Posted on

August 2020

Undara Lava Tubes camping trip with the Tablelands Homeschoolers. Bruce, Toni, Ruby and Frankie came too.
New blue cupboards
Kiko got a new collar
Laxmi’s is enjoying her new Ohuhu markers
John got special boots when he joined the fire brigade. This is the big boot dance!
Bruce and Toni and Ruby and Frankie came to visit. They were on a big road trip travelling up the east coast from Canberra.
Fingerlime and icecream: a new favourite
Theatre games to warm up for work on the Variety Night
Natural Dye workshop
Drummonds birthday party at the oval
John built a lovely new sink for the pottery shed
Early birthday present for Varsha: new gouaches.
Veggie Tempura
  • Veggie patch
  • Flowers and herbs
Posted on

Variety Night

The kids were all involved in putting together last years digital version of the Variety Night. Laxmi and Cosmo do performances. Varsha and Maya are the MCs again and they finish off with a swing dance. Maya edited the videos together.

Posted on

July 2020

We are just about caught up on the highlights of 2020 so far. The photos are coming from the whole family now. I replaced the camera on my phone and I just received a new camera for Varsha’s phone so we will have lots more nice pictures.

July started with Cat’s birthday. We had a lovely mad hatter’s birthday tea party together.

Hugo and his dad Stephen came to visit from Brisbane. They were the first visitors we had had from far away for a long time. We made yummy gluten free pizzas for lunch.

Maya Thiango turned 16 and there was a masked ball for her birthday. It was market day too. Varsha made a blueberry bread beetle.

John continued on his tank stand project.

Laxmi has been sleeping in her cubby house.

We have been eating more home grown produce: mustard green sauerkraut, turnip and pumpkin soup and John’s homemade sourdough.

Varsha has written out a paper and dice game game story to play with their friends. This is the cover they made for their game kit, a box with dice and pencils.

Laxmi has been enjoying her new Ohuhu markers.

Cosmo had a Zelda Breath of the Wild party that we all dressed up for.

  • pinata
  • treasure hunt
  • pin the maracas
  • on Hestu
  • under the jackfruit tree
  • rainbow cake

John made some more biochar.

Varsha painted a fish on their shirt with bleach and made a clay fish pendant. The fish was made of clay from our garden and fired in a campfire.

We went camping at Wonga beach. It was a homeschooler’s camp but only a few of us went.

July is really citrus season. A friend brought us a box of cumquats. We made a cumpquat upside down cake. It was delicious!

Picking mandarins.

  • pancake breakfast
  • pomelo is Varsha’s favourite

Varsha made a basket from fibres in the garden.

We made vegetable tempura. Varsha loved the tempura four box so much they had to make a painting of it.

Varsha and Maya Thiango found a baby bird when we were cleaning up at Geraghty Park Hall. It was peeping and when Varsha peeped back it came towards them. We took it to a wildlife carer who said it was a baby bar shouldered dove.

It has been so cold we are happy for a little bit of sunshine to warm our toes in!

John has joined the local fire brigade.

Varsha wove sticks in the new grape arbor.

Posted on

June 2020

We went to Rupert’s Babbler Hill walk.
John took a drone photo of the new cassava, turmeric, sweet potato, sunflower terraces.
Laxmi and John replaced the dodgy handle on the toilet door.
Laxmi in nija mode
Grapefruit season!
Varsha started embroidering Maya Thiango’s birthday present dress after the pattern was cut and the lined bodice stitched.
More bug bread
Kiko got a handsome new collar.

More fun on the hay bale.

Indonesian eggplant and eggs is one of our favourite dishes using lots of produce from the garden.
Caitlin and Tess and Mira came to visit. Our first visitors in a while.
More embroidery
Varsha has been experimenting with terrariums.
John and Laxmi are practicing Hiragana.
Costume preparations were started for Cat and Maya Thiango’s joint birthday masked ball.
John has been building footings for a tank stand.
Laxmi and Varsha have been helping.
John and I raked the leaf mulch from the raintree off the old fire brigade roof
Laxmi and I had a big day shopping in Cairns for four birthday presents and costume requirements!
The July birthday season started early when Luca had her party the day before her birthday on the 1st of July.
Posted on

May 2020

It was drizzly a lot in May which meant we had some fabulous rainbows.
  • mustard greens and soy blue pea flower tea
  • blueberry bagels
  • and a blueberry bagel bug bread
  • bug bread with fried egg
  • homemade vegetarian gyoza
  • blueberry pancakes
We did some more food explorations.
Varsha made a drawn animation.
  • Laxmi got some new markers
More drawings
Laxmi wrote about the arrival of the First Fleet as part of her home school reporting.
Varsha started making a dress for Maya Thiango’s birthday present.
We found an injured Eastern Tube Nosed Bat and looked after it until John took it to the bat hospital.
We had a really big whistling spider in the toilet.
A dragonfruit plant wanted to grow in through the bathroom window.
Zeph and Luca got a new puppy called Remy. He has been coming over to play with Kiko.
Brad Bell came and dug some trenches. Laxmi helped John plant cassava and turmeric and sunflowers and sweet potatoes.
The big hay roll has been lots of fun to play with.
Varsha and I have been making plans for the mosaic backsplash.
We had a small seed savers meeting and Elizabeth showed us her fertilizer teas.

Posted on

April

John’s old election signs made some nice fires and fuel for making biochar.
Grandpa helped me and Laxmi work out if we could fix her computer.
Varsha has been using their easel some more.
  • We ate our Easter hot cross buns after a swim in the dam.
We spent lots of time in the garden during this time when all our usual outings have been cancelled because of Covid 19.
We did lots of experimental cooking too. Varsha made pandan tapioca.
John made homemade meat pies
Varsha made their first batch of bread bugs, inspired by a photo of bread bugs in a shop in Japan.
We had lots of yummy greens from the garden.
Varsha and John used the log splitter at the mechanic’s.
  • Varsha’s teeth
Varsha and Laxmi did lots of drawing.
We did the world map puzzle
Varsha took some photos of Laxmi dressed up in her newly repaired dress.
Posted on

March

Laxmi turned 10 in March and we had a Superhero party. Laxmi and Varsha made Vision to pin a mind stone on.
Captain America’s shield cake
Varsha has been painting en plein air.
Varsha and I went to Sydney for the opening program of the Sydney Biennale. We supported the Tennant Creek Brio whose works were on exhibition. They danced twice and participated in an artist talk. We also went op shopping, visited St Mary’s Cathedral, caught the ferry out to Cockatoo Island, went to an opening at the National Art School and looked around the school and did lots of walking around the city.
Laxmi used Varsha’s desk and computer while we were away.
The council elections happened after we got back.
We had special post election afternoon tea with blue pea flower tea and an apple pie Laxmi and Varsha made.
Varsha helped John make biochar.
Posted on

February

John and Varsha and Laxmi had dinner with Cat and Will and Maya and Cosi while I was away.
We did more swimming in the dam in February, between the storms.
John and Varsha made bagels.
Laxmi did lots of super hero drawings.
We grew the most handsome bunch of bananas yet.
Varsha and I went to a lino print workshop.
I finished putting together the panels for the Mareeba Centenary Park mosaic.
We had a feast for John’s birthday and we finally got to taste Casey’s special chocolates.
John and Varsha went hunting for vinyl to match the Morris vinyl
We made posters for John’s Council election campaign.
Posted on

January

My camera stopped working properly and I have had a bit of a holiday from blogging. Here are is a catch-up on some of January’s highlights.

We did lots of swimming in the dam.
Varsha completed the embroidered cushions they were making for Christmas presents for their friends.
Laxmi did lots of drawing.
I was commissioned to do a painting of an owl for a birthday present.
I had a lovely birthday. Varsha made a Morris birthday cake.
I made a batch of soap in the new soap mold John made.
Varsha perfected their favourite noodle soup dish
Varsha took over processing the mangoes from our tree to go into the freezer while I was away in Tennant Creek.

Posted on

New Year

It rained a bit on Boxing Day and we had a lovely quiet week between Christmas and New Year. Laxmi and then Varsha had colds which wasn’t very nice, but at least the weather had cooled off a bit.

Cat and I did an exploratory walk out to Big Mowbray falls,

We had a small Sparkle 20s New Year’s Eve Party and stayed up very late.

We have been to the creek, watched season 3 of The Crown on Netflix, started watching the Korra DVD boxed set Lisa lent us, had several Mario Kart sessions on the new Nintendo Switch, Varsha is reading Good Omens, cooked some yummy food and had a lovely holiday at home.