We had a lovely day. Laxmi was so happy about her present she cried. It was hot and we had a feast together with Cat and Will and Maya and Cosmo in the late afternoon.
Last Tennant Creek trip
I had two days at home before I went back to Tennant Creek for a last week of work for the year.
I caught the 3am bus to Alice and the plane back to Cairns via Uluru!
Reunion
We all arrived back at Cairns Airport at the same time. It was beautiful to be home. The poinciana was in full bloom ready for the festive season.
Goonengerry visit
We arrived just in time for Jen’s Bollywood birthday party. They had a calf called Celeste that they were hand feeding. There was a fabulous storm on the night of the party.
We went to visit Jo and Richard. Jo was putting the finishing touches on her new gallery, The Blak Cube Gallery. Laxmi made clay creatures with Richard and fed the ants by painting honey on the walls.
We caught the Byron Bay solar train to the beach. There was a lot of cornflake seaweed on the main beach so we walked around to Clarke’s Beach. We had a lovely surf there.
We met Jo at the Mullumbimby Farmer’s market and Laxmi did the craft activity they had for kids. We went to Torakina and had a swim and made a sandcastle.
It was lovely to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It was Grandpa’s birthday and we had a lovely birthday lunch with Stu and a Stephanie and Katie. They came for a visit too. Laxmi and Katie helped put up the Christmas tree and baked brownies with Grandma.
Thanksgiving
John and Varsha went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa at Aunt Ruth’s house. They went with Uncle George and Lara. They visited Brant and Kelly and cousins Katie and Christopher.
John and George and Varsha drove a trailer to Grandma and Grandpa’s new house in Florida. It was a long drive there and back in two days.
Ben came to visit.
They went to see Colonial Williamsburg where there are Living history displays such as blacksmiths and a bookbinder, furniture makers and weavers.
Boomerang and bookbinding
Laxmi practised with the boomerang a few times on the oval.
Varsha went down to Cairns to meet up with Marley from Young Creatives.
We went to the creek with the local homeschoolers first the first time this year.
We bound some handmade paper into books.
John and Varsha are getting ready to go to USA for Thanksgiving. Laxmi and I are going to visit the grandparents in Northern New South Wales.
Tjapukai
We went to Tjapukai with the homeschoolers.
Laxmi had her face painted when we arrived.
We had a turn at throwing spears and boomerangs.
There were talks about weopons and bush foods.
There was a dance performance and an audio visual presentation. We bought a returning boomerang to throw at home.
Japanese, Birds and Other Things Discovered.
Laxmi is still enjoying learning Japanese on Duolingo.
Laxmi wanted to know what bird was singing outside her window. We looked it up in YouTube and in the bird book.
It’s warming up and the big dragonfruit blossoms are coming out. Will brought two jackfruit from their tree at their new house. Varsha cut them up when they were ready.
Varsha has been using pen and gouache. Laxmi is using comic markers and pen. Laxmi and Dakoda have been playing a game called scribble.io where they have to draw something and the other person has to guess what it is.
We rearranged furniture in the playroom and sorted through the dress ups.
Varsha still loves going to swing with Luca and Maya. Maya is teaching swing with Kellie in Cairns.
Maya and Varsha performed at a fair in Atherton. Millie, their music teacher, organised to have several of her students play.
There were some cool old cars at the fair too. This was Laxmi’s favourite.
We are all excited that the poincianas are starting to bloom. Laxmi took this photo.
It was Takira’s birthday and they had a day in Mareeba going op shopping and having a picnic.
Varsha discovered that most commonly the oldest word for a colour in a language is for blue. We looked up the word for blue in lots of different languages.
October
Varsha finished their doll makeover
We had a barbecue for Will’s birthday and helped them move house.
I went to Tennant Creek again. This time I was working with Carolyn McLennan looking at the collection at Nyinkka Nyunyu. One of the employees had the sweetest baby rescue donkey. I found the Warramungu word for Grey Crested Babbler and brought home some lovely painted tobacco tins by Rachel Granites as souvenirs.
We went to the historic village in Herberton. We had all been looking forward to it for a while. We dressed up and had a fabulous time. The printer and the blacksmith were really interesting.
Halloween was the same day as the Historic Village. We did a quick outfit change and went out trick or treating. Some people had gone to a lot of trouble to make things fun for everyone. We met some new people too.
September
We have had several busy months. Here’s some of the things we did in September. We played an old favourite, the monster game.
Laxmi was excited to receive a parcel from Grandma with some mittens she had made.
Varsha and Luca had a fabulous time at the Swing Festival though we all missed Thiango.
I went to Tennant Creek to put up an exhibition by Dion Beasley. When I got home we started preparing to go to Wallaby Creek Festival and Varsha’s birthday.
Varsha and Laxmi made some more pottery and we made a plaster mould for paper mache masks.
At Wallaby Creek Laxmi danced to the Secret Tuesdays.
We had workshops to devise a fashion parade performance and made costumes out of found materials.
Laxmi did a juggling workshop and went to the poets breakfast.
Varsha had another best birthday ever.