Saturday Sky

I haven't posted a Saturday Sky for ages, but here is one at last. And yes it is a real photo! But it was blurry and an insignificant part of another picture (taken by Baby Bear who was focussing on something else) so i played with it until it developed this look, which I like. Those were real clouds and they evens prinkled some rain on us. Most of Victoria got lots of rain, we didn't get much in Glen Waverley (5mm) but the farmers got lots which is great. There is some more rain forecast today. In fact it is chucking down at the moment (whee!) and I am pointedly not complaining that in an hour's time we have to be over at the school at the official opening of the environmental project that George, among a tiny handful of other dads, has been building almost every Saturday for the last nine months. (I love it that he is so involved in the school, but sometimes I wish a few other people would get off their ar**s and do something too!) I am hoping that our wonderful principal has remembered how to make contingency plans for rainy days!

Wombat this morning said something terribly sweet - he is nearly 11 and we came back to Melbourne when he was nearly 3 - 'I remember that day when it RAINED ALL DAY'. Of course there have been a few of them in that eight year period, but precious few. I didn't remind him that his first 2 3/4 years were spent in Gloucestershire in the UK where it rained all day every day for most of his short life!

Saturday Sky

Actually the sunset is Friday sky but it's too pretty to be left out. That one was taken by Baby Bear last night on the roof (which is flat and fairly safe). The others I took on Saturday between 9am and 12pm as the weather slowly moved through. Baby Bear has been taking some stunning photos recently which I may feature because she is 100% better than me and shows so much talent in this area that I am blown away by some of her stuff. Being 13 though, she is brilliant but doesn;t quire understand the accolades - despite being told she is doing collages akin to Andy Warhols', she has to be reminded that she saw Andy Warhols at the Tate Gallery and other galleries when she was in nappies, and just who she is, even is she is doing work worthy of him! One of her collages to follow. i think she is more talented than me. I don;t know whether to be proud or disillusioned. On the whole I think PROUD!!!

Saturday Sky

I've manipulated this picture a little bit - I thought it looked so much like cotton wool balls that I made it look more so. We are having a heat wave (with the occasional thunder storm - I got soaked on Friday afternoon but that's the only rain we've had for ages) and I am SO SICK of being hot. 

Saturday Sky with Wisteria tendrils

 

Saturday Sky

This is actually a Friday Sky, but it's so much more interesting than the one I took this morning out the back door! George took this yesterday in the Victorian High Country near Merrijig. If you look closely you can see two plumes of smoke, on the slopes of Mount Buller. That's a real Aussie bushfire, folks, three kilometres away from where he was. 

Christmas Day Sky

I haven't done a Saturday Sky for a while, but here is a Christmas Day Sky. It rained and was bitterly cold all day, which we welcomed because it gave us some respite from bushfires and searing heat. Then this rainbow came out at the end of the day and seemed to symbolise so much about Christmas.

Incidentally, Wombat, aged 10, took this with my camera, all I have done is sharpen the edges a bit.

Saturday Sky

A little late, perhaps! Baby Bear took this at a friend's place in Olinda in the Dandenong Ranges on Saturday evening, this is the view from their back verandah and it is just stunning.

We had a weekend of running hither and yon. Grocery and Christmas shopping on Saturday for me, then Baby Bear had this sleepover birthday party (far more convenient for them to be sleepovers when it is a half hour drive into the back of beyond to pick them up!) She did unusually well for a sleepovers - I believe she got a whole five hours sleep this time!

Sunday we went to church (the steeple was not struck by lightning), returned a pair of trousers I had bought for Baby Bear that were a size too small (and I was feeling irritable enough to lecture the little shop assistant about their stated no returns, no refunds policy, and suggested her boss read some consumer law - I know I was shooting the messenger but it REALLY ANNOYS me). Then a pretty drive 'into the woods' (as Wombat always calls it) to pick up Baby Bear, and a visit to Knox because George needed to buy a torque wrench - which he ended up getting much later in the day, elsewhere, but we had lunch and a good time in Borders. George picked out a book he would like for Christmas, WOmbat found a new Simpsons book, Baby Bear chose a CD of some band I have never heard of, and I bought Debbie Stoller's The Happy Hooker (and some paperbacks of the 3 for the price of 2 type, which I nearly always do in Borders). I had sworn never to buy any of Debbie Stoller's books as I dislike most of the patterns and the writing style, I have been searching high and low for a particular type of crocheted, short-sleeved, cropped cardigan/bolero thing, and the pattern in the book was the nearest I have come to finding the right one! And I think I have enough of the Elle Stonewash left over from the Norah Gaughan cardigan to whip one up. Plus it had a Stitch Diva pattern in it that I have been lusting after for ages that in the official pattern only comes in really small sizes but in the book came in realistic sizes (I am not confident to alter crochet patterns like I could with a knitting pattern).

Then Baby Bear had to be taken off for a three hour choir practice - she auditioned for a special choir that the school is taking to Chengdu in China next April to sing at The Festival of the Giant Panda. THEN George flew off to Adelaide to speak at a conference.

Is it any wonder I fell into bed last night feeling a little worn out!

On the upside, George is back tonight, and Wombat is finally going back to school after a week off sick. I have the house to myself for at least a little while. Oh, the sound of peace when I come home from school! 

Saturday Sky

I thought I was going to be posting yet another perfect sunny sky, but by the time I got home from shopping it had clouded over a bit. It was still quite warm though - it was about 26C when I got home at 3 o'clock, funny to think that on Wednesday it barely reached 11C! Yes, we Melbournians are obsessed with the weather, it changes so much that we always have something to talk about!
There was another working bee at the school to get the environmental garden project as close to completion as possible. Most of the heavy labour has been done by George, our good friend R who is the project manager, and a couple of other dedicated dads. It was good to see quite a lot of other parents there yesterday. Much to my disgust George is over there AGAIN cleaning up with R and a couple of others. I am getting a little sick of the amount of time he is putting into it - added to the fact that he is President of the School Council, and Treasurer of our Church. It is good to be involved in the community (I am just on the Education Committee at school, I used to do a lot more but gradually pulled back on my committments when they got rather overwhelming) but some family time would be nice too, especially considering that he works a good 50 to 60 hours a week at his 'real' job and is committed to being a hands-on father and husband. I worry that he will just collapse with exhaustion at some point.
The kids had a swim afterwards - our two and R's two youngest - but it still isn't quite warm enough for me to go in. Maybe tomorrow - it is forecast to be 31C today and 33C tomorrow, so the solar heating should be doing its job and heating the water up nicely by now. I am a wimp about cold water and it has to be a minimum temperature for me to go in, unlike the kids who don't seem to care!

Saturday Sky

Another perfect spring day in Melbourne. Sun shining, no clouds. It clouded over later on in the day and got humid and close, but this was taken mid-morning. Trouble is, what we really need is rain!

Saturday Sky

It was chilly this morning (for Melbourne in October) and there were some tiny sprinkles of rain, but nothing like enough. (We are in sustained and serious drought). Lots of clouds during the day, some of them quite darkish, but nothing that even registered in the rain gauge. This is the view over the fence into next door, they are a lovely Sri Lankan couple with a little boy of about twelve months who is so cuddleable and cute that you just want to eat him up! 

Saturday Sky

Baby Bear took these photos for me yesterday while I was still in hospital - isn't she a good girl! There was a working bee at the primary school which kept everyone busy.

I am home, feeling as weak as a kitten, but largely pain free (except for a persistent sore neck and headache which I think came from the hospital bed!).

I now have to live on liquids for the next three weeks. So far I have only managed water and fruit juice with a couple of mouthfuls of chicken broth, but intend moving up to more broth and possibly even a cup of tea today. I am still bloated from all the gas they pump inot you during the op - though that has improved a lot.

It hurts to sit at the computer for any length of time - I am fine lying down, walking for short periods, of sitting in an armchair. So not much blogging today. But thanks so much for all your kind words, I probably won't get back to all of you individually so I hope you are reading this and acccept my heartfelt thanks for your kind thoughts and words. 

Saturday Sky

This is my first Saturday Sky entry - a typical Melbourne spring day. The big eucalpyt is ours, in our front garden, and the other trees are on the other side of the road.