More Pics (as promised)

While we were at Onslow we went to visit "old" Onslow. The original townsite was pretty much destroyed by a cyclone in about 1918 (not too sure on the date as I can't remember and can't find the tourist info sheet) and the whole town was moved to where it is now, right on the coast. The old townsite was quite a way from the new site and was about 4 miles away from the river. It is kind of eerie out there now - there are only a couple of buildings left standing and although there has been some work done signposting points of interest the whole place is just bits of left over stuff in the middle of the scrub. I was really interested to learn that the town was much older than I had thought - most of the north-west towns are quite young because they sprang up around mineral deposit discoveries in the the sixties and seventies. Onslow as a town started in about the 1880's.

These are the building that are left - the police station/court house/accomodation for the police, magistrate (who was also the town's doctor) and their families.

And the old gaol, complete with broken glass embedded into the cement on the roof to stop those inside from getting out. Crude but effective! You can just see it on the closest wall.

This is all that remains of the telegraph station.

And the blacksmith shop...

The cemetery was really sad. There are about 10 or so gravestones that can be easily seen and they are inside an old wire fence in the middle of absolutely nothing. When we were at the cemetery the wind dropped and it was just stinkingly hot and still - really quite spooky.

I've Been A-Scrappin'

I know I said I'd share more Onslow photos but I went a-scrappin' today and am well pleased with what I made so have to share pics of these instead.

I have made one Star Album previously, from a kit with some pretty dodgy instructions - I have a hard time following written instructions at the best of times but this time I had to get Hubby to read them and decipher what the heck they meant. Since then I have been meaning to go back and have another go - this time making a couple of changes and generally tweaking things a little to make the album easier to make and a little nicer to look at. I didn't have much time to get organised for today's crop session so decided that rather than rush and be unhappy with the finished pages I would revisit the star album project. I got two albums made and am really pleased with the finished products. I am planning to give them away as gifts so they are embellished (for non-scrappers: they have 'bits' - like buttons and ribbon and shiny things - on them to make them look pretty) but have not photos. The recipients can add photos as they wish.

Here are the two albums closed up. The ribbons on the side tie the album closed.

Then when you open it up...ta da! The ribbons tie the album open in a star shape.The blue-green album is for a friend who is having a baby boy in a couple of weeks.

I haven't decided who the Christmas album is for yet. I'm still deciding what other gifts to make and then will make some decisions about what is for who (hmmm... should that be whom?? I know, it's shockingly bad either way LOL!)

I promise - Onslow photos tomorrow.

We're back!

Sorry, I did mean to tell you we were heading off on our break but things got a bit crazy here and we were an hour away before I smacked myself on the forehead and let out a great big Homer Simpson-like "DOH!" But... now we are back. With lots of lovely photos! Does that sort of make up for not letting you know?

We headed off to Onslow for a few days - Hubby is on holidays and we thought it would be nice to get out of town for a while, have a break from the house and the usual hum-drum and have a change of scenery. Onslow is on the coast, about 300km's from Red Dirt Central and has a population of (and I quote the lady from the tourist centre) 600-800, depending on the season and what's happening in town. I found it really interesting that such a tiny town exists on the coast - it has one shop, one pub, one restaurant (it's really really good!) two petrol stations (odd, I thought) and not much else. It is a pearling, prawning and fishing town and has a recent salt mine too. We stayed in a cabin at one of the caravan parks - we were going to take the caravan but decided it was getting too hot and we would book a cabin with air-conditioning instead. A wise move!! It's one of those towns that you kind of look at and just ask "why?" I'm really glad we went and enjoyed the break and getting to see somewhere I hadn't been before but I don't feel a need to go back.

The area around Onslow is apparently quite famous for it's ant hills. There are hundreds (probably thousands) of them and they are really quite fascinating. Here we are parked on the side of the road - you can see the ant hills, red mounds of dirt, all around.

And here is a close up of one that was right next to the road. Offspring #1 is standing next to it to give an indication of the size of these things.

Here are a couple of shots of the landscape driving home today. This is what it looks like for 3 hours! Flat, flat, flat and then a bit of hilly range then flat, flat, flat.

I have never seen it look so green up here - I was amazed by the colour and lushness. My overrriding memories of living up this way 10 years ago are the extreme redness and the sparseness of the landscape. But 6 cyclones at the beginning of the year, and the resulting rain, has turned the great redness of "up North" into something diffferent altogether. For me it isn't really 'beautiful' the way that rolling green hills or thick treed bushland are but it has an amazing splendour that is so hard to describe. It's just huge and open and there is nothing for as far as you can see for hours and hours.

Well, that's it for today. I'm off for a cup of tea and a piece of cake then it's time for bed. Holidaying is very tiring LOL. I have lots more photos so guess what you'll be getting this week?

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry, I didn't post last night. I have my first workshop for my home business tonight (not an advertisement - I won't tell you about it LOL) and have been busy getting organised for that. I'm a little bit nervous, not about the workshop itself - I have enough experience as a teacher and in adult education to not worry about that and I know what I'm doing for the workshop so that's fine too. I just really want it to be successful. Ideally this will become our second income and I can keep staying home with the kids and do a couple of workshops a week and make money from that and the sales that the workshops/demonstrations generate. Fingers crossed!! I did take an hour off from getting organised - Grey's was on!

So, only a quick post today. Here are some pics of the kids to keep those who have been asking happy.

Offspring #1 modelling his new "Cars" pj's. So sad, he has dumped his former favourites - Woody and Buzz - for Lightening McQueen. The "Toy Story" pj's were pushed aside to get to the "Cars" stuff.

Offspring #2 showing her standing up skills LOL.

And the two of them being silly together! Not at all unusual in this house.

In other news, Hubby's wrist is feeling much better and it looks as though our holiday will go ahead as planned. Yay!!!!

In more news, Blogger has switched to a different version-type-thingy so I went ahead and did the conversion stuff and now I really hate it but can't switch back. I'm hoping they are working on the bugs. It doesn't matter how many times I press enter to get a new paragraph it still won't let me! Aaaarrrggghhh - many of you will know how much this is hurting me. Please accept that (most of) the errors are not mine!

A Sporting Injury?

Ok, so yesterday was the AFL grand final.

Those of you in Australia please skip the next paragraph and rejoin me at *

For my non-Australian friends AFL is Australian Rules Football, the main football code for this country. I can't really explain the rules as I don't really understand them but basically each team has 18 men on the field and they all chase after an oval shaped ball and try to kick goals. There are 4 goal posts - if you kick the ball through the middle two your team gets 6 points, if you get it between the outside 2 on either side your team gets one point. Basically it's lots of sweaty men in little shorts and pretty coloured jumpers running around like idiots, usually in the rain and mud as it is a winter sport. There are lots of rules about tackling and running with the ball and stuff. It is kind of crazy to watch but lots of fun too. Yesterday was the grand final - a day when most of the country stops to watch a football game for about 3 hours, even people who don't care, whose team came last on the ladder - yes that would be our family! - and it turns grown men into teenagers (well in their dreams).

* Hubby went to a work friend's house to watch the game. There were a number of people going, mostly from work, and he was looking forward to watching the game with people who get equally as stupid and loud (sorry, excited and passionate) rather than a wife who tells him to be quiet because the baby is asleep. I was happy enough for him to go. Offspring #1 and I watched the first half - we sang the national anthem (#1 made #2 stand up for it too and explained how important the song is and why we have to sing it - very cute), cheered the teams on and clapped for goals - then I had to go do chores and #1 asked if he could watch Cars instead LOL. We did turn it back for the final nailbiting 10 minutes (For non-followers there was 1 point difference, very exciting to watch even for "non-believers" like me!). Hubby arrived home some time later gingerly nursing his wrist. Had he fallen while playing a bit of half-time footy? Had he strained it doing some hand-balls? Had he... nah, can't think of any more! His explanation? He was playing kick-to-kick with a couple of little kids who had dropped in when the ball went over the fence into the neighbouring park. Being the manly man he is he decided that rather than walk around he would jump the fence. The fence that is about 6 feet tall. So he hoisted himself up, twisted around and.... aaaggghhhhh! Pain! But could he let on? Oh no!!! So he stayed, watched the rest of the game, cheered and jeered, drank more beer and eventually wandered home for nursing and sympathy. Those who know me well will know they are in short supply at any time but when it is from doing something blatantly stupid, well... you can draw your own conclusion.

After much icing of the injured site, several painkillers and a not very comfortable night he decided that he would go to the emergency room this morning and get it checked out. The doctor doesn't think he has broken anything but wants it x-rayed to be sure. Because it is a long weekend that can't be done until tomorrow at the hospital but Hubby will probably have to wait several hours (Like 8-10 hours) and not be able to get the results till Thursday (when we were supposed to be going on a little holiday!) or wait till Tuesday, have it done at the local radiology clinic and get the results immediately. He has opted to wait until Tuesday and is hoping that it will have improved somewhat by then. Our holiday is looking iffy at best - he has limited movement of his wrist and cannot weight bear at all so towing the caravan, hitching up, unhitching and setting up the annexe look somewhat dubious. Yes, I could do most of it but not by myself and since he is unable to do much as far as helping with the kids at the moment it wouldn't be much of a break. We will wait and see over the next couple of days but I'm not very hopeful.

So is an injury that occured during a sporting event, but not a sporting event he was physically involved in, still a sporting injury? As Al from Home Improvement would say, "I don't think so, Tim!"