Continuing Catch-up Photos

I'm really glad my children still enjoy dressing up, they have so much fun with it!

Baby Bear is studying Year 11 Drama this year. This was semester one's performance. They had to work in groups and do a sketch based on an archetype of some sort - fairy tale, myth, etc. Her group used a story about Buddhist monks. She played various incarnations of weirdo - lost, on drugs, rejected by society, etc - and one of the monks tried to help her while the other one was dismissive of her problems. Her performance was, of course, brilliant. In fact her portrayal of someone on drugs was rather scarily realistic and even her drama teacher though so! Don't you love the 1960s air hostess uniform? She picked various costumes from the drama costume department which had obviously been stocked from dubious op shops.

And this is another proud moment. Baby Bear singing a solo (admittedly a very brief one) in Hamer Hall. She was part of a choir of secondary school students from around the Eastern region of Melbourne, all hand-picked to perform in a concert called As Time Goes By. She also played the flute in an orchestra. It was a wonderful performance all round and it was a great experience for them all to perform in one of Australia's premier concert halls. We were extrememly proud parents, if all rather tired by the end as it went on till 11pm on a school night! And yes, jeans was the outfit the choir were told to wear, they were singing songs from musicals like Rent (which is what she is singing in the photo) and it was considered appropriate. She wore proper black for the orchestral performance.

And finally a picture that is both sad and hopeful. Taken a few months after Black Saturday (7th February for non-Victorians) in Gippsland, it shows something of the appalling bushfire damage that occured, but also tree ferns growing back as a sign that life always returns in some form.