Spider in the Hole!!

Good Morning!

It's been a good weekend Down Under for us!  First, let me say, that at the end of this post will be a picture of a redback spider so don't scroll all the way down if you don't care to see it.  The red mark on them is strikingly red, so they are easy enough to recognize, but they are quite lethal, so having them building webs on the shed is not something we want to encourage!  The one you see in the picture is no longer a threat thanks to a large can of Raid.

Last week was fairly uneventful, school days and swimming at the town pool.  We went a bit early to swim lessons on Friday to have free swim, and Jones ended up having a reaction to the chemicals in the pool and had to sit out for the swim lesson.  He started getting a rash around his eyes and it was spreading, so we had him shower off and just watch the lesson.  It has been over 100 degrees F every day, so its hard to do much except go to the pool.  They do use tons of chemicals.  We will try to go less this week and hopefully we won't have problems with the rash.

Saturday we drove a couple hours west to a little outpost resort for our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was held at Glen Helen "Resort", which was a historic station (that is the term for "ranch" here).  The dinner was at 3:00 pm and there were 30-40 of Trent's work people/families.  We got there pretty early, so walked around a bit, took a family picture, and hung out in the sitting room playing games until it was time to eat.  The meal was fairly good with turkey, potatoes, gravy, bread, cranberry sauce, green beans and corn.  Of course they had salad too, a huge bowl of beetroot (they call beets "beetroot" and it is very popular here...can't imagine why), and cold ham with mustard sauce.  It was so hard to wait until 3:00 to eat, and then we were eating outside in the heat!  We were under a covered patio, so in the shade, but we found it a bit sweltering to be eating Thanksgiving dinner while so sticky ourselves!  After we were through with the dinner, it was another hour or so until they brought out the pies, which looked more like tarts.  There were pumpkin and pecan for choices, and the crust was quite as thick as the filling, if you can imagine.  The crust was a bit waxy, and most of us just scraped the filling off and enjoyed it that way.  By this time, the kids were ready to be out of nice-ish clothes and on to somewhere to get wet, so we changed and strolled over to the Glen Helen waterhole to have a swim. 

It was gorgeous and the water was very warm, so the kids were able to really get in and swim.  Jones and Jax saw a dingo come down and get a drink, but when it saw them watching, it ran up to a tree a bit away.  The rest of us caught a glimpse of that one, and then we saw another from the car on our way home.  They are really pretty blonde/orange dogs that have big ears, almost looking like german shepherds, but for the color.  Supposedly, they aren't dangerous, but can be very bold coming into your camp and stealing food, etc. 
After a bit, the kids wanted to try the "resort" pool, so we walked back over there and they swam for another 45 minutes or so before it was time to start heading back home.  I say "resort" because although the term implies a bit of polish, Glen Helen doesn't really have any.  It is a pretty remote location, so I am sure it is hard to keep up, but most of the church camps I have attended had better accomodations and food.  Lots of the work people that came for the Thanksgiving dinner were staying the night there in the rooms, which would be fun, but fairly expensive for what you get.  They did have a nice menu for food in the lodge, but the cheapest thing for breakfast was coffee or juice and toast for $10.  Yikes.
Sunday morning we intended to try the Markets and then attend church in the evening.  Unfortunately, there were no Markets at the Todd Mall that day!!  I am told now, that since it is getting hotter, they won't be every week, but they will have several special markets before Christmas, so we will try to find out when they are and go then.  We did find a small market south of town called the Heavitree Gap Bush Market, which was more a garage sale type market. The kids got some silverware from a lady selling kitchen items and we found a Christmas tree for $10!  It is a "Pacific Pine" and is a nicish artificial tree, a little over 2 meters (or metres, if you go with Aussie spelling) tall.  So, the morning was not entirely wasted.  Papa and the kids spent the afternoon playing nerf dart tag outside in the yard while Mama made real pumpkin pie in the house!  Then early dinner and off to the night service at church.  It was a smaller crowd, and no kids classes, but very nice atmosphere and better music than the morning service that we usually go to.  We had been concerned that we would be late to bed, but were home by 7:15, so still had some wind-down time before hitting the sack. 
And that brings us up to date!  It's Monday morning and time to wind-up again...Love to all and hope our messages find you well and happy!  We are certainly thankful for each of you, on this week of thanksgiving and always.

Hilary

P.S. They call cotton candy "fairy floss."  Swim suits are "bathers."  Reservations are "bookings."  People ask if you'd like a "cuppa" which could be coffee or tea.  Did I already mention that markers are called "textas?"  In the U.S. we say "Check the box" when me mean to put a checkmark in a box, in the land of Oz they say "Tick the box."  Porches are "verandahs."  They really do say "Good on ya!"  Electricity is really expensive here, so most people use clotheslines to dry their clothes.  "Tucker" is food.  People who live out in the country are said to live "out bush."  We are still coming across little fun things...

P.P.S.  Here's the redback...