Praying Mantis

So, it turns out that Australia has over 160 species of Praying Mantis. Very cool! For all that I don't like spiders, these are neat creatures!

Hitch hiking on James' shirt pocket.
Waving it's arms fiercely to threaten James.
"I'm going home with you!"

James went biking on Mt. Ainslie one weekend afternoon and picked up a passenger. Brave man, he immediately slowed down and took a picture for his family. I, myself, probably would have screamed with an involuntary flinging motion if I suddenly looked down and saw a giant bug hanging on my shirt pocket, but he knew we would be interested. James had to detach it quite firmly since it really wanted to come home with him.















Then, a couple of days later, I look across the living room to see this large specimen slowly making it's way up the window. Thankfully, outside. Hannah and I rushed over to look. "Big bug!" was the exclamation for the next few days. The mantis climbed all the way up the window and disappeared. However, by the time Allison and Lucy came home from school, it was climbing it's way down again. So they got to see it too! Very neat!

Praying Mantis on our window

Yup, he's big!
Bigger than my palm

National Arboretum

On the weekends, we look for new places to go around Canberra and the surrounding region.

This past weekend we went to the National Arboretum where they have an excellent playground, bonsais collection, cafe, and trails (plus, it's free!). We played around on the children's equipment, admired the bonsai trees (I don't really think it sank in for the girls' that the trees are supposed to be much bigger. They just thought they were "baby trees." I was very impressed though. Wow!). And played in the giant grassy amphitheatre. Several families were flying kites. And then lightening flashed, thunder rolled and we dashed inside to hide from the sudden deluge of rain. No walking on trails today. Back to the car and on home for some ice-cream.  A nice Saturday together.

Lucy on playground

James joins on the girls on the net

Hannah likes to swing!

Swinging family!

And add in Daddy

Trees that have been planted

Playing on the grassy amphitheatre

Rolling down the hill!

View from the top of the hill

Rain caught us on the way to the car

Daddy has to join then girls too!

National Arboretum 

How far will she roll?!

Spiders - real or not?

Dead spider on our floor.
I didn't want to see it alive. 

So, we found some plastic spiders in the "farm animal bin" that contained many more things than just farm animals and thought we'd surprise James by putting it on his pillow. So we did, and he acted surprised and we all had a chuckle. So it's been an ongoing joke to find the plastic spider and hide it around the house.

This evening, as we were getting ready for bed, James stepped into our bedroom and said, "Those kids! It's...." then there was a pause.

"Oh...it moved...Amy, you don't want to see this."

There was a quick dash to the door for a shoe, and then a loud "smack" while I pretended I didn't hear or see anything. Yes, it was a large, black spider crawling on the floor around our bed. Yuck. Even though I didn't see it alive I still get a little shiver thinking about it. And now off to bed! Sweet dreams!

Note: I laughed myself silly watching this video (click here) of a dog dressed for Halloween. Now, I currently would probably scream and run like mad the other way too! Nope, my tolerance has not increased, but rather decreased with exposure.

RUSs

As I sat in the living room last evening, dimly lit by the glow of my iPad, I heard the unmistakeable sound of a large creature snuffling along the deck. There was a scratch of nails on a screen door, a thump of large paws hitting the ground and then silence. I glanced over at the floor to ceiling windows that were between me and the beast. I felt two beady eyes staring at me through the glass (though I couldn't see anything because of the reflected light). Swish - something hairy brushed against the glass. Silence. I strained my ears to hear the rustle of leaves moving in a tree - but there wasn't any wind. Another pause. Then

THUMP. Thump thump thump. THUMP.

A huge mammoth was dashing across the roof. I covered my head with my hands in case the ceiling fell in.

THUMP. THUMP. Thump thump thump thump. Pause. THUMP.

Had it stopped? Where was it?

A picture slowly grew in my mind - it was an RUS! From Princess Bride (come on! You must have seen the movie - it's a classic!)! It was a RODENT OF UNUSUAL SIZE! It's ugly teeth and beady eyes with rolling gait that chases you and jumps down on you from the tree branch!

I froze in my chair, too scared to get up and turn on the porch light. I didn't want to see it! Where was my knight in shining armour? Not home! He was out at a new-comer's group church meeting. Argh! What was I to do?

I sat in my chair, curled into a ball, hugging a pillow to my chest. If it came in a window I would dash to the kitchen, get a frying pan and defend the children's bedrooms. I planned my strategy and wondered where I could find a flaming torch.

Clickety click.

My breath caught in my throat.

"I'm home." James was back. And coming in the front door.
"Shut the door!" I cried out, jumping up from the chair. "There's a creature outside! It's an RUS!"

James leaned out the door. "You're right. It is an RUS." I gasped.

"I pretty sure the opossum is living over the garage."

Opossum - common nocturnal animal of Australia

Birds of Canberra

In the morning, as the sky lightens with dawn, we awaken to the cheerful chirping...nix that! It is a cacophony of sound that blasts us awake. And, right at bedtime, when the sky darkens into dusk, it is another riot of sounds that crashes over us. The birds are noisy here!

Now, we aren't bird-watchers so these are our best guesses from trying to remember the colours and shapes of the birds, dashing home and flipping through pages of "Canberra's Birdwatcher Book" to find a match. Here's some we've seen:

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo -
Hannah and I saw three of them tearing a tree apart
on our way home from grocery shopping.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - these birds have an squawky loud call that outdoes a raven. They are large and everywhere! When they are in a tree, there are sure to be branches, leaves and tons of debris on the sidewalk when they leave. Their crest isn't up all the time. It's kind of neat watching the feathers rise up on their head when we stare at them long enough. This guy didn't raise his feathers for me. I guess I wasn't scary enough.

Crested pigeon

Crested pigeon - they look like a pigeon with a feathered hat. Neat! Allison identified this one!

Galah - we see lots of them on the field
rather than in trees.

Galah (type of cockatoo) - grey and pink and likes the school yard. We can always find these guys at the school when we walk past.

King Parrot-
These guys love our trees and his buddy almost
pooped on my head!

Australian King-Parrot - these guys are eating our fruit trees! I took this picture when a few of them were eating the pears in the pear tree at our front driveway. I quietly got close under the tree to take a picture (Hannah was sleeping in the pram nearby) when a glop of white went sailing by my head. Looking up, I realized that another parrot was right over my head and pooping! Yikes! Good thing I was wearing a hat!

Crimson Rosella - eats our plums!

Crimson Rosella - nicely coloured birds that seem to compete with the king-parrots. At least, they are in the same trees and bushes (but at different times). I like the blue and red together! So pretty!

Rock Dove - I know this one!
We have these too!

Rock doves (common pigeon in cities) - they're around. You've seen them too!

Weebill -
I didn't take this photo!

Weebill - I think? I'm not quite sure since we see little brown birds with a bit of yellow on them. Could be something else. But I like the name. They are too quick for my photography skills so here's a picture from the internet.

Australian Magpie

Australian magpie - everywhere! And bold! We walked right by one sitting on the fence at head height and it just eyed us as we strolled (or is that pram-ed?) by. These guys actually have a pretty nice call (though loud). But much nicer than the cockatoos!

House sparrow -
I didn't take this photo!

House sparrow - again, I think? Looks brown and sparrow-like to me. I can't get a picture of them (they are too quick). So here's one from the internet.











We'll continue looking and checking our handbooks as we go. It's actually quite fun, especially as we try to match the calls to the birds. Hannah has taken to yelling "bird!" every time we hear a loud bird (which means it's almost always those cockatoos - maybe I should teach her to yell "Cockatoo!" instead of bird). After dropping off Allison and Lucy at school in the morning, Hannah and I sit on the front deck to listen and look for birds. It makes me want to learn more about the birds back in Canada!

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos on the school grounds

Learning the language

Words are funny things. And so are people. We use words in weird ways and then think it's perfectly normal until an outsider comes and looks at us funny. Here's some things we've had fun with:

You don't play "tag" - you play "tip." And if you are "it" than you are the "tipper."

You don't go to the bathroom. You go to the "toilet." Allison was very taken aback when the teacher told them to "Go wash your hands in the toilet." Ewwww....and then it dawned on her what it actually meant. We had a good chuckle about this on the way home from school.

You don't put your bags in the trunk of your car. You put them in the "boot." Yup, we've been putting our bags in our boot (and it's not even raining out! Umm...okay, maybe you never wore rain boots with bags over your feet inside because they were still wet, but I did!). So we've laughed about this too - of course it turned our "bags" into "booty" (meaning treasure for all you pirates out there - no other meaning allowed!) which isn't an Australian thing, just a silly Munroe thing.

Lucy pointed out today that it's a bit silly that she goes to "nap" school. Yes, the letters of North Ainslie Primary School spells "naps." Which Lucy explained to me in detail on the way to school - she told me that her friends in Canada would find this quite funny.

I'm sure we'll run into other word interchanges as we continue on. But these were the funny ones that have made us laugh with each other. It's fun, because we also get to consider how funny some of our words sound to someone else. Ah language! Ever changing, never boring!

Lots of heat

Bright red faces

This past weekend had the temperature above 40'C for a couple of days in a row. Turns out that you are asked to keep your children at home when it goes above 40'C. I remember that in Alberta, we stayed home if it was lower than -40'C.

But we've stayed hydrated, kept our hats on, slathered up with sunscreen and hid in the shade (or indoors) as much as possible. Still, it's really hot. When walking outside (to pick up Allison and Lucy from school), just by breathing in the air I could feel the moisture in my nose, throat and mouth drying up.

We've been assured that this is unusual for Canberra since it's not as hot as other places in Australia. I'm just trying to keep cool by watching all the postings of snowstorms, shovelling out the driveway and making snowmen in Newfoundland.

How we feel about the heat

Turns out that I'm not the only one in the family that gets grumpy when I am hot. Poor Allison was bright red and snappy as a crustacean by the time we walked home from school.

But we learned what Zooper Doopers are - they are like Mr. Freezies. The children were given some halfway through the afternoon at school because it was so hot. Yeah! I'll have to find some more for home.

And we've had to water the garden in the evening since the poor trees are not doing well. And if we're going to water the garden, we might as well water the children as well! A cool down time before bed. Literally.

Watering the garden in the evening - and us!

In Australia?!

For those who didn't know, yes, we are in Australia.

Australia: We live in Canberra

We are here from February to December. We left on January 30th and will return sometime around Christmas. So, essentially, all of 2017. We live in Canberra - pronounced "C'nbra."

Why? Because James is allowed to take a Sabbatical year as a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. This means that James is exempted from his teaching and administrative duties in order to focus on research. And they encourage research outside of the university in order to make connections with other universities and departments. So YES! James is working.

Why Australia? Because we liked it here when we visited 7 years ago with Erica and Scott in Perth. And there's this nice university here that does some of the things that James is interested in for research. And because they speak English, have warm weather, and nice people. And because Nancy and David did it. :)

Canberra seen from Mt.Ainslie

Why Canberra? It reminds me a lot of Ottawa - the capital of the country but a smaller city. So it has all the national museums and tons of family-friendly programming without the metropolis feel. It's inland and a bit more southern so it doesn't get the intense heat of Sydney or the storms along the coast. They keep telling us here that it gets cold (you know - almost to zero sometimes!) and we just smile and nod. We did bring sweaters, jackets, mitts and hats but that was mainly in case we got stuck somewhere between St. John's and Vancouver for a couple of days in transit. They'll do us fine while we are here. Oh, and there is the Australia National University which has accepted James as a visiting fellow to do research with them.

We like it here. It's warm, the people are nice. There's lots to explore. There's no language barrier. And we're really thankful we aren't in the U.S. (which was our second choice for location).

Countryside we drove through

First day of school

Allison and Lucy were so excited about their first day of school. They had been talking about it all weekend, wishing it would come faster.

The uniform for North Ainslie Primary School is a red top and black bottom (or there is a checkered red and white dress for the girls). We went with a red t-shirt and black skort. Lucy's hat stands out since it has maple leaves on it - yes, we brought it from Canada.

We packed their lunches, and made sure they had a water bottle, running shoes and a hat. There is a "no hat - no play" policy at the school. And the hat has to cover their neck and ears (bucket or tilly hat - no baseball caps). Which makes a lot of sense since not only do they have recess and lunch outside, but often the teachers will take them outside to do their work (e.g. writing or math). No need to worry about adequate vitamin D here!

The first bell rang, they lined up in the courtyard in their classes and the principal did the announcements outside with a microphone. Parents hung around for the announcements and then the children were dismissed to their classes. We picked them up in the courtyard after school as well.

Allison and Lucy had a great first day. They both made at least one friend, and talked with a few others. Allison said that the math is really hard (they are doing multiplication with decimals on their calculators and Allison felt really lost. Hence the math improv lesson tonight by cutting up clementines into tenths and hundredths. Fun! We ate 5 tenths, or 1/2 or 0.5 of the clementine when we were done).

In the courtyard on their first day of school

James and I ran errands and figured out that Hannah is a cranky pants between 10-11am before falling asleep. Having a temper tantrum in the grocery store sure is embarrassing. Especially as I was trying to calm her down with food (that I made sure we had paid for first), a soother that she flung on the floor and then I dropped the change. At least they'll remember me next time I am in.

 James headed off to the university and found out that there is a conference this week. So he'll be attending that. And I am adjusting to the "home schedule" - buying groceries every day, walking the girls to school, getting Hannah down for a nap at a decent time, doing laundry (which means hanging it out on the lines which I have refused to do my entire life but am learning to do now - I really don't like cardboard towels!), doing the dishes, planning the week, and figuring out the extra-curricular activities our family is going to commit to. And playing "Jelly Splash" on my iPhone - which now has an Australian number, so texting me is out (although email and Apple-messaging still works fine).

Hannah and I walk past the school with our groceries

Adjusting to the time difference

We're starting to adjust to the time although we have been pushing it by having the girls go to bed around the "normal" Australian bedtime. So they are pretty tired by then.

On Thursday, we were all up by 12:15am and puttered around the hotel room having showers, getting dressed, playing games. We napped between 4-6am and then were up for the day.

On Friday we were all up by 4am, some of us dressed, all eating breakfast and wide awake.

On Saturday we were up just before 6am.

Allison seems to be doing the best. Lucy gets tired in the middle of the day. James and I go to bed at the same time as the girls. And Hannah is still on St. John's time. She's up for a snack around midnight and then hits the ground running usually between 3-4am. And then konks out for a nap around 10am for a couple of hours before heading to bed by 6:30pm at the latest (she's pretty whiny by this point). She and I will take it easy this week and let her adjust a bit more slowly. After all, I like naps too!

Hannah in her little bed

Food in Australia

Well, it's been a couple of days now and we've (I really mean James) been to the grocery store everyday.

Turns out that my list of "staples" that I usually would get every week aren't actually staples here. Some of them are really, really expensive. So all the kitchen knowledge I've accumulated in Canada is pretty useless here. We're going to have to adjust our eating habits and figure out what will work.

Rice Krispies with a different name

Some things are the same but just named different. Like Rice Krispies.

Other things are "foreign" like Ketchup. They use tomato sauce here.

A roasted chicken which would cost $7.99 at Costco in St. John's was $20.99 here at IGA (and even a bit smaller in size!).

Yummy Steak 'n Mushroom Pie!

But the bakery and the meat pies are delicious! We walked as a family to the local shopping centre (hoping to get a stroller but no such luck) and found a lovely bakery where the girls got buns with icing and sprinkles and James and I had a blue-berry lattice thingy. Next door was a shop that claimed  to have Canberra's best meat pies. And the steak-and-mushroom was fantastic! Maybe we've set our tastebud expectations too high by starting with the best shop.





We headed to the local swimming area which had 3 outdoor pools (wading, lessons, lanes) and a splash pad. Of course, it wasn't free, but we spent a lovely time playing in the water for a couple of hours. We went in the morning when there were less people, but by the time we'd left, there was a lot of people. And they all seemed to have huge lunch coolers, balloons, lawn chairs or blow up chairs and a throng of kids.

We've learned that people here like to get together outside of their homes at places. So people meet at coffee shops, or parks with BBQs, or at the pool. And they hang out, eating and visiting. Even family members do this. Something we'll have to adjust to.

Second day in Canberra

We woke up at 4am and by 7am we were locked out of the house.

Harvesting the fruit trees - clementines and lime

Allison, Lucy and I went out into the garden to look at the fruit trees and see if we could pick anything. I didn't notice Hannah and James following and shutting the door (automatic lock) behind them. Sigh. No keys, no phone, no wallet, no nothing.

James went to our neighbours, introduced himself to Heather and borrowed her teenage son's cell phone. He phoned the brother of our house owner who lives across town but he couldn't come by for another two hours. Let's just say there was a lot more than dismay written on my face as I held a squiggly Hannah with no shoes on. But! The owner's mother was up for the week and lived just down the street. So off James went to get some keys, return the phone, return the keys and we get back into the house. It was great to meet the nice people around our neighbourhood, especially in pjs. Crazy Canadians.

This is a lime! Yes, a lime!

Well, with our spare time while waiting for keys, the girls picked clementines and limes from the trees. There is also a plum tree but it seems like it's a fight with the birds to get to them first (which we lost). We found a juice squeezer thing (what's the proper name?) and had fresh clementine juice. Delicious! Very sweet - much sweeter than oranges. And very full of flavour.

Making clementine juice - delicious!

In the afternoon we walked to North Ainslie Primary School and met with the vice-principal (Ms. Rikki) and the girls' teachers. Allison will be in year 3/4 with Ms. Emily. Lucy will be in year 1/2 with Ms. Fiona. They even got to see their classrooms and were each introduced to a pair of girls in their grade who will help them adjust. How nice! Allison and Lucy have been so excited to start ever since!

Part of the playground at North Ainslie Primary School
The equipment is shaded from the sun and rain. I think it'd
work great in Canada too! No icy equipment!

Everyone was exhausted from the walk when we returned (especially Hannah who went to sleep at 3:30pm and didn't want to wake up for dinner. She just ate at midnight like usual). We broke out the BBQ for dinner and went to bed before 8pm - including us adults. We're still really tired and not adjusted yet.

First days in Canberra

Front deck of our house
Notice we've got a pink stroller - sorry, I mean pram!

We've come home to 10 Raymond Street, Ainslie and opened up the doors. It's a lovely space with big open areas and huge windows and all on one level (no basements, no second level). And full of spiders. I mean, there are webs EVERYWHERE! We spent the first couple of hours squishing spiders (all harmless except for two big hairy ones that James was nominated for) and brushing up cobwebs.

Back deck of the house. BBQ is great!

There's a lovely backyard with fruit trees, a trampoline (no sides so parental supervision only!), a fish pond, and a garage. The front has a deck with comfy chairs overlooking the garden.

James walks to the closest grocery store (IGA about 15 minutes away) and we have our first dinner in Australia - spaghetti. Yup, easy comfort food that's quick to make.  Then it's off to bed at 6:30pm since we are still all exhausted.

Eating our first dinner in Canberra - spaghetti!