birdwatching, landscaping, walking :-)

We went birdwatching yesterday, to "The Armchair Twitch™", which is a competition to observe the most species of birds from a fixed location anywhere in Australia. It is designed to promote birdwatching as a relaxing pastime & to raise money for the conservation of wild birds. It is suitable for all ages and all members of the community including those with limited mobility.-
It was at two locations here in the village and quite fun. We took our binoculars and Matti loved looking out for birds.
What a great way to get to know the wildlife around us - a life biology class :-).

Matti and Justin also continued to landscape our entrance, putting down little rocks for drainage purposes (see photos). Today they continued to dig out a path from our back verandah.

Lucille has been practicing her walking. It looked almost as if she was surfing :-).

Grand Final Day and Lucille's first big walks

We had a beautiful birthday yesterday...Matti had a little sleep in and I did some yoga with Lucille...when Matti woke up, he put a birthday cd on and we had a dance, then we ate some Krumeluse tablets (Goji Berries :-) ) saying that we always want to stay little...but then Matti decided that he wants to get older, so he can drive etc. :-). We went to the community centre and met our friends Annette, Summer, Aj and Nicholas there and at the same time Justin drove in, which was a huge surprise, as I had just talked to him before and hadn't expected to see him that early.

This morning Lucille took some more steps, 4 or 5. We all got very excited and so did she. Very gently and a bit wanky she walks forward and then when she has enough carefully sinks back down, either into downward dog or squatting. It's sooo amazing to see them go from crawling to walking and what coordination it actually requires.
We went to watch the Grand Final at someones house here in the village. It was really nice, lots of village members, nice food and fun atmosphere. Matti played with 2 children until they left at half time. It was a very exciting game and the Saints were in front almost the whole way, only to loose at the end :(. It would be nice if they could just both win and there wouldn't be a winner and a looser. Poor Gavin, he is probably devestated....
Lucille got right into the atmosphere and started consiously clapping her hands for the first time. It was too cute...she clapped at such appropriate times, it was very funny.
When she went to sleep before, she even clapped in the sling, and when she was lying in bed, she also started clapping again :-). So, a full day for her of new things. She also started walking heaps when we were there, the first time, with a bottle in her hand, she walked towards the tv, almost 7 steps, and then outside with Matti, who thought it was so very exciting as well. She started to walk the most secure in the last minutes of the game, so most of our attention was on her.
We had a lovely bike ride home, it was almost dark and the Kookaburras were laughing everywhere.
Off to bed now as we are doing birdwatching in the morning.

Krummeluse Tablets

Matti's favourite place...our pantry. He has his chair in there and stands in there many times during the day, just looking around and wondering what he should eat....

He put on his firefighter outfit today, so that he would be safe, in case the plovers would attack him when he went outside.

Lucille took 2 little steps today...

And we went for a big bikeride tonight and Matti went the furthest and fastest he has ever gone.

To my birthday tomorrow, Matti said that he wants us to skip it and make it go away, as he doesn't want me to get older. He also wants me to order 'Krummeluse tablets', so that I stay forever young. (Pippi Langstrumpf, Longstocking, talks about them, she gives them to her friends and tells them that they will always stay children if they take them....). He's been asking me often lately, if I will every get old, and look like an old woman. I said: Yes, and he sad: Schaaade. (Which means how sad....). mmmh....Well, I better go and find some Krummelliese tablets then :-).

Matti has also been cleaning the mirror every morning in the bathroom and tonight he cleaned the crumbs out of the toaster...then he said to me: 'sauberkeit ist alles im Leben'. (cleanliness is everything in life). I almost fell over laughing. Then he said that Annika says that (Pippi Langstrumpf's friend).
I guess it's important what they watch, heh?!, considering how much they take in.

Good night :-)

weeds, canetoads...are they really evil??

I've been having this lingering feeling of guilt about the canetoads, and killing them. I haven't killed one, but just witnessing it, didn't feel really good...I think I made myself believe it was kind of funny, as they are meant to be poisoness and oh so dangerous to us, but are they really?? The same with weeds...isn't everything here for a reason?
Ok, I will find out more about them and see if we can find another solution. Maybe collect them and buy them a ticket to fly back to South America? ;-)

Beautiful sunny day today,no dust visible anymore. What a relief.

dust storm

Have had a full on dust storm today, coming up from NSW. Our house is finely covered with dust everywhere inside and it's hard to breathe actually...makes you appreciate sunshine and fresh, clean air, that's for sure.
We were at the community centre and pool today, when it really came in - see photos for the colour of the air. Would love a huge rain storm now to clean it all up.
Have been reading a lot about Gardening today and am very excited to get one up and running - want to start with a living fence, trees and hedges and flowers, and then work from the outside in. I don't really know anything yet, so a totally new adventure ahead.
Ok, am unsure if to open the windows or close...the air in here is bad, when I open up it seems better, but having it open a bit, it seems worse again...
Ok, just cleaned while downloading photos...my poor little girl crawling around in the dust, and didn't want to keep the dirt in. So, windows closed it is. I sprayed some essential oils and have done Access on myself and it should be fine now. Going to the beach tomorrow if the air is still dusty...
Lucille took one tiny, half, step today, without holding on...she is very close.
She loves to pull other little babies' hair, so the little boy on the photo, Kiki, was in for something today. He is very cute and they both crawl in a similar style, with one leg up.
Matti told me a good night story last evening, and it was veeery looong, and very exciting, lots of most impossible things happened :-).
On the photos, have a look at the girl with the pink shirt, skirt and pink shoes. Matti said today he would like shoes like that :-) - they were pink, with feathers on top and the heels were a little high. I love how he goes from being a lion, shark, robber, policeman, to 'balerina', fairy, or wanting to wear shoes like that...they can be all of it, until someone starts mocking them for it.