Woodford Folk Festival

Catherine and I spent a day at Woodford Folk Festival this week - something I've been meaning to do ever since we moved to the Sunshine Coast. We had a fabulous day, with the added bonus of catching up with some great friends who were there from Toowoomba. We slogged through mud, listened to a variety of excellent music (John Butler Trio, Freshwater, Leah Flanagan Band to name a few) and laughed through various shows (magician, circus act, burlesque and macedonian dance workshops). Street performers and a plethora of food, craft, clothing and other stalls added to the carnival atmosphere. Here are a few images of the day:

Circus Performance

Dot icecream was a novelty

Yes, I am in there somewhere!

Catherine's tattoo

Making balloon animals

Street performers

UV Wonderland

A friendly seagull

Part of the crowd @ John Butler Trio concert

Growing up fast!

Christopher was right....

... I love my iPhone!

Seriously. It is a brilliant little piece of technology.

I looked at prices of iPhones a while ago, when Christopher was first extolling their virtues. When I saw the cost I wrote off the whole idea at once.

A couple of weeks ago I decided we'd need another mobile for when I'm at work, and went shopping for a suitable plan - at which point I realised that I could afford an iPhone after all - if I bought it as part of a plan!

Yay!!! Christopher and I set off at once and came home with my delightful, sleek, sexy new phone. I'm considering this my graduation gift to myself :)

The picture is a screenshot of some of the applications (apps) that were on my home screen. I've tweaked it considerably since then. The more I use it, the more I am smitten. The first morning I checked my email in bed I knew I was a dedicated fan!

About time, too

Small Basic

Christopher said last night, "If someone thinks I have an intellectual disability, tell them I write computer code". Yes, he has been engrossed for hours this week learning how to write computer programs using Small Basic.

Benefit #1 - he is reading the entire instruction manual by himself - and getting him to read has been a struggle for many reasons;
Benefit #2 - the program uses intellisense, so it speeds up his typing and reduces errors - making the process much less frustrating than it would be otherwise;
Benefit #3 - he enjoys it immensely, as the instruction manual is designed to give the learner quick results;
Benefit #4 - it is computer-based, and if you know Christopher at all, you will know his obsession with computers and technology.

sample of instruction manual for Small Basic (click to enlarge)

Don't forget, he's doing all this using a head switch and onscreen keyboards!

Parrot Day

Today, I spotted all these birds:

sulphur-crested cockatoo

rainbow lorikeets

galahs

and yellow-tailed black cockatoos

it must be Parrot Day in Mooloolah Valley!

Nice snaps

While working on a project, I came across lots of wonderful old photos. Here are two... winter with my boy (USA)... and summer with my girl (Australia).

Magic Square @ 4 weeks

clothes shopping in a wheelchair

I don't like taking the kids clothes shopping. As Catherine gets older it's becoming a little easier, but I still avoid it as much as possible. It's time to dust off my soapbox and clamber up for a rant about wheelchairs and shopping centres. First of all, the width of the aisles is not terribly helpful when Christopher's arms and hands have a life of their own. For some mysterious reason kids' clothes racks tend to be particularly squashed together. Finding a safe place to park him while Catherine and I make dashes up and down the aisles is always an interesting challenge.

Having found several armfuls (armsful?) of clothes that look okay, we grit our teeth and head into the hell of the changing rooms. At least nowadays there is such a thing as a disabled change room, which - as you might be able to spot in the photo - is in the female section. Fabulous fun for a teenage boy..... NOT!

Once the disabled change room has been vacated by the previous customer (an able-bodied young woman), Christopher and I head inside while Catherine scoots into an empty stall nearby. I sweep the used tissue, clothes hanger and clothes tags onto the floor so I can lift him onto the change bed. Interesting design. At least this change room has a bed - on previous occasions our only option has been the floor, which does not bear thinking about.

We eventually emerge from the change rooms looking a bit frazzled (at least, that's my excuse for the hair-do, and I'm sticking to it). Frozen yoghurt with mango or wild berry topping time. Catherine spots a sign "The Dress to Impress" in a shop window and quips "I don't know how you'd impress a dress, anyway". Christopher wonders whether I will pay him to use his photograph on my blog. I love these kids! We eat maccas in the car at the beach and watch another dust storm approach in the far distance. Time to head home and rejoice that clothes shopping is over for another six months.

Bonaro W. Overstreet

Never heard of her? Here's a snippet of her poetry:

You say the little efforts that I make will do no good:
they never will prevail to tip the hovering scale
where justice hangs in balance.
I don't think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side shall feel
the stubborn ounces of my weight.

Newstyle sibling communication

The kids have discovered windows instant messenger, and on the first day of the school holidays spent a good couple of hours talking to each other from their separate bedrooms. They established a system of codes and call signs (christopher is fox leader, catherine is wolf cub). Code red means "come here", code yellow is "wait" etc. I haven't yet discovered which code means "Be careful! Mum is in the room and can hear us". They also play games and share video clips with each other.

If you know Christopher, you'll realise how lovely it is when he finds a new way to communicate, and a new activity that keeps him busy for hours on end. So - seeing as we're not going anywhere special these holidays - the kids each got their own webcam to add to the experience. Christopher has already used his webcam to create little video greetings - much much faster than typing with a switch! Catherine has been using hers to take countless creative photos of herself (sample above). I think it's a good investment all 'round.

splashup

I love photoshop. Unfortunately it's a little more expensive than I can afford, just to play around with my digital photos. So I am chuffed to have discovered a little web-based program called splashup. It lets you create layers and play with filters just like photoshop. Well, ok, not JUST like photoshop, but near enough. The fact that it doesn't take up space on my hard drive is a bonus, too. The above is an example of what can be done with a few minutes of playing around. Kinda fun!

Oops... I nearly forgot to say it's free :)

What happens when you can't choose...

....between orange or blue fingernail polish?

Catherine set up business in her bedroom on the weekend... a massage and manicure shop, open from 3-4pm (very civilised working hours if you ask me). I ventured in, to be greeted by a very professional manicurist, who had prepared the work environment with a great deal of thought... right down to providing a coaster if customers had brought their own drink along.

The half hour manicure consisted of a fingernail trim (quite scary for said customer), a choice of orange or blue fingernail polish, and a hand massage with a scrummy almond moisturiser. As it was late Sunday afternoon, I found myself unable to cope with decisions regarding nail colours and therefore ended up with alternating colours. In the spirit of things, I wore my matching skirt today:

The dark side...

.... of making savoury pancake stacks on a beautiful Saturday morning :(

Hmmm, I need upbeat music. I think "The Big Chill" soundtrack fits perfectly. Any other suggestions for music that makes cleaning up a kitchen more fun?

Breakfast, anyone....?

Savoury pancake stacks:

Catherine approves:

Miss Hermione thinks the king parrots are ho-hum:

New addition

Replacing the faithful old starwagon is this cute little 2003 honda jazz. Already smitten! The boys took a LOT of photos, very likely at Christopher's instigation. Suffice it to say "She's silver and she drives like a dream". Took me all of 20 mins to decide to do errands, drive to the village, visit post office, drive to IGA, buy laundry powder, drive around corner, drop off tax info, drive home.... ta-da! I love living here, I love my Jazz, I HAVE A JOB for next year.

Magic Square @ 2 weeks

Two weeks since planting, and things are growing well. The nasturtium seeds have sprouted in this large green pot. Dead-headed marigold flowers are going straight into the garden. It takes one watering can to maintain adequate moisture at the moment, and I've only had to water four times. That's thanks to some nice rain over the last two weeks. I add a heap of kitchen scraps every few days and shovel on a scoop of mulch - which takes care of the composting side of things.


Leisa asked about pest management. So far the biggest pest has been Miss Hermione. The kitchen scrap smells draw her to the compost daily, and she was seen eating from it one day - and subsequently vomiting. Cats! I manage that by making sure I cover the tasty bits with extra mulch. I am going to start harvesting this coming week... just a few leaves here and there for sandwiches.

Salad Plot

Today was planting day, and therefore the most labour-intensive part of my garden square is now over and done with. Ably supervised by Christopher, assisted by Catherine, and hindered by Hermione, all the seedlings were settled in their place and tools tidied up within an hour.

The seedlings look a bit droopy.... transplanting never does them any favours. I'm half-thinking to save seed and raise my own next time around, but we'll see how they go. There is rain forecast for this evening, so I am hoping they will stand up to the shock.

This planting grid shows which plants are where, and what their special needs/uses are. It will be particularly handy once (if?) things get a bit lush and tangled in the magic square... in due course. So far so good.

Nearly time to plant!

Whilst I haven't personally done much more to my "one magic square" since I last wrote, the boys built me a very nifty frame. The left side is my actual planting square, while the right hand side is where I'm composting kitchen scraps. The small rock pile just behind the frame is where the Time Capsule has been located.

Today I used some string and nails to divide my planting square into 16 smaller squares. There will be a different salad vegetable in each section, giving us lots of variety for picking over spring and summer. I hope to plug in the seeds and seedlings in the next couple of days.

August is the big month! Creating a professional portfolio, writing my curriculum vitae/resume, writing cover letters, applying for jobs and hoping for interviews. It's exciting to be so close to finishing my studies, and it's also a good time to sit back and rethink the whole "why am I doing nursing?" question. I've spent some time mind-mapping about that, to be sure of my direction before making any major decisions. Now I'm keen to get some offers and start planning for work next year.

I've also given some thought to what skills I still want to polish up before launching into work as a registered nurse. I've got a mere 320 hours of time left as 'student nurse' on the wards... and I want to make the most of it.

Two minute gardening

I dumped a bag of horse manure on my little square garden bed today. It's the only thing I've done since it was "dug" (see here). I won't start the planting till spring, so this should give the horse poop time to do its thing. I plan to shovel on a bit of mulch sooner or later and that's it for now! Back to the textbooks.

Back to Uni

Yes, it's time to start the final semester at last! I am doing one external subject via James Cook University (rehab and palliative care) and the other is my internship. So my on campus time is limited to five workshops (four hours each). For clinical, I am doing four weeks in operating theatre and four weeks in oncology (both full time and working any shift). Job applications for graduate nurse positions open today. It's going to be a big semester and to start it off on the right note, I will have to tackle my desk. I took this photo 5 minutes ago... with the intention of clearing that mess and dealing with all the hidden disasters by the end of today. Yipee!

Update at 9:30am. My desk and my intray now look like this:

Update at 2:30pm. My cat and intray now look like this:

Hermione is sulking because she got kicked out of the intray just before photo was taken.

Moon Landing

Here you can see Christopher watching / listening to the live stream of the moon landing from 40 years ago. On the wall you see his Buzz Aldrin poster surrounded by the Apollo mission patches. Underneath is his hero, Steve Austin. The entire mission can be found here, but it takes a while to load. We have the audio running on three computers at the moment, each of which is easily more powerful than the computers used throughout the Apollo space program.

Cute birthday song

This one put a huge smile on my face :)

responsibility

Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials trilogy, talks here about the responsibilities of storytellers. I found it inspiring in a more general sense - and therefore worth sharing:

... I do know that there is a joy in responsibility, in the knowledge that what we're doing on earth, while we live, is being done to the best of our ability, and in the light of everything we know about what is good and true. If we do it well, we might be able to bring our work to the condition of that mysterious music described by Caliban, the sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not; and there's something to be said for doing that. Maybe that's all we can say.

© Philip Pullman

The whole essay can be found here.
The Caliban reference is from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

One Magic Square

I don't have a lot of time for gardening nowadays, although my herbs seem to have survived the neglect I've showered on them quite successfully. However, I was seduced by the shape (square) and colour of a book called "One Magic Square" by Lolo Houbein, who also just happens to be of Dutch origin. Her gardening experience, however, is all rooted in Australia. So I caved and bought it, gloated over it for a couple of days, and finally - being unable to resist the lure of a neatly numbered set of instructions - wended my way outdoors. Now, in the past, I've raised vegetables on a fairly lavish scale (with due credit to Garry who faithfully created the structures that my grand designs required). Our garden in Long St was a lush jungle that produced two metre tall corn stalks, healthy chooks and delicious eggs, and a variety of fruit and veg.


Since moving to the coast, I've not had much time for a project of this scale. The soil here is not black volcanic, it's sand over clay. However, the sight of some fat worms has given me hope - and after all, it's all about building the soil, isn't it? So, I dutifully set out to obey the instructions given on page one: "To start growing your own food without delay, put down this book, go out in the garden and select a spot in the sun". Okay, that part is easy enough. Double check the site with Garry to make sure he's not planning to put anything else there... site selected.. check.

Next, "Dig over one square metre with a garden fork and remove all the weeds by hand". Not being a keen digger or weeder, I am glad my chosen spot is already weed-free and well mulched. I pat myself on the back and mark out the square metre with Catherine's able assistance. Calmly ignoring the demise of our tape measure, we spread out newspaper in our chosen spot and I shovel on some nicely composted soil (including worms). Ahhhh, lovely! At this point, Garry comes over and asks why we have moved the chosen site several metres away from the agreed spot.

Tiny hiccough in the plan - the Time Capsule we created some years ago is buried somewhere around here, although Garry isn't entirely sure where. Arrrggghhh! We try to drag the newspaper and its heavy load across to the original spot. The paper breaks apart. We try to shove a board underneath but this only rips the paper up even more. Time to lean on the shovel and regroup. Catherine hurries inside and makes a new paper square. I shovel everything across and eventually we stand back to admire the end result. Not much to see there.... but with the eternal optimism of gardeners of all ages, I add the little word "yet!"

Museum & WoB

Day two of our Queensland jaunt brought us back from Straddie to Brisbane. Rather than rushing back up the coast we headed over to Southbank. First we wandered through the Queensland Museum and an exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci's machines. This was followed by a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane and dinner. Back home quite late, but at least the traffic was not too bad.

Christopher at the Queensland Museum

The Wheel of Brisbane