Washing the dust off

There is no place like home but it is nice to have a change of scenery occasionally and the best change for us is the smell of salt in the air, the sound of water lapping on sand, the taste of ice-creams and fish and chips...yes! The Beach!

 

 

 

We also took the opportunity to do some things as a family, taking in some of the highlights of South Australia such as Cleland Wildlife Park, Rundle Mall for a spot of shopping, The Pancake Kitchen and the Beerenberg farm to pick some strawberries.

 

 







Even though Adelaide and it surrounds are a familiar destination for us there are always surprises and treasures to be found and  new experiences to be had.

 

We met Hazel the koala at Cleland and even though Master & Miss B have grown up with kangaroos virtually on their doorstep, they were in amongst the international visitors patting and feeding them. We saw a huge Lego mosaic in Myer made by Master B's idol, Ryan McNaught (a.k.a The Brickman) and stumbled on a carousel in the middle of the shopping mall which required a shopping break. We experienced the pleasure of picking and eating strawberries straight from the paddock in the fresh Adelaide Hills air.

 

We even squeezed in some culture and took the children to their first stage performance, seeing South Pacific. My favourite part was the look on Master B's face just before the show (not entirely happy about being in an audience that appeared to be MUCH older than him to see a ..*gasp* musical) then seeing the big smiles and hearing the laughs not long after! I knew he'd like it but he was not convinced. You will be pleased to know I mostly resisted the temptation to say "I told you so"!!!

 

So we have returned home with beach sand on our shoes and in the bottom of our bags, the intention not to eat again until Easter and our batteries recharged, looking forward to the next getaway and thinking about where that might be.

 

Where do you go to recharge your batteries and fill your senses?

 

Happy New Year

 

Kate x

 



Bricks to the Bush

Living where I am means that it is easy to think about the things we miss out on but sometimes our isolation makes us special and we get to experience things that not everyone gets the chance to.

Last year we had a life sized Lego Forest pop up in our Living Desert (which you can read more about on my blog here). This was a part of the Festival of Play to celebrate 50 years of Lego in Australia. It was very cool...

This year we have been lucky enough to have another Lego exhibition visiting us at the Albert Kersten Mining and Mineral Museum. The Lego Colosseum has been on display and there are enough bricks in this to make any young (and old) Lego lover's heart pitter patter!! 

This largest ever scale model of Rome’s famous Colosseum has been built entirely from LEGO bricks by Ryan McNaught, aka "The BrickMan". Mr McNaught has Master B's definition of the dream job being one of 13 LEGO certified Professionals and the only one for the southern hemisphere. If you have recently seen a big Lego something chances are Ryan was there!

You could spend all day wandering around, or if you are like me, on your hands and knees with the children crawling around marvelling at the detail and sheer Lego-ness of it all.



 


I loved the fountain

 








Look at that happy little face...in Lego heaven!

 

I think Lego brings out the child in many of us. We have probably played with it as children and many of us who are parents or aunts and uncles have vacuumed it up or stepped on it.

I feel lucky to have been able to see this exhibition and I hope it's one of many that visits us in the bush, reminding us that we all need to play.

Now I will hop off my Early Childhood soapbox...and go an pick up some Lego so I can vacuum :)
Kate x





Linking with Jacana for Totally Thursday