Tales alive

There is nothing quite like discovering a magical world that you didn't even know existed.

During the school holidays my Dad and I took B and Little Miss on a picnic to Carrick Hill a historical house that I knew had sprawling gardens. Great for running around in and wearing out the kids I thought. What I didn't know was that they have a story book trail. We discovered the trail by accident as we explored the garden.

A gravel path lead us down to a hobbit-like house built into a bank. Little windows placed at a convenient height begged to be looked in. B's attempts to break in the door thankfully didn't work as we saw inside a gnome with a stash of wine! A sign suggested we lookout for a dragon, but find it we could not. Maybe the Hobbit had already slain it?

The path lead on down past a dry stone river bank with a pretty bright red bridge. We all happily trotted over the bridge but only once we were half way across it, discovered that this was in fact the roof of a green Troll's house. His bumpy hands gripped the bridge planks and threatened to grab our feet. Little Miss was most concerned.

So off our feet ran, past the bamboo forest and into a circle of grass. A sign suggested we look for a red breasted Robin bird, who guards over a key to The Secret Garden. Large gates loomed over us. We found the Robin perched atop a pole and the key was secured underneath him, stuck in a box. At this point we were unsure which way to go, should we venture into the secret garden, without the key? The gates were open after all, or should we continue along another path? For whatever reason we continued down the path. I remember B wanting to go into the secret garden, maybe he was feeling unwell or something...

We probably made the wrong decision as down the path we came across a giant spider web. Despite climbing it, B didn't find a spider until he looked high up into the sky. There was a lovely bronze pig there too, looking longingly for someone called Charlotte?

Further along the path we became completely surrounded by animals. A wolf thankfully helped us and pointed the way to a little home in the shade of some trees which we played in for what seemed a very long time. Then we realised we were being watched by all manner of exotic mammal. Some whom required a gift or two, maybe it was their birthday?

What a wonderful way to spend the day.























Carrick Hill is located at 46 Carrick Hill Drive off Fullarton Road, Springfield. Check website for opening hours and special events.

Neighbours

Over the years I have found that you have to tread carefully with neighbours. I think it's best to have a kind of distant respect for eachother and leave it at that. Being too chummy and then becoming close friends can be somewhat over the top and invasive to your privacy and at the other end of the scale becoming nasty life long enemies through the wall can be miserable, not to mention scary for everyone. In the last 20 years or so we have had our fair range of neighbourly relations.

In one house that was an old maisonette with a common middle wall, we had a pair of girls living next door who we dubbed 'The elephants". They weren't large in size at all, but they seemed to trample up and down their hallway that adjoined ours with an excessive amount of thudding. We never figured out what they were doing. (I suspected it was elephant exercising) And we never found out their real names. That particular home was our first together and we had a retired couple on the other side with the surname Bunney. Unlike the Elephants the Bunneys were ideal neighbours, casually friendly and very generous. We were struggling uni students at this time and the Bunneys took it upon themselves to occasionally give us some little luxuries that we greatly appreciated. Mr Bunney was very generous with his wine collection and Mrs Bunney often gave us tickets to movie premiers or invites to gallery openings where we could drink more free wine.

The worst neighbor we ever had was at our previous home. Now that I am rid of him I realise how great it is to live without him. When that house sold onto an owner occupier I was quietly pleased, but I shouldn't have been. In walked this young animal man and with him, late night noisy parties during the week, huge rubbish issues and very annoying parking hassles.

It is with great pleasure that I have found our new neighbours to be both friendly, welcoming, generous and very very beautiful.

What words would you use to describe your neighbours?

Oranges

I have an abundance of oranges at the moment so thought the kids could make some clove oranges.





















I made some of these years ago by simply pushing whole cloves into an orange. I think I might have rolled the orange around in orris root powder, but that is a very vague memory. I think orris root helps with preserving smell maybe? I found one of my old clove oranges at the back of a cupboard in our recent house shift and couldn't believe how small it had shrunk. It still smelt delicious though.





















But things don't always go according to plan. It was tough work for little fingers to push the cloves into the oranges so I admit I had to help and then eventually take over. Little Miss wanted a happy face so that's what we worked on. I didn't have any orris root powder so I don't know if our orange friend will stay scented. (The back of the orange is completely covered in cloves so they can do their preserving work.)



B decided he didn't like the smell of cloves and wanted to make orange juice instead. I was happy to get rid of 6 oranges for one glass of juice. Only B didn't even like the stuff. He told me that it was meant for Daddy anyway. So Daddy had to down a glass of fresh juice as soon as he walked in the door from work.

Not such a bad greeting home.

For some wonderful play ideas visit childhood 101

400 boxes and a funeral

A door has closed.
My Mum has died.

If I write it down and say it often enough, it will help it sink in. I shouldn't really be surprised. We were all expecting it. But not even knowing it is going to happen prepares you for the numbness, shock and pain of death, when it really does happen.

I am so proud of her. She made such a gallant effort to overcome the cancer that Doctors originally said would get the better of her in six months. Her courageous battle with Multiple Myeloma had lasted over 12 years. She was so determined to beat the cancer. She got to meet her 5th Grandson, B and 1st Granddaughter, Little Miss. She walked me into the garden at my wedding, she travelled and lived every good day to her fullest enjoyment. She really did beat that nasty cancer.

Her funeral was beautiful. She would have been overwhelmed by it. There were so many people there, us kids and Dad all managed to speak and got everyone crying and laughing. (This is what I said)

I miss her so much. And am finding to very hard to face each day without her around.

But a door has opened.
We have moved house.

400 boxes, the furniture, pets, pot plants, children and adults have all been relocated. It still feels like we are on holiday in someone else's house. The new house is all the things that the old house wasn't.  New house is large where old was small, old house was really old 1890s yet renovated where the new house is 1960s un-renovated. New house had a huge garden where old house only had a deck. Old house was inner city, new house is in the suburbs. New house has a view where old house looked in on itself. It's a big change, but we are all loving it.

I particularly love the ever changing view, the space, a practical family friendly floor plan, fresh air, garden and wildlife.

We are going to have lots of good times here, I know it, even though I carry around a closed door in my heart.

Packing joy

We have sold our house. Yeah!
Now its time to pack up and move on. And you know what that means?





Boxes, lots and lots of boxes...

And you all know that boxes simply equal joy to children. They immediately see all kinds of possibilities. Just like in this book.

Building bliss

Working together

The finished digs

Enter here

Oh and don't forget to add a little pink.
















Since we are moving house I am getting to play about with boxes too. (Not that I find it so pleasurable.) Sadly I am not sure when I will be able to post next, so I hope you all have a very healthy and happy Christmas and I look forward to connecting up with all my blogging friends in the new year.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog.


Check out what other kids are playing at over on childhood101

Beached

After the coldest wettest winter in 16 years we are loving our first tastes of summer. When the temperature is above 25 degrees we have found ourselves at this beach

Or this beach

We have measured the reach of waves




















Designed and constructed structures

Snacked

Relaxed


Got wet

and then a bit cold

but still managed to jump for joy.

I love living in Australia.

Fire and knives

I see my job as a parent is to prepare my children for the real world, with all its dangers and hazards. For instance I would hate to raise adults that don't know how to prepare a meal for themselves. So when its dinner time I try to encourage B and Little Miss to help me. This not only involves them so they aren't fighting or mindlessly watching TV, but also gets them developing cooking skills, educating them about food and hopefully encouraging them to eat the meal when its ready.

Most food preparation is not light on fluffy stuff though, it usually involves fire and knives. Admittedly it goes against my instinct to give my three year old a knife, but when Little Miss chops up the red capsicum and tops and tails the green beans she learns so much. There's hand eye coordination, size and proportion, inside and outside, colours and contrast, plus the smells and flavours.

B loves to flip our sunday morning pancakes and he knows the pan is hot, he knows its a bit scary, but it adds to the thrill and learning, that fire is to be respected. Heat causes so many chemical reactions in the kitchen, pasta goes from hard to soft, an egg goes from runny to firm, a liquid batter turns into a pancake, pizza dough turns crispy. These are fascinating learning experiences for us. Yes, we have had near misses and B has cut himself on a sharp chef's knife, but as his skin repaired itself the lesson that knives can cut you has remained with him to this day. A lesson that teaches him to be careful, which is the best lesson of all.

Call me crazy if you like, but am I alone here? Do you let your children play with fire and knives?

Get into a world of play at childhood 101

If children ruled the world...

Just imagine what it would be like if children ruled the world

Streets would be for playing in

Laughter would fill your ears

Anything would be deemed possible

Time would be of no consequence

Having fun would be your occupation

And Father Christmas would come to town everyday

We had a really fantastic time at the Adelaide Christmas pageant. How wonderful it is to see the world through a child's eyes.

Panda meander

Ever since Lola (from Charlie and Lola fame) had informed Little Miss that Pandas were in danger she developed a thing for them. Well its more than a thing, its like she is a magnet to all Pandaness in our world.

"There's a Panda" she would cry, as we wait for a lift at a shopping centre. We would all look about searching for some kind of Panda looking animal somewhere, eventually finding a tiny plastic keyring Panda creature on someone else's bag. 

Admittedly we live in a city that has real Pandas so her cries are not totally crazy. No we are not in China, but our city Zoo has come to some complicated arrangement with China, so for the next ten years we have Wang Wang and Funi - real giant Panda's living with us. 

Now in the past I have not been a huge Zoo fan. The Zoo was a fairly sorry experience, with too many sad animals looking bored and cramped in old fashioned run down enclosures. Couple that with a boy, namely B who is not really into animals at all, or in the past walking more than 5 steps in a row, and you can gather that going to the Zoo with him was a memorable experience for all the wrong reasons.

But B has grown long legs, the Zoo has had squillions spend on it and Little Miss is persistently on about Pandas, so we thought there was never going to be a better time for a Panda expedition.

I gather the necessary equipment-

Husband

Children

Pram

Map

We check out the Panda's food while we wait in line

Little Miss doesn't enjoy the sound of the noisy monkey neighbours

But the noise and wait are worth it. This is Wang Wang, Funi was asleep.

Wang Wang eats sitting up like a human,

wanders around this way

and that way

then poses beautifully with my kids.

Time to move on, so B consults the map.

We spy the noisy monkeys through the lush foliage

Discover fluffy babies balancing

and underwater wonders.

See tall animals and short ones trying to be tall.

Time to check out the map again

We find animals to touch

and feed

and talk to.

 

Then make some Panda purchases and call it a very successful day.

Explore the world of child's play at childhood 101











Adelaide Zoo is open 9.30-5pm everyday including Christmas and is located on Frome Road in the city.