OK

we changed the dogs name ...  yalala wasn't sticking much and yelling come later was just weird

problem is we have no new name so we just keep calling her necklace - maybe thats what it'll be then ...

any suggestions ....??

due to all the rain of late -the roads to most areas are closed ..the road to Duliwuy Bay is one of the only ones still accessible and it ain't much of a drive - big puddles and in parts of the road huge craters created by the running water. There are sections where you can see the grass has been flattened by the huge amounts of water rushing through. We got new tyres on our car (margot - michael) and so NO WORRIES for us ...

The weather was crap when we arrived but soon cleared to a perfect day that mostly involved unsucessful fishing with Will and his family ...

thou we did catch a M U D SK I P P E R

possibly even cuter than a hermit crab

 speaking of hermit crabs - these ones were left over from lunch so got to crawl away to safety - run run!

there was a baru - crocodile - sunning itself across the bay

its that thing on the left  that looks like a log

later it disappeared back into the water ... 

(it was better when i could see it on the beach)

all in all the elements for a great easter sunday - fire - chicken - chocolate - chips - beach ... and another day off to follow ....  

we got home to the church revving up again - this time music and preaching late into the night - nearly midnight  - Good Lord !

we went to Duliwoi Bay for easter sunday
the easter bunny must of known we were going there and left some eggs for the boys

magic

E  A  S  T  E  R

we have five days off  - tuesday is a added bonus day with anzac day chucked in the end of easter break...
since i have already had two days off looking after sailor and then wednesday to darwin its like a mini holiday has appeared ...  yahoo
we had plans to go camping at cape arnhem over the long weekend but with sailor's broken arm that has been ruled out and of course, it has started raining again

The church across the road from our house - which is a massive open air building - is noisy at least two days a week with its worshipping but with easter on it has been music and preaching all day and all night  - they started at 8am this morning with their music that is played over loud PA just the right level to perpetrate our house with a muffled suffocating sound not dissimilar to elton john's cheesy lion king song but the words just seem to be holy holy holy repeated over the synthesiser and drum machine.  Not to mention they just drove through the village tooting their horn continuously while being followed by a parade of people including a yolngu jesus carrying a cross...
a odd sight indeed

this is a bad photo out of the window of the parade

so we have a big weekend planned to do NOTHING ...  kade is gonna go crazy  hah

sailor broke his arm on tuesday

he fell off the slide at school and smashed his elbow into a pole
cracked his funny bone (nothing funny bout that) and another fracture in his humerus bone (again no joke)

We took him to hospital where they gave him laughing gas which was the funniest thing i have seen in awhile, my 5 year old talking a mile a minute ...

poor darling has been in a great amount of pain but doing well ...  getting used to being one-handed. Left one-handed at that. We have to go to darwin on wednesday to get the specialists to see him and decide whether he needs pins, which is cool (not the pins but the free trip to darwin) ...  i am wondering how much civilisation ( eg : shopping ) I can get in in between appointments  hah

also while i think of it
it hasn't rained for almost a week


(and we scored a dryer for 10 bucks at a garage sale so no more smelling musty old mouldy anymore either)

puppy has a name

it took a long time and much debate where everyone had a name that thought would be the best

Sailor liked necklace which was pretty cool and we almost went there

but in the end her name is OFFICIALLY

... drum roll ...

Yalala

which is pronounced yell-eee-lah

and basically means later

we also took her to the vet and she is now under a new strict fattening up diet and ear washes, shampoos, training and all the things to make her a pampered pooch after her slightly neglected start in life ...

so - 500 bucks yalala we have a sweet puppy called later

hah

i have been working like mad to get everything ready for the melbourne art fair in may - everything had to be packed and ready to get on the barge today ...

we ran out of paper on friday...

Last week we had two young bark painters make their first ever linocut print and in one case, their first ever ever ever print
The level of anxiety and excitement in the print space as I ran a test print through was intense. There was will, kade and the artists waiting with baited breath to see the outcome
(no pressure)

but worth it - both are really something beautiful  - all old and new together  -  now all i have to do is print 50 of each and get them to melbourne
(again with the pressure)

i roped in the earnest young nicolo who is visiting from florence, italy to help us print ... not bad for a first timer on the press and he managed to fix the darned thing when it started looking like it might be broken... which would be all i need

needless to say - the stress has mounted in the printspace and I have been feeling it - i am looking forward much to seeing my lovelies in melbourne in may but hope i just not too tired to enjoy it ...

anyone wanna help hang a show?

! ! !  ...  its been a big busy week ...

and its monday again already....

LAST monday was crazy fun with the power out at midnight and not back on until midday .. the morning was spent at work milling around lamenting about not having coffee and computers and no daycare for iggy.  Town was on though so sailor returned to school...

 and the airport was running so margot and michael returned to melbourne after a week of rain .. still insisting they didn't mind ...

We have had a polish melbourne couple visiting this week who are excellent - On monday they turned up to a dark quiet arts centre to work.  Andre, who is a bark expert, built a large fire pit outside and with the boys burnt bark to de-curl it and, since the sun was shining, climbed onto the roof to lay out the mouldy barks to dry. We  made coffee on the bbq and it was like school camp or something. His wife is a great lady too who spent her morning convincing me to get the puppy that turned up in midst of it all ...

she is very persuasive as you can see ...

We also got a visit from the rangers who had just caught a four metre crocodile.  In the town lagoon. Across the road from sailor's school. All tied up and so huge ....  shiver

iggy looks unimpressed

kade's nandi (yolngu mother) telling me to wait - i was off chasing the puppy as she looked after iggy

jane's nephew franki has been visiting - him and sailor have been hanging out everyday after school and over the weekend - jane and rob have wii and a huge screen so thats keeps them well entertained
iggy had a turn too

we had a rare moment of sunshine so we took off to east woody beach with margot and michael on their last day and had a swim and caught hermit crabs -

hermit crabs are possibly the cutest animals EVER

good beach east woody

(thanks mm for the visit - see you in september! it won't be raining!)