About three months with no posts..

It is hard to believe that it is about three (3) months since my last post.  I am not going to make any excuses  - all I have to say is that we needed a break.

Our journey toward sustainable living as a family of five has in no way stopped or been put on hold - below is a snapshot of some of our activities over the past three months.

We have started a local wholesale buying group.....

We have been making our own sourdough bread from home milled grain for nearly 6 months now and have preserved about half of a 5 kg box of garlic grown by my uncle.  We have enough great Australian garlic to use for a year and some to get planted in the garden soon. 

Our work at the ELF Community Garden continues (visit our Facebook page for more information and photos)

Our home garden has been producing lots of fruit, picking greens and vegetable over summer...

And, of course we found some time to connect with nature and enjoy the outdoors. These are some snapped of the kids enjoying time at Ganguddy Camping Ground (Dunn's Swamp) Wollemi National Park.

And that's just a taste of what has been happening.... I am looking forward to sharing our continuing journey to sustainability.

Time away from the computer

School holidays give us the opportunity to spend some time away from the computers and enjoy some quality family and outdoor time.  We have just spent the best part of the last two weeks warming up in northern NSW and southern Queensland - temperatures that will be sadly missed with forcasts of snow here tomorrow morning.

We loved the chance to hang out at the beach....

...to explore some cool rock formations..

.....to find some cool things like this bird nest....

... to enjoy some good unstructured play (we took no toys away with us)...

....explore mystical rainforests...

..climb mountains - our littlest walked over 12km one day!  What a personal goal....

... stare up into the canopies of tall trees...

..and generally have time to explore...

I think the kids are looking forward to our next holiday away again already - but I am sure they will love catching up with their friends and sharing holiday stories over the next week or two.



Some holiday downtime

It is amazing how much the kids can unwind with a couple days away .... a much needed break after a busy first term.

Creative time

Campfire stories and games

Walking

Some great caves to expplore and let the imagination run wild



Exploring the light and shadows

  

Time spent absorbed in minature landscapes



Taking the opportunity to explore

Recently we made the trip into the Blue Mountains to pick up Dad from an afternoon train from Sydney - we took the opportunity to head across to the mountains early and do a walk. We did the Grand Canyon walk near Blackheath in the Blue Mountains National Park.

Apparently the track was first opened in 1907. On talking to my Mum she walked it on her honeymoon forty plus years ago. It was a great walk with a lot of the track cut into the side of the cliffs of the canyon and although it is fairly short - about five kilometres you get to climb up and down lots of steps. With the kids we took about 4 hours to do the walk - our littlest walked the whole distance without being carried and was that determined to be the first to finish the walk she nearly ran up all the steps out of the canyon.

Here the kids are descending into the canyon.

Walking along the bottom of the gorge just before getting to the steep edged canyon.

Lots of the creek crossings have been recently upgraded ... a fantastic job by the National Parks.

Stopping at one of the many waterfalls along the way.

Descending into more dark, wet forests.

The track along the valley floor.

Rock-hopping along the creek.

Dad was very jealous that he was commuting instead of doing the walk with us.

Getting back on deck after the Christmas break

I have been very reluctant to start working on the computer after the Christmas break... but as I start back at work next week I thought I would start back on our blog.  I hope you have all had a great break with family and friends.

I have chosen to start the year by simply sharing some photos we took on our break.

A post flood Castlereagh River at Gilgandra.

Washed out bridge near Coonabarabran.

Christmas Bells (Blandfordia nobilis (Blandfordiaceae) Liliaceae) in Washpool National Park.

Straddling the border.

Decorating the Gingerbread House...

Walking along the coastal rocks on the Suunshine Coast - trying to find some nature in a very built up area.

A wet walk in the forest inland from the Sunshine Coast.

Among the giant Bunya Pines and Hoop Pines at Bunya Mountain National Park.

We all had fun exploring so much over the break.  We are now catching up on gardening and making the most of what is left of the holidays before school goes back.

A lesson in camouflage

Collecting the washing from the line just before yet more rain gave the kids a chance to explore "camouflage". 

Here is a moth as we found in on a piece of clothing.....

A quick look underneath revealed a pretty underside....

Here is a better look at the underside patterns...

And camouflaged again on a plant base...

We identified this moth as a Red-lined Geometrid.

Grassy box gum woodlands to end a year of work

I decided to spend the last day of work for the year out in the field... as the kids were already on school holidays they came too.  We went out on an excursion to an on-farm grassy box gum woodland - here are some photos from our day. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

We were exploring some of the wildflowers - spring is late here as we were at about 900m ASL.

Here's a Blue Pincushion - Brunonia australis.

The kids got into recording the plants they saw.....

Our youngest boy ended up with a list of over 15 local wildflowers for the day (as a botanist I got a rough list of 45 species so I think that's great effort for a seven year old)

This is a close up of the flowers of the Blue Devil - Eryngium ovinum

The Blue Devil - flowers in bud

The star-like arrangement of the flowers on the Blue Devil

The kids found lots of snake skins... there must be lots of shiny snakes getting around

Exploring animal habitats in a grassland - the kids found a small scorpion here.

 A Fringe Lily - Thysanotus tuberosus - I love the fringes on the edge of the petals in this species. 

All in all we all had a great morning out exploring nature and it was a great way to finish work for the year. 

Thanks John for being the caretaker of such a great grassy box gum woodland.