Our updates

In North America, all my friends' kids are going back to school. My kid never left school. Our seasons are upside down. Remember? Here, spring is almost upon us. You may ask how I can tell. The way I can tell is that I look at the photos on my phone. They look spring-like, even though they are stamped with dates from late August. That's how I remember our seasons are upside down.

We had a visitor to our kitchen window yesterday morning: a tawny frogmouth. These birds are mostly nocturnal, so it is very hard to spot them. This one was right right outside the window, though, looking around with its big yellow eyes and trying to decide if this window spot was actually safe or not.

In the end it decided that it should probably go back and hang out in the trees in the park. But at least it posed for a photo first.  Pretty, pretty bird.

In other news, we have a new addition to the household. Last weekend Jonathan and I took a long walk along the river that ended up with a tram ride out to Bunnings (just like Home Depot). Jonathan reminded me while we were walking that I had promised to buy him a houseplant, and I responded with, why not go get one now? Which would have been a better idea had I thought about the logistics of taking home a pot, a plant, and a bag of dirt on public transit. But we made it.

And since then, Jonathan has been watching all sorts of gardening videos on YouTube. He has plans to plant vegetables and grow a terrarium and create a water feature, and most recently to raise bonzai trees for fun and profit. Except I won't buy him more plant stuff -- not until we can ensure the new houseplant survives through the next school holidays. Because we don't need multiple dead plants at the end of the holidays.

I know, you say, I should be taking advantage of this new gardening Jonathan and put him to work. Honestly, friends, I tried. Every spring for eight years while we lived in the house with the mega-garden I tried to get him excited about growing stuff. He had his own corner of the yard to dig in. He could grow fruit, vegetables, anything! And he never really cared. And now that he begins to show some enthusiasm we live in an apartment with no yard work.

No. Don't suggest potted plants. He has to keep the one plant alive until the end of the school holidays before I let him try another.

I guess that's it for news. I do love living here.

Some photos

A few weeks ago I was reminded that I never posted pictures of our apartment in spite of having lived here nearly 1.5 years, and in spite of having promised pictures soon after we moved in. I guess we have moved in. So without further ado, here is the much anticipated house tour.

The living room. The door leads onto the porch at the front of the building.

And the dining area:

Kitchen, looking toward the window and back door overlooking the park:

Kitchen looking away from the window:

Jonathan's room, views one and two:

My room, views one and two:

Bathroom one, with the glass wall:

Bathroom two. Ok, just the washer and dryer. It's too hard to take a picture of a little bathroom and have it look reasonable.

And one last picture, of the office.

We used to dry all the laundry in the bathroom, but then it had to be moved around for showers, etc. Somehow it found a better home in the office.

And there you go. That's it. Definitely worth waiting for.

While I'm posting pictures, here are a few more quick photos from my phone.

It is nearly spring, and the golden wattle trees are in bloom. They smell wonderful.

And a view of the Docklands. Jonathan's skating lessons are held in a warehouse-shaped building that you can't see from the photo, but is off to the right behind those tall buildings. Every Monday evening I walk this way to pick him up. And nearly every Monday evening I pause to look over the harbor, and often take a picture. It's very pretty.

See, here is another one from an earlier week.

And another one, from a week even earlier.

I'm glad the view is nice, because shuttling to and from lessons gets tedious.