Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Winter holidays in Gundaroo!

It's school holidays again, and this time we had the wonderful opportunity to visit our lovely old friends the Davis' who live in Gundaroo, which is about half an hour outside of Canberra. It was a bit chilly (a cool -3 degrees overnight!) but the days were fine and we had a fabulous time having adventures with our 8 children! I think Rach and I surprised even ourselves with what we pulled off - especially as Rach had only had her little Hannah a mere 8 or so weeks ago!

Undaunted by the hordes of children, we packed them up into the cars with plenty of food, bikes, helmets, gloves and jackets and set off for adventures most days and generally had a great time. We rode around several different sections of the bike track that circles Lake Burley Griffin and took in attractions like Questacon and the National Museum of Australia.

Our crowning glory was a day trip to the snow! Without much of a clue as to what we were doing, we bundled everyone up and headed south to Cooma where we hired all the bits we couldn't borrow, and then onto Perisher for some snow play and tobogganing. Other than Lucy and Hannah who weren't at all impressed with the snow, it was a hit with the other kids who spent a couple of hours zooming down the slopes and playing around. And then we drove home again!

It was wonderful to finally see where our friends live and what life is like in Gundaroo. The girls enjoyed caring for chickens and collecting eggs at the boys' school, playing on hammocks, doing lots of 'beado's', riding bikes and hanging out with the Davis clan. We were all very sad to leave (but have promised to return soon!), and the next morning I was awoken by Madeline who came to tell me that Jasmine was crying and that she wanted to go back to Gundaroo. And I'm really over Sydney traffic, already.





Emma and Madeline with the Davis boys, Parliament House in the background

Lucy really not enjoying the snow.....






Collecting eggs at school

Bike ride around the lake on the way to Questacon


Screen Printing for Asher

A project that has been lots of fun in recent times has been to help my lovely friend Anna to make a wall hanging for her new baby son's room. Inspired by a picture in the great book Prints Charming which I've mentioned before, we set to work to make our own artwork. It's printed on fabric that we then stretched over a canvas. And we are mighty impressed with our results:



And here is their lovely little man Asher, at 5 days old having a lie about on his quilt made with panels screen printed in the same style as the wall hanging. I printed the panels around the time we made the wall hanging (about 2 months ago!) but of course only actually made the quilt once Asher was born. Why does it always happen like this?? I seem to have some wierd psychological issue with making things for babies I know are coming (and I even knew he would be a boy) until after they are born. Maybe I just like working under pressure. Anyway, it's done, and I think he likes it.....