Gunner.

"Gunner was a stray male kelpie who was found under a destroyed mess hut at Darwin Air Force base on 19 February 1942, after Darwin was bombed.

Leading Aircraftman Percy Westcott, one of the two airmen who found Gunner, took ownership of him and became his master and handler. At first, the dog was badly shaken after the bombing, but being only six months old he quickly responded to the men's attention. About a week after, Gunner first demonstrated his remarkable hearing skills. While the men were working on the airfield, Gunner became agitated and started to whine and jump. Not long afterwards, the sound of approaching aeroplane engines was heard by the airmen. A few minutes later a wave of Japanese raiders appeared in the skies above Darwin and began bombing and strafing the town.

Two days later, Gunner began whimpering and jumping again and not long afterwards came another air attack. This set the pattern for the months that followed. Long before the sirens sounded, Gunner would get agitated and head for shelter. Gunner's hearing was so acute he was able to warn airforce personnel of approaching Japanese aircraft up to 20 minutes before they arrived and before they showed up on the radar. Gunner never performed when he heard the allied planes taking off or landing; only when he heard enemy aircraft as he could differentiate the sounds of allied from enemy aircraft.

Gunner was so reliable that Wing Commander McFarlane gave approval for Westcott to sound a portable air raid siren whenever Gunner's whining or jumping alerted him.

Gunner became such a part of the airforce that he slept under Westcott's bunk, showered with the men in the shower block, sat with the men at the outdoor movie pictures, and went up with the pilots during practice take-off."

Information from wikipedia. 

So there. Be kind to animals. You never know what they are capable of, given a chance.

The time we actually were ok with a Disney Princess.

While up in Darwin, my parents took Willow to see Frozen. Afterwards she saw the main characters on a magazine, and got all excited to see Elsa. Now we've downloaded the movie for her, and she's watched it more then I ever want to admit, and Willow is officially Elsa mad.

Anna (L) and Elsa (R).

 As far as Willow is concerned, the whole movie is about Elsa. She doesn't even remember Anna's name, which is strange since Anna features in a lot of more of the movie. Anna is the "one who dies all the time." As in, I'm Elsa, so mummy, can you be the other one who dies all the time? Or "But I need someone to play with me! Who else is going to die?"

Willow has been mentioning on an off for about a month now that she doesn't like her curly hair anymore, and she wants straight hair, or blonde hair. After watching Frozen, she keeps wetting her hair and brushing it straight and pretending it's blonde. (This dates back to an incident where we decided to straighten Willow's hair as a lark, with a straightening iron. Willow was initially apprehensive, saying she liked her curls, but we assured her it was temporary, and didn't she want straight hair like her friend Amber? She sat down perfectly still for 15 minutes until it was done, and then she nearly cried in disappointment when she saw her hair wasn't blonde like Amber's, just straight.) Willow asks me most days to give her "Elsa hair" which.... is tricky, but she seems content with a side ponytail.

She's also a huge fan of Elsa's magical powers, her sparkly blue dress, and her song "Let it Go." Her favourite part is Elsa's cape. I don't mind Elsa's dress- it's something she created with her magic, to reflect who she really is, and after she creates it, she gets such a confidence boost, evidenced by the way she struts through the ice palace she's created and tosses her hair. Before that, she was such a still, stationary character. So, wear whatever makes you feel fabulous, girls. (But don't expect to be comfortable climbing a mountain covered in 20ft of snow while wearing a dress.) Willow's been unfurling my pilates mat in order to wrap it around herself so she can pretend it's Elsa's dress, and she loves to pretending to be Elsa, building a snow castle. 

Has anyone else noticed how crazy big Disney princesses eyes are getting this decade? Both Elsa and Anna posses massive peepers the size of their neck, while Merida and especially Rapunzel in Tangled have hugely massive eyes. I'm not sure what is with this recent shift to large peepers- and yes, I understand Disney Princesses have traditionally not been drawn to scale, but heck, even Cinderella has a more proportionate face. I really feel like Disney let themselves down with the animation for Frozen- it doesn't do the actors any justice.

Willow is 4.

Willow turned 4 with a bang. 4 year olds sure know how to party! We held her birthday at the local zoo, and they reserved an undercover BBQ area for us. About a dozen of Willow's friends came, with their parents. We spent most of the day scattered about the zoo. There were peacocks and peahens with chicks, there was a walk through aviary, snakes, wombats, bats, various monkeys, goats, sheep, maned wolves, geese, dingos, large lizard things, Tasmanian Devils, wallabies, loads of parrots, koalas, loads of feathers on the ground for kids to collect, and lots of birds to chase (while I trailed behind shouting "IF THAT PEACOCK TURNS ON YOU I WON'T SAVE YOU COS YOU DESERVE IT!")
I'm sure there were more animals, but I missed a lot between setting up and trailing after kids who all set off in a large group, then suddenly split off into 4 different groups going in four different directions. I also didn't take a whole lot of photos, so a few of these are stolen from Laura and Karen, who are better organised than I am.

The zoo ran animal talks and feedings throughout the day, so the kids got to pat a baby wombat, see the monkeys get fed, watch maned wolves and dingos being fed, pat a snake and a alligator etc. Aside from the monkeys being fed and patting the koala, alligator and snake, they didn't hang around long for the talks before running off elsewhere. Willow and one of her friends were absolutely fascinated by the Tasmanian devils, a pair of which spent all day hissing and yowling at us. They also seemed fascinated with the tortoise.

The koala photos were.... interesting. I missed the photo of a lifetime when the koala took Willow's hat off her head and began to chew on it. (I was too busy trying to alert to animal keeper, who was distracted by getting the group of children around the koala organised. I dunno, that cotton can't be good for a koalas digestive tract. What if they made us pay the vet bills because I was the idiot taking photos instead of fishing the hat out of it's mouth?) Willow still talks about the koala that tired to eat her hat at her birthday party. She wants it to eat her hat next year.

The koala was REALLY into Willow. After Willow removed her hat, the koala kept reaching out for Willow's head. (To... pat it? Maul it with it's inch long claws?)

Lesson learnt: It's hard to get a photo of a group of kids when they don't know which camera to look at.

You can tell from these three photos that at least one of the kids REALLY loves to pose for photos, and is really photogenic. I actually bribed the kids for this photo, with a lolly. Not pictured: the two kids who ran off because they really hate having their photo taken. 

I got this group shot while the kids were watching a concrete truck do it's concreting thing right next to us. The zoo staff had informed us that they were concreting today, and offered to help us move, but we decided to stay since we figured kids love that kinda stuff. For a good 20 minutes, they were more enthralled as a group than by anything else the zoo had to offer. 

The adults agreed to either hold the next birthday in a housing estate. Or when they get their driveway concreted. Did I mention the kids were really into this? 

So, uh yes. That is a $5 cake from Woolies- jam with fresh cream, decorated with decorations that vaguely represented Frozen (they were kinda snowflake shaped, silver, blue and/or sparkly.) Willow originally wanted a rainbow cake, but then begged for a cake with Frozen on top. M tried baking her a cake- the first one he iced while it was warm, the second was overcooked. (What do you mean, I have to reduce cooking time for a fan forced oven?)

The zoo has a walk through aviary. It was either really cool or really scary, depending on how you felt about birds.

Oh, and the fake snow? Massive hit. A little goes a long way, and we used up only about half the container. It does make a mess, and most parents commented that they "had never seen anything like it" followed by "what the hell is it?"

It was a good day. Willow wants to have her birthday there next year, which I'm ok with.

right now.

Willow riding her bike to childcare is an exercise in patience. Mummy, my legs are tired, she complains, before we've even left our street. Are you really sure you still want to ride to childcare? Yes.
But, we get there in the end. She is so proud to show off her bike to everyone. Did you see my bike? Did you see the purple butterflies on the seat? I rode all the way here!

Right now, life is busy. We seem to gobble up the days. Willow is at childcare Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I use those days to do all the laundry and clean up, but guess whose back at uni? Mmm. Tuesday is Willow's big day out with Ethan- we normally go library, see friends, do a craft, then the two of them play all day together. Since Bunning's opened, every Saturday and Sunday morning they have free kid's craft. Since I think craft is very important for children, but since I also loathe cleaning up afterwards, this is a heaven sent gift.

Willow's birthday is on this Saturday. We're having at the zoo, and asking that everyone pay for their own entry in lieu of a gift. Instead of a lolly bag, Willow's friends are getting a small Arctic animal or two, and a bit of fake snow. Maybe. I mean, I'm the worst with maths, and I can't figure out how much it will expand, and even if it will expand enough for however many kids come. We're also making animal masks, and puppets, and playing limbo, and I need to get off my butt and start wrapping up a parcel for pass the parcel. Willow also wants to play I spy. There are also animal talks throughout the morning, then a few hours break over the heat of the day, then a few more in the afternoon. There is also animal feeding. Whew. I doubt we will be bored. A group of 4 year olds just don't get bored, do they?

Then and now: the courtyard bed.

During the dry midwinter, it our courtyard garden bed seemed to do ok-ish. (The same garden bed back in mid-Autumn was a mud pit.)

Since I photographed Willow with her flowers, she wanted to photograph me with mine. The whispy plant to the right is coriander, the stuff climbing up the fence are peas. The peas went fairly well, although I think they went better by the driveway, where they get full sun. This garden bed gets some morning sun, once the sun clears the house, but the fence blocks it getting afternoon sun. Salad greens and red scarlet runner beans don't like it here. Beetroot, carrot, basil, sunflowers, coriander and parsley seem to like it here, except it floods, and beetroot and carrot don't like that.

Now, in the spring? Willow and I got a carrot each to eat. Willow loved pulling them out of the ground.

I don't know where they came from, but I suspect Willow planted them. (She also planted the parsley which is doing really well, so she's a better gardener than me.) Also, see that bushy looking thing next to Willow as she's pulling up the carrot? That's the coriander you can barely see in the photos from winter- it really took off.

Then, spring. Well, remember the house that they pulled down? The reason I was wandering around after hours was because I was on the prowl for bricks. I carted them all back to the the garden, two by two, until I was thoroughly sick of the job. I used it to build a part of a retaining wall. You can just see it on the left, behind Willow's parsley. It turns out now I need about a third more bricks for the garden :(

The garden bed by the front door. This is where mint and/or chives are supposed to grow. Nothing grew all winter, nothing seems to want to grow this spring. I don't get it. My neighbor has mint in the exact same spot and it's gone crazy. But mine? It keeps dying. Something keeps eating it, despite all the crushed egg shells I dump there.

Behold my massive coriander. It towers over Willow. Do you like my retaining wall?

The other side of the coriander. It's uh... a work in progress.

MissBean's baby beans.

Hanging pot of tomatoes, beans and basil. Yes, they're planted close together... but it's an experiment. Like the Hunger Games or something. Only the best can survive. The pot behind has silverbeet.

Pots hanging from the clotheslines.

Tub to the right of the bird's cage. Malabar spinach, amaranth, cress, beans.

Seedlings. Mostly rainbow beet and corn and beetroot and beans.

By the driveway, under the lemon tree. Beans, tomatoes and perpetual spinach.

Willow must have planted these or something. Mark accidently poisoned them, and I panicked and watered them straight away and hoped they would survive. They didn't.

Then I did some glamourous things with chook poo and other good-for-the-soil stuff, and dug out the plants so I didn't bury them when I raised the soil level.... and then we were in the grip of hellfire hot weather and no rain. The water tanks have been empty for ages. Everything was struggling. We've had plants die- something randomly killed all the beans in one pot, and some beetroots just failed to thrive, and apparently, stevia and mint are delicious and everyone but me should get to eat it.... But whatever. We've put in some beer traps for the slugs, and thickly mulched everything. Then, because there was no grass left in the area we normally have the guinea pigs hutch, we decided to block off the garden best we could, and let them roam free, and find whatever greens they could. First they ate all my basil, then all my parsley. Then they all the bean leaves they could reach, then the long grass we originally hoped they would eat. They knocked over my corn and ate all that. Then all my other plants. We got some good beetroots, and some of the beans were tall enough to escape the guinea pigs.... but they basically stripped the garden.

Since we are looking at moving into our own home really soon, we decided to plant in a new easy care garden. It was something we were going to do anyway when we left, since veggie gardens are rarely attractive. So, stay tuned for the big reveal once the rain stops and we get back out there!

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