Happy solstice

Woad is me.

p.s. Adrian began crawling today

In other news

Adrian pulled / hauled himself up to standing in the bath today. His first unaided stand.

Cosmology 101

Said in the car on the way to school - Daddy Daddy look, the sun is following me in the car. It's following me, it is.

Said at school when we dropped her of - Are you taking Baby Adrian home now for a sleep you are because its dark at home and you sleep too daddy because the sun is here at school it followed me and its dark at home and you will sleep at home because its dark it is.

So there you go Copernicus - the sun is not the centrer of the universe, Annalise is.

Who ate all the pies?

Dear Agony Aunt,

My 2.5 year old has started to chant this at every opportunity. I am not sure what to do.

US

Too many potatoes

I bought too many potatoes.
Anybody know any good recipes?

Flotsam and jetsam

The flooding is easing, albeit with some spectacular detritus. One of my workmates captured these extraordinary pictures.

Of droughts and flooding rains

Dorothea Mackeller was a true Aussie. She waxed lyrical with an astounding prescience about the drought/flood nature of this continent then up and left the place for greener pastures in an attempt to found a socialist utopia in Paraguay.

The drought breaking rains that inspired her pen and are currently giving my garden a drink have, so far, killed 9, including a family with kids swept into an instant gorge - just add water - and washed a bulk carrier up onto a beach. I pity the poor bastard that stepped out of his car into the gutter and got sweeped away into a storm water drain.

My Country
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai, [pʰat tʰai], noun.
A boring noodle dish used to pad out otherwise good Thai food.

I managed to visit a buddy

It seems rather hard to get away from the house these days but I did manage to get out and catch up with Rowena - an old uni buddy the other day. Her little man, Ryan, is a few months younger than Annalise. We had a lovley lunch, thanks Ro', even if I didn't bring the promised tea cake. She more than made up for my poor form by treating me to the previous nights leftovers (thanks Pat).

When is it too early to start kids on full strength beer?

Australians only to answer please.

The destruction is almost total

This is where we usually hang up our cloths:

And this is our front yard:

I just got drunk dialled

It's been so long since I posted that Jen rang me to see if I was still on the planet !!!!! Fantastic to hear your voice. Funny accent tho'.

Got a crying baby - got to go. I'll post on the trip down to the south coast soon, no really I will.