McTavish Mishmash

There has been fire on the hills near us lately. The air is filled with black snow. At least two afternoons it was bad enough to not let the kids outside to play. I closed up all the windows except the small ones in the toilet and bathroom and I left the kitchen window open a crack. The house still smelt of ash and fire. I can't imagine being in a bushfire. I think it was a controlled burn it didn't get close (in fireman's terms, in my terms it was way too close) to peoples houses. The boys liked to see the thin line of flames moving across the hills from our very safe distance on the other side of the river. All the ash in the air did give us some beautiful sunsets. I know they need to do burn offs and I know that so many native plants require the heat from the fire to germinate but I feel sad for all the little animals that get caught in them.

I have a hole in my last pair of maternity pants. Well, an almost hole. I'm wondering if it can last me through the next 4 weeks, then they can go in the bin. It's right in the crotch so there is the fact that I don't usually sit with my legs apart so people wont see it but also the fact that if it DOES split it's in a very embarrassing spot. I have a few other pairs of pants that I can MAKE fit me but they aren't comfy at all. These pants aren't even really maternity pants. I couldn't afford maternity jeans when I was pregnant with Lion and I had a pair of stretch jeans that was a little too big for me. I wore them as long as I could then when they started to get too tight I would throw then in the drier and put them on still hot and they eventually stretched out as I got bigger and bigger. They have seen me through Lion and Dragon and most of Peach Blossom. They have served their time but to start to fall apart this close to the end????

I was supposed to have an OB appointment this Tuesday. I had been getting nosebleeds since Sunday so yesterday I rang to see when I should start to get concerned and the lovely receptionist said to come on in and get checked out. Apparently since my blood pressure is fine I don't have to worry unless they keep going after I have this baby. I had the odd nosebleed with Lion and Dragon but never anything as big as these or as long lasting. I really hope they do go away BEFORE I have Peach Blossom.

Sometimes when I look in their room I am glad Dragon is only on a trundle bed. This would be REALLY uncomfortable if he was on a big bed! Oh well, at least his feet are comfy.

He has suddenly decided he's interested in toilet training. I on the other hand had decided that I wouldn't try again till after Peach Blossom was born. I know that they need that extra bit of cheerleading at the start and like me to stay in there with them while they try but I am just not up for that at the moment... Still, we have had a #2 success after he asked to use the toilet and then a #1 success when he said he needed to go. YAY. Last night he actually went out to grandmas wearing undies and there were no accidents. I just hope Wolf and Lion can provide some of the cheerleading he needs so I don't have to and maybe we'll get this one out of nappies before the next goes into them.

I am cleaning out the playroom at the moment. We had to take all the furniture and all the toys out to the garage to get the air con put in (didn't have to but with open baskets I thought it was best so they didn't get full of besser brick chunks and gyprock dust from them drilling through the wall. When it was all moved out we discovered that rain had come through that window and we hadn't noticed so the wall had gone moldy in one spot. YUCK. That's now cleaned up, floors been mopped, shelves all cleaned, carpet is getting some much needed grossness killing UV light in the backyard and may even get hosed off if I could be bothered and all the toys are still in the garage. There are rules though... they are not coming in until they have passed the mummy muster. I am sorting through them putting away sets that are too little for Lion and Dragon but will be too big for Peach Blossom for a while, making room for other toys that need their space. I am only letting back into the house toys that aren't broken and toys that are still wanted. I would usually do this just before the boys birthdays in October to make room for any new toys they get but I don't think I'll be bothered then so now while it's all out of there for a bit seems like a good time... but hard work. It is nice throwing out all those McDonald's toys (how do they get them? We don't buy them Happy Meals) and all the broken toys that hurt my feet when I stand on them and the little bits and bobs that no longer belong to anything. I started sorting last night and left them with only the wooden train set for when they woke up this morning. They have been quite content with that for hours now.

It's the Sunday School picnic today... looking forward to that... sitting in a chair at the park by the river and keeping half an eye on where the boys are while they play with their friends. I probably should make something to take with us... to do that I probably should get the kitchen cleaned up... better stop blogging...

Arty Farty Anyone?

We took the boys to ANZAC park this afternoon and since I got a gazillion photos I thought I would post the arty farty ones all together since they don't require my brain to write anything much to go with them. We didn't get down there till about 5pm so the light was fading fast and the sunset decided to do it's pretty colours RIGHT BEHIND THE CASINO! That is just the way it works I guess. I have posted some other arty farty photos of the memorials here ages ago.

The Eternal Flame at sunset.

(mummy brag coming up... I'm quite proud that without being reminded what it was about Lion told me that the flame never goes out because we will never forget the people that died fighting for us to be safe)

Wreaths resting at the memorial.

ANZAC memorial.


Wolf and Dragon in silhouette against the marina.

Boats on pink water.

Pink reflections. Including the stupid ugly casino.

Some more sunset.

Um, it's a bollard. Nothing much more to say for this one :)

That's it for tonight... I might just grab myself one more ANZAC biscuit before bed. Maybe two.

Can someone find me a genie???

I have decided I need a genie. I will henceforth be rubbing every lamp, teapot, bottle, pickle jar, milk carton, etc until one appears.
This week I did some invitations up for an evangelism event our playgroup/bible study is putting on. I started with wine and cheese on the front since it's a wine and cheese evening but then I got the title from the speaker and decided that it may just look like we were inviting them to an AA meeting. I had a great time doing this! I really miss that sort of work, I miss editing my photos, I miss having the time to take great photos, I miss having kids that would co-operate to get their photos taken (I got maybe the first 3 months out of each of them), I miss all things photography.

I have actually been embarrassed to admit on here that I once was a photographer because of the state of many of my photos I post on here. I say “once” and it makes me sound like I’ve retired and now I just potter around the garden. No, I did the degree, got the letters after my name (have never actually put them there) did a stint as a clinical photographer, needed to give that up to do the mission work that we love and unfortunately have pushed the photography further and further aside. I have been asked to do endless weddings but I’d rather gouge out my eyes than hand myself over to overbearing mothers and bridezillas and meddling family and questions about why I didn’t take any sunset photos “because my friend had sunset photos and they were really great but you didn’t take any…” when it would seem obvious to me that if you had your wedding at 10am there wont be a sunset to take photos of. So, I hand the weddings over to other photographers and wait for someone to commission me for some piece of fine art or some great graphic masterpiece or well funded medical research (okay, my tastes are a little eclectic) but it just isn’t coming. So this week I am doing some staff photos for a friends company. Eeeeek, photos of people. But I need the time to do more of this, I always feel relaxed after I have messed around with photos, I feel like I have had some time to myself but at the same time I have been doing something “useful”. So here’s where the genie comes in. I need three wishes…

1. Time. I know that isn’t in the rules, I’ve seen the genie movies, you can’t have more time, they can’t bend time, turn back time, stop time or anything like that but I need them to, just for me. I want time for all the regular stuff that you need to do with photography but I also want time to spend on my black and white work. I want to be in the darkroom, by myself, with some good music, printing up pieces that I love.

2. Opportunities. To be paid for doing the photography I love would be great, unfortunately for the casual photographer the money is in the people shots. Weddings, portraiture, that sort of thing. Made painfully obvious by the fact that my works from uni are almost all hanging on my walls instead of being sold to well paying customers.

3. Chocolate. Okay, not really related to everything else but that never ending packet of timtams would be great!!!!!

I could possibly add a faster computer to the list to handle the editing stuff but if I had the chocolate I could cope with whatever this beast of a computer dishes out!

I have always imagined my walls filled with beautiful black and white images of my family that I took, I developed, I printed by hand. I imagined teaching my kids to use a REAL camera and showing them how to develop and print their own black and white works of art (still time, I would never let them in a darkroom at the ages they are now). I have a darkroom, it's just not at my house and is currently storing a lot of stuff of mine and other peoples.

So if you come across a genie, HE’S MINE!!! Send him this way and I’ll give you some of my timtams!