In search of Treacle

Since making the yummy Treacle/Molasses biscuits (cookies) we needed to get some more Treacle. In the last two weeks I have visited many supermarkets and after searching various aisles I find the exact spot where Treacle (*) is supposed to be sold. And there are none in stock! Aargh! - five different supermarkets during pre Christmas shopping.
As we wanted to make those biscuits again, Lana's dad went shopping and found it at a supermakerket in the middle of renovations. With cables dangling from the ceiling, no signs on display indicating where any products may be located and just a maze of shelving, Dad the intrepid explorer went in. He figured if non-one else can find anything there may be some treacle left. They did, so he bought us three jars.
Ha! Now we can make them again!

(*) Treacle is also known as "fancy molasses" in other parts of the world.

Favicon

I have just changed the little icon next to Bruggietales in the address bar and your favorites or bookmarks. It is called a favicon and requires that you have somewhere to put it.

Whenever the page is loaded it looks for the icon to place next to the page name. It will be in your bookmarks or favorites next time you open the browser.

HTML Kit is a very handy web site explaining how it can be done.

Just another cool little thing you can do to personalise your website or blog.

Nativity Play preparations

We are continuing our tradition of doing a Nativity play each Christmas. The children have all been practicing their parts and costumes have been gathered.

We enjoyed doing this last year - but it was a lot colder then.
Currently we are having temperatures around 31C (88F) a little different from biting wind and occasional snow! Here is a photo from the same time last year compared to this photo taken of our backyard today.

If you would like a copy of the play, here it is: Nativity Play.pdf

Rolf Harris paints the Queen

Rolf Harris was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of England and Australia amongst other countries) to paint her portrait. Whilst most portraits of the Queen are very formal, this time Rolf Harris and the Queen had a good time chatting away whilst Rolf painted.

Art critics are dismissive as it is not the way they would have done it, but general response from the public is very good.

Well done, Mr Harris!

The Beauty Myth

This is a very educational demonstration of how magazine images are manipulated. I recommend this for anyone who thinks comparing themselves to magazine covers is at all feasible.
I went through a similar exercise with the children a while ago but this presentation has excellent detail showing all the photoshopped changes with before and after comparisons.
It may take a while to load but it is well worth the wait.

(Found at Marginal Revolution)

More optical illusions...

Back in July we provided a link to an amazing display of illusions relating to the correct discernment of colours.

Today Owl of Just Listen has prompted me to go back to the site and show you this illusion.

Are the lines straight or bent?
Go on, get that bit of paper and check.
Then lean back, squint and question your eyes again.

Our Colorado Trip in September 2004

I have been updating the web site and in the process am cleaning up the postings for our trips. The first one to be sorted out is the 12 day road trip travelling over 3,500 miles from Georgia to Colorado just to attend a Christmas party!

Can you imagine two adults and six children aged from 3 months to 13 years old and their luggage for two weeks crammed in a Chevy Suburban with not the most detailed maps to follow.

Here's the details.

Road Squares

This is the first benefit of being on my own server. I can now have files uploaded without going through separate FTP servers.

In a previous post I mentioned the fun the children had playing the game of Squares. You can now upload it here.

New Map Quiz

The map visitor counter I use (Neocounter) now has a nifty little map quiz.
Have a look on the bottom left hand corner of the side bar and see how you do recognising various flags of the world.

We've moved web sites...Sort of

This is http://tales.bruggies.com.au The new home of Bruggie Tales.

That is where our adventures continue ...

Please update your bookmarks/favorites accordingly!

Also - if you find any errors popping up, please let me know. I wanted to bring everything across and I think some of the links may have broken.

Updated: It is still hosted on blogspot, but I can store files I want to share on our domain bruggies.com.au. So all this means no real change to operations. Nothing to see. Move along there ...

The dangers of not emptying the bath

The baby might just jump straight in - clothes and all!

Bah!

[She obviously likes the bath!]

Cinderella by Clare

Every night Clare asks Ariel to tell her a story. Sometimes Ariel convinces Clare to tell a story. Tonight Clare told the story of Cinderella:

Once upon a time there was al.ittle grl called Cinderella and her mum died. Her dad married again and she had two daughters and when they had grown up they had big feet. The next morning there was a ball and the step sisters didn't want her to go because they wanted to be Cinderella. ["Isn't that right?" Clare asked Ariel, "What's next?"]
Ariel continued: The fairy godmother came and said "Stop crying. You can go the ball but you have to back by midnight." So she put a very pretty dress on Cinderella and made a coach and Cinderella went to the ball.

Clare went on: She went to the ball and went in the ball and the prince said "She's the prettiest." And then it was midnight and Cinderella went away and left one of her slippers. The prince tried it on all the ladies and the last people were the step sisters. But it didn't fit. Then Cinderella said, "Can I have a go?" [and the sisters said] "She's just a servant". [The prince said] "Let her have a go". They tried it on her and it fit, they put the dress back on her, they got married and lived happily ever after.
Not bad for a four year old I guess. I have added the parts in [italics] to provide some context. Ariel has told the story a number of times and Clare quite likes it.

How to fold a shirt

For all of our readers that find folding shirts a hassle, this is an amazing video showing how it is done - efficiently!

(Found at Marginal Revolution - an interesting economics blog)

Philosophy via Audio

Peter Kreeft is a very good philosopher and has a great ability to bring complex philosophic points down to earth for the rest of us mere mortals.
He has a collection of his writings and audio at his website www.peterkreeft.com.
It's a good way to catch up on important things when driving - certainly a lot better than the radio!

Audio stories for children

We have just found a new source of audio books in MP3 format - and free. Storynory says it has "iPod ready stories for kids". As the audio download files are all in MP3 format, you can play them on any device that supports MP3, or load them into your iTunes software and write them to audio or MP3 CDs.
Recent stories are Sleeping Beauty, The Christmas Carol and Hansel and Gretel amongst others. Go to the archives page for all of the collection.

Today's Cute Shot

I just thought it had been while since the last cute shot of Rose. Here she is in an empty laundry basket waiting for someone to carry her around.

A joey comes to our birthday party

Today we had a birthday party and had two families join us. This made about 24 people all told plus one bonus visitor. One of our friends saw a very recently dead kangaroo on the roadside and went to investigate. In the pouch was a joey which would surely have died if he hadn't been found. So they rigged a makeshift pouch from an old jumper (sweater) with the sleeves tied up. (you can see the clothes hanger is still attached so it can be hung up) They are feeding him from a bottle regularly and he seems quite happy. To make sure it is more like being fed in his pouch, they hold him tight closing his eyes and the joey sucks away merrily.

This photo is of little Ella enjoying the joey's attention. (The bandage is a result of her getting too close to the wrong part of a toaster. Ow.) Her look indicates how much she is enjoying the Joey's company!

The older boys spent the day wargaming Lord of the Rings, whilst other children played on the trampoline, played bingo, built Lego, or just ran around playing whatever games they thought fun. The adults had a great time chatting and enjoying each others company. Basically a typical gathering using a birthday party for the excuse.

Some Australian Christmas music

Leigh Newton is an Australian children's songwriter and entertainer from South Australia. He has a number of albums containing distinctly Australian songs, such as "Christmas in the Scrub"(*), "Christmas in the Shed" and "Grandma rides a Harley". The children have been enjoying the songs today after I downloaded some samples from his website.
Unfortunately he has no electronic method of paying him other than an International Money order. Still it is worth downloading the samples he has and enjoying some music with a great Australian flavour.
Then let him know you enjoyed it and send him something.

(*) Scrub is the Australian word for the bush or non city/residential areas.

A Slug is eating our Quince tree

Our Quince tree (a member of the pear family) is having its leaves skeletonised. This little slug like thing is having a feast. It is a "Pear Slug" (scroll down on the link). Actually it isn't a sluig - it's the larvae of the sawfly, a pest introduced into Australia in 1891.
It's an ugly thing. The fat end is the head. You can click on the picture for more detail. We're spraying it with some natural pesticide which should hopefully knock it off.

Anti Airborne Fruit Eaters defences

Our apple trees have finally started to bear fruit. Now we have to defend this prime crop from the birds. Last year the birds enjoyed the whole crop whilst Lana's parents were away. The family minding our house whilst we were away were unable to get even one ripe apple.
This time we bought some bird netting and plastic poles to cover the trees. As we all helped erect the shroud Clare commented excitedly, "It's like a wedding!" She pulled all the corners out very carefully so it was even more like a bride's wedding dress train. Dad tied a rope around from the poles to the tree so it wouldn't blow away and then tied knots in Clare's lovely "trains" and put a brick on each corner so the birds couldn't get underneath.
Phew! After all this effort I hope the apples taste OK.