We Went Camping In The Kanangra-Boyd National Park

Spectacular is it not? Though of course these photos don't do justice to what it was like to stand on edge of that chasm and contemplate your own mortality, as it were.

Pretty humbling, and if like Tash and I you're afraid of heights, then nerve-wracking as well. Though not as bad as the time I climbed Tintagel Castle. Now that sucked.

We went camping last weekend with four other families from Lawson, and on the Saturday took the short drive from the Boyd River camping ground to Kanangra Walls.

Here we look east past the Kanangra Walls on the right towards the Blue Mountains in the distance, not so far as the kookaburra flies.

It was a great weekend - we saw this cute little wallaby, as well as a mob of kangaroos, plus one night a few of us were lucky enough to see a greater glider.

Easter Hat Parade Birthday Extravaganza

Thought it was impossible to dye your skin with food colouring? Well think again! Here is young Zac modelling a blue Avatar-style skin look achieved with food colouring mixed with shampoo, poured over the hair and allowed to run down his body while his clever Dad ran off to get the camera. An amazing achievement and great parenting. It took only an hour to clean his skin with shaving cream - handy household tip!

We were hoping to dye Zac's hair for the Easter Hat Parade at Lawson Public School, but sadly only Tash got to wear a hat this year and Zac's hair gel didn't hold either.

But it was a fun morning, and next day was the start of the Easter weekend. Tash had her 7th birthday on Easter Monday, and below are some of her friends and Zac playing Musical Statues in the living room at Badgery Crescent, with our cool neighbour Zoe from up the road doing the music. We played Pass the Parcel, Egg and Spoon Race, Sleeping Lions, unsuccessfully tried a game of String Surprise, and had an Easter Egg hunt in the back garden.

All the kids went wild from eating chocolate and drinking lemonade and then went home to tear up their own places as well.

Tree House Diary #1

After Zac got a treehouse book for Xmas, it seemed the sensible thing to do to actually build one of the suckers.

So that's what we've been doing. We found a good spot between two of the giant pine trees in our back garden, then adapted a plan from the book and began to build.

It's been a slow process, but using wood from under the house and some borrowed tools, we've managed to construct a sturdy frame which supports even me.

Next up, some walls and a roof, and a rope ladder for access.

Ant.

Coffs Harbour, Xmas 2009

Just after Xmas 2009 we drove north to Coffs Harbour to visit Jude's sister Lara and her family for the New Year.

We also met our friends Joe and Danielle up there, along with their son Damien. Joe is a talented photographer, and took some great shots of Jude and the kids. Here's Zac with white zinc, Jude and Tash on the dodgems, and Tash on the giant water slide at the Big Banana.

Ant.

Zac's Cricket Team

This is Zac's cricket team for season 2009-10. Note that there are eleven boys in the photo, the ideal number for a team playing cricket.

The U12 Hazelbrook Bombers are, top row l to r: Reuben, Josh (c), Cohen, Matt, Emrys, Gideon, Gabriel, and bottom row l to r: Sam, Gabriel, Thomas and Zac.

After a sluggish start to the season (half of the boys hadn't ever played cricket with a hard ball before) the team hit its straps and went through the U12 'B' division undefeated.

Following a couple of years playing in England with the squidgy orange variety, Zac found it difficult to adapt to a proper cricket ball and the quite remarkable pace some of these kids can generate. Yet by the last league game of the season, he had improved so much that he batted for an hour and half (more than his old man ever did) in a partnership of 50. Despite the sledging.

This photo was taken during the Grand Final, just after the Bombers had dismissed Katoomba for 73. By close of play they had reached 3-55 with victory in sight. The following Saturday, Hazelbrook captain and vice-captain Josh Kitchner and Reuben Chowdhury unleashed a storm of stroke play against the Katoomba bowlers. With Josh ending on 106 not out, the Bombers were able to declare their innings closed on 3-240 just two hours into the morning's play, and the win was soon complete.

Ant.

Zombie Zac and the Billy Cart of Doom

Here are Zac dressed as a zombie for a school assembly, and Tash, not dressed as a zombie, proudly showing off our billy cart.

It took us a few weeks, but we finally collected all the things we needed to put it together - wheels, the frame from an old barbecue, a shopping cart, some old rope, a few nuts and bolts and washers.

So thanks to all the people who left their junk outside in the council clean-up.

Sadly, not long after the billy cart had been created, it flew down a steep and bendy hill and crashed into the gutter.

Unfortunately, Zac was driving at the time, and moments after he was in the gutter as well.

Here is the proof. Scabs.

See if you can spot the hidden six-year old in the photo.

Ant.

We didn't go to Echo Point

Well, that's not strictly true. We've been to Echo Point a number of times since we moved out here to the Blue Mountains.

Echo Point is in Katoomba, the biggest township up here, and as you can see, it's where you get the biggest views, looking out over the Jamison Valley towards Mt Solitary, or nearer to the Three Sisters.

I never get tired of the spot. It at once puts you in your place, a mere speck against nature's backdrop, and yet at the same time opens up vistas inside yourself, vistas too easily forgotten or ignored in the day-to-day.

But these excellent photos were taken by Meryl, Judy's sister, who has come out from England with a friend Sam to stay with us for a couple of weeks before flying up to Coffs Harbour to see Lara and the gang.

This is my first post on the blog for a few weeks, which I guess means that we're well and truly settling in now and have slowed down with the touristy stuff. It's not so interesting posting entries about shopping and walking the kids to school.

Fascinating though that kind of thing might be to me.

Ant.