41. Rural school house

The old rural school buiding (bottom picture)) will be demolished soon along with some other portables to make way for a new 4 classroom modular concept.

The old rural building was bought by the school council at one stage in the 60's or 70's and brought onto the Epsom site. It has been the library, the music room and various classrooms in the past. In the front is a small porch area that has a kitchen with a sink. Also inside the rural building is a stage raised floor area and massive display areas on the walls. A small class can fit inside but anything over 22 is cramped and especially if they are grade 5 or 6 children.

Many years ago I taught a class in the rural building and found it to be a lovely room. It has plenty of spaces to put books around the walls on flat shelves. The stage was very useful for class presentations by myself and students. It now has an airconditioner which is quite effective.

Two portable classroom will also be taken away. These came in the late 70's and came from a technical school. They were set up as wood work rooms. So at least they had plenty of power points. These portables are like chicken coups. And only recently had their chicken wire borded in along the top of the windows. The temperature in these portables fluctuates with the outside temperature.

40. Big Trees

I heard today on the radio while I was on my way to school about a person who has set up a website to register large trees in Australia. I was interested to see the size of the trees and found they have a points system involving circumference, height and the crown.

I was thinking of this tree as I think it's our largest tree on our block. The gum tree is near one of our dams and has been there for ever. It was here when we bought the 7 and 3/4 acre block 35 years ago. So now I am going to measure it's circumference and try to work out the height. My son Carey may be able to help with working out the height as he measures rises in land for his engineering work. Perhaps he has some gadget that would do the job. The crown will be measured using a tape measure.

The tree was savaged by a violent almost tornado like wind that came through here a few years ago but has regrown quite well. I imagine it has it's roots into the dam. Many creatures live in the tree, galahs, cockatoos, possums, spiders and millions of ants and insects. Katherine and Carey used to climb the tree when they were younger. I really need to go back further to allow the whole crown to be in the photo.
Here is the link for the tree registering site.

39. Sun sails

Heat in the summer can be quite draining so it's little things like these sun sails that make you decide to shop here rather than somehwere else where your car will get too hot. Today has been 38deg Celcius and the humidity has been higher than we have had in many years. Bendigo usually has dry hot summers not humid steamy days. 30% humidity doesn't sound much but we are used to below 10 % humidity.

The storm clouds are rolling in and we have been warned about hail storms and flooding rains. I can hear thunder as I post this entry. The garden certainly needs a water. Even though it's so dry that most water runs off.

38. Queen of the Lake

Albert Park Lake in St Kilda.

The view as one laid on the ground after the race.

Today I ran with Katherine in the Queen of the Lake fun run in Melbourne. It was a 5 km race around Albert Park Lake. It was flat and I thought I would like it but I missed the down hills where I can pick up some speed. The race was won by a 13 year old girl. She is a terrific runner and made really great time.
Here are my results as was sent to me on my iPhone.

After the race we enjoyed champagne and salmon bagels. They were very yummy and we were surprised because when we fininshed running we wondered how we were going to drink champagne and eat salmon. The breakfast was late, 1.5 hrs later which as it turned out gave us good recovery time so we could enjoy the drink and food.

We were both very pleased to have ran the whole way for 5kms and to have finished the race. It was lovely running around the lake.

37. Carbs

They say it's good to have lots of carbohydrates before a race. So I ordered a lovely pasta dish at M Restaurant. Prawn linguini with garlic and sweet chili sauce. Yum! The prawns were delicious but I couldn't eat all the pasta as I wanted to fit in dessert. M has so many nice desserts and they make individual serves rather than getting a huge slice from a big cake. I had a scrumptious orange cake with vanilla bean icecream.
So will this meal give me some edge for tomorrow's Queen of the Lake run at Albert Park Lake in St Kilda?

I'm looking forward to run around the lake. It's 5.2 kms but flat all the way. Imagine it being flat.
Katherine is running also and we have entered inthe mother daughter team event. After the race there's champagne and salmon for breakast. I wonder if we'll feel like it after the race?






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36. Contrast

The oxford dictionary offers this explanation of contrast.
Now to show a photo that illustrates contrast.






White writing on a dark backround provides good contrast so it can be read easily. I try to guide the children at school to select colors that contrast well when they are creating their webpages. They seem to like putting dark on dark and it becomes very hard to see. Contrast is so important when creating something for others to view.
This white writing is on the walls at the front desk at the new Loddon Mallee Regional Education Office building. The department of early childhood and youth affairs also shares the new building.

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35. Sharp

Today's theme is sharp. My friend Yvonne brought these scissors back from Vietnam. They are very sharp and therefore cut very well. Yvonne visited the scissors factory.

I use these scissors in the kitchen mainly for opening packages made from plastic.
Sometimes these scissors disappear and I have to go and hunt them up.

Sayings with sharp in them..
A sharp dresser
A sharp tongue






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34. Coffee theme

My favourite coffee cups one from Washington and the other my Deakin graduate cup.

I like to have a coffee out of my Washington cup and I usually think of something that Lois my travel buddy and I did in Washington, like eating meals at Ruby Tuesday's and meeting up with our Canadian friends last year.

When I drink a coffee out of my Deakin graduate cup I think of all those late nights working until 2:30am to finish my Master's degree in Ed (IT). How did I do it working full time and still having three children at home?

When I am hungry I drink coffee rather than tea as it seems more filling.


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33. Orange

Finding something that is orange was very hard. I came up with three items in our house. Pingpong balls, I think the boys have enough, actual oranges(not the most orange on the outside) and flowers. Not a huge choice for todays theme.

Do you like orange? I love chocolate and orange together. Chocolate orange wedges are very nice. Jaffas are also yummy.

32. Apps for Preps

Couldn't resist showing you some of the apps that the Preps explored today. They were so engaged and learnt so quickly how to use the iPod. No-one was off task. "Can we use them again?"