Penguins, Cakes, Kids and Goats

Dear Great Gran,
sorry for the long treacle's riz absence - but since the debacle of almost wiping all of Peter's travel photos from his camera at Christmas time, it has taken us this long to get our camera talking to our computer again.

So I will start with last week's news first. Here two penguin-smocked toddlers, Ruth and Vida, help me make a zucchini and chocolate cake on Julie's birthday.
Here we are in the evening singing happy birthday. The zucchini recipe idea came from Julie - who was desperate to dispose of our surplus. It worked well, meaning you cannot taste the vegetable in the final product!
Our evening celebrations were marred by distraught phone calls from Maurice - concerned that he was missing out on the birthday party action (i.e. cake) - so we had a second zucchini and chocolate cake on Saturday morning. It didn't make much of a dent on the zucchini stockpile, but every bit helps.
On Sunday we went to the Canberra Show - Ruth kept herself busy trying to feed straw to every animal she saw. We enjoyed the cows, apalacas (as Grumpa and Nana call them), camels, dog speed and agility trials (tunnels, bridges, see-saws, steeplechase, slalem course etc) and the sheep dog trials (I think Ruth finally understands that sheep-dog is not some hybrid animal)
much love,
Brendan

Apology to the Stolen Generations

Dear Gran,

this morning we jumped on our bikes almost as soon as we woke up. As we cycled down northbourne avenue, we saw other friends on bikes too. At a red light, the passenger in the car full of people next to us wound down the window and asked "Which way to Parliament House?" "Straight ahead--- you can follow us!" I replied.

It felt like all Canberra--- and even more people from across the country--- was going to see the apology. The lawn in front of Parliament House was full of people, come to look at the big screen. People waving flags--- the Australian one, the Aboriginal one, and the (lesser known) Torres Strait Islander one. (I joked that it would be one of the few times we'd be encouraging Ruthie to wave the flag).

On the screen we could see members of parliament filing into the green chamber. The Speaker declared the session open, said "First item of Government business" and then Kevin was on.

I found his speech really moving; especially when he said that his apology was "not qualified"--- after all the years of hedging, legalisms and so on. People in the crowd were clapping, crying, hugging, but mostly listening silently. I think almost half the crowd would have been indigenous; the rest of us ordinary Canberrans, schoolkids in their uniforms, mums and dads, public servants all suited up for a day in the office. After Kevin Rudd announced that he would be coopting the Opposition leader to be part of bipartisan taskforce, the camera switched to Brendan Nelson's face--- with a look of sort of wooden horror on it. That got a laugh.

After he finished the Speaker said "Righto" (he must be new in the job!) and moved on to the reply. After that people started drifting away, off to work, started talking. I listened until I realised that Nelson really wasn't into the "unqualified" thing; it seemed mean-spirited. Some people booed him. We walked over to the side, among the gum trees, to eat a little breakfast-picnic.

On the one hand, the apology was a totally straight-forward simple decent thing to do; to acknowledge that people had suffered as a result of government policies. But it is a sad thing that something so obvious felt so special, so amazing: we have become used to the denial and ungracefulness of the last decade.

Here is a photo (that someone else took):



On Monday, Ruth, Sean, Sam and I went up there to help put up this candle sculpture:


It says "sorry, the first step".

all in all, today was a good day, one long overdue.

Hope you're well,

Julie.

November photos

Dear Gran,

Now Ruth has had two sets of grandparents visit in two weeks. Colin and Lorraine were here last weekend--- they parked the caravan in our backyard, to the delight of the kids.

And Mum and Dad left this afternoon. They spent a bit of time taking Ruth around--- they looked after her on Friday while Brendan and I worked, they took her over to Sean and Sandra's yesterday afternoon, and out to breakfast with Ian and Lesley this morning.

Later this afternoon we went to the pool. We arranged to meet Nathalie, Joseph and Momo there. We didn't arrange to meet another three sets of friends (and their kids), but we did anyway. This way Canberra feels like a very small town.

Ruth had a good time in the baby pool, walking around and playing with her buckets. Later we went for a second swim, in the big pool. What joy! I think she squealed for the whole 10 minutes. She loves jumping into our arms off the side of the pool, being thrown up and down, going underwater.

Came home, had dinner, ran around in the rain for a while. Gran, the weather these last weeks has been lovely. Not too hot, and with fairly frequent evening thundershowers.

Anyway, here are some photos from the last month.


Firstly, from the trip Ruth and I took to Bairnsdale on cup weekend: Wendy took us to Raymond Island, which is overrun with koalas. Here are two of them.

The next night we stayed at Cape Conran. We have a new tent, a spacious THREE person tent. It seems to do the job.




Ruth and I balancing on the edge of the garden.




Finally (I include this photo just to disgust the more sensitive members of the family) Ruth after eating several cupcakes made to her friend Vida's special recipe.





We're really looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas.


Much love,

Julie.