and some other cousins looking at Andrew's travel pics...
a rainy day robot...
a duet with mini-guitar and electric organ in bassanova mode
and the following link is to a superior photo from the same position (but in the rain!) by our tour guide David:
And back at home, with a dashing red Gumnut baby Flynn
much love
Naval gazing with binoculars: 'Giant barnacles on deck, Captain!'
Keeping a lookout with improvised binoculars...
...and with no binoculars.
When Buttons was playing with some older children at beach, the 8 year old saw a cargo ship pulling out from the steelworks and he called 'Look out there! A container tanker!' and his 3 year old brother corrected him, saying 'It's a sailing ship!' but Buttons contradicted them all with 'No, it's a pirate ship!'
Here the ladybug dances in front of the 2nd birthday cake picture in the Women's Weekly cake book! (Plans are already being made for the next birthday cake!)
Finally, according to the Graeme Base children's book The Waterhole, what do ladybugs say? (please turn your head sideways for this one)
Nor does Sam look too impressed with the her solo efforts - in fact the polar bear seems more interested - and, in case you're wondering, the song is the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow with some improvised Farmer in the Dell musical book accompaniment.
Finally, here's a performance of Buttons and her dancing troupe in the park.
And one happy uncle holding a content leopard
And here, GG, you can see Buttons riding the Collins gee gee ("Yee-hah, Grandma!" says Ruth). Thanks to Joan and Alan for the lend! We enjoyed Peter's visit last week - all his old toys were here waiting for him (rocking horse, plastic animals, duplo, piano) and some new ones, too (he came to the toy library with us).
I spy with my little eye...
When Buttons takes her four legged cousin Sam for a walk - it really turns heads!
I think the squeals of glee, the jingling bell and coordinated outfits have something to do with it.
...and the high winds meant the surf was definitely up...
..although, of course, the inlet was calm, as you can see here.
I took lots of photos of pelicans - before I visited the tourist office and realised that pelican photographs are Mallacoota's main export industry.
Here's Julie showing everything that she knows about fishing to Vinnie and Buttons, who are looking dutifully impressed. As fate would have it, Julie's sum of fishing knowledge exactly equaled the number of fishes caught, which quite understandably left her young pupils completely mystified by the whole experience!
Here's a video of Buttons and Vinnie running amok on the wharf (where there is a clever mural painted on the side of a shed).
Here I attempted a Heidelberg school image of child alone in the bush...
And here is the lunch stop - though personally I thought it was too cold to sit down for even a minute!
Here are Julie and Momo at our destination - the atmospheric, brooding bog.
And I thought the ever-cheeky Momo could make a cameo movie appearance:
She has also been trying out the new plywood "walking bike" that Sue and Neil bought for her. This type of kids bike us very popular in Germany where it is called a Laufrad . Ruth already christened her bike with two names: "It's my Wobbly Bike and my Falling Down Bike."
Here she is on her (more) trusty trike with Vida on her scooter. They have the hobby horse and wooden bike close by and ready for action.
We have also put Ruthie's jumpsuit on the other morning when it was really frosty and it's been so long since she's worn it that she can't remember wearing it before! Hence her question "What do you do in a jumpsuit?" I filmed my answer:
Here is Ruthie giving Shush a kiss! Hooray for Flynn!
We are very happy with our new cousin (and nephew) !
much love
...and to summer and the delicious Eis from our favourite Turkish gelati shop (You can see a picture of Julie - with Ruth in utero - from 3 years ago at the same location in the July 2005 archive!)
...and getting ready to eat some local food at the hotel restaurant
R and I spent Monday at the zoo. Here she is getting close to one of the few animals that you are allowed to feed...
..and getting quite close to an Eisbar which you are not. I should point out that there is glass in between the two of them.
But my favourite was watching Ruth's thinking "how much is that Seehund in the window?"...
...and here is a short video of it (you need Flash player loaded and to press play button for it to work)...
More singing in front of the US "starchitect" Frank Gehry's apartment building that is across the road of the Jewish Holocaust memorial.
Smiling with cherubs and roses in front of our apartment building
And sitting with bear at the playground.
This week we caught this little train at the Britzer Park that were created for the 1985 national garden show.
This morning's rain menat we spent the morning in the toy and kids books section of KaDeWe before feasting in the Wintergarden. You can see that she developed a good appetite from all that playing!
love from