here are some pics of the house. i'll get a better picture of the front door and add one of gg (the car) on the next post. anyway, here is the front door and patio.
the backyard. you can't see it very well, but we have a clothesline back there. i love hanging laundry out and used to do it all the time in montana. we don't have a drier here - in fact we had to purchase a washing machine, everyone here owns one and it travels from rental to rental with the tenant. not only is there no vent for the drier (we've come to the conclusion that this, - i.e. venting the drier - along with sufficiently insulating their homes, is not something australians do), there is no plug and hardly any room...
...because the laundry room is also the bathroom!! i mean, who doesn't love the convenience and efficiency of a doing laundry while on the toilet? i mean, i'm a sitter, and usually a reader, but the mulit-tasker in me can hardly resrain the joy!
here is our kitchen table, just to left, out of pic, is our little galley kitchen. so, a huge corner of our dining/kitchen area is windows. it's beautiful - let's in all this natural light (the windows you see here are south facing - but, remember, over here, that's the cool side. oddly enough, speaking of a south-facing backyard and north-facing front door, payton and i, ever since we first moved in together way back in montana on sussex st., have ALWAYS - from the three houses we lived in in montana, the slc house and now in aus - we have always had a north-facing door and south-facing backyard. weird, huh? also, depsite all that north facing, i have yet to find a scene out my front windows that is as beautiful as the one in durango) and you get a full view of the backyard from the table. perfect for nova - she can run around outside and we can keep an eye on her if we need to be doing stuff inside (or don't feel like running circles around a tree).
don't look too close, the kitchen is rathe messy. but here it is.
nice little gas stove and an oven with degrees in CELSIUS! the first time we cooked home fries in the oven, we just cranked it up to 375, and boy, did those potatoes cook fast. i kept wondering why an oven would go to "high" after only 400 degrees. until we realized that was 400 degrees c. oh.
and here is YOUR bedroom! a mattress, a fireplace, and your own shipping boxes!! obviously, the best way to get a feel of the house and your room is to actually come here. so while i'm sitting on the toilet, i'll be sure your sheets are nice and clean, ready for your arrival!
the living room. nova has more toys, and therefore, more shelf space, than we have books...
our room - this is where the magic happens, people! because it takes some magic to get a sound night's sleep for us, still! across from the bed is a floor to ceiling built-in wardrobe. most rooms don't have robes or closets.
nova's room. her window faces the street and she gets some nice northern sunlight. she likes to get into her wardrobe and just sit in there. she gets mad at you if you open the door. what a kook!
and her big-girl bed.
and her tent.
well, of course, i even mention daycare and all three of us get sick. so, this weekend, june 27th and 28th, we mostly hung out around the house. did our grocery shopping - all just a five minute walk away. the bob doubles as a shopping cart on these days. what a great stroller. if you are or anyone you know is having a baby, just get the bob. it's the greatest thing, a true multi-tasker. even after we got one, i always thought the ads were silly - they had a picture of a dirt trail through the woods as if you might actually take your baby and stroller trail running. well, as is usually the case when i open my mouth, it turns out i was wrong. and the bob manufacturers were right. nova and i have already covered some miles running over dirt paths, beaches, rocks and even pavement in the bob.
but, i digress. nova's napping is still a little iffy and we're all a little stuffy, so on sunday we went for a drive through our local valley o' wine. we figured it was a good, low energy way to explore and hoped the low rumble of gg's engine might lull nova to sleep (as it turned out, she didn't actually fall asleep until the final 20 minutes of a 4 1/2 hr drive, and that was with a fight). anyway, we drove through the barossa valley - about 1 1/2 hrs NE of adelaide with vineyard after vineyard and open cellar doors (for tasting and sales straight from the vineyard; one sign advertised a case for $50! sean and laura callari - where are you?!) covering every mile. most of you have probably heard of jacob's creek wine - it is a HUGE vinyard in the barossa, but there are a lot of other smaller vineyards that look more interesting to visit. the valley itself is not that long (but you could spend a LONG time sampling wine there) so once we reached the top, we started on a loop back home throught the adelaide hills (which are the south end of the flinders range). even in the hills, where small towns are separated by these vast, rolling hills, orchards, and sheep ranches, vineyards dot the landscape - also with roadside signs proclaiming "cellar open".
the winter light here feels more like fall to me, and has that same thick, sweet honey color to it As ever, the idyllic scenery is so pleasing to the eye and imagination. We passed a large horse ranch - becky talley, you will appreciate this - and left me daydreaming about getting to be a kid growing up there - wow! nova was asleep when we got home, so payton and i left her in the car and enjoyed a glass on wine on the front porch.
in order to be able to blog as regularly as i do (ha ha), i had to get a few minutes of free-time. so, nova started "school" at the gumnut montessori (just a 5 - 10 minute walk from the house) on monday. she goes mondays and tuesdays and loves it. she doesn't really care when i tell her good-bye and leave - she's already partying with the kids. and on tuesday, when i came to pick her up, i asked if she wanted to go home and she looked right at me and said, "no". so i had to stick around for another 30 minutes. of course, then i found myself just chatting the ears off the teachers... which is a whole other episode in my life right now. jerome - somehow, i don't imagine you were this way when you were stay-at-home dad with ty, but i know whitney, you can sympathize. when you are home alone with your kid all day (mom, i remember you talking about this) there is not a lot of stimulating conversation. you know it's bad when you start listening to david sedaris' "santaland diaries" in june just to hear another adult voice. but what is also alarming is the things your start telling perfect strangers - who have the politeness and misfortune to ask "how are you?" or who say, "oh, that's a nice wallet." for example, as i was buying a paper, the checker complimented my billfold. so, of course, the next most obvious thing to say (which i say) is, "oh, yeah, thanks. you know, the first thing my daughter did when i got was to throw it in the toilet" (fortunately, i had the wherewithall not to mention that i had just finished peeing in the toilet - i don't know where that restraint came from). or like, the gal at ikea who said, "oh, that's a nice bracelet" and instead of a simple "thank you", i had to go into the entire story about how i broke my femur years ago and had a rod put in then taken out and then - and who wouldn't do this with their medical-grade titanium orthoedic hardware? - had it made into bracelets for me and my husband. well, when i mentioned that, the bracelet (which she'd asked to see) about jumped out of her hands as if i had just ripped it out of my femur moments ago and wiped it off with my sleeve before handing it to her.
needless to say, although i still have few opportunites to interact with other adults and familiarize myself with the aussie culture (this will all come, i know), it is nice to have a couple days to myself.
nova's first day of school. mom - you were right, she needed the backpack, she takes it every day! look at my poor kid - she looks like a little rei model!
what picture posting is complete without one of the baby in the bath! check out how long the little punk rocker's hair is getting. what a dear-heart!
