Term Three: Week Nine ~ Last Full Week

 Time flies when you are having fun and here we are at week nine of the term and our final full week of our visit with my mom.

Sunday was our quarterly potluck at church. I was super excited that mom was here to attend one as there is so much wonderful food to eat and it is fun to spend extra time chatting with people.

Due to our trip to the Blue Mountains the day before, and then our longer than usual morning at church with potluck, I made sure to take Jack for an extra long walk Sunday afternoon. The trees in our local park are some of my favourites.

A tree in our yard is flowering and although these particular trees are everywhere, I have NEVER seen one flower before EVER in my life. I will be interested to see how big the flowers get.

Our big plan for this week was another trip into the city. Due to industrial action with the ferry company, all our ferries are fare free until early October. This was an excellent opportunity to ride a ferry AND visit one of Monkey's favourite areas - Barangaroo. When we arrived at Circular Quay and found our ferry wharf we had an excellent view of the harbour and the Opera House. Suddenly we noticed that two people were up on top of the largest sail. With my super zoom lens on my DSLR camera I was able to get this photo. Once we were home Monkey and I did some Googling. Initially we thought it was filming for an upcoming Batman movie. But further research a few days later determined it was a publicity stunt for Global Batman Day and the movie notice was a rumour. I didn't even know there WAS a Global Batman Day - but it was fun to watch them up there.

A beautiful view of Circular Quay and the buildings behind as our ferry headed out into the Harbour.

The Museum of Contemporary Art building...

I never tire of taking photographs of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. If you look closely you can see some scaffolding on the bridge. We thought this was because they would be starting the set up for the New Year's Eve fireworks. But it turns out they started a MASSIVE project (in early 2025 no less) with painting and repairs to prepare for the centenary of it opening which will be in 2032.

I have taken several ferry rides around the harbour in all the years I've lived here but never one that stopped at Luna Park. I've always had to admire the attraction from across the Harbour with my zoom lens. Due to routine maintenance on the large ferris wheel, it wasn't as spectacular as it could have been, but still exciting to see close up.

The tall building on the right is Monkey's favourite - The Crown Casino at Barangaroo.

I love a different perspective of the bridge and the Opera House.

The "other" bridge in Sydney. This is the ANZAC Bridge (the other half of the bridge is off camera to the left) and it is also known by the locals as Madonna's Bra!!

Our final destination was Barangaroo - Monkey's favourite spot in Sydney. Here is another view of his favourite building - The Crown casino.

I loved how the sunshine shone off all the buildings near The Crown.

After visiting Barangaroo for awhile we hopped back on the ferry and returned to the city for some other site seeing and shopping. These aren't the best photos because I was trying to take them at angles that removed people walking along the street - but I love all the different architecture around the city.

There was MUCH excitement in the house Tuesday night as these fantastic light sabers arrived during the day. Monster bought them as a special gift for the three of them. They are the talk on the street now as several kids and teenagers have noticed them when they've been duelling after dark. As you can see from the photo they light up and there are sound effects and music as well.

Yet another Hibiscus flower spotted in another yard in the neighbourhood. This was as close as I could get with just my phone camera.

A super cute photo of Jack napping on the couch while mom and I read. He has a hard life - can't you tell??!!

Another afternoon visit with Monkey where Jack allowed him to sit next to mom.

While doing some shopping at our regular shopping centre, I came across a Querkle colouring book at Kmart. I have always wanted one so mom bought one for each of us and we spent an afternoon colouring. If you are interested in knowing more about them click on the word as I've attached a link to it.

Saturday was another afternoon walk with Jack in the park. More Water Dragon spotting. If you look closely you can spot one in the top middle of the left photo, and the far right of the right photo just next to the two tree branches. Again, I'm looking forward to some time with my DSLR camera, and NO dog, so I can really focus on photographing these amazing creatures.

Munchkin finished one Woobles character while Grandmama was here.

Term Three: Week Eight ~ Family Excursion

 

To start off my new post I will share the flowers and plants photos I took over the week. The top two photos are of a lovely ground cover plant that I found during a neighbourhood walk with Jack. A quick Google search informs me that it is called "Parrot's Beak" or "Coral Gem". I had never seen it before but it is a beautiful colour and a lovely way to provide ground cover in a garden.

The next set of photos are of the Hibiscus plant in our church garden. I was astounded when I saw it, as I have never, in all the years we've been in this building, seen so many blooms on the plant at one time. It looked absolutely amazing.

Finally, the bottom two photos. The first photo was from a neighbourhood walk with Jack (left photo) where I found a beautiful pink flowering gum tree. The second photo was a rock wall at The Blue Mountains covered with these tiny flowers. Google tells me it appears to be Kenilworth Ivy, which is commonly known as Ivy-Leaved Toadflax - a MUCH better name!!

Monday Jack took me to our local park for his walk and we spotted Water Dragons everywhere. I only had my phone with me so couldn't get photos any closer or I risked Jack trying to lunge at them. I will look forward to spending some time in the park after my walking duties have finished so I can take my DSLR camera and focus on some nicer photos of the wildlife to be found.

Although Jack was fiercely protective of mum and I, he slowly learned to trust Monkey. We think it was because he is naturally quieter and calmer than the others. Thus we were able to snap some photos of the two of them together one afternoon.

A gift from my brother was two tins of corned beef hash. I ate this regularly as a kid/teen and hadn't eaten any since moving to Australia. What a treat it was to enjoy this childhood meal. Now to try the tins that are available here and see if they are the same.

When mum and I took our trip to the libraries together previously, I totally forgot to pick up all the books I had put on reserve. We weren't planning another trip, so I cancelled all the books at my regular library and put as many of them on reserve at my back-up library as I could. Then, Friday morning, I took a quick bus trip there to pick them all up. Again, they are all YA and Middle Grade books (or junior fiction as they are generally catalogued here) for my September Readathon event.

Saturday was our big excursion for my mum's visit. We packed the whole family in the car and headed to Katoomba to visit The Blue Mountains. It was a glorious day and we were excited to show her something outside of Sydney.

The viewpoint is a breath taking area that gives you a great view of The Three Sisters and the wider national park.

The trees all around are lovely as well and I enjoyed trying to snap some good pictures of them.

Some of the men (Hubby, Monster and Monkey) decided to do the Giant Stairway walking track that takes them all the way down close to the Three Sisters. Mum, Munchkin and I stayed up at the viewpoint and visitors centre. Below are pictures taken by Monster and Monkey as they walked down the 888 steps before then having to climb all the way back up! The photos give it MUCH more justice than just words.

The boys all really REALLY want me to do this trek with them but I think my fear of heights and general poor balance will freak me out too much.

The views during the walk are just stunning. All of the above photos were taken by Monster.

The above selection of photos were taken by Monkey and again show the beauty and wonder of the mountains. I particularly love the photo of the stairs with the surrounding ferns. Also, that is Monster in the photos just above. He is so rarely in our homeschool photos now so I was pleased that he gave me permission to share them.

Two additional photos that the boys took: Monster's photo on the left and Monkey's photo on the right. When they got to the bottom of the stairs and were resting, this little bird showed up and hung around for AGES. According to my quick Google search, it appears to be a Grey Shrikethrush.

While hubby and the two older boys did all their stair climbing, Grandmama, Munchkin and I enjoyed fun and games with this Sulphur Crested cockatoo in the look out area. Not surprisingly they are very tame because people are ALWAYS around, so I was able to get pretty close. I still used my super zoom lens though so as not to frighten him unnecessarily.

There was beautiful foliage to enjoy as well. The left photo is a lovely plant I had never seen before called Safari Gold Strike. Then my mum and I noticed this gorgeous red flowered tree that I correctly guessed was a Rhododendron tree. As I was walking by the woman who lives there was outside gardening so I stopped to ask and admire. She was lovely, we enjoyed a nice chat, and she gave me permission to take the photo.

It was a wonderful trip and a great day out.

NOT my best Wordle week ever!!