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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

He'd never seen a frog!!


We had mentioned to our daughter that we were going to drive to the mountain opposite to check out the crevice where the Wedgetail Eagle nests.  Being school holidays, Nicole's always looking for something different to keep 9 year old Bailey amused;  the two older boys are happy to just laze around these days. They came up for only two days as Bailey had to get back home for his footy practice.



It was a freezing day, 3°C, so we rugged up and took our walking sticks.  It was only a ten minute drive but when we got there, it had started to rain and, to our surprise, there wasn't a track going in. So I'm afraid Nana was a spoil-sport and said I'd sit in the car but I also added that I didn't think it a good idea to push through the undergrowth, particularly as the weather was going to get worse and we'd left our mobile phones at home.


Click to enlarge
Our house in the distance -
it is directly under the
house furthest left

Well, we had a very disappointed boy on board, so we drove on a bit further and showed him the old gold diggings (I didn't take a photo there) and on to the river to watch the trout spawning.


This is the river below the Pondage gates.  As it is not irrigation season and the Pondage has been drained for maintenance; the river flow is at its lowest.  The barrier across the water is to stop the spawning trout from entering the Pondage and also to stop trout in the Pondage escaping into the river.

The Pondage drained
for maintenance on the gates -
fish find their way
into the old river bed

The Pondage full
(photo taken in Spring)

We headed home to show Bailey his first live frog.  We couldn't believe it but Grand-dad found him some in the woodpile.


The next day we took him fishing and he 
caught his first fish on a fly he'd tied himself.

18 comments:

Susie Hemingway said...

What a wonderful area to explore and I love your photos, taking the reader on the trip so beautifully with you. It does looked chilly but very special to be a able to show Bailey something new and see things again through his eyes.We have a Grandson just a year older, it's always such fun when he visits which wonderfully is quite often.
Thank you for visiting my blog, quite quite boring when looking at this most beautifully laid out 'visit to your world'.
All very best wishes.

alaine@éclectique said...

Susie...hello. It would be great to see him more often - he wanted to come up the very next week - but it's so hard for Nicole to juggle everything with two teenagers also.
We'll have him up for more fun in the September holidays. Thanks for visiting!

Marion Williams-Bennett said...

I love that you are in a different season than we are, the colors of your season are more muted and subtle and they look just beautiful to me.

And a frog! Ahhh..nature!

Nancy said...

Such a beautiful place that you live, Alaine! Don't you just love those little grandsons?? He is so cute! Despite the cold, I'll bet he loved spending time with you.

Mine will visit the first of next month. He's only two, and when we called him yesterday he told us "he was just hanging out." We laughed. I don't remember his mother being that articulate at that age. They say each generation is gaining 3 IQ points. One wonders what our great grandchildren will be like. :-)

alaine@éclectique said...

Marion...the seasons and change over distance is also wondrous to me...I've read that America is in a heatwave!

alaine@éclectique said...

Nancy...Bailey was still on a high hours later and said on his Facebook page, "I can't believe I caught two rainbow trout, male and female, i am so happy".

Yes, I've always had good conversations with my three. Nicole says that Bailey knows too much for his age. I remember, though, that we were always sent out of the room when the adults were talking and so, weren't really exposed to the art of conversation.

That's priceless, coming from a two year old, "just hanging out"!

Wanda..... said...

Between the heat waves and rain lately, our gardens should do well here in America. At least I have large windows to look out.

Your home and life seem well connected to the outdoors, Alaine. It's nice sharing things like that with the grandchildren and things like discovering frogs!

karen said...

I see you've been spending precious time with your grandson. Sweet. They are so much fun. Can't imagine...he's never seen a frog? How lucky he is to have you for his grandma.
Your photos are just outstanding. What a beautiful country you get to live in. And I'm lucky to have you as a blog friend to enjoy the beauty through your blog. Grateful to you Alaine.
Hope it's not too chilly. Hope you're enjoying the change in seasons. xx

alaine@éclectique said...

Wanda...the heat and rain combined will definitely keep the garden healthy. Everything suffers after days of heat with no relief, including me! We have icy cold winds with rain coming in this afternoon, so no gardening today.

The outdoors come inside with us too and we also have large windows.

Yes, it's magic to see the look of awe on their little faces!

alaine@éclectique said...

MG..Karen, daughter has taken him and a little friend down to their local lake these school holidays; hope they did some exploring.

Equally grateful to you sharing snippets of your life and surrounds. I've done very little overseas travel and it's just marvellous the way the world is opened up to us through blogging.

I don't mind 'chilly' :)

Paul C said...

A wonderful place to go on an outing. Beautiful countryside.

alaine@éclectique said...

Paul C...Hi Paul, yes, it's a pretty place and no traffic lights! That should read, 'no traffic'!!

steven said...

alaine - what a beautiful place to take children to explore and especially to discover!!! steven

Vagabonde said...

Such beautiful landscape around your home, Alaine. Your grandson must have been so proud to catch his first fish, and doubly so since he tied the fly himself. I am sure it will stay in his memory. This is a lovely post.

alaine@éclectique said...

Steven...you're back! I've just read your bike blog; seems you had a fantastic time! Good on you!

alaine@éclectique said...

Vagabonde...thank you...it was nice to get home yesterday after a weekend away, driving in the traffic!

Susan said...

Lovely pictures...you live in such a gorgeous area. I'm glad Bailey's granddad found a frog for him to explore. Every boy should hold a frog in his hands...and every girl, too. We used to have lots of tiny little brown toads in our yard and when the grands were little I would pick them up for them to hold. They got the biggest kick out of it. But the chooks took care of that...they eat every one they can find! I hope we aren't decimating the toad population!

alaine@éclectique said...

Susan...We used to collect tadpoles and watch frogs develop. Hubby is going to use this example with the Victorian Government; they have just stopped the family fishing days, which have been so successful over the past three years, with droves of little kids being brought along by their single parent Mums. DMJ wants to get them going again and use this as an example; that a 9yo had never seen a frog!