91:365 My chair

My holiday chair is so nice I would like to take it home. It even has ocean and coastal views which would be hard to take home. And it matches my red bag. Perfect!

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90:365 Arches

There are so many arches in Sydney. I couldn't resist taking photos of shapes. What a great place for a prep/1excursion. Perhaps google maps would be good to use for a shape hunt in Sydney.






And hey I think I am now up to date with my 365 project.

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89:365 Things we put up with

So today on the traIn I watched this man fussing with a newspaper. He was constantly folding and unfolding to arrange a section he could read.
When you think about newspapers they are set up very well for iPods as all the reading is done in columns which fit easily on the iPod.

So Katherine it wasn't an old walkman today but a newspaper that caught my attention.
The funniest thing though, was the man, eventually folded all the paper (the Australian) up and then got out his iPod. lol:)


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88:365 From the dark side

Was the Opera house a precursor to Star Wars? It has a look like something from Star wars or from the dark side.

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87:365 the Sea Cliff Bridge

I first saw this bridge in 2008 and was just amazed by it. The size and building construction along the coast is a real engineering feat.

I first walked across the bridge in 2008 when I was in Wollongong for the Fed Gov summer school. That was a terrific two weeks with teachers from around Australia. Unfortunately it was a one of program and never to be repeated.

Two years ago and I didnt have an iPhone, use Twitter, blog or use the iPod touch in the class room. Things have really
moved on since then.
I had no idea how things would change and certainly couldn't plan for the new innovations.
Innovations aren't planned but just happen.

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86:365 padlocks

We walked over the sea cliff bridge today. Wished I had my runners so I could have ran along the bridge. As we crossed the bridge I saw padlocks all along the bottom of the fence, some are in memory others are love notes etc. I wonder what is the significance of the padlocks on the Sea Cliff Bridge?



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85:365 frangipani

There are frangipani trees everywhere in Austinmer. They smell so nice. I wonder why beauty products with frangipani never smell quite the same?


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84:365 HOLBROOK

We got out of the car at Holbrook and stetched our legs after driving for a short 3 hrs.
Holbrook has a submarine in the middle of the park. An early captain of an Australian sub was from Holbrook in the 1st world war. HMAS Otway is the sub.

The magnum was nice also with caramel.


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83:365 Fenced

The fence has gone up. Work is about to begin on the new buildings. We have been waiting for 2 terms. The library has been stored in a ship container and had limited access.The old buildings are being taken away.

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82. Grevillia

At St John's in Gladstone they had a beautiful grevillia, I think it's a Robyn Gordon. I have tried to grow this but find it doesn't like frost and so lost a few of them. The flowers are so bird attracting.

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81. Kitten or cat

Milo is growing very quickly.


Looks like he will be good on the lap in winter.

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80. Seed pods

So these are the seed pods that were on the tree that looked very Jacaranda like in Gladstone. They were almost like giant beans.

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79. Jacaranda?

Outside my hotel in Gladstone was a beautiful tree that had foliage very much like a Jacaranda tree. However it had very large seed pods. I wonder what sort of tree it is? Everything's greener in Queensland.

78. A frame from nature (pic 50)

I've been looking for a really good frame from nature since pic number 50. So I'm cheating and putting it in here to save you from having to go back to pic 50. I've added 2 so both numbers are covered. Hanging Rock a great place for photos from all different angles and views.

77. Hanging Rock

Today we went and had a very nice lunch at the Hanging Rock cafe to celebrate Bill's birthday. We also walked up to the top of the summit. They have made new paths so the climb to the top is much easier. Once you reach the top you can see for miles and the recent rain has painted a lovely green picture. Where were the koalas?

76. Gladstone

Visited a lovely school St John's in Gladstone to run a workshop using the iPod touch in the classroom with gr 1&2?teachers.
They had lots of huge verandahs a arched rooves above the basketball courts.

Like everyone they had fences and pull down parts stuff stacked up in the library etc waiting for the BER funding and works to be completed.

There's a lot of building works to be completed by October or heads will roll in the next election.


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75. Ului

Well it's not too windy yet. Will it be windy at 5pm?



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74. Three

Sitting on the plane. Waiting to take off. Today's challenge was the number three and I have found everything in two's since I began looking for three. At last the job has been completed.

Flying to Brisbane then on to Gladstone hopefully. They have a cyclone off the coast in QLD so I'll see what happens today.




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73. Run the rock

Just got my run the rock info today. Saw this earlier and thought it would be good for an April run before the Mother's day classic in May.

Hanging Rock was one of our yearly picnic spots for Simon's birthday. Then we got busy with working teenagers and after driving for 2 days the short trip seemed like too much.

The restaurant was lovely the last time we went and celebrated Sally's birthday also.

Hanging Rock a place of mystery and great views from the top.




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72. Run4kids

Today I did a 5.2km run4kids in Melbourne. It was very hectic with 30,000 people at the gardens and 14000 in my race.

We raised over $1mil for the children's hospital.

The run was very pleasant and I ran the whole way. Katherine my daughter came in the run also and made the whole distance running. It's great to run together. Carey and Nic ran in the 14 km run and that was huge. They ran through the tunnel and over the Bolte Bridge.16,000 people.


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71. Autumn in Autumn

The Autumn raindrops are now in full bloom. They are the only flowers in bloom and look very fresh. The bees have appeared and like them also.


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70. Watching the grass grow

It's so exiting we actually have grass growing again. I can see from morning to afternoon the grass has grown. Our flooding rains have really got everything growing. The backyard has been just brown dirt for months.

There's nothing so calming as green grass and just in time for our German exchange student who no doubt is used to a very green countryside.

The kangaroos won't know where to go as there is grass everywhere.

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69. Light

As we drove into town the sun was slowly rising and shone on the tree tops from behind us. The dark clouds loomed around. It was like a spot light just hitting the tops of the trees with a golden light. I don't think my iPhone really did justyce to the shot.

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68:365 Hot Cross Buns

Well we decided it's now okay to begin eating hot cross buns. Boxing day is a bit early but as Easter is early this year we think 4 weeks out isn't too far away.

So Bill (my husband) has made his first batch for 2010. 18 buns and they didn't last 24hrs. So now we have a second batch in the oven.

They'll be so yummy for supper tonight. Not that we usually have supper but now we will.

I gave Bill a bread maker 12 or so years ago and he makes the buns every year. They have so much more flavour than the bought buns.

Bill also makes lovely crusty loaves of bread to have with pumpkin or potato and bacon soup. The bread makes soup into a meal.

As we have had an early break in the weather we are feeling like comfort foods rather than keep cool foods.

Looks like I'd better run tomorrow.

Batch 2 now ready for supper!



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67:365 Clean up Australia

My wheelbarrow was full today when I finished my yearly pick up of rubbish along the road in front of our house. I have missed a couple of years.

It's interesting as 99% of the bottles and cans were alcohol related. Why do they throw out their rubbish as they drive along.
Sometimes I'd love to see where they live and put rubbish near their place. Then I think it would be just as bad. We need to think of everywhere as our place so we don't ever drop rubbish. Also so we pick up rubbish when we see it.

We want to keep Australia beautiful.

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66:365 Puddles

More rain has fallen today. We have puddles in the drive. The boys are past the age of playing in puddles and wearing gumboots. Actually they never got to play in puddles very much in this millenium.
The grass will green up quickly as the temp is warm. With a bit of sunshine we'll soon be watching the grass grow.

I am almost tempted to buy some plants to fill the holes in the garden where plants gave died.


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65. More rain and storms

We had more rain and thunderstorms today. We even had hail and in Melbourne the hail was as big as golf balls.
This is strange for early autumn weather. There is a lot of flooding in Queensland as well. Maybe the drought is coming to an end?
My pic today is through the wind screen of the car.

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64. Fog

Today I have woken up to find fog. It looks so wintery outside and yet it is 19 deg C. It's actually the 6th day of Autumn. So I hope to be able to post some lovely Autumn pics as the season rolls on.

Will the boys play cricket today?Looks very wet and they don't like the ground to be too wet for cricket.



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63. Rain

Flashflooding occurred in Bendigo with 55mm of rain in a couple of hours. The drains couldn't cope with all the water. Roads were covered in water and many places where people had laughed at the flood warnings signs were flooded and best not to drive through.

I haven't seen this much water around for almost 20 years. We have been in a drought for at least 15 years so this was very unusual for many people to see.

At school the children were playing in puddles and getting wet of course. We had to growl as they didn't have changes of clothing. However I felt sorry for the kids as they have never had puddles in their lives. Gumboots which were mandatory in the eigthies for Winter have been unheard of for this millenium.

Unfortunately we didn't get that much rain at my house but we did get 25 mm which was quite good. So I hope to see if I can dig a shovel in the garden tomorrow.


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62. Reflections

I have spent a lot of today discussing mentoring and reflecting on teaching. So I decided to take a picture of the reflection of my kitchen.

Teachers are always reflecting on their teaching and changing their teaching to enable students to learn easier.

I don't remember being taught how to reflect though, it just seems to be something you do all the time to improve student learning.

As mentors we now work with graduate teachers and guide them to be self reflective.

Although we are teachers we are also learners. Developing the craft of teaching requires years of practise and constant change to gain improvements.

You have an inbuilt passion to want to be better. This sometimes means you have to take risks and try different ways to teach.

Research has shown that learners learn with greater success if they are reflective. So now we are helping our students to reflect on their learning also.

How and when do you reflect?

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61. Monopoly

I have been looking at maps of London and although it seems like I'm on the monopoly board it isn't that simple.

I do have some time before I visit London to really study the map. Think I'll get one of those DK Eyewitness travel top 10 books on London. Could be a good mother's day present. Hint hint.

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60. Another tree must go

Another tree has lost a branch. This tree was just hanging there after being screwed off by a mini tornado 3 years ago. The branches gave been very weighted and now it will have to be cut down.


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