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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