Back to School

Putting the flags out because the kids have all gone back to school today. The teachers had monday off as the ANZAC Day public holiday which no one else got! Then Tuesday was a 'pupil free day' (wish we had Borrower-free days as often as teachers get Pupil-free days).

More validation

Love Letter to Libraries Part 2

Loving what I do

A couple of things I came across today that validate my work as a Librarian:


and a blog post, Love Letter to Libraries from one of my favourite blogs, Citizen Reader

Kitchen renovations - the continuing saga

We have been taking up the flooring. With the U-shaped kitchen having been removed, we need to put new flooring down. Under the slate-look lino that has been on the floor, we have found two layers of lino tiles. We have been having to use a heat gun to prise them up one by one, it's been going on for weeks but the boys have done a fair bit this holidays and we are almost finished.

We are thinking of covering the floor in a product called 'Allure'. It's kind of lino but looks like wood. It comes in strips or planks which stick together along one sticky edge. It's easy to DIY because it's easy to cut to shape. We looked at real wood and wood laminate but have been told the real wood scratches too easily and wood laminate can't take a lot of water.

Ishbel's Wellies

She wouldn't pose inside them!

Ishbel's Wellies

Knowing we were off to a swamp, we dived into Target the night before to get Ishbel a pair of wellies. Not just an ordinary pair of wellies; these are beautiful, with love hearts all over.

It's had me teaching her Billy Connelly's welly boot song though:

Secret Swamping

Yesterday I went on a walk to the Secret Swamp with thirteen other people for a couple of hours. We saw three swamps.

We started at Katoomba Library and took a bus to Darwin's Walk which starts from Wilson Park at Wentworth Falls.


The Aboriginal Interpreter Ranger from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Janelle, first showed us things that aboriginal people would have used.

Janelle showing us coolamon, woomera, shields and boomerangs

Then we started on our walk. Every now and again we would stop somewhere and the Council Environment man, Mike, would tell us something about the enviroment or Janelle would show us bush tucker.

Janelle telling us about bush tucker

Mike told us about the Giant Dragonfly and the Blue Mountains skink, both endangered and about how important the swamps are, how they are in danger and how they can be protected.

Mike pointing out a yabby in the creek (Ishbel closest to camera)

We walked along until we came to a pool and a cave. Janelle had brought some ochre with her and she showed us how to wet it and make a paint which we then put on ourselves. Janelle said her daughter used to put it on as eyeshadow and lipstick so some of the other girls did the same. I made a band on my wrist with it. Janelle said ochre is a good sunscreen.

Janelle, Aniko and Mike with the Secret Swamp kids. You can't see it in this unfortunately blurry photo,
but most of the kids are wearing ochre on their faces (Ishbel front far right)

From there we headed back to the bus. Janelle, Mike, Mum and I had to walk back to the car. Mike said it would only take ten minutes and it took about twenty.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

This was a library school holiday activity. Aniko, our Children's and Young Adult's Team Leader, 'persuaded' me to put Ishbel's name down and then put me down as a staff helper. We had a really nice morning. The weather was perfect (it's been miserable all week) and we learned heaps. Aniko wrote a piece for our library blog:

We all met at Katoomba library at 10am. Our bus driver, Dusan, had a problem about counting the number of seats in his bus and we ended up having to take the Ranger's car as well. Of course you can well imagine that part of a ‘secret’ is going on a bus and looking back as you speed off thinking, thank goodness my mother isn’t coming! Why does she always look weepy when I board a bus? And it is even better to be sitting next to your BEST friend with a haversack full of food that you never get to eat at home!

BUT I guess from a kid’s perspective, you do need to worry about these lady Librarians . . . they are not as stern as those who get left behind in the library telling you that you still owe $5.50 on that book which was late, which you never really got to read anyway. I got to sit next to the older one. She looked a bit hip in that ‘dry as a bones’ . . . didn’t anyone tell her that you don’t wear that type of gear when you go swamping! The other one with the blond hair was a bit of a cutey . . . it would be great to have a mum like her!

Anyway we headed off and did the normal carry one in a bus . . . windows up and down, trying out to see if the back door actually opened, giving the driver lots of noise . . . good job he didn’t go on about the usual tourist jargon on your route to your destination. And yes, we got there . . . Charles Darwin Walk . . . a creek full of yabbies, skinks, dragonflies, mud glorious mud, bush tucker food, waterfalls, fresh swamp water, hills that took for ever to climb, and yes you’ve got it, we emerged with painted faces, gumboots full of water and two an half hours of ‘full on’ information overload on the best swamps in the world at our back yard.

That guy, Mike, knew more about swamps than I could have believed. He tried getting us to learn the Latin words for bush specimens but I thought it sounded like we were in some foreign country forgetting how to speak English!

The bush Ranger was a lady called Janelle. She talked about her people and ancestries and showed us how to cut large bark out of trees and swing a club, throw a spear and spin a boomerang. I liked what she had to say about her country and how her people knew better than us in how to care for the environment.

Would I do it again? . . . I sure would - even if we had to go with the librarians again!

Halfway through the holidays

It's coming up for the second week of the school holidays which began with the Easter long weekend.

On Saturday we had Karen, Dan and Xavier and Roey and Peter to lunch. Karen and Dan brought Dan's grandmother, Diana and Roey and Peter brought Pete's mum, Pat and we enjoyed a nice lunch. Roey and Pete also brought their dog, Leo, to play with Bella and Josie but he seemed not to enjoy being out-numbered by the girls and spent his time whining at the back door.

Robbie was busy on a couple of days last week. On Tuesday he arranged a visit down to the city with some of the kids he shared a bus with in Japan and the next day he met up with one of the girls he met on the way home from Japan and they went to the Royal Easter Show together. He's been keeping in touch with everyone through SMS-ing and Facebook.

Ishbel has spent quite a bit of time with her mate Zanny. Zanny has either been at our place or Ishbel has been up at Zannys. A play day here leads to an overnight stay there. Here are the girls enjoying a sleepover here. For once they were asleep before 9pm (it was after midnight last night when Britney was here!)

I had the day off on Friday and, with the weather forecast for the weekend and all this week being bleak, decided to take Ishbel to the Royal Easter Show. We caught the train just after nine and headed off to Homebush.

We decided we would take it in turns to choose what we looked at next. Steering Ishbel carefully through all the show rides, we started off at the cattle and horse sheds. We got chatting to a couple of women grooming a very pretty little pony called Special Girl. We also enjoyed looking at the cattle. There was one little calf, Elmo, who was only 2 weeks old. He must have been born at the show?

Next (my choice) we went to see the dogs. Disappointingly there were no Border Collies, Mastiffs or Irish Wolfhounds although we did see some really cute Jack Russells and some Russian Deerhounds - very snooty looking beasts.

Ishbel was determined to go to the showbag place next. She'd wanted a Saddleclub bag but got waylaid and bought a Garfield one instead.

Next door was the arts and crafts shed. We enjoyed some paintings, some calligraphy (a beautiful rendition of In Flanders Fields), the cakes and knitting. Ishbel got her name done by chinese ladies for framing later. The farming district exhibits were there too. I was particularly taken by the Central District display - this trout is made of apples with wool for the water. It was truly stunning.

Late in the afternoon we realised we hadn'[t seen the cats so, via the sheep and pigs, we headed back over the other side of the showgrounds to the cats. Unfortunately, it is a small building and the crowds were such that it was very hard to see any of the cats. We did see a Burmilla like our Abigail though.

This weekend Jamie had an AFL game. They won their game - for the first time in 4 years I think they said!!! Jamie was planning to go to the Easter Show with some of his friends this week but they've had a late change of plan and are going to Luna Park instead.

Ian, after a month off, is going back to work tomorrow. Hoo-ray! He saw the plastic surgeon on Tuesday who did not see why Ian should need a skin graft and dispensed with all the fiddly dressings that have been on his ankle. He still has to see the hand specialist in early May and has to wear a splint until then. Meanwhile he still cannot drive so tomorrow will set off on public transport. It'll take a bit longer than in the car, so Sue has put him down for shorter days until after we've seen the hand guy.

Kemp's Creek photos

See Karen and Dan's blog for some photos of hot fire training day the boys and I did at Kemp's Creek a few weeks ago. Thanks Dan.

Doing the washing

Must remember not to wear these knickers when I go sumo wrestling.

Must remember, must remember, must remember . . .