Party!

We held the party for Littletree’s birthday yesterday, so we had about a dozen tween kids running amok around the place (about half of whom ended up sleeping over)! I survived, and all I got was this t-shirt pile of dishes.

The kids all had an awesome time

Making a mess, playing on the trampoline

Swimming and kayaking in the creek

I made (at Littletree’s request) a very elaborate Red Velvet Cake (all natural, organic, coloured with beetroots, and iced with raw-butter cream-cheese frosting – I’ll make a post about the cake separately, with a recipe)

The cake was a huge success

Littletree got lots of lovely presents

And got to spend time with lots of her best friends (actually, half of the home school group came!)

Of course, the five girls who slept over stayed up till midnight giggling, but thankfully, the kids’ room is at the other end of the house from mine, so I wasn’t disturbed in the slightest :-P

Welcome Home Littletree

Littletree is home again, after her visit with her family. She had a good time, but she’s super happy to be home again.

First thing she did (after talking our faces off about her adventures) was dive into the creek to freshen up.

So great to be home in our rain forest again!

Then Littletree wanted a bowl of her favourite: my home made noodle soup, with roasted turkey

She had gifts; amba for me (it’s a kind of spicy mango pickle sauce that I’m incredibly partial to), and Bamba for the indentured person our visitor.

Bamba is kind of sort of like cheetos, but made from peanuts, and it tastes like peanut butter. I do not like it.

Of course, as a welcome home, I made a very fancy roast dinner for Littletree

And we had a quiet evening of snuggling up, followed by a lazy day going around the neighbourhood playing Ingress.

Of course, tomorrow is Littletree’s birthday (though the party won’t be till next weekend), and we have a special day planned… She doesn’t know it yet, but we got her a very big surprise present (and somehow managed to keep it hidden for two days)!

Authentic Aussie Experience

Last week Littletree and I had some visitors from the USA come to stay – the most awesome Andy and the most gorgeous Tif made it all the way to our rainforest hideaway!

So awesome to get to meet good friends from Google in real life!

Of course, it was still flooding, though the rain had mostly stopped and the waters gone down a fair ways, getting in to our place was quite the adventure for city folk (at least Tif is a tough Jamaican)

And crossing the creek with luggage

Actually, they arrived after dark, so that made it even more fun, these are the photos of when they left.

Of course, I had to make them a traditional roast dinner – Kangaroo Roast

And cake, which goes without saying - Tif’s favourite; a tres leches cake.

We explored the rainforest around the back of my property

And climbed up to the spring

And climbed up the mango trees

Google+ Hangouts from the tops of a tree was pretty epic!

And Littletree and Tif bonded over their mutual love of Chupa Chups

We went out to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, and got to see all manner of awesome critters and even cuddle koalas, but I’ll save that for its own post tomorrow :)

Most of all, we had a fantastic time, and were sad to see them go, even over Thai food.

Koala is not a Bear

We drive past signs like these often

But you never actually see any Koalas… but coming back from the beach yesterday, right exactly next to this sign, we saw a koala crossing the road! (Actually, if you look very, very closely at this photo, the koala is visible in the tree behind the sign)

Quickly pulled over off the road and grabbed the camera, Littletree was ecstatic!

Glad to see it safely cross the road, it then scampered into some bushes and then we watched as it climbed up a gum tree.

Lucky it wasn’t a drop bear! And so exciting to see Koalas – the last place we lived there were lots of them around the house making a racket at night, but here they aren’t nearby.

Here’s a short video:

Short Koala clip

Crystal Chemistry

Littletree has been dabbling in chemistry lately, as well as a little geology, which is the perfect crossover for her loves of science and crystals.

She was given a selenite tower recently, and she loves the crystal; she finds it to have great powers of protection and to be very calming. AquaCat suggested going on an adventure to the creek with a whole lot of crystals to “cleanse” them in the spring water, of course Littletree jumped at the chance.

They had a lovely walk through the rainforest and up the creek, and set the crystals up to cleanse in the flowing water

Littletree was very careful to set them all up carefully and then set about the important scientific work of playing in the river experimenting with physics.

When she came back to check on the crystals, they discovered that the selenite was all rough, and decided that perhaps it was a crystal not meant to be in water.

As soon as she came home, Littletree was most excited, and we went straight to google to find out about selenite and why it went funny in the water.

Littletree learned that it’s actually a crystalline form of gypsum which is the main ingredient in plaster, and alabaster. Reading one page, Littletree read that gypsum is CaSO₄·2H₂O and she asked me what that means.

So we spent some time learning about the periodic table, elements, the different bonds molecules form, and how they sit in crystalline structures.

She already had a very basic grasp of what elements are, but she was was fascinated with the concept – we talked about how each element has a certain number of electron “arms” – potential bonds where it can connect with other elements. We talked at length about H₂O being water and how it’s a molecule made of an Oxygen atom (which has two “arms”) and two Hydrogen atoms (with one arm each).

Littletree spent some time working out the exact structure of calcium sulphite dihidrate, and was most impressed to work out that selenite is 70% water, which is similar to the amount of water in the human body. She even drew up the chemical structure in her notebook.

We had a long discussion about what effect it would have on the human body if one dissolved selenite into the drinking water, and in fact, I’m still listening to her rabbiting on about how selenite is 70% water and 30% calcium sulphite, and it will just dissolve in water.

Then we had to look up the chemical compositions of all the crystals she has, and then many other things. So now a wall poster of the periodic table has been added to her wish list, and she’s moved on to a new favourite joke which she’s telling everyone:

Two scientists walk in to a bar, and the first one says “Bartender, I’ll have a glass of H₂O” and the second scientist says “I’ll have a glass of H₂O too.” and the second scientist died.

Groan.

Faerie Mischief

I’m sorry to admit that Littletree has picked up some terrible habits from me. I know, I know! I should have known better than to give her such bad examples; I should have known that she would see me and want to copy.

But I was weak, and I let her see me… baking. Oh the shame! And it wasn’t just once or twice… I made cakes and muffins and cookies and puddings and pies; but I didn’t stop there! Oh no! The horror of it is that I even let Littletree help me some times.

Imagine my dismay to come into the kitchen to find her standing at the oven with a measuring cup and whisk in her hands! I rushed in to stop her, but it was too late… chocolate and butter were already melting on the stove, eggs were cracked, flour sifted.

What could I do? I figured, if she’s going to start experimenting with baking, she should at least do it with me, here in the home, where I can supervise her and answer her questions. Far better that way than to have her out in the streets, trying cakes from unknown bakeries – those places are nefarious with their free samples of sugar-coated pastries that get you hooked.

So I helped her make brownies. Don’t judge! I know there’s a lot of evidence to show brownies are a gateway cake that just leads to gateaux and tortes, but I think we can keep this under control.

And she seems so happy in the kitchen. MMMMM brownies!

Since we’ve been having trouble with pesky pixies lately hiding things about the house, and inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lady Demelza suggested we make a tea party for the faeries and give them sweet offerings of brownies and other delectable treats.

Littletree loved the idea and set about making a beautiful table setting out in the faerie garden

We made cute little offerings around the garden of brownies for the brownies and honey on crackers for the pixies

And then enjoyed a most luscious afternoon tea – brownies, fairy juice (elderflower cordial), fruit tea, ginger beer, cheese and crackers

Hopefully that will restore some order to the house, so we can get back to baking!

New Neighbours

Littletree and I were going out for a night-time walk to look at the full moon the other night when we heard a rustling in the bushes… a quick flash of the torchlight revealed…

An Echidna! How exciting! It was burrowing into the undergrowth right next to our driveway. Oddly enough, every time it dug a bit, the other side of the bushes rustled simultaneously. I assumed the echidna must be pushing on a vine or root that was pulling on the bush… but when we shone the light over on the other side, there was a second echidna. Somehow, they were burrowing, and pausing in perfect synchronisation with each other.

It was very cool! And naturally led to Littletree asking about nocturnal animals, and a whole discussion on monotremes.

After watching for a while, we left them in peace, and came back in the morning to see quite an extensive burrow going on. So happy to have some nice new neighbours :-)

Equinox

At this moment, the Autumnal Equinox is upon us (Vernal Equinox for those in the northern hemisphere).

Mabon. The celebration of harvest, the coming of cooler days.
In this moment I am observant, the length of days and nights in balance. I honour the Green goddess of the forest, I offer libations to the trees, and to the faeries.

And this is the view from my hammock.

Rain, rain, rain; Flood!

Just to add a little déjà vu from this time last year when all the world around me went under water, it’s been raining again. Wait, raining doesn’t really describe what’s going on – we’ve been in a torrential deluge – 420mm (16.5”) in the last two days! This is coming on top of a whole load of rain over the last week or two.

Yesterday, we got flood warnings, I drove out to visit my beloved Ocean, and already some low-lying areas were under water.

But the roads were mostly clear, and the bridges passable, so we weren’t too worried… until we woke up to find over 100mm (4”) had fallen overnight, and the roof was leaking terribly, and the roads were all impassable, with rapidly rising waters.

Then the crawlspace under the house filled up with water – it got to be about knee-deep before it started seeping through the cracks in the wall and flooding the flat downstairs where Wind and Coola live.

Rushing around with towels and buckets, and in-between dealing with a sick Littletree (who fortuitously came down with a case of gastro in the night), I managed to get down into the muck of the crawlspace and set up a garden hose to siphon water out. At some point the electricity cut out, but it’s back on now. I hope that, at least lasts!

Phew!

In the afternoon, the rain eased a little, and we donned wet-weather gear and went for a walk down the hill, only to find half of the village under water, and all of the roads impassable.

Here’s some scenes from the highway and the back road out of the village – this is actually the bridge over a normally very small creek that resides about ten metres under the bridge it is now totally over the top of. The main river that runs through the village was a massive torrent, about 6 metres over its banks!

Well, at least we’re mostly dry and we have enough food to last a few days. I hope everyone out there is staying dry and has plenty of wine stocked up!

Water Dragon

Happy New Year of the Water Dragon

There has been such a constant stream of so many beautiful people flowing through my house recently, with Wind and Coola living in the flat downstairs, and our good friends Belle and Anasho have been staying, since they are temporarily homeless, as well as frequent visits from an assortment of random hippies and my beloved Ocean.

As group of us got together yesterday for a sacred ceremony to honour the new moon and the start of the Chinese New Year.

We all wrote out pages of our intentions and manifestations for the coming year, I chopped some wood,

We lit a sacred fire, ringed with the surprise rose apples we found growing in the back of our rainforest.

Then we said some prayers and set our intentions before giving the pages to the fire

Then we sat around playing music and dancing and singing before having a yummy feast.

Awesome start to the year!