The Arty Owl: November 2011

Home from the Country

Today we had lunch at our favorite Bakery in town, they have the best pies, cakes and coffee and we always walk out of there feeling full and happy and satisfied. AND the people who work there are all really great people too.

We got our favorite table by the window, because out to the left you get beautiful views of the river and the mountains, fantastic!

Can you believe those three little piggies had ice cream as well at the ice cream shop!! Not even an hour after we left the Bakery!! I couldn't believe it, I could still barely move!!

And here is little fella with some 'yarn bombing.' The town has been yarn bombed recently, bigger son actually spotted it the week before when we were up. Yarn bombing is where a group of women will go out, usually after dark, and put knitting and crochet around anything in the community. For example in the main street of the town there's some around fences, tree branches, sign posts, the arms of bench seats etc.

It brightens things up and is considered art, and I think it's also to spread the fact that knitting and crochet is still well alive!

I guess it's sort of like graffiti with yarn istead of spray paint, but it's done artistically.

So here we are back home, it's very late and the boys are long asleep, hardly even made it to their regular bedtime.

Usually I feel quite depressed coming back here to the suburbs away from that magical mountain place..... BUT it's only for three days, Friday we're off again on another adventure, so stay tuned!

And Just a Bit More Country Life

Yesterday we spent a brilliant afternoon out in the bush searching for good 4wd tracks to play on. We can't get too rough as friend hasn't got all the equipment yet. He hasn't had his car very long. He needs to get a winch so that if we get bogged then we can winch ourselves out, so we have to be a little bit careful.

This track above looked absolutely wicked, and what the picture doesn't show is that it goes straight up very high. There's no way we could do that, and I said I certainly wouldn't want to try it, being out by ourselves, that's the sort of track you try when there's more than one car and set of people to help out if you get yourself into trouble.

Even this one below is a bit steep, but not extremely muddy like the one above. This one we were able to do and it was enough to make us squeal a few times so we were scared but still having fun.

We continued on exploring, being very careful to not go off the main track much so we didn't get ourselves lost. Friend spotted this beautiful waterfall right next to the road, so we stopped to have a look and take pictures. It went straight under the road, out the other side and fell away down the mountain.

This bog was a beauty, I knew friend was busting to go through it but I said no. I'm not going to take silly risks of getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere, with no winch and two kids!

Lucky we didn't go through that bog because we met up with some young men in a couple of 4wd's also out to play, and they'd had to winch themselves out along that track a couple of times, so we would have really been in trouble!

After we spoke to them, we drove off and friend decided to be a showoff and drive up the embankment and spin his wheels and throw some mud around.... well...... the car slid out sideways and slipped straight back down and "BANG!!!!!" we were firmly jammed, and BOGGED with his arse-end down, towbar jammed down into the dirt road, and wheels spinning in the ditch!!!

I was SO mad!! He felt SO silly!!

Luckily the young men were still nearby and they pulled us straight out and had a good laugh at him. The good thing with friend is that he's one of those people who is able to laugh at himself, so they teased him like crazy and had a good laugh too.

It really doesn't show the angle of the car very well here, and on the other side the wheels are firmly wedged in the ditch, it was a lot worse than it looks here, I wish I had better photos.

At the caravan park there's loads of baby ducks about. Here's some who were hanging around near our van, they were after the worms after all the heavy rain we had. So so so cute!

And of course yesterday was Halloween so we popped into town and I picked up a couple of costumes and some lollies.

We don't usually do Halloween as back here (home) I've found that the kids are very rude and quite greedy. I don't like it so I don't open the door. And I don't like my boys trudging around the streets either.

Well because we were at the caravan park and it's mostly full of families, I felt very comfortable to let the boys go off together, well, they were SO excited!!!

What do you think off this knife-through-the-head hat?? The lady in one of the shops had one on so I bought one for little fella right then! SO many people in the park loved it, and he was known as 'the kid with the knife through his head!'

I also bought a black spiderweb and spider for the front of the van and a skeleton. The other little boy below is little fella's best mate at the caravan park, the two of them do everything together, such a cutie and a lovely kid too!!

Here they are all finished with Halloween, still eating lollies and relaxing in front of the fire.

I must say I was SO impressed with the kids at the caravan park and the effort they made for Halloween, there were some amazing costumes, both bought and homemade, and some girls even put freaky makeup on their faces too.

But the biggest thing that made me smile was the nice smiles and great manners that were used by ALL the kids who came to our van. It was just lovely, as a mum I felt so proud of them all. It was nice to see that as these days there's not a lot of good manners around in many kids.

I really enjoyed the evening and couldn't believe how much stuff my boys came back with! It was a fabulous night!

And as you can see below, the queen has settled in beautifully!

More Country Life

During our time away, we had loads of fun doing all sorts of things. Friend taught the boys how to fish...... but lucky we had food on hand for a barbie when the fish weren't biting.....

We went to a Festival on Sunday but it was still raining! When the rain stopped for about ten minutes they opened the rockwall climbing thingy, so both my boys begged for a turn.

Well, big son only made it a couple of steps and then climbed up the steps, but at least he had fun coming back down on the rope the other side. So of course, little fella copied along.

We went for a drive after lunch and found a big puddle that had tadpoles in it! We still had the bucket and net in the car from the fishing (failure), so the boys were able to experience tadpoling for the very first time, they loved it!

ALWAYS hold onto little fella, if there's water, he WILL fall in it!

Then some more driving, such beautiful country!

And another puddle, he's really getting the hang of it now.... "I CAN DO IT!!!"

On our way back to our caravan through the caravan park, we saw this, if you look closely, Mr Skeleton has a Jim Beam can in his hand.... we thought it was hysterical. This was the day before Halloween.

And this is my girl, she had to come with us for the first time as my neighbor who usually 'cat-sits,' was also away. She settled in quite nicely and soon became queen of the van.

Life in the Country

We've just been away for another five days to our caravan in the country. On Friday the weather was gorgeous, we arrived about 11.30 and after lunch the boys went for a play in the river as it was very warm.