C Y C L O N E    L A M

When you live in the path of possible cyclones you soon learn about the BOM site and it's cyclone tracking maps - and if a cyclone is developing in the gulf next to where you live you soon learn to check it obsessively to see what kind of trouble you might be in ...

Initially Cyclone Lam looked like it was going to swing below us but on Tuesday - as I checked the three hourly updates - it began to look more ominous ...  by Tuesday afternoon we feared the worse - a Category 4 Cyclone was expected to hit Yirrkala and Nhulunbuy on the nose ...

We packed out things and prepared ourselves, school got cancelled and we waited for the updates as they came in, the forecast changed and Lam started to go above us but 5am Wed morning the update was specific -  get to your cyclone safe shelter  N O W ... 

So we went to Katrina's house (brick) and along with 16 others bunked down waiting for the destructive winds to hit and began checking BOM hourly ... it was a long day -  we went for a drive, we saw people surfing in the waves off the boat ramp, we went to Shady Beach and felt the wind and saw the huge surf crashing up but generally it was T O T A L L Y   U N E V E N T F U L and by 4pm we were all a bit restless and bored (its a funny thing but after awhile you just want the bloody cyclone to come and get the show on the road)

 But by then of course, the cyclone had shifted paths again and was headed directly to poor Elcho Island and Milingimbi and Ramingining ...

 And there on Thursday morning it blew into those communities with the full brunt of a Category 4 and continued inland as a Category 3 until , at last, it went to a 1 and now a Low ... and those poor small towns are now facing mammoth tasks of cleaning up and re building and getting power on and water on and all those things that I feel extremely fortunate not to have to deal with ... its a bittersweet relief - for I feel so sorry for them .. but our family is safe, our house, our community, the art centre and we are very very lucky.

see ya later  L A M  !!

O N   T H E   S L O P E S

bit of tubing

I mean ... the pictures say it all really !

A S P E N 

After Minnesota - we went and joined Kade in the beautiful ski town of Aspen - located at the base of a mountain some 10000 feet right at the end of amazing drive from Denver through some spectacular scenery 

It was snowing when we first arrived and snowed for the first two weeks nearly everyday. We were in powder heaven - the kids went to work on snowball production and epic snowball fights.

In between we wandered through the town and stared (much like the tree above) at all the rich and famous who fly in by private jet for the Christmas Holiday Week ...

epic snow battle on Christmas Day

wandering 

around

in the snow drifts

hah! 

with Lonel Gray - Kade's comrade in Aspen

and soon adopted by Sailor and Iggy as theirs as well

for a week my parents joined us!  Which was great!  

We did a day trip to the hot springs (naturally occurring)

at Glenwood Springs (helped especially with all the

sore muscles from skiing..!)

snowman 

iggy and one of his friendly lumps of snow

trying out ice skating ..

best pizza in town!

christmas day

my birthday

iggy makes a friend ...

there was a lot of stuffed animal heads in aspen - quite the decor

not too mention the animal skins on people ... 

NYE, meat and cheese- our favourite deli

bird watching at ACES

we also discovered ACES - the Aspen Centre of the Environment

which offered information about the flora and faun of the area - birds, beavers, elks, bears, cougars, coyotes! - it was a great centre and we went there a bit, might have had something to do with these guys too ...

we had a great little apartment located an easy walk from the town centre and gallery