Norfolk Exposure: February 2013

Another corner of my home...

Continuing on from this post.

Harry's desk

We need rain. Desperately. Those grey clouds that are blowing in and blowing out again without so much as a drop, are really testing my patience. They look promising don't they...but so far they haven't even delivered a few spits. Our tank is low, our lawn is brown and the exposed parched earth cracked. I wonder at what point we'll have to give in and buy a load of water! It might be a matter of days. Please rain gods, do your thing - and stop drowning New South Wales' North Coast. We'd like a share you know!!!!!!!!!!

Corners of my yard

Artistic Flair

The Norfolk Island National Park and Botanic Garden held an art competition for school students from kindergarten through to high school. Children were asked to create artworks, either in 2D or 3D form, that portray how special and unique our National Parks and Botanical Garden are. Harry's native hibiscus flower painting was awarded 1st place. Miss Till was awarded a Highly Commended for her Red-tailed Tropic-bird. They did these amazing works of art all by themselves, with just a few tips from me on how to mix colours. Till whipped hers up in a few hours. Harry took over the kitchen table for a few nights while he completed his painting. The artworks will remain on exhibition at the Botanical Gardens for a few weeks. I'm so proud of my munchkins - I think they are a pretty talented pair (and clearly take after their very artistic Great Grandmother).

Harry was awarded a $30 toy shop voucher...I think more LEGO will be purchased soon!

I loved these entries in the 3D section!

A close-up shot

Cool Fungus

Way back in January, in the before time (AKA the school holidays) we took a leisurely stroll through the National Park with our mates from Oz, who came over to spend a glorious month with us. Kristy, John, Juliet and Zosha - we miss you, come back please!!!! I took some photos of this fungi we saw along the way and meant to blog about it yonks ago, but never got around to it until now - oops. I really like fungi, I think it's pretty cool stuff!

Did you know we have glow in the dark fungus here? It gave us quite a shock when we first spotted it. A patch regularly grows on a decaying log near our carport. When we came home late one night, not long after we first moved here, we got quite a surprise. After the heads up from some friends with local knowledge, we took a night-time walk along the track that leads into the National Park, which is sometimes completely lined with glow-in-the-dark fungus. We didn't even need torches. Mother Nature dishes out some crazy cool stuff - I'd have said it was straight out of science fiction, if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes. I'm not sure this fungus would be easy to photograph, but I might give it a try one of these days.

Corners of my home

I don't want to sound ungrateful, but sometimes our rental property gets me down. It has loads of flaws; a dark kitchen, dated bathrooms, skirting boards, architraves, doors etc all painted in mission brown (MISSION BROWN for goodness sake) and don't get me started on the furniture (yep, furniture included/part of the deal). I dream about fixing it all and I know it would look amazing. But hey, it's not ours. We make the best of it and treat every inch of the place like we do actually own it (and our landlord loves us for it) - after all, we spend a lot of time here. And really, when I recently looked around with a more forgiving eye, I discovered there are in fact some nice friendly inviting corners in our abode.

So I've come up with an idea. I'm going to share a weekly photo of a spot in our house that I like. What a great original idea, right? Um no, it has been done before. Just after I went around the house photographing the bits I like, I coincidentally stumbled across this old blog post on Inner Pickle. You really should follow that link you know, Fiona keeps a great blog. She is witty, wise and completely down to earth. I love reading her blog. I don't think Fiona will mind one little bit if I borrow her idea - especially when I'd borrowed it before I even knew I'd borrowed it, if you get what I'm saying. So my plan still sticks. Here's the first photo -

the hat basket

In our library bag...

I always dive into Harry's library bag as soon as he brings it home. I'm intrigued to see what treasure he's uncovered in the school library. Boy oh boy did I feel incredibly nostalgic when I pulled this classic from his library bag last Friday. I have never read the book (I didn't even know it was a novel first), but the movie was dear to my heart.

The Never Ending Story was one of my most favourite childhood movies ever. What can I say...I'm a child of the 80's. I think we all dreamed of riding on Falkor the luckdragon. Remember that terrifying Gmork? I just about leaped into my Mum's lap when that creature dived at Atreyu in the Swamps of Sadness! At the time, it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen.

I don't think I've ever talked to Harry about the movie. How fabulous he found the book - I'm going to read it too. I've told him I'll watch the movie with him when he's finished. I hope the video shop has a copy!

Friday Favourite...

.....on Saturday!

Here's Ben tickling the ivories - he's being doing this a A LOT lately. I love it when he plays. Our house is filled with music these days - Harry and Till on the piano, Harry on the guitar (Ben as well), and the newest instrument to fire up - the flute. Well Ben plays that too, but now he's teaching Miss Till. She's just at the learning-to-blow correctly stage, until her new curved mouth piece turns up in the mail (those little arms of hers just aren't long enough to reach the keys).

This is my favourite photo taken this week. I'd love it if you'd share your Friday Favourite too, just add a link to yours in the 'comments' below.

Sorry my blogging has fallen off the wagon lately. Busy times for me, mostly in the work camp. I've had a few sleepless nights of late, not from worries, but from a head space filled with so many ideas and lists that my brain has been unable to switch off. I really should sleep with a notebook under my pillow. My job is all consuming at the best of times but with the start of a new school year the pace amps up quite a bit more. I'm enjoying my work more than ever. I don't know why. Perhaps it has something to do with my new guilt-free outlook. I feel organised, but I can't do everything, I can't balance everything - but somehow...miraculously, I no longer beat myself up about it. I'm being the best working Mum I can be and that's that!

Guilt-free in One Three - don't you just love it? I do.

What's this? Two photos?? Yeah, breaking my own rules again. But I do love this one. Love HIM!

Check out Cristina's Friday Favourite here - She is so clever with her camera!

Chapter books now

When did this happen? I'm sure she was in kindergarten just yesterday, sounding out three letter words and practicing sight words. All of a sudden this Year 2 girl can read, well...pretty much anything. There's no stopping Till now - she loves books just like her role-model and big brother (the incredible book-eating boy).

What a relief. The 'helping-your-kids-learn-to-read' caper can be a wee bit stressful, right? Lucky for me I don't have six kids!!!!!

Sunday Bliss

A morning trip to the beach and that holiday feeling has been restored. I've got a pile of work to get through this afternoon, but am happy to tackle it safe in the knowledge I've had some quality weekend relaxation time. I sit here typing in my swimmers and covered in salt - I don't dare jeopardize this relaxed holiday state of mind by removing either of them!