Myriad Me

Badgingarra

Newborn calves taking their first shaky steps in the enormous protective shadow of their jet black big-eyed mums; bouncing along in a battered farm ute through paddocks, braking for stubborn heifers and sending skitterish sheep scattering; 

lobbing nets into slippery sided dams in the middle of a stubble filled field to catch yabbies; roaring along gravel and dirt tracks with a giggling girl leaning back into me on a red quad bike yelling 'faster Mummy faster';

leaping atop rolled bales of hay from one row to the next underneath a cotton-ball covered sky; watching a lightning storm away in the distance from our hilltop; taking in the gentle rolling flock-specked hills in an ever-changing vista.

I've been able to come back into myself a little more after these few days away. Quieter. Calmer. A long way from peace but closer to sanity. Thankyou.

(photos by Hipstamatic)

Metamorphosis Part 1: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The lush leaves on the sweet potato plant taking root in a glass on my sideboard vanished overnight. The bare stems left no hiding place for the sticky-toed culprit.

(ISO 1600, F3.2, 1/13)

The most enormous caterpillar I'd ever seen had had the mother of all midnight feasts.

(ISO 1600, F2.8, 1/15)

I wasn't going to complain too loudly within earshot though, not with a spike at the tail of its 3 inch long body that looked like that!

(ISO 1600, F2.8, 1/25)

But I did take him prisoner out of curiosity as to what kind of butterfly or moth he might turn into. But would he eat lettuce? No. Spinach? No. Cabbage? No. Any kind of green vegetable or leaf? Nope, not so much as a sniff. He would only eat sweet potato leaves. So sweet potato leaves he had.

Metamorphosis is coming. Change is inevitable. Especially when you're a caterpillar!

{I dug out my macro lense for these shots, and because I didn't want to move the caterpillar around too much I shot in low light and ramped the ISO up to compensate a little. I should have got my tripod out but ended up balancing the camera on a pile of books}

And in the Top Ten Most Boring Places to Take a Small Child...

(1/160, F13, ISO 100)

Me: Sophs, would you like to see the Thrombolites?

Sophs: From bot what Mummy?

Me: Living rocks!

(1/80, F16, ISO 100)

Sophs: Living rocks? Coooool! Do they dance?

Me: Er, no.

Sophs: Do they talk?

Me: Er, no.

Sophs: Do they sing?

Me: Er, no.

(1/125, F16, ISO 100)

Sophs: What do they do then Mummy?

Me: Er, well, they grow very very slowly. And look a lot like a rock.

Sophs: <sound of silence> Well that sounds boring.

(1/125, F16, ISO 100)

But I still got a smile out of her.

We picked a blustery, overcast day to visit living rocks that take decades to grow a millimetre. In terms of engaging activites for a small child, well, this was most definitely not one!

Little duck feet

We live one street away from a lake which although close for us, is quite a walk for little duck feet.

So we were somewhat surprised to find a fluffy little family resting on our front lawn one morning.

And the next morning, and the next, and the next...

We enjoyed their company for over a week and would often see them traipsing along the street enroute to our shaded cool lawn.

Until one day they came no more.

How wonderful it was that for a brief time, our 'everyday' included sitting on a green lawn with a Mama duck and five peeping balls of fluff dozing at arm's length away from us.

A recipe for sunflowers

Take 5 sunflower seeds. Plant and water them well. Wait 6 days for them to sprout.

Pull up 6 paving slabs, remove half of the sand underneath and dig in compost and veggie scraps to enrich the earth.Transplant the little seedlings and tend them daily.

Watch as they grow from spindly, inch-high seedlings until they are the same height as your child.

Feed, water and love them until they are the same height as you, and are promising you an enormous sunny flower.

Keep feeding and watering them, harvest several courgettes from the plants next to them, keep watching them grow until you have to look up to see their just-opened blooms.

Study the wildlife that are drawn to the sturdy stems and flowers, for a nibble and a rest.

Watch the honey bees smother themselves in pollen, seemingly unable to resist burying their heads deep into the stamens and drenching themselves with tiny yellow specks.

Remember that you grew these from a seed. That with the right conditions, tender attention and care, and a touch of luck you can create beauty. Step back, and enjoy,

The Full Lunar Eclipse from Perth

In case you missed it, there was a full lunar eclipse last night and there won't be another one until 2014.

I've never taken night photos before and after a few false starts and some googling, I managed to (mostly) get the right settings:

I don't look skywards at night-time anywhere near often enough. There is an enormous velvety sky up there set with twinkling diamonds, and it is beautiful.

On the next clear night wherever you are, go outside and look up.

It's simply magnificent.

The Peacock

As males of the species go, the peacock is a standout. The peahen? Phht. Boring yawning brown. The peacock?

Well, I think he knows precisely how good he looks. Haughty and confident in his magnificence.

From his fluffy, mottled and rust coloured britches which he shimmies while he fans his tail, to his countless elegant eyed feathers which he hauls behind him...

He sings it loud.

I am the peacock.

No I don't think you heard me.

I AM the peacock.

Koalas at Caversham

There are countless jokes I could make about how much cuteness can you bear?

How baby koalas are so beary beary cute, and sleeping koalas, well, I can bearly take any more of their snoozing gorgeousness...

So instead I'll just let these pictures speak for themselves.

These incredible little bears are at Caversham Wildlife Park and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to stand inches away from them.

Access to the enclosure where the babies are is restricted to 30 minutes a day and thanks to my sister-in-law doing her homework we were there for pretty much most of that time. It was utterly enchanting, almost meditative observing their slow movements and long dozes. I could have stayed and watched them all day long.

We were allowed to stroke one of the mums with the back of our hand over her downy soft fur, and I so wished I could have held one for a cuddle.

It was magical being so near to them with no fence between us, no telephoto lense needed, having them right there to appreciate and coo over.

And to have one look right back at me, well, that was just exquisite. A perfect moment, one to tuck into my pocket of happy memories.

This old thing?

It's just some snakeskin boa I found in the back of the wardrobe. I had the darndest time trying to keep it from sliding off my neck though... Does it go with my shirt?

 

A day in the life...

I'm starting to feel a little bit like a posterchild for the West Australian Tourism authority...

with my many pictures of blue skies, sandy beaches and blindingly bright sunshine.

You might have noticed we are at the beach often, it is a place we actively seek out on a weekly basis. Skipping, running, jumping, tumbling, digging, somersaulting, spinning, giggling, paddling, splashing and smiling. Always smiling.

The ocean is in my blood. My childhood was spent in, on or under the water and it surrounds so many of those precious memories carried through to adulthood. That my girl seems to love it as much as me brings a great deal of happiness to my soul. 

You would be mistaken if you thought that all Australians live their life at the beach. In the same way that so many Londoners never set foot in any of the exquisite galleries or brilliant museums on their doorstep, there are many here who hate the sand and never walk, paddle or take in the view from the shore. Which just means there's more room for us!

Sophia has been watching the surfers, and kite surfers and asking to learn their sports, and with my Dad had her very first surfing lesson on the calm waters on the Mandurah estuary last week. As of yesterday afternoon she is now the very proud owner of a Tinkerbell bodyboard and has been very busy teaching her dolls how to kneel and paddle on the living room carpet/sea.

My London Child is now very much an Australian Girl. That chokes me up a little to say that. Perth and London cannot hope to compete against each other. Their fields of excellence are parallel, and you can have one, or the other, but not both.

We choose to live our life fully, wherever in the world we find ourselves. Now where's that sunscreen?

(Thanks to my Mum for the pictures with me in them, and of Sophia's first surf)