Reality Check

Not long ago I wrote about increasing costs, particularly of groceries (click here). Someone has since sent me an email full of photos of families around the world - with their weekly shopping and total costs. They were all very interesting, but this one was the most confronting:

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Little Zen Gardens

Catherine and I have been playing around with miniature Zen Gardens this weekend. We each have our own bowl of white sand, a set of chopsticks and our gemstone collections. Traditionally we should use miniature rakes, but I haven't been able to find those yet, so we're making do with chopsticks for now. Catherine, it turns out, has quite a flair for design - she has come up with some really beautiful combinations. I tend to be more inhibited in mine. It has been very relaxing to sit together at the table, creating new patterns and chatting about this and that.

Anyway, this will give you some idea of what my bowl is like - Catherine plans to write about hers on her own blogsite.

Some pics of the dam

Miniature English Village

To celebrate the end of a successful year of homeschooling, we spent today out and about the Sunshine Coast. We visited Caloundra, Mooloolaba and Montville. We also went to a miniature English Village at Flaxton. Here are some pics:






The kids had a wonderful day. The adults are weary but happy. Garry bought some ornaments for his aquarium and I found two candle holders to hang beside the fireplace. So it was a success all round. Tomorrow we hope to go swimming in Ewan Maddock dam for the first time. The weather has taken a real turn towards 'hot and humid', so a swim will be very welcome.

Recent Garden Work

This beautiful bouquet is a sampling of some of the flowers we have in bloom right now in the garden. All the frangipani trees are also blossoming. A special thanks to mum and Catherine for the lovely arrangement!

Garry has also been doing a lot of mulching, weeding and tidying of the garden beds around the house. One project has been this octagonal garden bed near the guest house, which was looking quite overgrown. It's now an ornamental bed with pavers, pebbles and bird bath. It's hard to tell from the photo, but there are also plants in the pebbled areas.