THE FIRST SIX MONTHS

Continuing "My Story"

For my regular readers you will be familiar with me writing occasional posts about my life story, which I then publish in book form for my family. It is a long time since I have done one of these posts. Moving and trying to find where I packed the photos is my excuse. I'm also aware that this part of my life is not that interesting for non family members, so I hesitate to post and bore my readers.

As all new mothers know, there is not much spare time in the first six months of a new baby in the house. Bill was working and I was at home. I was bathing, feeding, and changing baby as well as doing the housework. 

Carol-Ann 5 weeks

10 weeks

Bill was the photographer and he tried to take photos of our pride and joy to send to our parents. However, for the first few months, Carol wasn’t going to open her eyes and smile for anyone. She just wanted to sleep. 

From 10 weeks on we were able to get some nice shots for the grandparents.

Bill helped in the kitchen when he came home from work.

It was winter and it was nice to sit out the back in the morning sun. 

Ricky was the ever vigilant guard dog.

5 months

I loved hugging and kissing my baby.

6 months

At the end of the year (1972), we went to Sydney to spend Christmas with my parents. It was a very hot and long drive.(10 hours) It was before we had car air conditioning. We stopped to give Carol-Ann a feed, but the flies were in plague numbers. It was awful and the temperature was 40°C.

 Finally, we arrived at Grandma and Granddad’s house. We put up a little blow up pool for Carol-Ann to cool off. Our neighbour, Laila, back in Springwood, had given me a baby swing, which her children had grown out of but the fabric needed replacing. Grandma did that for us.

IT'S SWELL ON THE BEACH

Every year for the past 15 years, the SWELL sculpture festival has been held for free on Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast in Queensland. We visited again this year. It was a beautiful Spring day.

Over 55 artists display their work on the beach. "They combine their skills of an engineer, an architect, a scientists, a philosopher and a poet to reveal works of art that speak to our soul." The organisers had a vision to connect "people, art and place through thought provoking public art in a stunning environment."

 Currumbin Beach stretches between two rocky outcrops. This one is called Elephant Rock and perched on top is the sculpture of "These Hands" Michael Van Dam. -" They love, give, touch, take, hate, hurt and destroy. They grow wary, they grow old."


At the other end of the beach is Currumbin Rock, where a giant crab has been installed. "The Crab" Joy Haylen. "It is an innovative blend of cutting edge technology and blacksmiths techniques." Many school groups were visiting the exhibition.

 In between the two rocks, along the length of the beach were other installations. I didn't take them all.
This one is called, "Safe" Clayton Thompson. It is made from about 60000 pool noodles. "It is a comment on the journey of domestic violence victims, 'Safe' represents a safe house and the moment when the individual moves from victim to survivor."

"A New Face" MJ Ryan Bennett. It is made from plastic chairs.

"Tidal Intersection" Manning Daly. It symbolises our connection with the moon and the oceans.

As well as installations on the beach there are others along the footpath. It was much easier walking than in the thick, soft sand for us oldies.

"Books and Mortar" Monte Lupo. "Made from recycled objects creating new stories. Books bring people together and provide a way to escape you are never alone when you are reading a book."

"Post Tree Museum 11" Jeanette Krohn. Made of glass. Depicts the state of the world's forests today.
"Conversation" Philip Piperides. "Human gestures are created daily without thought and so naturally."

"Love Birds" Miles Allen.  The Bower Bird builds a bower and decorates it with blue objects to attract a partner. This bower is 8 times larger than the bird's. It is decorated with blue plastic pieces. Viewers are invited to write messages of love.

"The Huntress" Sean Williams. "Based on the female Black Dragon Fish. She is a huntress in the depths of the sea. She produces light which attracts her prey. The title is from Greek mythology. Artemis the goddess of hunt.  Made from street found industrial objects. It has LCD lighting."

Next year we are going at night time to see the sculptures when the sun is setting and when the lighting comes on.

See more on Bill's one minute video.

Brrrm Brrm or Zoom Zoom

We went to a car show on the weekend. It was the Mustang car club but there were other cars there too. We went because we were trying to find reflections for our camera club challenge. I enjoyed looking at the beautiful cars but I also liked people watching. You get some interesting characters at these shows.

The mustangs are all yawning 

There were rows and rows of pretty coloured, shiny cars. Many had signs saying, "Look with your eyes. Do not touch!"

There were classic old cars as well. I loved this one with the picnic rug and basket. 

I wasn't sure what to make of this.

 I used to have a car like that but I didn't ever dress like that.

 Older car enthusiasts seem to have a uniform of black shirts, hats and white hair and beards.

 One of the reflection shots that I got.

I don't know what this guy thought when I was taking a photo through his legs. He was the owner of the car chatting to a bystander. When he saw me he politely moved so I could see his car. Little did he know.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

We officially started Spring on September 1, but we had the warmest winter on record with a mean temperature of 26°C. The plants and animals have been confused thinking winter was spring so we have had lots of flowers blooming for weeks and the birds have been building nests and and raising chicks earlier than usual. 

I went for a walk around our village one afternoon and saw many beautiful flowers both native and exotic. We also have some Plovers ferociously guarding their nest and chicks.

There are a variety of Grevillea, some are below. I don't know all their different names.

The bottle brush (Callistemon) trees are starting to bloom.

 

This is not rain on the Hibiscus because we haven't had rain for weeks. The garden had just been watered.

The Spur-Winged Plover or Lapwing. See the little yellow spur on its wing.

FATHERS' DAY

We just had a great weekend. Our girls organised a surprise visit to see their Dad on Father's Day weekend. They arrived on Friday evening amongst much laughing, hugging and kissing. Bill had a great Fathers' Day surprise. Of course it was a lovely surprise for me too. Carol flew from Sydney and Sonya from Melbourne. Sonya left the boys with Bernie for a bonding weekend for Fathers' Day. (hee hee).

We went for a walk in the forest before breakfast.

 We went to Bill's favourite restaurant, The Des Alps, for lunch.

Happy Father

I had a salmon Rösti Pizza. It was delicious and I had a Crepe Monique for dessert. It was filled with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate sauce. I ate it before remembering to take a photo. Too scrumptious.

So nice having lunch with our daughters we were taking photos with our phones.

The most wonderful, thoughtful daughters. We are so proud of them and love them to bits.

On Sunday it was time to say good bye as they had to get back to their families and their jobs. It was nice to get a family photo of the four of us together. We had fun comparing it with old photos like the one below.

When Fox saw this photo via FaceTime he said, "Grandma looks newer." (priceless)

Too soon it was time to drive them to the airport and say goodbye. Sonya wanted to take the weather with her. It was a sunny, warm Spring day of 27°C where as it was cold, windy and 12°C in Melbourne.

Bye bye my lovely girls until Christmas.

SUN, SURF AND SPIT

Last week we went to The Spit at main Beach near Southport on the Gold Coast. It is a 40 minute drive from home. It was a beautiful sunny Spring day even though we are still in winter. We walked out to the end of the spit, which is a rock wall protecting the boats leaving and entering the seaway, a body of water between the mainland and South Stradbroke Island.

 We walked past the entrance to a small beach where the surfboard riders access the surf.

 Then we walked along the spit to the end where there is a little lighthouse. The man is pointing across the opening to the seaway. Below is what he saw.

 South Stradbroke Island is behind the other rock wall.

People enjoyed relaxing in the winter's sun.

We could see the towers of Surfer's Paradise in the distance.