Dress Ups

I came across this photo of Ange and Daniel on Facebook this morning taken at their friend Pete's 21st birthday party at the weekend. The theme was "Something Beginning with P". I'm guessing Ange is a "private" or "platoon sergeant" in the army and Daniel is of course Mr Potato Head.

It reminded me of Farmer Phil's 30th birthday party quite a few years ago which had the same theme. Here is a photo of all of us as Peter Pan, Pocahontas, a punk, a pirate and a princess. We also had a priest with his real priest's borrowed robes, the Pope, Pacman, a present, a pregnant man, a prostitute, Pebbles, perverts, a policewoman, Pixie-anne Wheatley, and of course party poopers who didn't dress up at all!

My Reading Buddy

Farmer Phil took this photo of me and Squirt one lazy Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago when I was reading "Twilight". I powered through all four books in one week. I'm now re-reading them all because you always miss bits on the first read. Emma read them at the same time and then we bought the DVD as well. I enjoyed all four books very much - Stephenie Meyer is a great romance/adventure writer.

Lollies Everywhere!

Ryan and Emma packaged up 180 bags of mixed lollies this morning. They should collect $40 profit each from this lot. I'm pretty sure that the kids at school will go nuts over these as most kids I know are lolly heads!

Pocket Money Brainwave!

Ryan and Emma have come up with another way to earn some pocket money. Because they're away at boarding school during the week, there's not a lot of opportunity for them to earn any pocket money. Weekends are taken up with sport, homework and general teenage stuffing around.

Ryan and Emma have been selling cans of drink (coke, lemonade, fanta etc) at school to their friends, but there's not a lot of profit in that. So they've decided to start selling $1 bags of mixed lollies as well. The 12kg box of lollies arrived today in the mail, so they'll spend a day this weekend packaging them up. I've no idea how many lollies there are in each bag, but I do hope that it's profitable for them!

Teatowel Art

I bought these two tea towels a few weeks ago with the idea of mounting them on artists canvases to hang in my kitchen. I finally did it this morning and I really like them. The one on the left is from Laughing Bird Designs and the one on the right is from Flowerpress. They're both Australian textile designers.

Canola

This is what the canola looks like at the moment. This crop was sown on April 29 into a wheat stubble from last year, so 6 weeks later it's at the 6-8 leaf stage. We've had 44mm of rain fall since this paddock was sown, so it's had a great start to it's growth.

Rain!

It's been raining here for the last week which is fantastic! I've added a new gadget to the blog which is our rainfall tally for the year - it's under 'today's weather'. I researched the average weather for this area and we're well below our normal rainfall total for the first six months of the year.

Our average rainfall for the year is 569.2mm or almost 23 inches. So far we've only had 129mm or just over 5 inches. We should also have rain for 105 days of the year, whereas we've had rain for only 15 days so far this year.

I'll add the rainfall totals as the year progresses. Let's hope we get closer to our average!

Keep Calm and Carry On

This statement has always appealed to me, so I finally ordered a copy. Here is the story about the poster's beginning.

"In the Spring of 1939 and a looming war with Germany on everyone's mind, the British Government's Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propaganda posters to be distributed throughout the country upon the outbreak of war. The plan for the posters was to relay a soothing message from King George VI to reassure his people that all capable measures to defend the country were being taken.

Using the crown of George VI as the only graphic device, the stark red and white poster simply read 'Keep Calm and Carry On'. Over 2 million posters were printed, held in reserve, intended for use only in times of crisis or invasion. Some had found their way onto Ministry office walls but the poster was never officially issued and so remained virtually unseen by the public - unseen, that is, until a copy turned up more that fifty years later in a box of dusty old books bought in auction.

Unfortunately, there are no records of the original designers of the 'Keep Calm' poster. But it's a credit to the nameless artists that, long after the war was won, people everyone are still finding reassurance in their distinctive and clean design, and the very special 'attitude of mind' they manage to convey. These words hold true even in the world's current state of events."