Happy Fall!

Dear all,

It has been a couple weeks of relative calm.  A couple earth tremors but aside from that it has been very calm in a very good way.

After a few good rainstorms and some amazing late summer weather, everything is green and beautiful.  Now is the time to come to Yarra Junction!

This picture both shows the green grass and green trees and that Skyler got her crushed cello fixed!  Things are very peaceful at the house.

Today's theme is "Kangaroo Stories".  The first is from our ride to school on Wednesday of this week.  We headed out on our bicycles on the way to school.  Two kangaroos were near the road and decided to panic - when seeing the Partridge Family on bicycles heading towards them.  They bounded off down the road and then decided to come back towards us.  When they were about 10 feet away (uh sorry, 3 metres) they headed toward the fences and proceeded to jump into them.  After a few more minutes of jumping around they just headed away from the direction we came.  It was certainly the closest we have come to a jumping kangaroo.

Phineas, Lincoln, and I went to Chum Creek today - one of the sites of the bushfires.  It was quite an incredible sight to see so many burned trees, mile after mile.  We volunteered at a animal sanctuary by rebuilding fences and habitats.  We actually got to pet a baby kangaroo (a "Joey") who was injured and being nursed back to health.  It quite an experience.   

Be well.

Nord

p.s. - in case anyone at home is counting or calling we are now 15 hours ahead of Eastern time.  In a couple weeks we will be 14 hours ahead.

Singing and biking in the rain

Dear all,

School was cancelled again on Tuesday as the forecast was for high winds and warmer temperatures.  By evening the winds were still quite high and we were wondering whether to head back to Yarra Junction or stay in Melbourne.  We went into the grocery store for a few items and came out to a downpour!

It really was a wonderful sight ... people were out dancing in the rain and quite literally screaming for joy.  Then we realized that our car was about a mile and half away and the rain wasn't going to let up.  Hmmmm.

The rain put out the fires and has made our community green again, it is really wonderful.  The green crops have also pulled the kangaroos from the hills into our front yard.  They bound in front of us as we cycle to school - it is very neat.  It is also very interesting to watch the kangaroos go between the farmers' fields.  You would think that an animal that can jump so high and far would leap right over a fence.  Instead they crawl under the fences and get through surprisingly small holes.

Wednesday was our first day we actually had to ride our bicycles in the rain.  Margaret and I were downtown and kept waiting for the rain to let up before we headed home (about 2.5 miles).    We decided that it wasn't going to let up so we left and the skies really opened up.  Then minutes after we arrived home, it stopped raining and the skies started to clear.

We are now scanning the classifieds for a a car.

Be well,

Nord

Exciting news of the week

Dear all,

On the 24th of February, Lindsey and Will (Margaret's brother) Heron were blessed with a baby daughter Lucy.  It is very exciting news.  Today, Margaret got a chance to speak to Lindsey and Will.  Lincoln and Kipling also got a chance to talk to their Uncle Will ... and they did talk to him ... about Legos.  Uncle Will is a very understanding uncle.

We would have liked to report that our exciting news was a huge rainstorm ... but no such luck.  We had another school day cancelled on Friday and will likely have another on Tuesday.  We did go into Melbourne on Friday to visit another museum and have some amazing Italian food.  

The people here could not be nicer through this whole stretch and clearly take a lot of pride in their home communities.  Numerous people have gone out of their way to apologize for the weather / fires and reassure us that it is never like this. 

It was reported in the paper the other day that Melbourne has received between 0.1" and 0.2" of rain so far this year and last year it had received over two inches by this time - which was still under the average.  So we are all doing our rain dances and hoping that the skies will start to send rain our way.

Be well,

Nord