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The first days of July were nice. The kids invented a game collecting 'grapes' (Piet called it dluifjes) from the wattle tree next to the driveway and putting them in the wheelbarrow. Note that the Piet and Emma are wearing their Soccer Time Kids uniforms in the national colours of Australia, gold and green, which are based on the dominant colours of the wattle tree.
A two-week trip to Bendoc
On Thursday, we drove to opa and oma. The kids had been looking forward to the trip - seven more sleeps, etc. - and were very happy to arrive in Bendoc. They immediately checked out their bedrooms. We had
breakfast the next day and Emma was
pleased to sit in her high chair. At home, this does not happen very often. In Bendoc we had frost at night and Piet watched grannybunts clear the
ice from the horse trough. But with neither clouds nor wind, the first few days were perfect for a walk through the back paddock, either holding
oma's hand or being carried on the
neck.
On two other days, we did the circular walk along the pine plantation and back over a gumtree-lined road. This would take us over an hour. Piet would walk either all the way or most of it, while Emma might walk half of it.
Because of all interesting things to do, Emma skipped her daytime sleep on most days and slept often 13 hours at night instead. Piet typically sleeps 10 hours a night, but as he was sharing a bedroom with grannybunts, his parents were able to catch up on lots of sleep.
We had a few rainy days with very cold wind and hence we stayed inside to read a book, play with blocks in the kitchen, and be silly under a chair. Emma helped opa prepare the meat and cook it on the barbecue on the back veranda. In general, Emma has really warmed up to opa during this visit, patting horses and going on a tour of the river paddock with him, see this album on Emma and opa (opens new screen).
Winter in Bendoc is a good time to burn off piles of branches that tend to accumulate over time. After a day cutting the larger pieces of wood out of the pile for firewood and bulldozing the remaining branches together, we set fire to the pile and watched it burn, warming our hands from a safe distance. We got the bulldozer out again - Piet catching a ride - to pull another small tree to the fire. Finally pappa got to drive it too in order to push the ashes together. Emma had to think about it.
In the last few days the weather allowed Piet to play with a ball in the garden. In the background is our new (two year old) car, a Citroen Picasso, as we did not want to rely on the 25-year old Volvo for too long anymore. We had a relaxed drive back home.
Eastern View
The last weekend in July, we went to the beach house in Eastern View. We had last been there in
March. We had warmer than usual winter weather: between 15 and 18 degrees, so perfect for playing on the beach. The water comes off the Antartic, so was fairly cold, but this did not stop Piet and to a lesser extent Emma and dad, from going in knee deep.
At the Moggs Creek picnic ground nearby, we did the 1.8 km walk. Emma started in the backpack, but soon joined Piet in running around and ahead, only looking back for the odd picture. The undergrowth in the park had been burned preventively, a so-called fuel reduction burn. You can see grass starting to regrow. The burn had not affected a wetter spot near the creek further down the track. Just before completing the walk, we had a break and snack. At breakfast the next morning, the kids pulled silly faces. After that, Piet kindly fed Emma, something she is perfectly able to do herself when she fancies it.
On Saturday, Jordan, Jacinta, Jess and Joel arrived to stay the night. Jacinta had been looking forward to running races with Piet and Emma, which they did on the beach over and over again. We played inside with a pin game and were very amused by two moths that were stuck on the outside of the window. An orange was eaten as a snack at the bench in front of the house. Flying the kite proved tricky due to a lack of one essential ingredient: wind. With three out of four kinds waking at 6am (their usual time, for that matter), dad took the opportunity to take a picture of the sunrise at sea.
