High on the hill

Wagga is a town built right next to a river, in 1847 they needed to be close to the water. There have been many floods in the years since then but our eleven meter levee means that the city itself has seen only flash flooding from lots of rain in the recent past. The water that came in to the library at the end of 2010 was storm water from the lagoon. The lagoon was looking very menacing over the weekend and required all night fighting on the part of council staff, SES and army people to keep the library and art gallery dry.

Our suburb is on a hill so we are in no danger from the river. This evening, after dinner (Jossie made macaroni cheese from the Junior Masterchef cookbook), Toby and Andrew went to the new part of Estella to skateboard. They soon came back to get the rest of us to see the wonder of the river that has taken over.

It feels a little bad to find it beautiful but you can't help but wonder at God's power. We ran into lots of Estella people we know up on that hill. Who would live anywhere else?

I have just had a call asking me to go in to the library and move books up. They're evacuating the CBD.... just what I need!

Again?

We're at Prior Flood Warning stage at the library (and Art Gallery - they lost their wooden floor last time!) I took this photo on Wednesday afternoon, they put sandbags up not long after.

In our workroom we have our bottom drawers out and on our desks. I'm not sure I could face ripping up the carpet again. It was all well and good when we wanted new carpet!

At least we have been moved from the park for our markets at the Junee Rhythm N Rail Festival tomorrow - paper and water don't mix.

The long ride home

It is, apparently, going to rain for the next four days. I'll admit that part of me was hoping it would commence raining before I finished work at seven this evening so I could ask for a lift rather than ride home in the humidity. It felt like I was breathing liquid when I left the library briefly this morning.

Alas, it didn't rain so I hopped onto my bike and, after the long stretch above (into the wind), I headed up the hill you can just see in the distance below. I have to ride an extra two kilometres at the moment because they are building a roundabout at the entrance to our suburb and I have to go around the back.

After that last hill comes this steeper one.

Followed by another steep one (they feel steep even if they don't look it!)

There is another hill after that but I was feeling a bit ill at this stage, perhaps from all the stopping to take photos - it's hard work getting going up a hill! When I got home I found a text asking me to go walking at 9pm. I did it, too (Milo so loves a long walk). I rode or walked fifteen kilometres today! I'd be properly fit if I wasn't so sporadic. Can you believe that Andrew can ride 100 kilometres in a day?

Cards and Colin

There are all sorts of things I do on Thursdays, my day off from the library. I clean, change sheets, do uni marking and make cards for markets. Yesterday, having done all the cleaning and washing, I sat down to make two cards and kits for others to use to make them at my little card making night on Saturday. I was right in the middle, when the creative atmosphere (read mess) was at its greatest, when I received a call from school saying that Bethany felt terrible and wanted to go home. She wasn't even at school, she was at a Colin Buchanan concert that had Nudge (Uncle Mal) in it! The venue was pretty much at the furthest possible point in Wagga from our house (not far in city terms I grant you) so I went straight there but it took almost half an hour. Bethany wasn't sitting where I was told she would be and the concert was finished, no school students in sight! So, I hopped back into my haphazardly parked car (it was a medical emergency) and drove to school. I found Bethany's teacher but she said that she had left Bethany with her uncle! By the time I had found Toby (I was not going to come back to school in half an hour to pick him up) and driven back to the concert venue, Bethany was feeling perfectly fine and having a lovely time with Uncle Mal.

She missed a lot of the concert but we didn't mind because they had another one this evening in Henty. Our children listened to so much Colin (no surname required) when they were little and it was such a delight to see him perform. So funny, so energetic, so wacky and such great gospel focus.

Nudge (Andrew's brother Mal's puppet) was brilliant, of course. He was brilliantly lit, that's for sure, and therefore impossible to photograph.

Bethany's favourite bit was super chef.

The perks of having your uncle on stage are many and include being picked to wave a flag on stage. Bethany declined but Toby was up for it. That's him on the right in the red shirt.

I did get back to my cards and these are what we will be making tomorrow night.

And now it is the weekend and I am so pleased!

Pussycat in the library

Michael is doing Storytime this week and as he has a new kitten at home, he went for a cat theme.

Chickpea was not allowed out of her cage during Storytime as she was feeling a bit scratchy and, with many pre-schoolers and their parents at Storytime, we're in the business of risk management. She was, however, allowed to roam about our workroom when the Storytime sessions were over. I'll bet she sleeps well tonight. She has to do it all again on Friday.

We had book club today and were not disappointed with discussion about Jasper Jones, which was Jeannie's choice. The nine of us able to come today had a broad range of reactions to the book. Jeannie and I loved it. This next month we have received my choice - Brideshead Revisited. I have already read it (I had already read Jasper Jones) but am very keen to read it again and to hear what everyone else thinks of it. One of our brand new members declined to take a copy as he has his own and reads it every year!

Camp Orange

So, my plan, beautiful in its simplicity, was to post a photo of something that happened during each day. Such a simple, easy little plan that the only thing easier was to post nothing at all. You know which option I took. Settling back in to school hasn't been that difficult. The fact that Jossie can walk or ride to school in very little time and that she has started making her own lunch, has made things pretty easy. Still, we have been busy. I have been to Sydney for work twice, we have had school information evenings, a market I had to make cards for and all the normal things at the beginning of school.

Some photos I had meant to share as little insights into our days.....

This is Simon and Jeannie in the workroom at the library, talking to Kristy. I liked the way that all  could see from my desk was belly. Not long to wait now to see who's in there!

This is the old hall at the Wagga Showgrounds where the Muddi Markets are held. We set up on Saturday afternoon for a busy Sunday market.

I took this photo of Bethany this morning. It amuses me because it is not even remotely cold.

Another thing we have had to occupy our time is Jossie and her friend Hannah's wish to audition for Camp Orange, a show on Nickelodeon. Producing an audition video was a fair bit of work and she would very much like it if you would watch the video and leave a comment.

The beginning

We were ready on time, bags packed and there was a break in the rain, long enough to get some photos in the front garden. I worked my ten hours at the library and, as I ate my dinner, three children competed for my attention to tell me about their day. Jossie was thrilled with all her new classes and sitting with some lovely girls at lunch. Toby impressed everyone with his broken arm (he wore the pretty much unnecessary sling for effect) and Bethany loved it as she always does. Keep it up all year please!

Not a drop of rain fell in Wagga when we were pet feeding and garden watering for friends over ten days. Last night the wind blew and the rain bucketed down. It was still raining and blowing a gale when I woke up, so I reluctantly gave away the idea of riding my bike to work. I'm so glad it did because, after raining off and on all day, the sun came out in the afternoon making it unbearably humid outside. I cannot cope with humidity and would have probably lain down on the road next to my bike.

Can you see the threatening clouds in the distance? They burst all over Andrew when he went for a ride after picking me up!