Debilish

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Rain

 SHEP is always a good excuse for use to us to go to Cairns for a few quiet days. Well, quiet for most of us - Shelly has spent most of it rehearsing!

We stopped for lunch in Townsville on the way up - we sat on the Strand for lunch and looked out to Magnetic Island.

The weather in Cairns is usually sweltering when we go up for SHEP, but with the breezes from the cyclone, it was quite pleasant.

Its been an easy going few days - Doop has been in the pool quite alot, I've been reading "Mao's Last Dancer" (brilliant read), and John has been wandering around camping and boating stores.

We had a dinner with all the SHEP families from Prossie last night, and then the kids hit the night markets while the grown ups enjoyed New Zealand ice cream.

Today was the big show day. Ralph Hultgren was directing the Wind Orchestra again, and it was even better than last year's concert. Very good repertoire - a mix of classics (Ralph Vaughan Williams) and some contemporary composers (Andrew Boysen Jr) including an aptly chosen piece called 'Rain' which ushered in this afternoon's wet weather!

  

Shelly and her mates spent the post-concert hours at the water park next door - apparently recovering from an overdose of excellent music!

Around the Garden

Everything here is lush and wet. The rains haven't been heavy since last week, but it still rains everynight, and showers on and off during the day.

The garden is loving it... There's bees in the pumpkin patch every morning, and honeyeaters on the heliconias!

Passionfruit flower...

Ginger...

The pumpkin vine that's grown up a tree...

Heliconias...

The chooks have been cleaning up vege patch #2...

Hibiscus in flower...

Good Teacher - Bad Student

Shell is doing neuroscience in science class at the moment, which she seems to be enjoying...

Although her favourite part was to deliver a lessons - to me - and then test me on what she'd taught!

I got 10/10 (Mum kicks neuro science butt!!)...

But in Shell's report back to her teacher, she complained that I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy taking photos of her to listen!

Flexibility

Doop has been doing a flexibility class this year, which is apparently quite difficult, but producing great results. She wanted me to take these photos to show how much she's improved.

This was Doop's range before first class...

... after a couple of classes...

 

... and this week....

The One in which Shell Grows Wings

Shell has been playing with her camera... and her wings. She took this photo, then we threw it into photoshop and stylised it a little.

The One on Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, we decided on a nice lunch at the Sailing Club with lovely steaks, roast pork, pot pies, and cheesy breads. Mmmmmm....

We sat on the balcony looking back at Airlie Beach and enjoyed the striking blue water, the fluffy clouds and occasional shower of rain.

The weather has been alternating between rain and steaming heat for a while now, so swim in the lagoon was prescribed for after lunch.

The One with the Feathers

The girls are truly free-range these days, with free access to the yard and only going into their pen for laying and sleeping. They're great layers, always giving us plenty of eggs for meals, lunches, and sometimes to give away.

 

 

The One with the Soggy Offspring

After multiple 'fixes', we finally have an operational boat trailer!

We took the boat to the dam for a test spin and a swim... Everything still hums, spins and propels as it should, so there's more boating scheduled for the near future. I've been missing the islands and swimming with 'Fat Albert'.

Here's hoping for nice weather very soon.

 

 

The One with the Drunken Sailor

Its been a couple of weeks since my last update, so let me do some catching up.

Doop is doing a guitar unit in music... so we have yet another strummer in the family now.

Her first guitar assessment was to sing and play 'Drunken Sailor'.  She got an A- (lost a point for having a wobbly third finger but was complimented on her singing voice.)