Mallacoota

Dear Great Gran,
It was warmer than home, but frequent showers on the first day of our weekend in Mallacoota meant plenty of rainbows......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).

And another video in the playground.

much love
Brendan

Nursery Swamp

Dear Great Gran,
yesterday we went on a very cold day walk to Nursery Swamp. Here's Julie, Oliver carrying Buttons and Rohan carrying Momo.
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:

much love,
Brendan

Warm 'Woollies' + Wobbly Wheels

Dear Great Gran,
In the last couple of weeks, Ruthie has been getting lots of use the warm PJs that you gave her!
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:

(sorry about the sideways format)
much love,
Brendan