A Busy Day...

Last week was a busy time for our family. First of all, Steve celebrated his birthday on September 11. Once an ordinary date like most others, now September 11 is remembered as no other day in American history. Of course, we were very aware of the memorials and goings-on in America that day, but for us our focus was on Steve and celebrating the day of his birth. Happy birthday to Steve!
Coincidentally, Sam and Camerin performed in a production at school the evening of Steve's birthday. It was a production of Marco Polo and provided a look at the many places Marco Polo traveled. Camerin was part of the group that showed the dance and dress of China at that time. Sam was part of a group portraying the dance and dress of India. It was a fabulous production and we were really impressed with it. The costumes and props were very authentic. The kids practiced for hours and hours learning the authentic dances of the cultures they were representing in the play. It wasn't easy getting good pictures from where we sat and the lighting wasn't wonderful, but I can display a few here on our blog. We were very proud of Cami and Sam! I think it was a great opportunity for them to be part of this; I do not believe the Medford school district currently has the resources for kids at this grade level to be involved in such an elaborate production.

Sam will be going to Logue Brook at the end of October. This is an adventure camp that the year 7 kids have the opportunity to attend. It is a week in duration and includes all kinds of fun activities and adventures. Since year 7 is the end of the primary school years in Australia and they are the "seniors" in the school, it is a priviledge just for them. Next year they will all begin year 8 in high school.

More on Logue Brook to come!
Spring is officially here in Australia now; as of September 1st. We are in the midst of a spring-like storm with rain and wind, but these events will become few and far between as summer approaches.
Bring on the sun!

Cruising with Captain Cook...

...not the Captain Cook from Peter Pan fame; Captain Cook is a cruise line here in Perth on the Swan River, as well as arguably the most famous explorer of Australia.

Steve bid on the tickets for the cruise at a school fund raiser at Beaumaris Primary, where Camerin and Sam go to school. Realizing recently that they would soon expire if we didn't use them, I booked a date for us to go. As it turns out, it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed ourselves very much. It was 2 hours and 45 minutes in length. The Swan River is really beautiful and there is much to see. Enjoy these pics!

en guard, 28's, and biking on the Swan River

Sam, Camerin and Lucas have been going to fencing on Tuesday evenings. Something to do while we wait for summer to arrive. It is held at a local high school for about 1.5 hours per session. Having never been exposed to fencing before, I joined in for a couple of sessions and found it to be interesting, strenuous and very, very complicated! It looks quite simple in the movies, but it is really a very intricate dance involving a good deal of strategy. A thinking man's sport, for certain! I think I'll stick to tennis....

Spring is making an appearance in West Australia. I've found a new friend who enjoys going for walks through the myriad parks and bushlands available. We take her 14 year old deaf dog, Harry, and tromp about. She is schooling me in the spiders to watch for, the varied and interesting plants and flowers, and the spendid assortment of birds. There are song birds here all year round, and no migrating birds that she is aware of. It stays warm enough for them to stay in town rather than traveling north, as so many of the thin skinned Aussies do during the winter.


















It was shocking to see wild parrots and cockatoo's when we first arrived. Generally, I've seen them only at pet stores in cages or at the zoo in the aviary. Here they soar through the skies at will. Some of them screech, some have a lovely song. They provide constant company on any walk through the bush or the park. Of a recent Friday, I was visiting a new park my friend told me about where I locked my keys in my car in my excitement to check out the birds. DOH! While I waited for Steve to get my extra set of keys and rescue me, I enjoyed myself thoroughly watching the assortment of birds. I can't name the white ones in the pictures provided, but the brillian green birds in the tree are called "28's". An odd name, to be sure, but these parrots are simply beautiful. There is also a solid black bird (not pictured) native to this area that I am told is a raven. It looks like our version of a crow. They are enormous and have the funniest call. It makes me smile and/or laugh out loud every time I hear it. Imagine looking upon a basket of cute puppies or kittens; the usual response is "awwwww, they're so cute!" The raven makes the "awwww" sound and holds it for a long time. It's comical.

Sam and I went to Perth and went biking on the path along the Swan River this past Saturday. It was awesome. Completely flat, so not much of a workout, but it is beautiful and there was quite a bit of activity everywhere. Perth is a bustling city with lots to offer. I will make a trip to Kings Park in downtown Perth in about 3 weeks to see the spring exhibit in the botantical garden there. I'm told it is spectacular. Pictures will tell the story!

We have news of our shipping container making an appearance in Fremantle soon. We will have a sort of Christmas when we get our things. Yippeee!

Of birthdays and winter afternoons....

Camerin had her 11th birthday on August 1st. We celebrated with an ice cream pie and 10 movies to watch from Blockbuster. Cami and her dad picked them out. After all, it is winter here! The next day she had a party at a great facility with an enormous pool and indoor waterslide. She and her friends had a great time and came back to our house to continue the celebration with cake and presents. All in all, quite a good birthday for Camerin.


We took to the beach of a recenter winter afternoon, footy in hand. It was cool, but not cold and quite beautiful. The surf was up! Nothing refreshes like going to the beach, even if you don't swim. It's all about relaxing and letting the cares of the world fall away. There are shells to be collected, sand to be sculpted and waves to play chase with. Lovely; unless of course, you stumble upon an odd sea creature (in this case it's Lucas) who is startling in his, ahem, presentation? Ah well, we're all God's creatures after all, aren't we?






Throughout the suburbs of Perth are small clusters of shops with the essentials; grocery store, bakery, chemist (pharmacy), and the ever-present Fish and Chips shop. These little clusters of stores are located right in the neighborhoods, seemingly about 4-6 blocks apart. The kids flock there after school to buy chips, soda and candy. People walk to the shops with their eco-friendly canvas bags to carry their purchases in. Everyone has re-usable bags here for their grocery's. Plastic bags are still used here, but people are very aware of trying to limit their use. Along with the shops, there are park areas sprinkled in with the neighborhoods. They are everywhere and the kids from the neighborhood go there to play footy, basketball, wrestle; you know....be kids! Dogs and their owners also frequent these parks, where the dogs meet for doggie parties. Most of the home lots here are very small and people don't have yards like we all do in the States. So, kids go to the community park to play. It's a neat concept, and parks are so plentiful there are usually several within a short walk. After school, you will find the parks full of kids and dogs playing. Brilliant!

today we...

Today Paula and I decided to go on a whirlwind tour of the beautiful Swan Valley on a warm and sunny winter afternoon. There are dozens of wineries about 25 minutes from our house from the ocean with good food, good wine and lots of fun. We tasted different varieties of Syrah, Merlo, Cab Sav and a few others that I didn't recognize. We stopped at a German microbrewery and had squash soup with salads and a pint of our favorite beer. Fifty yards later we were at a beautiful winery with fields of vines where we sipped the finest Cabernets of Australia, laughed our selves sick in the sun and told lies. Another fifty yards down the road and we were at another winery buying a cask of port. Yummy. We didn't get very far down winery row!!!







Paula thinks our friends will get similar casks of port for Christmas... They had better be dear friends. The port here is second to none in the world. We cherish every drop laughing and giggling at each other after every sip. So, if you do show up on our door step with an empty glass, we'll understand. Really. If you don't, well, more for me!
Our settling in process is nearly done. The only thing missing is our furniture. Still don't know where that container might be. I do know it is somewhere between West Australia and Sigapore where it had to be transferred. We all miss our things. I especially miss my bed! But the kids have gotten into a routine of going to school then a snack and off to the nearby park to play. Although it is winter here, it is really like late spring in Oregon. Showers on and off with intermitten sunny days and beautiful sunsets over the Indian Ocean are common. Come September, we will be back in the ocean for another nine months of summer. Everyone is chomping at the bit, especially me. I can't wait to start catching lobsters and spearing big fish. Its the hunter-gatherer in me I guess...
Love to all. Steve

A Bit of This; A Bit of That

Last week kind of got away from me! The kids have been on winter holiday for the past two weeks, so we haven't had much of a routine. Today they are back in school, beginning the 3rd of 4 terms in the school year. Today I think I'll just ramble...pardon my lack of focus, in advance.

Back in the States during winter everyone heads to Hawaii, Florida, Mexico. Here it is mid-winter and people are vacationing in Bali, one of many resort islands that make up Indonesia, and all sorts of exotic points North. (remember it's opposite day, every day!)Lots of newly tanned people walking around. Makes us look forward to summer that much more.

Amazing storm last week in Perth. Very high winds and rain. We went to the beach to watch the inevitable show that Mother Nature provides during such a storm by the sea. Spectacular. I took pictures, but they don't do justice.



We finally saw kangaroos! We went out to a nearby cemetary at dusk recently, and as promised by locals, there were lots and lots of kangaroos eating grass and having a 'roo party. We were all completely enchanted. They are quite tame and it's not hard to get close. Of course, they could decide to box you in the face should you get too close, so we kept a respectable distance. I would say there were at least 30 of them in the area where we were, with pockets of many more all over the cemetary. Wow. I must say, they are kind of cute and have an inquisitive look on their faces and freeze just like deer in the headlights of an automobile.



We are all having fun trying to imitate the Australian accent and use their odd vocabulary. Here are a few more we've giggled about; "the lot"; meaning "the whole thing"; "reckon"; they reckon everything here. It sounds like a bad John Wayne movie all the time. Here they don't go to the pharmacy, they go see the "chemist". That one conjurs up bad memories of school classes from long ago.

Christmas in July. Some folks do that here. There is no chance for snow on Christmas Day here, or for temperatures much below 90 degrees either, so Christmas in July is the alternative. It's the coldest time of the year, so they figure it's more like
Christmas is for the rest of the world now than in December here. Alrighttty then!

The kids wanted to spend most of their winter holiday playing video games, watching TV and sleeping late. Too much fun. But, Lucas went to a Christian camp for a few days, the kids went to and hosted sleepovers, and there was a trip to a local indoor swimming facility and a hands-on science exhibition. We managed to keep busy but still have lots of "down" time. Sam is still taking guitar lessons, and is beginning to see some fruits of his labor. It's getting better and more fun for him all the time. Cami has a birthday coming up soon, August 1st. Her first birthday she will ever celebrate during the winter. Ha! Cami will be eleven years old. Happy Birthday Cami!
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Adventure to the Big City

Last weekend we decided to get on a train and go to downtown Perth; the big city! Living in Medford makes most any city seem large, so Perth seems like a big city to us. Actually, it has a population of about one million. It is a lovely city, quite beautiful and situated along side the Swan River. When we all decided it would be fun to take a train ride, our original destination was Freemantle, which is just about an hour south of Perth. We jumped on the train near our home and when we arrived in Perth to catch a different train to Freemantle, we discovered there was some kind of service interruption and we couldn't get there via train.
Time for Plan B.
We decided to walk around Perth and see what a Sunday afternoon would bring. It was fun to discover that Perth was alive with plenty of people, shopping, musicians on the street, great food and a cornucopia of culture that made our head spin. Walking down the street you can hear many different languages spoken, as well as many versions of heavily accented English. Clothing specific to the cultures represented here is equally as interesting. It's hard not to stare openly at times! We just took it all in and enjoyed it. We finished the day at a food court where we could choose between a "Subway" for a familiar American-type sandwich, the Aussie standard fare of fish and chips, or an impressive array of Asian fare. Steve and I were in heaven with the Thai food we selected; I would eat it every day. One thing I am fast becoming to appreciate is the food here. There is an influence of so many cultures, it's quite fun to try new things.
We arrived home tired and happy, declaring that our next train excursion we will make it to Freemantle.