Three quick weeks in Australia: 08-09/2009

after the whitehurst-rankin clan left, mom and dad flew to perth for a week where they enjoyed some R&R.  they actually got to go out to some nice, quiet dinners themselves! they enjoyed it, but have said repeatedly that nowhere they've been in australia beats adelaide.  

the whitehurst level of activity remained high, and just a day after mom and dad returned from perth, we drove up to the southern end of the flinders range to visit flinders national park and wilpena pound.  we stayed at a working sheep station (i.e. ranch) that also runs self-contained cabins for people wanting to visit the national park.  there is a fabulous restaurant there, the woolshed, that provides incredible dining in the middle of nowhere.  the whole thing is a trip i would recommend to anyone and payton and i plan to make it back to the flinders range time and again.  wilpena pound is a syncline, a dip in the geological strata of the area.  it is a beautiful feature that curves around like a bend in an old river or like the side of a moving snake.  thus, it creates a ring of mountains/cliffs with only one way in/out, resulting in a natural-made pound, or impound, in which to keep cattle or sheep.  although spring, it felt more like fall in the west: beautiful sunny day with a chill in the air - perfect hiking weather.  we went for a nice hike up to wilpena lookout which gained us a great view of the pound, then back down for a picnic lunch at the visitor's center.  we went for a drive through the park - we all commented on how the landscape reminded us of northern new mexico or sometimes southeast idaho - dry, rocky, scrubby and beautiful!  we saw a lot of emus and had a wallaby jump out and run into the side of gg.  both the car and the wallaby seemed to come out of the collision alright.  at least that is what we will always tell ourselves! 

we drove home a different way than we had come, this time through the clare valley - famous for its white wines, especially the riesling. we stopped to have lunch in a small town that wasn't on the map, but had a great hotel/restaurant where we celebrated australian father's day.  

the monday and tuesday nova was in school, mom, dad and i explored the migration museum, port adelaide, the maritime museum, the aami stadium (where our fabulous crows play), and, of course, ikea!  later in the week, mom and dad spent a night in the barossa valley in the barossa house b&b.  for their 40th wedding anniversary, lauren, adam, payton, and i had given them a basket of four cheeses from the barossa valley cheese company and a map suggesting certain wines and the vineyards where they could be found to pair with the cheeses.  they drove home through the adelaide hills and had the fortune to see the giant rocking horse.  no magnet.  

the final friday, saturday, sunday mom and dad were here, we just enjoyed our time around adelaide/norwood.  we got to see a possum and a koala, so a lot of australia's charismatic megafauna was checked off the list!  

it was sad sad sad to see them go, too, but again, a truly wonderful time to have all the family with us.  gardners - we cannot wait for you all to get over here and explore even more! 

so, now we are back to a quiet house and less abused water heater.  payton leaves in a couple weeks for a 10-day sampling trip in the outback.  these trips, including family outback exploration, will be a highlight of our time here - the true aussie experience!  

Gardners, Whitehursts and Rankins Down Under - Part III: The Great Ocean Road and Melbourne 08/2009

either you know the whitehursts and will believe that we did this, or you won't believe it and you're view of "spending time with your in-laws" will be forever altered:

so, in our forays around adelaide, payton drove gg; dad sat shot-gun; mom sat between two toddler car seats in the back; and lauren, adam, and i sat hip to hip in the jump-seats-meant-for-two in the WAY back. so much fun did we have, and as near to comfortable as it was, someone in the back seat (i think it was me) piped up that with luggage on a rack on top, we could easily sit like this on a THREE DAY ROAD TRIP along the great ocean road from adelaide to melbourne (from where lauren, adam and theo would eventually fly out). well, whitehursts all cheered enthusiastically, payton silently told himself he would be damned if anyone else thought they were driving then acquiesced out loud and adam, i'm afraid, was shocked so far in to silence that he wasn't able to get a word out in protest until we had finished the john denver sing along three days later and were considering retracing some of our tracks to go see a lighthouse we missed along the great ocean road. it was communally agreed we should press forward.

but i jump ahead. we loaded up with a huge blue-tarped luggage burrito role on top and managed a whopper of a seven hour (!!!) day on that first leg. let's recap: eight people (two toddlers), one car, seven hours. wow. we drove through the coorong, a coastal embayment and wetlands framed by the younghusband peninsula (a very straight, very long strip of land that payton opines is very...descriptively, if not subtly, named). around lunchtime, we excitedly burst out of the car to empty bladders and stare agog at the giant metal and plaster lobster, fondly called "larry" by the locals. this was our first giant icon viewing (payton, as mentioned before was a seasoned veteran having basked in the glory of tamworth's giant golden guitar). shockingly, larry the lobster's visitor center was closed in this one-gas-station town, so we were deprived of the opportunity to stock up on t-shirts, pencils, hats, mugs and small replicas of larry. lauren and i promptly marched across the street to the filling station and bought a couple of magnets. after lunch, we stuffed ourselves back in to gg and made it to the old whaling town of port fairy where we stayed the night. this and many of the other great ocean road coastal towns we passed through were fascinating and had a lot of interesting history. as with so many of the places we visited, we could have spent days more exploring each area. but we had kilos to go...

thursday, we passed through the most well known section of the great ocean road - the twelve apostles (of which there are only eight) The "apostles" are huge limestone towers formed from persistent waves carving the presenting cliffs into arches that eventually collapsed and left the structures standing out in the ocean. it is an incredible sight with the evening light illuminating the cliffs and the open southern ocean expanding to the horizon... you are standing on a shore pounded by waves that have no impediment from the edge of antarctica to the beaches at the bottom of these cliffs in south australia. lot of ocean out there. not much else. oh, except WHALES! yes, our luck with nature-viewing continued and we watched a few southern right whales, who come here to calve in winter. very exciting. we continued onward to apollo bay. the kids (and adults) began to get restless, so john denver was fired up on the ipod and we had a good ol' whitehurst singalong (which usually involves a lot of out-of-tune singing and misunderstood lyrics belted out at full strength in a small space). we sing loudly and we sing every song on the album. it is SO fun. i don't recall payton and adam hitting the high notes of "rocky mountain high" but i might have just been enjoying myself too much. still, we had a magical john denver moment when, at the crescendo of "high calypso", payton drove us around a corner and into a pull-out that overlooked the southern ocean and south australia's cliffs basked in evening light with sprays of white waves pounding the shore. i cannot even describe the happiness or cheesiness of the situation. it was awesome. i will never listen to "high calypso" the same again.

we made it to apollo bay that night, had hell getting babies to sleep and woke the next morning to a quality winter downpour that blows umbrellas inside out and sends rivers of rainwater down the street. but the weather cleared and we had a beautiful drive along the coast - the road is called the great ocean road, but this section is the most coastal - with morning sun burning off the rain and mist. we saw bell's beach, a surfer's paradise for the big guns and spent some time in torquay (pronounced "tor-key") - a small surfing town at the end of our scenic drive. finally, we hopped on the highway and made it to melbourne on friday afternoon.  gg was a champion, we all love family, but it was time to get out of the car.

before leaving the road trip, i just have to mention one thing.  australians are very focused on the safety of highway travel.  we frequently saw signs along the highway that read: "drowsy drivers DIE" and "rest, revive, survive" and my personal favorite, "love her? divorce speed!" yet, the highest speed you'll see is 110... kilometers per hour.  that's about 68 mph.  and everyone knows that back in the states, five miles over the speed limit is acceptable; so most people go ten over.  well, you can imagine my shock when i got a bill in the mail (sadly, i got my hopes up because at first, i thought it was the rebate from our washing machine) that turned out to be a $146 (!!!) ticket for going 7 km (that's 4 miles, people) over the speed limit!!  i won't say lesson learned yet, because i am who i am - i have speeding lineage, both parents - but, you know, ouch! 

ah, melbourne. the first two people i chatted with and told that i was living in adelaide for three years looked like i'd just slapped them in the face with a dirty sock. i'm not sure if they were offended FOR me or BY me... adelaide?! why adelaide?! (melbournians and sydneysiders love their cities and think little of adelaide. they don't know what they're missing.) undaunted, we set off to the mcg - melbourne cricket grounds. site of the 1980-something (?) olympics. they have a fantastic sports museum - with lots of space devoted to cricket and footy. we went on a lovely walk (i.e. baby naptime) through the botanical gardens, through the city and eventually ended up back at the hotel. lauren and adam have a friend who's brother (who's uncle who's classmate who's second cousing who's...) is the chef at a very hip restaraunt called "fog". so, again, the heroic grandparents kicked the kids out the door and put the babies to bed so lauren, adam, payton and i could have a delightful, last-night-out-before-leaving dinner together.

well, no one told me that business casual was required. my entire life, everywhere i've lived, jeans without holes and a clean shirt counted as "dressing up". i couldn't believe i would actually be denied access to a restaraunt because i was wearing jeans.  apparently, fog had/has a dress code and can deny entrance to a potential patron if they are not properly attired.  well! fortunately, my sister dresses a lot nicer than i do and was able to clothe herself appropriately while providing me with a brown skirt, shirt and tights.  only thing was, my nicest (and only) pair of shoes were my rossi boots - ankle-high, elastic-sided, slip on, leather boots... it's a work boot.  not fancy.  i'm not going to say we were the best-dressed gals in the restaurant, but we got in.  i actually went to the bathroom at one point and felt like i'd walked into the wrong room - it was full of giggling, curly-haired blondes covered in sequined skirts that hemmed at their necks, blouses with neck lines that dropped to the waist, stilettos that came up to my knee, and jewelry that cost more than your car.  me and my work boots were backpedalling so fast to get out of there (lest i be kicked out of the bathroom for not being properly dressed), we almost ended up in the men's room.  realizing that my outfit (and general being) would feel no more comfortable in there, i was reduced to waiting awkwardly in the hallway until the fashion sheilas were done powdering their noses.  even the passing waiter had a glance at me and seemed to wonder if i was there for dinner or to fix the plumbing.  i had the right shoes on for the job.  

nonetheless, dinner was fantastic - oysters, wine, lamb, seafood.... and a southwest inspired appetizer that actually had chili sauce and blue corn chips... yum.  a delightful time indeed.

and then, on monday... payton took an early flight back to adelaide to go to work and lauren, adam, and theo boarded the plane for the long trip home.  the only word theo said all morning was, "airplane"... so we guessed he was pretty excited to get on the plane.  sad sad to see them go, but it was SUCH a wonderful trip.  after teary waves good-bye, mom, dad, nova and i hopped in gg and drove all the way back to adelaide in 10 hrs through some heavy wind and rain.  we saw the giant koala from the car window at 100 km/hr, but i still think it counts.  perhaps i can order a magnet online...  nova watched the entire "horton hears a who" movie, and was, as usual, a champion traveller.  

good to be home.  

Gardners, Whitehursts and Rankins Down Under - Part II: Adelaide 08/2009

oh man! i can't believe i forgot to mention the huge golden guitar in my last post. for anyone who has either been to australia or read bill bryson's in a sunburned country, you should be familiar with the australians' affinity for making large, random monuments to... whatever (it may or may not have a specific connection to the area - e.g. the giant koala between melbourne and adelaide; koalas are everywhere here, or the huge golden guitar in tamworth... i mean, where did THAT one come from?!). actually, i guess they're not really monuments, but they are huge and made from wood, fiberglass, steel, chicken wire, whatever. and they don't necessarily weather that well. BUT! they do make for a great magnet collection. payton started one for theo and nova each when, on his sampling trip in tamworth (while the rest of us were in sydney), he got both SEE the huge golden guitar and then BUY a smaller, sturdier, magnetic version that says "tamworth" across the front. lauren and i were thrilled. the kids just tried to eat them. ken, phil... possible guitar night group pilgrimage spot?

on to adelaide... well, we arrived, piled everyone and everything into gg - except mom, dad, me and an empty stroller... we took a cab. but don't worry, we utilized the full hugeness of gg in a later trip - you'll see... it took most the afternoon to settle six adults and two babies into a small, single-level, three room, ONE BATHROOM (with very little hot water - payton actually moved his entire toilette to work, where he, at least, got one hot shower a day) house, with mom and dad on the pull out couch in the living room. note: i do not abuse my parents! it's a nice couch! but they were the unfortunate first tier greeters to early rising babies wandering from their rooms down the hall to find (gasp!) gran and grandaddy!! the rest of us tried to keep our doors shut as tightly as possible...

saturday morning, we went to adelaide's central market - only pictures will do it justice (i'll get there) - but it is huge and busy and full of beautiful fruit, veggies, meat, cheese, bread, flowers, etc. that afternoon, we went to our local oval, home of the norwood redlegs, and caught the tail end of the footy game.

and on sunday... NOVA TURNED TWO!!!!! wow! that was fast (but the first few weeks seemed so long...) i can't believe it. what a charmer. for her birthday, we drove down to victor harbor and hiked a small part of the hans heyson trail (ol' hans was a german immigrant and local artist and naturalist that painted a lot of pastoral australia). the trail is something like 1000 km in its entirety. this section was stunning. we ate lunch on a little half-moon bay beach and were treated to a school of dolphins (porpoises?) that came in close to fish and play. just a little ways up the trail, we saw a huge mob of kangaroos and further still, out in the water, a group of seals. ah, nature! the majority of the hike is spent on top of 1000 ft lush, emerald-green cliffs that sort of curve around so you get a good view ahead of time of what you'll be hiking above.

back home, in true whitehurst fashion, we were running late, didn't have a cake prepared, didn't have presents wrapped and so decided to just draw the festivities out for at least another day. i mean, why only celebrate once when you can celebrate twice? why only celebrate for one baby when there are two present? why only have one cake when you can have two or three or four? party on. (we didn't really eat four cakes.) the kids made do, however, with a small cake-from-the-24 hr-bakery-down-the-road, blew out some candles, got extremely wired, did some major running and (happy) screaming and finally crashed much later than they should have. this was the end of "bedtime". for the rest of the trip. so we did it all again the next day. only this time, we had presents and lauren made a small sheet cake and decorated it with a kangaroo wearing a purple feather boa. lauren, you have to understand, has been in charge of decorating my cake since time immemorial. this is the creative mind who, while celebrating my 24th birthday with me in montana just a few weeks after i'd broken my femur, decided to have a "leg party" (these are also my initials, mind you - lindsey elizabeth gardner). we had crab legs, chicken legs, and leg of lamb. and lauren made two RED VELVET sheet cakes (get it? it's red when you cut in to it...), put them end to end and cut it in the shape of a leg and then decorated it, complete with little icing shorts with my initials, painted toenails and an ankle bracelent. bloody good.

good weather got us some great days on the beach as well as time to explore norwood itself. payton just got to go to work. but keep in mind, he was getting the hot showers and a private bathroom. but the next weekend, lauren, adam, payton and i abandoned our children and our parents, and left them carless so we could drive up to the barossa valley and go road biking and wine tasting for three days. mom and dad will not only GO to heaven for this, they will OWN heaven for their saintliness. because not only did they do this for us..., but they did it on their 40th wedding anniversary!!!

the rest of us had a great time! and, hey, we brought them back a magnet of the huge grape... (kidding, there is no huge grape in the barossa valley). actually, we were told the kids did great - which i believe because they seem to do better with gran and grandaddy around. and the rest of us really did have a great time. it was the first time lauren and i had ever spent a night away from our spawn. you may be expecting an emotion laden pause here... but there's not. we missed the babies, but it was SO nice to get to do that. thanks mom and dad! we stayed in a self-contained cottage, had coffee and eggs and bacon when we were ready, watched "the man from snowy river", saw a lot of the valley from a bike seat, had some trouble sitting after that first ride, and managed to hit up a whopping four vineyards! for posterity's sake, i'll list them: bethany vineyards, turkey flat vinyards, rockfor vineyards, and seppeltsfield where we got a tour and learned a lot about fortified wines (eg. port). on saturday, we ate a sinfully rich lunch of pate, bread roles, and wine at maggie beer's farm shop (it was a little difficult getting the ol' pedals rolling after that one). we hoped we pedalled off more calories than we ingested, but i'm not so sure. it was WONDERFUL to see the babes when we got home.

in celebration of mom and dad's anniversary, we went straight from the barossa valley out to very nice (too nice for two year olds) italian dinner. the food was fantast, the service impeccable and the seating arrangement hilarious. the rambunctious whitehurst/gardner/rankin clan was sequestered to one corner of the restaurant while all other patrons were seated in such a way that when you looked out over the room, there was a buffer of empty seats one to two tables thick separating our table from the other diners! the kids penetrated this moat in seconds flat with their sort of well dressed moms (its hard to maintain fahionista status in motherhood, much less through a pasta dinner with a toddler) weaving between white table cloths, waiters, and other people's nice shoes, chasing after spaghetti-sauce-faced children with a wet napkin in their hands. ultimately, dinner turned into a relay race where the kids ran around outside after their five-minute attention span was wasted on a pasta plate that took 20 minutes to arrive, and the rest of us, grandparents included, swapped between eating, charming the waiters to avoid getting kicked out, and keeping the kids out of the street. and after all that, they wouldn't let us take desert home (i guess we should be thankful they didn't serve us our entire meal in "to go" boxes!). a meal to remember!!

that was on sunday. on wednesday, we loaded gg up for an epic whitehurst road trip.

Gardners, Whitehursts and Rankins Down Under - Part I: Sydney 08/2009

well! long time no blog. what can i say? time flies when you're waiting for your second winter to pass and all your immediate family (in-laws, for payton) flies into the country for three to six weeks...

my parents (liz and fred whitehurst), my sister (lauren), her husband (adam) and their almost-two-year-old son (theo) all flew in to sydney on august 3rd. it's hard to say if payton and i were more excited to see family or to not have to be the ones on the fourteen hour flight... such as it was, their flight went fine (see? all you friends with babies - even international travel can be smooth... and if you do it before jr. turns two - he/she flies for free! the rest of you - i.e. sans kids - hardly have an excuse!). nova and i flew in to sydney that same day and we all stayed for the week. payton, luckily enough, was doing some sampling for work in podunk new south wales (the state in which sydney resides - new south wales, not podunk) where everyone wears "man from snowy river" hats and elastic sided boots, 'roo dog houses are made out of rotted gum tree stumps and the sheds all dress to the left (i have yet to determine if direction of sructure slant depends on the coriolis effect - i'll let you know once i've done some more research), so he was able to spend a couple nights with us in sydney while passing through.

we saw a lot of sydney in those four days: botanic gardens, the sydney opera house, the circular quay (pronounced "key"... you know, they also spell jail "g-a-o-l" here, so if my spelling begins to deteriorate and looks more like aussie-accented phonetics, you'll know why), manly beach (lauren started on a rant when she picked up the "manly guide", wondering where the "womanly guide" was, until she realized manly was our destination and this guide was, well, for that area), the taronga zoo, the aquarium, and darling harbor. we rode some ferries, the light rail, and did a ton of walking. the babies thoroughly enjoyed themselves - mostly running around the apartment with nothing but each other's gumboots on (on the wrong feet, of course) and screaming bloody murder when anyone suggested putting a nappy (diaper) on and some clothes so we might get out the door and see sydney. actually, for the entire three weeks, both babies were champions - napping in strollers and car seats, sleeping in random hotel rooms and sharing rooms and beds with parents, long car drives, moving through time zones.

dad and adam went on a strict meat pie and sausage roll sampling bender, and effectively dragged mom, lauren and me down with them. so bad for you, but oh, so good. australia is a land of dude food - everything is made out of meat: rolls, pasties, pies... kranskies.... i understand aus is the land where vegetarian adam (my bro-in-law was in brisbane for a time while in college) was converted back to a meat-eater; he hardly had a choice.

a final sydney highlight, made possible by outstanding parents/grandparents (it turns out my mom is better at getting nova to sleep at bed and naptime than her own darling mother) was the chance for lauren, adam and me to see a symphony in the sydney opera house. amazing! there are a number of different stages/performance halls in the opera house and the symphony hall was gorgeous. nick and claudia - we saw/heard "a hero's life", which we heard you perform while in salt lake. unfortunately, payton couldn't make the symphony (he was flying in from sampling in tamworth), but he met us after the show (imagine, outback aus to downtown, cosmopolitan sydney in the span of a few hours... from sampling water from a well on some farm somewhere to sipping a beer on the circular quay watching the ferries come and go and all the lively, well-shod citizens of sydney drink up the night life... does the guy live a charmed life, or what?!). the four of us walked to an area called the rocks and had a fantastic steak dinner with vegemite butter served on top!

the next day, friday, the whole fam-dam boarded a flight to adelaide - to see the gardner stronghold and our new city.

note: i promise i'll post pics asap. fortunately, adam and lauren are great photographers with a really nice camera and dad is the seasoned photo chronicler of all whitehurst family adventures. unfortunately, our iphoto is undergoing an over-haul and merging of different photo libraries.

adventures in socializing

our pony! gloria gardner, gg for short.


payton met a fellow at work (he and his wife are both hydrogeologists and they have two little girls), and he and his family own a bunch of land down south in the coorong - a wetlands area. supposedly beautiful and full of good bush walking, four-wheeling, and surf casting, glen was thrilled to find out that we have a 'trol (they abbreviete everything here and end most things in "y" or "ie"). omg - first friends?

actually, we went to a bbq at payton's boss's house this sunday. i got to meet a lot of the people payton works with - a really diverse and great group of people. it was REALLY nice to meet everyone (i managed to keep most of my non-sequitors to myself). there were a bunch of kids there and nova is a total party animal.

on saturday, payton and some folks from work went to a pro footy game - port adelaide power vs. brisbane. the power won (hooray!) and payton said it was quite a site. he guesses the footy oval is about as wide as a regular nfl field is long!!! but there's 18 a side, so 36 people on the field fills up the space a bit. they love them some footy here and the games are family affairs. i guess there's some sort of lineage clause here. the players don't move around like our grid iron (aussie term for american nfl) players do, and if you play on a pro team and your son is good enough to go pro, your team gets first dibs on your son.


this is just a better - but still not very good - picture of the front of our house.


everyone needs a cracker after their bath sometimes.


this a gum tree (eucalyptus) - there are so many eucalypt species here, they are not even all catalogued yet. this photo does this tree any sort of justice (yet another reason why one must physically come to visit), but they are HUGE and beautiful. this was taken in the botanic garden - free to the public and just a 10 minute walk from our house.


robey one kinobe.


this picture and the one below is for mom and dad and lauren. lauren wore this dress when she was a little girl and mom saved it (and many other special dresses from our childhood).



we've started nova's physical training early... i know videos of kids are only really funny for their handlers, but still, give it a shot.


again, you probably don't need to watch the full three minutes of this video, but music does the wildest things to kids. i remember watching a young ty snow (our nephew) get possessed by the music mike and krista's wedding, and i am pleased to see that nova has the same inclination to dance. this video was actually taken at adam's law school graduation party in santa fe. what you don't see in the video is the slew of adults all watching nova and cheering her on.

lots to do... #2

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!

lots to do... #1

nova at port elliot beach - she actually wore her sunnies for awhile.


hard workin' bob.


nova and lindsey at port elliot


mmm, apple.


nova was fascinated by the seagulls.... they were fascinated by the food in her hand.


port elliot. still wearing those shades! amazing!


payton and nova beginning our walk along basham park.


a titch warmer, and we would have gone swimming...


basham park/port elliot


the color of the water and the waves were beautiful. no surfing at this beach in particular, but just down the way....


along basham beach regional park. the picture below is nova and payton sandbogging in the bob. nova is always thankful for the five-point harness when daddy's driving...


where to begin? well, let's go back a few weekends and start there...

let's see, that was the 20th and 21st of june. that saturday, we took a soggy, 30 minute walk into the city to have a look at the central market. what a sight! a very crowded, very busy market with heaps of local veggies, fruits, meats, fish, bakeries (oh, the meat pies... YUM! YUM!), cafes, nut and lolli (lollis are candies - not to be confused with lollipops) stands, and random little stores. it is similar to pikes place market in seattle, but whereas i recall pikes as being more linear and less chaotic, adelaide's central market appears to all have fallen out of the sky in one big jumble, people and baby strollers included. on the walk home through the greenway we watched part of local footy game. it's a little easier to follow along when watching in person vs. on the telly or listening on the radio. can't wait to see our local norwood redlegs play (their oval is just a block away from us) or to go to a pro game to see the adelaide crows or the port adelaide power play.

on sunday, the 21st, we took a 1 1/2 hr south of adelaide, across the fleurieu peninsula, past mclaren vale (yet another pocket of local vineyards) and down to victor harbor and port elliot. what a gorgeous day! here it is winter - and it can get quite rainy and grey - but it can also be clear blue skies, warm temperatures, and barefoot-with-your-jeans-rolled-up-why-didn't-i-bring-my-flip-flops wading through the water - even nova. we had a delightful, somewhat sandy, picnic lunch on the beach. the bob - ever the heavy lifter - did some serious work. after braving steep stairs, bogging through soft sand and crashing waves, the bob carried our lunch and gear to a happy eating spot and afterward, served as nova's bed for her nap while payton and i strolled along the reserve (a greenway or park).

they often have paved paths along the beach or through a reserve, and this is what we followed, only to suddenly come across a whale watching spot! complete with whales! how lucky. apparently, the southern right whale comes here either to (there appears to be some debate about this, i'm too lazy just now and our internet is too slow to verify one side or the other) feed to calve. perhaps it is both. anyway, we saw three whales swimming around, playing, blowing, sticking their tales in the air. it was great. fortunately, we had the forsight to bring the binos (payton had an in on the potential whale sighting). on the way back we saw a seal at - where else? - seal rock. a happy drive back to adelaide with nova singing us home. this was father's day.