More July happenings

Jasmine & her Dad cracked out the marble run and had fun trying to work out which configurations of blocks would result in marbles reaching the end of the run.  


Different coloured blocks allow different paths, so if you get it wrong, it just won't work.   









We've also been in decluttering mode this Winter.  Although there's still lots to do, we did manage to get rid of a lot of stuff we no longer need & I've listed heaps on Facebook.  We've got extra storage units & shelves installed, and we rediscovered the floor in Jasmine's room.  We also removed 'The Fairies' wall mural at her request ("too baby'ish") and replaced it with a selection of her artwork from the last 3-4 years.  

I was trying to work out what the strange cracking noise was from across the road one day.   There are two large old pine trees.... which were filled with a flock of black cockatoos having a feed on the pine cones.  Jasmine got with in a few metres & was in awe :)




And of course, endless conversations about the human body, geology, gardening, bill paying, recipe planning & all manner of things.

Spring has sprung!!!

And I've just realised how much I've neglected this blog of late.  I always have good intentions, but life tends to get in the way and, ya'know, sometimes I actually have to sleep :-O

So hopping in my time machine to pick up where we left off....nearly 2 months ago.

The next thing I'd planned to tell you all about was the NAIDOC Week Aboriginal Art Workshop we attended at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery.  As soon as I heard about it, I though it would be something Jasmine would love to do, but it was aimed at school groups.  Never fear!  Thanks to the power of Facebook & emails, I managed to round up enough kids to form a group & off we went.

It was a great day!  There were 23 kidlets participating, between the ages of 3 & 14, with parents/carers in tow.  Judith-Rose Thomas took the kids through some basic techniques that she uses in her landscape paintings before the children each got to have a turn creating their own masterpiece.  Here's some of them drying ------>

Jasmine's is on the far right, second from the bottom.  Judith-Rose was really impressed with her work :)

More importantly, Jasmine loved learning a new skill!

Len Maynard then spoke to the group about his clay sculptures and the use of symbols in Indigenous art.  He told them there were many symbols used, but no one today knows the true meaning of these symbols.  They look quite like Egyptian hieroglyphs - almost "other worldly" even - and there are large pyramids on the Eastern Shore of Hobart (which we have yet to visit).  The mind boggles what the actual link is  ;)

Using the same colour wash technique they learned in the landscape paintings, the kids then painted bookmarks which were pre-coated with a texture medium which then had copies of the hieroglyphs scratched in.  Once the bookmarks were dry, they added a piece of string with a bead on the end and it was time to go home.  Here are the two pieces that Jasmine created:


As if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, we just happened to be experiencing one of the coldest Winters in a few decades, so we just HAD to pull over & stop in the snow on the way home!

Jasmine declared it to be the "best day of (my) ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!"  Ahhhh, to be 6 again   :)