May 17th, 2009
Our kitten is stuck up a tree. She got stuck up the tree on Saturday. But fell out and landed safely. Yesterday she climbed the tree again. She seems less keen on the falling out idea this time. She climbed the tree in the afternoon and we tried to coax her down. Then we went to a birthday party. When we got home we tried to coax her down after dinner too.
This morning I’m sorry I didn’t let my son hold the torch. I was really tired and angry that the cat was stuck up a tree. All he wanted to do was help with the cat rescuing but I was in the mood for the weekend to just end. So I didn’t let him hold the torch even though I think it was what he wanted more than anything. I just wanted everything to end. Instead I was up today at 4:30 am trying to coax her down to. Then at 7:30 am she went higher. And higher. And then across. I think we are going to need a cherry picker or a scraper for her now.
So I’m sorry kiddo I don’t know why I didn’t let you hold that torch. I hope we get a chance after work to try rescuing the kitten again.
Kitten in a Tree
Categories: Home |
Tags: Kitten | No Comments
January 10th, 2009
Difficult to spend some time alone at a wedding. Defeats the purpose of going really. After a short but sweet ceremony the party retired to the Mosman Park Bowls club for some bowls and fun. I spent some time with son on the green figuring out the art of the bowl. The general principle is simple, but the execution is difficult. Roll an unevenly weighted bowl down a green and get it as close as possible to the target. Afterward, we sat at the far side of the green, watching the boats of the river. The last time we spent that much time by that stretch of river, I told him, he was in a baby sling, and we were spending evenings walking around Mosman Park.
Categories: Uncategorized |
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January 9th, 2009
I carry a lot of the day home with me on the train. I try to throw it off on the journey home. I can stretch out because the train I catch on the first leg of my journey is all but empty. I can read even when the train is full. I can look out the window or bang my head against it. But it is so hard to throw the day off completely even once home. In fact, I would rather not throw it off at all, but start it again.
How to kick back onto the domestic track once home again? I don’t know what works for me yet, at least it always seems to be a reluctant transference. I find then that one strategy which works for me is to quell reluctance by giving over into the random or spontaneous. A resource that I will build tonight with son then is a dad lucky dip lucky dip dad.
A collection of slips of paper with fun, mundane, boring, exciting, unusual, regular, magical, ordinary actions spelled out, to be drawn on and enjoyed for all the time they offer when I am at my most reluctant.
Categories: Home |
Tags: work | No Comments
January 6th, 2009
I have handstand training wheels on. I have never been able to do handstands but my project at the moment is to fix this error. This is somewhat of an offshoot of the yoga project but essentially a nice stand alone activity also. In short, the handstand project involves putting two hands on ground, rolling gently backward, then kicking legs foward and up. Like a frog trying to do a faceplant. This at least is a semi-regular outcome, but gradually I am feeling strength and balance growing. It is a nice activity to do with son in the back garden. His methodology is a bit more exuberant than my own. His method involves getting naked, running ten metres then throwing hands onto the ground and jumping up. We have a few laughs, and it is a nice antidote to an afterrnoon at the shops.
Categories: Mucking Around |
Tags: handstand, training, yoga | No Comments
January 5th, 2009
We have recently returned from a playgroup collective family holiday in Busselton, south of Perth WA. Many children who have all known one another and played together from birth came along and everyone had a great time. There were many one minutes spent- not necessarily in one-on-one time. More one-on-twenty time in a kind of rotating rugby scrum of kids and games and scattered colourful plastic plates and cups.
On the last night of the trip, I bundled up my son from out of his bed, and carried him asleep to the beach, which was approx 100m away from our dormitories. He did not wake up, and even when I sat down on the sand he was still snoozing. Gradually he began to rub his eyes and woke up to the lapping of the ocean against the beach. I had brought him out into the night at 2am to see the sky without the glare of the city lights. And the entire dome of heaven was ablaze!
He looked up and then closed his eyes again and said ‘Dad why did you bring me to the beach’.
I said, ‘I promised while you were going to sleep that I would bring you out to see the stars.’
He looked up again at the night-sky and then said ‘Oh. Can we go back to bed now?’
Now that we are home again, he had made a picture sky of gold stars, and painted two pictures with flaming meteorites. A worthwhile trip outside into the night, and well worth the dead arms, for the sound of the beach lapping on the sand at night, and the glow of distant stars filling the sky.
Categories: Nature |
Tags: holiday, stars | No Comments
December 6th, 2008
Saturday is yoga day. Today’s class was the last for a while, with Christmas and other celebrations taking up the weekends ahead. I have come to rely on this weekly class to get my head sorted after a work week. The first term I went along and watched, but parents are invited to join in too at the class. Before class, we sit and have a drink at a coffee shop, and after we go to the local markets for supplies and time permitting, a trip to the second-hand book store.
Categories: Mucking Around |
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December 4th, 2008
I had work all over me and inside my head when I got home today. The request when I walked through the door was ‘dad do you want to build a cubby?’.
In truth I wanted to build a cardboard box which dould be locked from the inside and thrown into a chasm and carried down an underground river before disgorging contents in a cupboard somewhere. Instead I said ‘oh sure! but first let’s spend some time outside while it is still light.’
So I watered plants while the cats chased around and finally we played some tennis which helped to clear the head a bit. Throw, hit fetch throw.
Finally, after dinner, we built the cubby, a simple model so far, just sheets draped over the top bunk and a mattress underneath. Too tired to read, I made up two stories but can only remember the second:
The curious cat had purple pants because he had fallen into some paint. He was walking along a wall and slipped and got paint on his pants. All the other animals laughed and said, ‘Hey do you know you have purple pants?’ But the cat smiled and said, ‘Oh yes, I like them very much.’
Categories: Mucking Around |
Tags: bedtime, story, tennis | No Comments
December 3rd, 2008
A nice, windy evening for a spot of tennis. Not everyone has a backyard, but tennis can provide hours of fun and a little bit of walking if you have enough grass at your disposal, either on the block or in a nearby park. Tonight, before the sun had started setting, we spent a good half hour outside: throw the ball, ball is hit, race to see who can collect the ball. A mean double-handed forehand results in the occasional moment of risk to dad. These $2 tennis balls are akin to doggie chew-toys, they fly like missiles. There is lots of time for weeding, and saying hello to the guinea pigs, and practicing handstands. Eventually, we adjourn inside for some Uno, some dinner, and some reading before bed.
Categories: Mucking Around |
Tags: backyard, bedtime, tennis | No Comments
November 23rd, 2008
We have been blessed with a relatively cool November thus far, even receiving some nice rain.
I thought that we had seen the last of the snail hordes with the end of winter. But the late spring rain has brought the little green munchers out again. Although they rampage through the vegie patch I can’t stay mad at them, they just wave their little eye-stalks at me and off they go.
It is usually around hometime when I am asked to go on snail collecting missions with the little one, when I too am at my most snail-like I suspect. Slow-moving, with eyes on stalks from looking at a screen all day.
Yesterday I drew a snail onto a piece of A4 green paper, cut it out, and wrote spaces for the letters of S _ _ _ _ to be filled in (while watching snails naturally). Tonight I threw in the first four stanzas of William Cowper’s “The Snail” for good measure, downloadable here in Word or PDF format.
Learning Outcomes: Writing, 17th C Poetry
Categories: Nature, Words |
Tags: observation, poetry, snails, writing | No Comments
November 17th, 2008
Resurfacing for air after partner’s 30th birthday party . Setup, the big day and clean-up and then back to work on Monday. Luckily the kids took care of each other – doing laps around the house, etc. Sunday was cleaning day, and by the end of the day, didn’t have much washing up left in me. Sadly, needed to bottle homebrew which had been sitting in the fermenter for about 2 weeks already. So, son and I spent a quality hour and a half washing bottles and doing three times tables. I bottle 27 bottles usually, hence the three times tables, but will work equally well with 28 bottles, 30, or 32, for 2,4,6 or 8 times tables as well. If I have two lots of three bottles how many bottles do I have. Etc.
Learning outcomes: Running-around-house, Alchemy, 3 times table
Categories: Home, Numbers |
Tags: 3 times table, homebrew | No Comments
