Adelaide Market

There will be no blog posts after Thursday because we're going down the York Penninsula for Easter weekend.

Easter is a big deal around here - a big deal for chocolate eggs and for going away. The traffic jams are legendary. Tomorrow morning we are going to the Adelaide food market to stock up for the weekend. We went last week and Frost really enjoyed the abundance of lollies.

There are many speciality stores which sell everything from asian greens to kangaroo meat. The next photo is mum at the Kangaroo meat butcher. Frost is covering his eyes from the horror of meat.

I have been enjoying fresh passionfruit and tropical fruit. On our last visit the passionfruit were 5 for AU$2 and I bought a dragonfruit for $4.

Here is Frost showing the interior of the dragon fruit which he found quite impressive. It takes mildly sweet like rosewater and is reminiscent of a prickly pear fruit.
We bought some pastries and bagels as well although Frost and Wren found the bagels 'different' and not quite right.

Here are Mum and Wren admiring a baker's stand.

While at the market I got into an altercation with a man while drawing cash at an ATM. He pushed in before we were done and stood alarmingly close to me. When I told him that he was rude (this was at some point into our 'discussion') he said I had no right to use the ATM because my card wasn't from that bank and that I was stealing the supermarket cart! Obviously things are different in Australia.

"You woke too early." "No no no, don't SAY THAT!"

Wren was up at 4.30am again interrupting a lovely dream I was having about falling in love with an enigmatic Chinese immigrant who ran a factory in China with a waterfall in it. He was a bit like Willy Wonker and I was quite captivated. I think I may have been a customs agent since the only TV I have been watching is Border Security. I tried to return to China but Wren was insistently awake. We argued about it and by 5am he had won.

I am sulking.

Tonight we are going to put him to bed a bit after 8pm instead of 7.30am. I am going to sleep in Frost's room and ignore any waking before 5am.

Lets see how that goes shall we?

Kiddichino

The coffee shops in Adelaide offer the typical US fare as well as kiddichinos - small cups of thick milk foam sprinkled with chocolate powder and with a side marshmallow.

The kids love their kiddichinos and even though Wren spills his fairly frequently it gives Mum and I time to down our lattes and share a moment.

Wren is now fetching an apple to add to his making "an airport" game. When I ask him what happens at the airport he tells me all the things "are going airport, " where they will "go vroom at the airplane."





Mum took the kids to the playground this afternoon and I washed my hair, lay in the hammock and generally recovered from vacation. Many of you may recognize the problem that when you take your kids on holiday you still need a holiday from your holiday (aka a break from the kids). Until we are rich or old enough to solve this problem vacation is both wonderful and an exhausting break from the kids routines. Everything from bedtime to dinner has to be reinvented.

Fauxhawk Koalaville

Frost had a haircut today. He told the hairdresser he wanted his hair dyed black and in a mohawk. He explained he wanted it black because you never see guys with blonde mohawks. The hairdresser suggested a partial mohawk "like that soccer player Beckham" thus it was that Frost the dude was transformed into Frost with the Fauxhawk.

No pictures now!! Speak to my agent.

Yeah!

This morning Wren saw the koala in the tree, it was curled up against the sky. "It is like a moon" he said.

He has been told many times not to throw things at puppy Roy. He threw a plastic action figure at him this evening. "Wren, granny is upset. Do_not_throw_things_at_Roy!" I said.

"I win!" said Wren.

It feels like Koalaville around here. I have seen 4 koala in the trees today - 2 on Mum's property and 2 while driving along a neighborhood road. They are big fat lumps. This picture is unusual in that the koala is awake and you can see his tufty ears.

The many uses of an iPod

Yesterday Mervyn bought us an iPod dock / bedside clock combo. The idea was that I would be able to tell the time when Wren wakes in the night rather than waving the flashlight around the room looking for the time on my analog wristwatch. We are also going to take the dock to Port Julia to make sure the kids can dance to Michael Jackson at the beach. Its a lovely little thing with a bright blue light display and doubles as a night light for Wren. "BLUE" he said, in the dark.

This morning when Wren woke up the blue time said 4.35am . I can't believe that I have crossed the international date line, adjusted from NSW to SA time and now we have another hour of 'daylight saving' adjustment to contend with. With 'old' time this was 5.35am yesterday. Argh.

Thankfully I have been able to keep us occupied in the bedroom for almost an hour while we explore the features of the iPod touch, via Mum's wireless connection. In Seattle, I don't bother much with the internet via iPod but I have been enjoying it and checked my email in bed (not much of it since everyone except Reiko has stopped emailing me while I am away). Wren likes to look at the photos of himself as a baby and I showed him how we could check on the weather in Durban, Seattle and Adelaide. It looks as if Seattle will be warming up this week (finally), we are going to have mid 70s sunny weather here in Australia while Durban (South Africa - where Dad lives) is the place to be for heat and humidity.

Also, did you know that an iPod with a white message screen makes a great flashlight? We crept through the dark house by the light of the iPod and didn't wake anyone. In a few minutes I will be able to turn on the tea kettle which roars like a jet engine and make myself some instant coffee. Then the day will have begun.

Wren is watching Dora the Explorer reruns. Since the Dora marathon he watched on the airbus he is now a great fan and choses Dora / Diego over Bananas in Pajamas.

The Snake's Nest

A cool change has come through and temperatures have dropped from the low 90s to the mid 70s. With cooler weather we decided to go for a short hike down the ridge facing Granny's house. The ridge is part of a nature reserve with low scrub and a dry red earth path zig-zagging from the road down to the valley floor.

Here is the hiking party (minus the photographer) on Granny's road.

We set off from the road and followed the path on a long traverse. Wren walked all on his own with many warnings not to walk on the crumbled outer bank where he could tumble down the hillside. Roy, Mum's cairn terrier puppy came with us. He and Wren have a slightly strained relationship because Wren's noise and sudden motion scares Roy and Roy has sharp teeth and can be jumpy. Mum or I planned to walk in front in case there were snakes on the path but Frost found the pace too slow and went a bit ahead.

As we came to a slight rocky bend in the trail I noticed that Frost was passing a large moulted snake skin. It was lying on the grass and more of it trailed into a cavity in the pile of rocks. It was a very snaky place. I picked up the snakeskin and reminded Frost to be on the lookout for snakes because this was a sign they were about. Then I said we should move on because this rock pile looked "snaky" and we shouldn't let Wren and Roy hang out by the "snakes nest".

The snakeskin on my keyboard.

At that point Frost became very quiet. We walked on a few steps and then Frost said we should go home. Shortly afterwards he said he felt sick, was exhausted, was sleepy, was hungry and very hot and thirsty and we really needed to go home NOW.

We sat down for a snack to help some of his complaints but he wasn't happy. I think the idea of the snakey nest on the trail unsettled him. Wren wanted to see the snakeskin but Frost was not that keen.

I explained how my parents had scared me with all their comments and warnings about snakes, terrorists, flash-floods in our cave campsites, burglers, spiders etc but that I had never had any of those bad things happen. Mum added that she was about 99.9% sure he would NOT see a snake during his visit.

He felt a bit better and we made it to the bottom of the hill. The return trail was a near-vertical scramble up from the lower boundary of Mum and Mervyn's land. There is no trail so we pulled ourselves up hanging onto olive branches and stray shrubs. The dried grass lying down was very slippery and it was hard to keep our footing, especially pushing Wren's big heavy self up ahead. Frost did best. Wren kept saying "I can do it! We are doing it!"

Eventually we made it back to the house and Frost was proud to tell the story.

We have set a tent up in the garden and the kids are enjoying lounging in it even in the overcast weather.

The kids are acting up

Frost and Wren are enjoying the new rules of holiday - more 'lollies' and 'screen time' at lunch.

While I did yoga this morning, Frost confided to Granny that "If I nag, Shannon gives in after about 14 or 15 times nagging. She gives me candy or screen time."

For his part, Wren has started to threaten "going to have 'nother tantie!!" when he gets frustrated or upset with me. This brings me running to help because his tanties are very noisy and often involve throwing heavy objects.

Mining Limestone by Frost

Today we went mining for limestone. We didn't know what it was at first so we had to take some bits to my Grandad. He is a geologist and biologist so we took it to him. He said it wasn't limestone. He said it was a white chalky substance. So we went and dug some more. Eventually we found a big cave of it and we took some off and put vinegar on it and it fizzed and bubbled and you could see tiny bubbles. If you put it close to your ear you could hear it fizz. Only limestone fizzes and bubbles. The first limestone we found was white and powdery. But then WREN found that another rock that was grey is also limestone and it fizzes and bubbles better.

The pictures below show Wren and me at the rocks. We hammered them out. Wren hammered the rocks on the ground and then imagined he broke them. He is on granny's PRIVATE road. Shannon is looking over us.



This next picture is Wren being a geologist. He pours vinegar, listens to the fizzing and hammers his rocks.

Pouring vinegar:

Laying out the rock collection and seeing bubbles:

Listening for fizzing:


I have a ph and chlorine tester. It turns out that normal has a 7 rating but Granny's water has a 7.2 rating which means its a bit alkaline because it is over 7. Their water comes from a well and water with crushed up limestone in it has somewhere between 7.8 and 8.2 rating. Probably about an 8 rating. That is quite alkaline. We crushed up the white limestone, put it in the small tube and then put 5 drops of the red Ph test in the small tube and then we shook it up and looked at the colors. It looked about an 8. I subtracted 2 from the 8.2 and added 2 from the 7.8 because it was between them. See. Here is a picture of my test for the experiment with the limestone.



The Terrible Worm Squash
This morning Wren found a millipede inside and was looking at it. Frost decided to keep it in a box and feed it. He asked Mervyn what they ate because he is studying invetebrates then he went outside and began collecting food for the millipede.

While outside Wren put the millipede inside a book and squashed it. "I go snip snap and he is squash!" said Wren.

Frost was in tears. He is still too upset to talk about it.

That is why I cannot write more about it on this blog post (per Frost's instructions). Wren is in the doghouse but shouts triumphantly "I SQUASH 'IM!"

Remote Control Guy

On 'dump day' when people left out their household rubbish for collection we collected a few remote controlled cars (and a collection of remotes). Due to dead batteries we haven't tested them but Wren is very possessive of his collection of remote controls. He carries them around with us and transports them in the dump truck. Here were are going out with remotes:

Cleland Wildlife Park - Adelaide Hills

Yesterday we visited the Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. It is a wonderful sanctuary for Australian animals - many are in enclosures you can walk through and feed them by hand. The entrance takes you past the souvenir shop and Frost told the woman at the counter "I am from America" and then "Can I buy some souvenirs? I am collecting souvenirs." This is very funny to me. I feel like a local returning to a sometime home but Frost is an unapologetic tourist buying funny stuffed koalas with flags.

Kangaroo feeding
Wren & Frost loved the kangaroos. Here is a picture of Frost feeding a big red kangaroo who was basking in the sun. The kangaroos were grazing over a wide area and others lying in the sun. The trees in the paddock were all fenced to prevent 'wild' koala from climbing up them. This was kind of funny because in Seattle we see trees encased like this to protect them from beaver attack and with metal bands around to stop squirrel climbing up.


Can I touch the joey in its mother's pouch?"
Frost is all about extreme sports - even in the animal petting department. After he had fed a number of kangaroos he sidled up to a eastern grey mother kangaroo with a large baby in its pouch. The baby's legs were poking out. The kangaroo was a bit skittish and turned its head away instead of eating so Granny said not to touch it. Frost really really wanted to touch the baby joey. I sat down next to the kangaroo with him and he reached out very tentatively and stroked the legs of the baby joey. The legs were the only things sticking out.

Here is Wren being a Kangaroo next to the mother with the joey. Wren enjoyed chasing the kangaroos although they did not seem to mind.


Do we need to see the Koalas? We have them in the garden.
Here is Wren standing in his stroller by the koala exhibit. Each little enclosure has at least one koala up in the shade. From time to time one climbs down and runs to the next 'tree' to find fresh leaves which are provided daily.

Potteroos in the Bushes
On the way out Frost noticed an animal in the bushes. It was a family of potteroos running wild. Apparently they do very well at Cleland which is fenced and kept free of predators like fox and feral domestic cats. Here the boys try and feed the potteroos kangaroo food. I am calling them potteroos but they may be Bettongs. I have been studying the guide to Australian animals for a while and still cannot differentiate the various small pouched things. I overheard an American tourist saying loudly "all these Australian animals are like versions of the kangaroo. They are all different sized kangaroos."

E-MEW not E-MOO
Apparently I have been very UN-Australian in my pronounciation of Emu. I have been calling them e-moos not e-MEWS. I am on notice to improve my accent. It is odd, but when I am in the US I am considered South African / Australian but when I am in those countries I am clearly Not-From-Here.

Last time we saw emus we had a problem with them trying to mate with us. I mentioned this to Stewart, a family friend, and he said that if they bother you you should raise a hand in the air like a long neck with your wrist bent for form a head. This stops the emu from its attack.

These emus did not attack or try to mate with us. They walked around making strange booming noises in their throats, like people drumming very fast.


Here is Wren looking up in the sky to see a big black goana that has climbed up a tree.


Snakes
There is a reptile house at the park and it contained a number of the snakes including the brown snake which occurs in the Adelaide Hills. We saw "a really nasty snake" called a Mulga snake (one of the largest venomous snakes) and the inland Taipan which is one of the world's most venomous snakes.

We were interested to learn that snakes can be rated for their danger as well as with the LD50 rating of their venom (LD50 is the amount of a material, given all at once, which causes the death of 50% (one half) of a group of test animals. The LD50 is one way to measure the short-term poisoning potential (acute toxicity) of a material.) The brown snake was given a rating of 14 for overall danger - a combination of venom toxicity, position of fangs, aggression, amount of venom and frequency of bites occuring. I have not been able to find out any more about this general rating but it was fun for Frost to have a number for the snake.

We are now going shopping (another post coming on that) and we have to go.