Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

hands

Two hands with treasures at the Botanic Gardens.

top family

Top family at the tippy-top of the toppest tower in Melbourne - the Eureka Tower. I could not bear to watch Ella and Jamie throwing themselves against the windows in excitement.

boy with bean

Rare to go out with one and not two small people. Ella stayed home to help Dad with an important 'secret' project. Jamie came with Mum, Auntie and Nana to ACCA to see The Waterhole, was fed jellybeans and tickled and chased.

thirst for change

Remember these guys? Well we went back to see the finished mural. It was beautiful - although slightly hidden away. The text reads: "Do not waste water even before a flowing river." Once in Hanoi, where we had stopped for a day on the way to Europe, I saw an old man squatting by a lake in a public park. He was washing his hands with great care. He used one teacup of water.

In our house we are conscious of the sound of rushing water, dripping taps. We catch the warming shower water in a red watering can and water the strawberries out the front. I cannot imagine the kids playing with a running hose. But still our taps gush, we waste more than a drop or two.

Homeless World Cup - Melbourne 2008

So what are you two up to then?

Well we are eating some chips and then we are off to see the
Homeless World Cup.

A mini-stadium set up in Birrarung Marr. 56 nations competing. 15 minutes games.
This is Australia playing Zimbabwe.

At first it's boiling hot and we are running back to the car for forgotten hats and suncreen.
Then suddenly - a little rainstorm - just ten minutes. The little stadium cleared but we sheltered at the back underneath the flags. It was lovely. Soon it stopped.

Ella afterwards asked 'what is homeless?' And 'who won?'
Everyone.

the smell of green

We've had lovely rain lately.

street seat

We went for a city walk and found: a big-issue seller with a lovely voice, some street-seats at the top of Centre Way, a very long queue to see the Myer Christmas windows, some new and completed street art, and our favourite curry house.

examine and see

ring the bells

On a walk - we were invited to ring the bells - the tall standing bells at Birrarung Marr.

ring the bells that still can ring

forget your perfect offering

what you see - around and about

what I love more than anything

I went to my friend Ruth's concert on Friday evening- she was directing, conducting, playing, singing with six choirs. It was called "The Big Sing - Songs of Freedom - singing to celebrate the possibility of freedom for all people." It was lovely. At the end the choirs, who love her, thanked her, and she replied, "I'm only doing what I love more than anything."

Time to celebrate

We went out to Edward's uni for his graduation. Took a cruise round the grounds and swung by Ella's creche. Ella and Edward started uni when Ella was nine months old - so Ella has a strong sense of connection with her creche. She did a half day a week during term time, while Edward went to school. Now Ella's 5 and a half and Edward's graduated. It was warm, we ate curry and sandwiches, and during the ceremony we had the run of the back of the hall.

sharks are friends

Ella's started a campaign against shark-finning and is learning about sharks ("Sharks are good people"). At the aquarium she could identify the shark species we saw - Port Jackson, Leopard, Carpet and Grey Nurse. We stood among the Grey Nurse sharks, stingrays and large fish in the walk-through tank. She stands proud in her defense of sharks - sees them as beautiful and good, deserving of sympathy and respect, and rejects the popular view of sharks as killers. I heard her telling a boy at the aquarium that they only bite humans "by accident sometimes."

big screen entertainment

Ella and Jamie get themselves into the frame at ACMI.

cupcake shop

This is one of our favourite places for a visit at the moment - it's Little Cupcakes on Degraves Street. Tiny shop, tiny cupcakes, lots of icing. Happy little pit-stop on any city outing.

I can do that

Up and up - holding on tight - Ella and Edward have a shot at the climbing wall by the river.

It's spring in the Pirate Park

where the boy?

At the Pirate Park.

"One day you and your children will be in the choir."

Ella and I were doing a lot of "getting ready" for Nana's big concert. Nana is a singer in the Melbourne Millenium Chorus. While Jamie slept we did nail-polish, texta-Henna, body-jewels and twiggies. How lovely that her hands have unconsciously made the shape of a heart in the photo. I got interested in Henna after seeing the scene in Mira Nair's lovely film The Namesake where the bride is decorated by the women in her family before her wedding. Anyway I like the idea of decorating yourself in offbeat ways. And obviously I'm not the only one.

As soon as we stepped onto the street, Ella was accosted by a friendly lady "I just want to say you look absolutely beautiful." We went into Federation Square early, so no rush - take it nice and easy, meet Pa, eat chips. On the way we came across a jazz trio just starting their gig in the Atrium - they played a while and then the trumpet player lowered his trumpet and sang. We stopped to listen and Ella and Jamie danced and darted about.

Mum/Nana's concert was called "Limpopo", directed by the brilliant Andrea and Valanga Khoza. This year they were singing with the Mafumani Secondary School Choir from South Africa. This is the fourth Millenium Chorus concert we've been to and I find it so moving to hear the hundreds of voices and hearts singing about freedom, love, peace, family. It was altogether a lovely experience for me, I had, with several other families, some of the 'free-space' seats at the back, so my two dancers could be free. Lots of people with kids there, so no growly scowlers. Late afternoon sun shining in the through the glass walls of the amphitheatre, people wandering past outside - singing, dancing, music. Ella, discovering that she could navigate the glass balcony behind and above the choir, stood directly above her Nana in the choir - a protective whirr of red hovering above Mum's head. A silver-haired volunteer-helper behind me had this whispered conversation with me:

"Your daughter?"

Nod.

"Lovely."

"Thank you."

"Do you know someone in the choir?"

"My Mum."

" Ah."

"My daughter is standing on her head."

"Ah yes. Patsy. Alto. Lovely lady. Lovely."

"She is lovely."

"One day you and your children will be in the choir."

"I hope so."

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