitting at an intersection waiting for the lights on my phone camera which I don't really know how to work properly.

Day 50 New auditorium

Tonight I had to go and drop some costumes at my son's school. I have not driven into the school grounds for some time as there has been a large building project (auditorium) going on right next door to our primary school building. I use to drop and pick the boys up right near here but it has been nothing less than bedlam since as we lost most of our parking, the roads were diverted and crazy parents everywhere trying to pick up their kids so I arranged to collect the boys from the top of the senior school away from the mess. When I went in today it was the first time in quite awhile and it was great to see how far the building has come. It is just being fitted out and the car parks are near completion. It will be great when it is finished. The auditorium will have 500 seats and it will be so nice to have our larger productions and presentation nights there. The auditorium has been built with many environmental benefits with regards to water collection, lighting and heating  which I think will become the norm now when building public/school buildings.

Day 49 Wednesdays = soccer in one form or another

Indoor soccer fills our Wednesdays after school. The games are all around 5 or 530pm and my older son has been playing with a group of friends from school for 18 months or so now. Unfortunately this winter training for outdoor soccer is now on a Wednesday as well so straight after the games here at the indoor soccer centre we go to the outdoor soccer field for training from 630 - 8pm. When I say we of course I mean he goes to training I just drive him there!

Day 48 Art to share

One of the things I love about my boy's school is that they proudly display and share the students artwork where ever they can. This is just two examples of many that adorn the outside walls of the school. Artwork is scattered throughout the school in many forms and these are two of my favorites. 

Day 47 Go crazy part 2....

Following on from my previous post here is the second photo that my son took and that I agreed to post. Not sure what he is trying to say here but hey!

Day 46 Go crazy...

I let my younger son borrow my camera and said "go crazy"! He thinks that he wants to be a photojournalist when he grows up - not sure where that idea came from! Anway after spending a while walking around the house photographing who knows what he said "there you go Mum now you will have some photos for your blog". So... how could I refuse.

I am also borrowing the idea from a friend who also photoblogs and like she said some days you feel like you have exhausted all that is mundane in your life and you hand the camera over to someone else to see what they come up with. 

Anyway this is one of his photos, a couple of stacks of books on my sideboard - dust and all!

Day 45 Movies

We took my youngest son to see Night at the museum 2. We were going to try and see Star Trek but it was not showing at our local independent theatre which is where we ususally go to the movies. So we settled on Night at the museum instead and we all enjoyed it. I took this photo as we were waiting for the movie to start just mucking around with the camera in my phone. 

Day 44 The Invasion of the hoodies & spikey babies!

Last weekend we put up a new bookcase in my older son's bedroom. He has a thing for paper toys - makes them (as you can see from the photos & this is just 2 shelves of a whole bookcase), designs (blank template) them, and "customizes" (design the artwork) them & blogs about them!

He moved them all into the new bookcase to display as he did not have much room on the old one He is very happy with his new bookshelf. I had a look today at last to see how he had displayed them and so thought a photo or photos were in order. 

Day 43 Misty morning

This morning and for pretty much most of the day there as been heavy fog in Melbourne. This is on my way to work at 730am. It was cold old day and it did not lift much during the day - neither the fog or the temperature! brrrrrr...

Day 42 It does not look very appertising but...

My younger son had to cook an Asian dish for homework. We often cook Korma Chicken so he decided to make that and last night he helped me cook it. Half way through dinner he said you have to take a photo for your blog hence the half eaten dish of curry in my photo and yes it was very good!

Day 41 "Sonning" Edna Walling's house

This is the gate and entrance to "Sonning" the first house that Edna Walling built in the area. It is just down the road from our home and everyday that I go past I can't help but be drawn towards it. The gardens and surrounds are lovely and the house looks like something from a fairytale. It is the first house that she built when she bought 3 acres in Mooroolbark. She soon bought the adjoining property and sold off 1 and 2 acre allotments and this is known as Bickleigh Vale. The very top photo shows a glimpse of the house through the trees. I will have to try and get a better photo another day.

Day 40 Aliens in the pool

This is a photo of our swimming pool at night. It is taken looking down from our verandah. Whenever we put the light on at night with the cover still on the pool it always looks a little eerie and we run around saying "there's an alien in the pool!" We really do (well my husband does). We thought it would make a great photo and I think it does.  

Day 39 mmmm cookie..

Today was baking day. The boys asked for chocolate chip biscuits which I have not made for a long time. They will not last long in our house very yummy!

Day 38 Love my Coffee Vac

We discovered the Coffee vac (or syphon) many years ago when we bought our coffee from a local coffee roaster/seller in Port Melbourne Coffee for Connoisseurs . We fell in love with it and it is still going strong - although I have replaced bits of it over the years! A very brief description is - You start with the coffee grounds in the top section and the water in the bottom. Once it is over the heat and the water rises to the top to mix with the coffee grounds it causes a vacuum in the bottom section. Once taken off of the heat the vacuum causes the brewed coffee to fall back to the bottom section leaving the coffee grinds in the top section. They have been around in one form or other for nearly 100 years but their hey day was in the 30' and 40's. Click here to see what they looked like and here for a little history.

Day 37 Cluedo in the bedroom

Yes shock horror teenagers playing a boardgame! What next? My son has a friend staying over and I went to see what they were up to a few minutes ago and I found them in my younger son's bedroom playing Cluedo... not what I expected! Both my boys quite like board games but we don't seem to play them much anymore. I grew up playing cards and board games. 

Day 36 Crazy for Suduku

Every evening my husband plays Suduko. He started this a few months ago and is onto his second book. He has a thing for Maths and so he really enjoys doing them. I on the other hand find them very frustrating. He is always trying to get the boys to do them and our younger son quite likes them. Do you or anyone in your family like to Suduko? 

Day 35 Master chef

My son has chosen Food Technology as one of his electives this semester. So far they have made and learnt about a variety of Asian foods and ingredients. One of their excursions last term was to the Box Hill Market to check out the many Asian stalls. After this they had lunch at a restaurant there. This term they have been doing baking and he made this chocolate cake and then had to decorate it. He brought it home from school today and so tonight we will get to eat it!

Day 34 Greeting card from the 1940's

When we went home to Tasmania at Easter to clear out my Aunties house I found this old greeting card from around the 1940's. It is blank inside (although there was a handwritten "Best wishes" ) The picture on the front is by B. E. Minns of an aboriginal lady. The card actually says "Native, Macleay River, N.S.W" and is of a watercolour done by the artist in 1895. I did a little research on him and he did a lot of drawings for newspapers and magazines like the Sydney Mail and the Bulletin. 

He was the founder of the Australian Water-Colour Institute in Sydney in 1924. He was best known for his water colour landscapes of Sydney and his paintings of the Aborigines and their way of life. I like this card and so decided to bring it home with me and maybe I will frame it. I think I was surprised to see an image of an aboriginal on a card from that era - just not what I expected!

Day 33 Blue skies...

I must have a thing for the weather and songs! Today is a truly beautiful day as you can see from my photo and whenever there are skies like this ... you guessed it I hear that song in my head...

Blue skies smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see

Bluebirds singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds all day long

Always have always will!

Day 32 Street art

Between the local community centre and suburban shopping centre there is a large brick wall that has been adorned with some great artwork. Unfortunately some of it has been tagged but it still looks great. This is just a small example of it. Two of them are of a cafe scene (you can see one in my photos) and these are located on the back wall of a cafe. One is of Edna Walling (the pink & yellow lady with the camera) and under these pictures of Edna (there are 4 of them) there are 2 plaques made up of local art work about Edna and her work. Then there is a "Writing on the wall" series which is 3 framed areas that consist of information and artwork depicting local history. There is some traditional graffiti/street art on another wall as seen in my photo showing the boy climbing the wall. There is also are large painted map depicting the area without housing and showing where local wildflowers can be found. You can check out my Flickr page to see more including some mosaics artwork at the community centre. Click on the Flickr badge under my profile.

Day 31 Along our road Autumn has arrived...

All along our road you can see that Autumn has definitely arrived! It is lovely and it's the same throughout the suburbs here. As you drive down from the highway towards the Dandenongs all throughout these very treed suburbs there are dots of red, yellow and orange everywhere. You feel that winter must be just around the corner although I think it is so cold lately that I think that winter is already here and Autumn is taking it's time leaving!

Day 30 Chocolate babies

It's late at night, I am sitting here chewing chocolate babies pondering my next photo when I figure what would chocolate babies look like photographed? So here they are - aren't they cute! They take on their own personalities don't they or is that just too weird now! Anyway they were very yummy.

Day 29 Too early

Yesterday half way to work I realised that it was a student free day at work due to Parent Teacher interviews and that I could have come into work a little bit later today. But since I was already half way there when I remembered there was really no point in going back home. This is the staff car park when I arrived (that's my very lonesome car - there was one other which is not in the photo) normally the car park would be about a third full when I arrive any other morning.

Day 28 Shells

These are a collection of shells I have. The large one on the right (not sure what type it is) belonged to my grandmother. Unfortunately I have forgotten the story behind it. All of the others I have collected along the way when on holidays. I have forgotten most but I think there are a couple from Fiji and a few from the Philippines and I cannot remember the others.

Day 27 Old radio

This is an old radio that I have had for a long time. It sits by our study door and as you can see books end of up living there for no apparent reason. And on closer inspection you can see my 2 pottery number 5's that I mentioned in a prior post that live there with the books. The radio came to me the year we were married. My sister and her husband were living in Sydney where Terry was an electrician. On one of the jobs he did for an old guy he was offered this radio. He said yes and so then my  sister knowing I love all things old brought it down in the car when they drove down for our wedding. It's history prior to this I do not know but I have a feeling it has had an adventurous life!

Day 26 Corkscrew

My son's corkscrew curls - everyone loves them especially the girls! 

I am now scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak. 

Not that that is a reflection on my son's curls - I love them.

Themes

Day 25 Soccer season starts

Soccer season has started and so again our Sundays are taken up with soccer games for my eldest son. Today was a glorious sunny day, we travelled to Balwyn where the boys won which was a great start to the season. I sat on the bench with friends in the sunshine getting a great dose of Vitamin D - it really was a beautiful day! This is a photo of the boys huddled together at the beginning of the game, my son is on the left leaning right over because he is so tall!

Day 24 Number 55 ...

I bought these pottery numbers for our house. I really like them and thought I would put them in a frame and put them by the front door. Well it is now almost 5 years since we finished building and moved in and they are still sitting on top of the old radio where I put them when we unpacked! Now that our exterior painting is finished I really MUST do something with them. My how time flies.

Day 23 The day of the Jackal...

A clay head of Anubis that my son made in Year 7 - he had a liking for all things Egyptian and probably still does since last year he named his blog about paper toys Anubis' Tomb. This sits on the top of our TV cabinet for want of a better place to put it. He stares down at us all each day and it is quite unnerving - I must find somewhere else to display him!