Well it has been a busy few weeks up here and have neglected the blog as we have been out and about doing stuff!
Tuesday the 18th was Music Under The Stars. The School Choir and the Community Choir singing at the stunning
Mirima National Park. Daz is in the choir!!! See him up the back?? Night photography and my little camera don't mix, this was the best shot I got. Beautiful venue and Daz sung very well!
Then Saturday the 22nd was the Diamond Dig! With $3,000 worth of diamonds to win, we were there!
Each year a ton of sand is brought in to create a make-shift diamond pit at Celebrity Tree Park. Three rare precious gems, plus a host of other treasures are secretly buried, and for a couple of hours at least, the town swarms with prospectors! So if your handy with a plastic, child size shovel, don’t mind getting a little dirty, and love the idea of bringing home a highly-prized Argyle Diamond, don’t miss the 2010 Dig. As over 400 people joined in on the digging frenzy in 2009, we suggest you purchase your tickets early at the Kununurra Visitor Centre.
There were three pits of sand, one for 2 - 5 years, one for 6 - 15 years and one 15 years plus. So that's Milly in the rainbow shorts scratching her bum in the first photo, wondering where to start digging while I am yelling "Just DIG Milly!!!" from the sidelines! She soon got the hang of it, head down, away she goes! The diamonds weren't actually buried in the sand, you dug till you found a black film canister which had a number in it, you took it to the desk and claimed the prize corresponding with the number. Milly was cross after all that digging she scored a laptop bag from the local bank when her friends digging got lollypops!!! Grace won a cap saying "Barramunditasic!!" which she was happy with. Mum did well, she got a $300 voucher to the local furniture store!! After 30 minutes of digging in the adult pit and finding NOTHING, I went with Milly back into her pit and dug till I found a canister. When I claimed it I was *insert relevant word here* to find I had won a squeeky baby bath toy! Because Mum is in a caravan, she doesn't need any furntiure, so we scored the voucher. Thanks Jules!
Saturday the 29th was the next event on the calender, the
Kimberley Moon. Johnny Farham was the leading act, I don't like him!! I went to see Daz in the choir again!
Grace enjoyed a dance along to local Wyndham band RodeWorx, they were going off!
When the choir came on, it was a rush to the front of friends and family of those in the choir. I was having trouble getting a clear shot of Daz and one of the benefits of living in a small community is that you know a few people. One of the ladies in front of Daz I know from school and I know she has a sense of humor, so I yelled out from the second row in the mosh pit
"Move over Andrea so I can see the spunky man behind you!!!" and she heard me and saw me and I got a taddda from her so I could get my shot!
The choir was great, it was just so great being there and watching them on the big stage. And that sense of community spirit, like I was standing there next to a friend who's two kids are in the choir, two people down from us was the lady who works in the same little office at school with me, her daughter is in the choir too. Three of the kids who have been in the reading programme I do at school are in the choir, behind me singing along are some of the younger teachers who teach some of the kids on stage. I look down the stage and see one of the lady's from my quilting group, one of the Deputy's that meet us at the airport back in January, friends we had dinner with the night before celebrating a birthday. That was the best bit of the night for me, who needs Johnny Farham? Bring back the choir was my chant! Still it was a fantastic night, we'll be back next year.
June the 1st saw the grey nomads drive out our driveway and across the border into the Northern Territory on the next adventure. Now we are on the countdown to when Daz's folks arrive around the 6th of July......
We have been across the border a few times to the Keep River National Park. So we packed the grandparents and drove the new car across the border into the frontier that is the Northern Territory! It was the grandparents first visit so we stopped at the border for that snap you just have to take!
I am still amazed at all the walking of trails and gorges that we have done in the last 6 months, the girls still love doing it. They don't complain about it being boring, they set off always going first, sometimes even holding hands!
My favourite shot of the day.
We did the Gurrandalng Walk. Gurrandalng means Brogla Dreaming. In the dreamtime two Aboriginal people traveled from the sea to here. They collected grass and bushes, made a large nest and started to jump around and make noises like a Gurrandalng (Brogla). As the country listened they changed into Broglas. This place is named Gurrandalm - the place of the Gurrandalng.
At the top there was a fantastic view. Here is Milly with her red cheeks, placing a rock on a pile of rocks already there, one rock for every person that has walked here she said.
