Today we sailed across to Garden Island with Elwyn and her friend Belinda. Lovely sail!

After some talk of going ashore for a walk, everyone but Rob was asleep for the usual after-lunch nap. Rob was gifted with this scene and put his trusty camera to work – an osprey fishing:-)

The left-hand photo catches the osprey flying down from it’s tree. The top right catches the osprey flying up out of the water with its fish. The lower right catches the osprey back in its tree, eating the fish.

Beautiful!

Last night we babysat (Rob, Elwyn and I) Tom and Thea so that Tristan and Blaine could have some well-earned “quiet” time in town, finishing their Christmas shopping and having a nice dinner together. Thea was her usual dear self, but Tom was pushing the envelope, perhaps for Elwyn’s sake?

At the park that afternoon he wanted to go off by himself. As there were a number of older boys we weren’t too keen on that idea, so I just trailed around after him to keep an eye on him. One bigger boy approached Tom with aggression in his eyes. I watched. He must have sensed something because he turned back towards me and asked “Are you his mother?” “No,” I replied in a very firm voice, looking him straight in the eyes, “I’m his Grandma.” He backed off!

At dinner, Tom made much more mess on the floor than usual. Elwyn took the picture of him and I discussing how he was going to get the floor below his chair spick and span after he’d finished his dinner. Before he agreed to clean it up, he asked if I had had to do that when I was 4!

When getting ready for bed (after he’d cleaned up the floor), Elwyn was attempting to get Tom to go to the toilet, and Tom was ramping up his arguments why he should use the toilet on the other side of the house instead of the one next to him. His final argument was “But Elwyn, I LOVE the other toilet!” Elwyn and I were very controlled in our laughter, but he did go to the toilet next to him!

Elwyn was quite tired by the time he finally settled.

Rob snapped this gorgeous photo of Tom at his favourite playground today. Tom names his playgrounds by their dominant colour – no prizes for guessing the colour of this one!

It’s a matter of love that we are members of the John Muir Trust in Scotland – we LOVE Scotland!

The Trust buys, rehabilitates and cares for increasing numbers of land tracts:

http://www.youtube.com/johnmuirtrustvideo#p/c/521FF30C04584034/0/faC-4jd6nnI.

You can see from the video why we do this…

Today we took the whole family (minus Elwyn who arrives here from England on Tuesday) to Rottnest on Dusky Dolphin. It was windier than the forecast (as usual!) so the ride was a bit uncomfortable for Blaine and Thea.

However, a half way across a pod of dolphins raced in behind us, leaping and splashing as they fed on a school of fish. The joy that flowed from them was electric and immediately dispelled any sadness aboard!

This photo was taken after that, when Thea’s smile had returned:-)

These past few days have been filled with dolphins!

Last Saturday as we sailed down Cockburn Sound, the entire Cockburn Sound dolphin pod surrounded us while catching fish. They were leaping and chasing. One dolphin swam upside-down beside us, and we wondered why until it ducked under a weed patch and came out with a fish in its mouth. Every so often 2-3 dolphins would leave feeding and play in our bow wave, jumping and diving around us.

Magic!

The next day, as we sailed back to Fremantle, 2 dolphins from the pod raced in from one side and frolicked in the bow-wave, seeming to guide us north…

Then this morning, what joy! The Swan River dolphin pod has been dying, poisoned from old chemical dumps beside the river which must have been leached out with all the winter rain this year. I’d been worried that the whole pod was gone, as I hadn’t seen any for weeks and the terns, pelicans and gulls which normally feed with the dolphins haven’t been doing so well. But this morning, just off the fore-shore, there was a mother and young playing. In the picture they are playing in the boat’s bow-wave…

Joy! They will recover:-)