Yesterday was Australia day – 26th January – which is the day those of us living down under celebrate the arrival of the first ships from England and the subsequent plundering and destruction of our country.
We took the opportunity to head into Melbourne and visit the museum. The kids had a ball because it’s such an interactive place.
They particularly liked the sandpit where they could use paintbrushes to play amateur archaeologists and uncover fossilised dinosaur bones.
I still haven’t got my D80 back, but Lisa got lots of excellent shots with her camera – there’s a set up on flickr.
The photography policy at the museum is excellent – it’s your camera, and your museum, so go crazy. The one and only place there was a “no photography please” sign was the Koori artwork gallery and that’s out of respect for indigenous Australians’ belief that by taking a picture you’re taking something away from the soul of a person.
Given how open the rest of the museum is it’s not hard to live with one small restriction.
Lisa has recently started posting some of her stuff on flickr, which is really good to see. She got a D90 a few months ago and despite discovering that digital photography means a continual backlog of images to be processed she’s really enjoying it.
Not sure that her image of me as Chopper is her best work. Dubious subject.
Lisa has done a terrific amount of work in the back yard over the last few days. I went out early this morning and took a few shots of things that caught my eye…
We had a day out at Geelong today. We went down there so we could pick up a few presents for some birthday parties Adelaide is going to over the next few weeks, but we also took the opportunity to drop down to Eastern Beach. We had a late lunch of fish and chips in a park near the beach, then wandered along the foreshore.
The kid’s pool is part of the bigger ocean pool at the beach and has a brilliant fountain as its centrepiece.
After spending some time on the playground we went back to the car via some of the artwork along the foreshore.
We’re lucky to have some decent green grass at home at the moment but the lush grass on the hill around the carvings was great fun for the kids to roll around in.
It’s a beautiful day today. The sun is out; the deep blue sky is lightly dabbed by fluffy white clouds, the grass is dotted with fresh spring daisies and there’s a hint of warm breeze that’s gently drifting around. Spring days in rural Victoria don’t get much better.
For lunch today Lisa made up a plate of sandwiches and we went and sat on a rug near the paddock.
Lisa and the kids made some cupcakes today. Adelaide did a great job of getting the cake mix into the pans, as you’d expect.
Eloise didn’t do quite as well.
Adelaide lent her some moral support in the form of sisterly love, but I’m not entirely sure it helped.
She kept trying though.
In the end, she gave up and just starting eating it.
When there wasn’t any left in the bowl she started eating what had fallen onto the table.
We had a fairly simple father’s day today. While Lisa’s Mum has been overseas her Dad has been living on a dreadfully healthy diet with lots of vegetables and sensible food, so today he figured that a hamburger would make a perfectly good easy lunch. As well as Lisa’s Dad, Fred and Sue came up, Peter and Eve were here, as were Peter and Diane.
It’s a good day when you’ve got a healthy family with two kids who adore each other. Don’t really need anything else.
I did get a few nifty things though. The Kid made me a key ring at school, and she got me a book with 500 different pizza recipes in it. I also got an organiser for the back of the car.
We had visitors today – our nephew Adam and his girlfriend.
A collection of shots I’ve taken over the last week or so.
Who said what?