All Happy

The jungle tamers have made a start, 

instead of mathematics this morning, 

and presented me with this....

 we are all happy!

Sharing at Weekly Top Shot.

Welcome To The Jungle

Zinnias

Native Bee on Cosmos

It's been a long wet summer. Our yard is still very damp under foot, too wet to mow again. The weeds have thrived. Our whipper snipper/edge trimmer is still in the repair shop waiting for parts. Our yard resembles a jungle.....

Chrysanthemum, marigolds, daisies

Grevilleas

A White Faced Heron finds s snack

One of today's Passionfruit flowers

Bromeliad

There is beauty amongst our jungle, sometimes unexpected treats. With two weeks of school holidays (also our homeschool break) coming up in a few days I'm contemplating some jungle taming, however my fabric stash draws my heart more strongly.....

Science activity....

Today's second Science chapter was Valuable Minerals. The activity suggested was "mining" for gold (choc chips) in chocolate chips biscuits/cookies with a toothpick! I made a double batch of choc chip biscuits/cookies at lunch time. I've never seen our children so keen on their science. One of the purposes was to understand what a mess mining can make and how mining companies need to consider and lessen their environmental impact. 

Some of our children made quite a mess but were keen to clean up/eat the offending pieces afterwards. I wonder if I could hide some biscuits/cookies in the garden for helpers to find or cook another batch in payment for some jungle taming.....

Something New

Every week Miss E works on a drawing to give to L, her special friend, at church each Sunday. Tonight's drawing featured L's alpacas sniffing my camera as I am taking photos of them. As usual, when completed the paper was folded by Miss E and placed safely in an envelope ready for delivery.

However as much as I like to see the finished product, for me the focus tonight is on Miss E's new pajamas which she chose yesterday. The weather is finally cooling down and I love Miss E's choice in PJ's! I must go and snuggle her off to sleep right now.......

"What Swords?"

Taken by Miss E (5)

Taken by Miss E, mirrored cabinet

Taken by Miss E

"I liked the swords" said Miss E after our homeschool visit to the local Historical Society. "What swords?" I thought to myself trying to remember hard. A look through Mss E's photos revealed a whole  level of details I had overlooked.

 

We all enjoyed discovering the district's long cricket history.

Three of our children had just played in senior grade grand finals a few days prior to last week's visit. They were stunned to see this display  - Attendance 4,000 while their recent games had fewer than 50 spectators.

Housed in an old original home, the displays were very interesting, there was something for everyone to enjoy, even a library room off the formal dining room.

Taken by Miss E

I'm tempted to wander through the building again at Miss E's eye level, soaking in details I missed.

The "Swallow" a train ferry, the last in Australia, which served our deep river-split town until the bridge was finally opened in 1932.

The construction of our bridge was a major milestone, even though today it is also a major traffic bottleneck with our only connecting road built atop the railway bridge with corners to divert the road onto and then off the line of the railway. A second bridge is due to be built in the next few years.

Schaeffer House is a very fitting location for our local Historical Society. It was built around 1900 and has a National Trust classification. It was the home of Mr Schaeffer who became our first City Architect. Mrs Schaeffer was a keen gardener. It's good to see this home in good hands today, well kept and open for all to enjoy.

Visions of Perfection

Sometimes in life we dream big, even expect more of ourselves and others than perhaps we should.

We do our best to bring the pieces together and make them fit our vision of perfection.

We are each unique designs created for different purposes, to fly in various ways.

Sometimes we just need to let go and glide, test the currents a little, trusting our wings....

and glide free.

Master J has spent countless hours designing and building his unique plane for a school subject. He is passionate about design and flight. Late this afternoon he gave it a first test glide, without the motor switched on. So far things are ok, but not perfect.

A little like (my) life, nothing is perfect, questions remain unanswered, our (my) own expectations ever high. Frustration and discouragement lurk, yet God's promises are still true

and we find that another imperfect day is indeed lined with uncommon beauty.