Zoo trip

We had family visiting recently and, as you do, took them around to see some of the sights.  One of our favourite places to go is Melbourne Zoo. 

We somehow never make it through the whole place in one day, but we get to see something new every time.  The kids loved the section with all the snakes and lizards!

My favourite is always the butterfly house.  It is the coolest thing ever to have butterflies land on you!

 

We discovered a part of the ocean section we had not been to before. 

It really was a day full of adventure!

When you have to say goodbye

The last two weeks have been a little chaotic.  The flu seemed to hit everyone in the house and on top of a lot of processing and photography work, the blog got a little neglected.  Then I got the sad news that my father’s brother had passed away.

He was a wonderful man with an immense love of nature.  I remember the stories my father told about his younger brother (a townie) being able to track better than the farm boys.  The adventures those two got up to as boys!  We learnt so much love and respect for nature from him.  He would take us out to parks and swamps, anywhere he could, and show us discoveries a child can only marvel at.  In spite of hard times, I remember the joy in his face when he would find animal tracks to show us, a new plant we haven’t seen before or a little creature we never noticed.

We will miss him a lot.

Butterflies and dragons

What would a kids’ festival be without face painters?  Well, the kids thought it so important, they were prepared to wait a whole hour in the line to get their faces painted by the artists from Elena Lieu Body Art.  And they were absolutely magnificent!

My three year-old didn’t move the entire time!  She couldn’t make up her mind, then finally settled on a rainbow butterfly.  So many colours in just one stroke…

 

My son didn’t have any doubts.  He wanted to be a black dragon!

 

Have you ever seen a three year-old sit so still?  She didn’t move the entire time.  I was amazed at Elena’s skill.

The skill of these artists is amazing!  Each child’s face was a work of art. 

Learning

I feel like I have been lazy this week, not posting more.  The year just seems to be picking up speed!  Earlier this week the school had a barbecue for the parents, then there is class and poor hubby away again on a business trip.  I thought I would share some of what I learnt this week.

This is the ‘before’ image and ‘after’

Great fun!  So now I can change the colour of people’s clothes!  Amazing how the whole feel of the image changes when you change one thing.  (The only thing different is the colour of the hair clip and dress.)

Or turn a blue butterfly purple

The last image was taken on a windy day.  The grasses were blowing in the wind, creating the awesome blurred effect.  This one little stalk just trembled slightly, with the weight of the butterfly helping to keep it steady.

A Beautiful Day

Today is such a beautiful day.  Firstly I wasn’t woken by squawking Corellas! 

 

The morning started a little cool, but with no wind and no clouds, it has become a bright and gorgeous day.  I just had to try and share how the day feels here in Melbourne.

My youngest just had to start the morning jumping on the trampoline, the sun creating beautiful patterns on the netting. (My daughter refused to look at me while jumping though)

 

The light created beautiful patterns everywhere.

The afternoon has been so peaceful, just bees, butterflies and beautiful birdsong.

 

Days like these are glorious.  Easy to forget it is autumn already. 

(For those interested, these were taken with a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens in my back garden.)

Spiders and Butterflies

I have been trying since spring to capture some butterflies.  They have been jittery and fast and all over the place.  Recently though they have started to slow down.  I have been noticing many more of them too.  I think it is a sign that the end of summer is near…

All sorts of other creepy crawlies have been making their appearance too.  I noticed this spider when we were walking to the park.

It was beautiful, in a creepy way.  Thankfully it stayed still, because if it had moved even an inch, I think I would have fallen on my backside trying to jump backwards!

I still haven’t managed to capture the dark butterflies, but there are lots of white and blue ones around at the moment.

The blue ones are tiny, but my favourite.  They remind me of butterflies we had in our garden as kids.  Huge swarms of them would be around the one bush in the backyard every summer.