Daylesford Fun

I can't believe it's already been a week since the Two Cheeky Monkeys family returned from our little getaway to the town of Daylesford, a few hours' drive from our home in Melbourne!  In spite of the sometimes extreme heat we experienced while up there, we had a fun time exploring our surrounds and visiting what felt like every single gift/handmade/antiques store, market or bazaar in the area.

For those interested in visiting Daylesford, there is definitely more to see and do than the oft-advertised spas and beauty treatments (of which there are so many different practitioners that it can be a little overwhelming choosing which one to use).  We managed a few scenic walks, especially around Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, Lake Daylesford and the various designated mineral springs areas (but I wouldn't recommend drinking the springwater, even though it's perfectly safe, as it tastes pretty awful).  If we had been brave enough, we could also have swum in the lake or chosen to go out in paddle boats.  Just out of Daylesford in the nearby smaller towns there are also lots of great walks and activities, such as Lavandula (a Swiss-Italian lavender farm) and the Chocolate Mill (a drool-worthy chocolate factory).

Daylesford is also the home of several antiques/secondhand markets and bazaars; The Mill Markets are the largest and best known, followed by the smaller (but more manageable) Daylesford Bazaar and Brick Lane Bazaar.  We had fun at the weekly Daylesford Sunday market and there are also monthly farmers and handmade markets if you visit at the right time of the month.  Daylesford is the home to plenty of small art galleries and specialty food and gift stores too.  There are lots of eating out options (I think Bocconcini will always hold a special place in our hearts just for its name alone, though the food and service are great) as well as two supermarkets should you wish to cook your own meals.

A Little Break

After a very busy 2014, and an extremely hectic December, the Two Cheeky Monkeys family will be taking a little break to relax and unwind for a week or so.  Although I am leaving both Two Cheeky Monkeys and Domum Vindemia stores open, I will not be mailing out orders until the second week of January 2015.  I will be also taking a little break from blogland, so I want to thank you all again for your support this year and wish you a wonderful and joy-filled New Year!

(Image source: http://bit.ly/1Ac6Y7J)

Summer Holidays Craft Tutorials: Paint and Ink

It's mid-December and many of us are madly running around in the midst of end of year concerts, Christmas functions, organising teacher appreciation gifts and coordinating family Christmas get-togethers.  If you're like me, you may also have been hit with the feeling of impending doom when you realise that school summer holiday are almost upon us too!  So to help ease some of the summer holidays "I'm bored" syndrome, I have put together several tutorial roundups filled with ideas for a range of ages.  Today's tutorials all focus on paint and ink because, as much as we mums may hate the mess of paint in our homes, it is the summer holidays, so you can send your kids outside to play with it.

Preschool Daze shares a great bubble wrap painting idea so simple even the littlest one can join in!

Moomah has a sweet watercolour notecard tutorial.

I think we've all done this at one time or other in our lives - ink blowing (from Kidspot)!

Key Art Studio shares THE BEST cookie decorating idea: watercolour cookie art.

The thought of my children eating paint, even edible paint, freaks me out completely.  But the less fastidious will love this edible paint tutorial by hellobee.

Head over to offbeat + inspired for a fab painted t-shirt tutorial.

This one is a little pricey, supplies wise, but I have been wanting to try sun painting for ages!!!

Hamilton Island and THE Playground

For those of you who remember this post about my holiday to the Northern Territory of Australia two years ago, I couldn't resist writing another blog post about playgrounds I encountered on my holidays.  Although I am normally loath to "waste" precious holiday sightseeing time with jaunts at playgrounds, I was actually quite pleased to find the only public playground on Hamilton Island (as far as I know, all the other playgrounds belong to the tiny local school and kindergarten or the childcare centre).  We had arrived on the island that morning, the weather was colder and wetter than we were expecting and we still had at least an hour before we could check into our holiday accomodation.  So what better way to distract the cheeky monkeys from moaning about the miserable Queensland weather than to set them loose at the local playground?!

Hamilton Island Water Sports or "Ways to scare my children"

The two cheeky monkeys getting ready to snorkel around Hardy Reef.

I have been meaning to include a few blog posts about our recent trip to Hamilton Island, so here is the first post in my Hamilton Island series (I hope you'll all indulge me in my spot of holiday nostalgia).  Today's post is dedicated to our attempts to engage the two cheeky monkeys in the various water sports available on or around Hamilton Island.  The monkeys both love the water, regularly attending swimming lessons as well as constantly asking to play at the beach when the weather is warmer.  Soooo, we thought that they might enjoy something a little different, such as snorkelling around the Great Barrier Reef.

A view of staghorn coral from the bottom of our semi-submersible boat.

I have to admit that their first introduction to snorkelling, snorkelling lessons in the main resort pool, was not a resounding success.  This was mostly due to the fact that swimming pools do not appear to be heated in the tropics but do not build up enough warmth to avoid feeling like an ice bath!  (I have yet to find a heated, outdoor pool when travelling in the tropics).  The monkeys' second (and perhaps last) attempt at snorkelling was not much better than their first because being thrown into open ocean with live fish, coral, dozens of other snorkellers and a photographer trying to take your photo is not an enjoyable experience after a 1.5 hour (or so) sea sickness-inducing catamaran ride.

Waiting for daddy to push the kayak out to sea.

Undeterred by our miserable attempts at snorkelling, we decided to try sea kayaking, which was provided "free" as part of our accomodation package.  This too, did not start well with monkey #1 and I being washed overboard by a large-ish wave as we were pushing off the beach (we were completely safe in our life jackets and the shallow water).  After the oldest monkey was calmed down, she went off paddling with her dad while I took monkey #2 out with me.  I have to admit that, although I enjoy canoeing and kayaking on lakes, kayaking out on the "open sea" with a small child was truly a SCARY experience for me.  Both monkeys enjoyed the kayaking MUCH better when they went with Mr Cheeky Monkeys as opposed to kayaking with their nervous nelly mum (yes, I am a complete wuss).

Needless to say, the monkeys spent most of our holiday preferring to paddle at the ocean's edge, build sand castles or dipping their toes in the various COLD swimming pools around Hamilton Island.  But I am hopeful that when they are a little older (say in their tweens or teens), they will be able to more fully enjoy the various watersports to which they were subjected...er I mean "introduced", by their well-meaning, but misguided, parents!

My Northern Territory Holiday - Miscellaneous Photos

Today's post is the last in my series of posts about my recent Northern Territory adventure.  I was hoping to be able to blog about the amazing flora and fauna found in the Northern Territory but I found that most of my pictures weren't that good (and we didn't see huge numbers of animals due to the fact that many of them are nocturnal and we did our sightseeing during the day).
So, instead of my planned flora and fauna post, I thought I would just include a few photos from our holiday which I love.  I can't believe it's been a month since we first set off on our holiday, there are definitely quite a few times when I wish we were still there!

Malcolm getting up close and personal with "Honey" the beautiful Olive python at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre.

Sculpture of a giant caterpillar representing Yeperenye, a dream time character in Aboriginal creation stories, at the Araluen Cultural Precinct.

Cattle class on a train which was used on the original Ghan railway line.  Yes, people used to travel like this for weeks (and sometimes months) with no shelter or seats.  The museum curator told us that travellers on "cattle class" would bring their own pallets and blankets to keep warm at night - yikes.

My Northern Territory Holiday - Souvenirs

The penultimate post about my Northern Territory holiday is a relatively short one (yes, can you believe it, a short post from me!) highlighting some of the amazing artists who created some of the lovely souvenirs we brought home with us.

 "On Walkabout (Blue)" fabric by Karen Taylor

When I asked Malcolm what he was interested in bringing home as a reminder of our trip, he replied that he was interested in the many paintings by Aboriginal artists he had seen in the local galleries and stores.  Since these were out of our budget range,  I came up with a solution which made him happy and which also gave me an excuse to add to my fabric stash (he he).  I had noticed the tantalising Australian Aboriginal Fabrics store on our second day in Alice Springs and had been dying to pop in for a browse.  When I did, I was blown away by the beautiful fabric available!  I had to choose the blue "On Walkabout fabric" since blue is Malcolm's favourite colour and dot paintings are the traditional form of painting created by the local Arrernte people.  For those of you who can't visit Alice Springs, you will be glad to know that Australian Aboriginal Fabrics ship worldwide (was it naughty of me to tell you that?)

Beautifully coloured earrings created by Julie Millerick of Desert Silk

Another place full of amazing art by local artists was the small studio and gallery, Central Craft.  This little gem is a part of the Araluen Cultural Precinct and was full of a variety of handcrafts including pottery, felted and woven fabric art, jewellery and paintings.  My parents even found a delicious-looking range of gourmet jams and marmalades!  We had so much fun looking through all the beautiful handiwork and we were a little disappointed that none of the artists were working in the studio on the day we visited.

Bookmarks of paintings created by local artists

This last picture doesn't really constitute a "souvenir" we brought home with us, but it did give us some giggles after the initial tears.  As I mentioned in a previous holiday post, we found many of the walks to be rather arduous with two small children.  As a consequence, by the last day of our trip, each of us sported at least one graze or bruise on our knees (except for my parents who, being more "mature" and sensible, picked their way carefully through each walk and didn't fall once).  It hurt quite a bit at the time, but it was pretty funny looking at all of our knees while we sat in the departure lounge of the airport awaiting our flight home!

My Northern Territory Holiday - The Playgrounds of Alice Springs

Today's holiday blog post covers a topic I never thought I would be writing about in conjunction with a holiday to a new, exciting and unexplored location.  More experienced parents will think I am foolish, I know, but I never thought that a trip to a place like Alice Springs, which has so many bushwalks, museums and galleries to explore would result in me exploring almost every playground my kids set eyes on (I say almost every playground because we managed to convince them that the playground near our bed and breakfast hotel was not worth visiting).

Playground at the Araluen Cultural Precinct

Every time we reached a new location, my girls would scan the area and then cry, "Look!  A playground!"  And, as you will see in the last picture, if they couldn't find a playground, they would improvise.  Dry and sandy riverbeds make for great giant sandpits, according to my children.  And rocky tracks and climbs were a great source of stones to bang together or pretend they were dinosaur eggs, food, or whatever took their fancy!

 

Simple playground at the Olive Pink Botanic Garden

So, for those of you heading to Alice Springs with young children in the near future, make sure you note down the location of each of these playgrounds.  You might find the information very handy!  My next holiday post will be about some of the souvenirs we brought home with us.

Miss 4 enjoying the slide at the Old Ghan Heritage Railway and Museum

Miss 2 and my dad playing on the see saw outside the Old Ghan Heritage Museum

Making "cakes" in the mostly dry riverbed leading up to the gorgeous Simpsons Gap

My Northern Territory Holiday - Bush Food

Today's post is the second in my series of blog posts about my recent holiday.  I have been a big fan of "bush food" for quite some time now, so whenever I head to areas of Australia where the Australian Aboriginal culture is quite strongly cultivated, I go in search of bush food.

Bush cucumber, Cucumis melo sp. agrestis.  Supposed to be very good for quenching thirst in the desert.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this name, the term "bush food" generally encompasses both "bush tucker" (food which the Aboriginal people found in the wild, including nuts and berries from native plants) and more modern cooking which uses the flavours and ingredients of bush tucker.

Models of the witchetty grub, Endoxyla leucomochla, being examined by my mum.  I have been told these taste like "scrambled eggs with butter".

Our first encounter with bush food was at a talk about Aboriginal life and survival in the bush at the Alice Springs Desert Park.  We were told about various fruits and seeds used by Aborigines for food, including seeds which were ground up to make a kind of flour for cakes and breads, as well as various plants used as bush medicines.

Bush fig, Ficus racemosa (I think)

As a past medical research scientist, I was extremely fascinated by the bush medicines used by the Aborigines.  Bush remedies were derived from plants and animals and ranged from cures for warts (by inserting phyllodes from the Acacia tetragonophylla around the wart) to plants which could be used for chest congestion (described as the equivalent of Vicks chest rub by an Aboriginal park ranger) and headaches.  In fact, one remedy for headache, the native lemongrass (Cymbopogon ambiguus), has been found to contain eugenol, an aspirin-like chemical.

Bush meat mixed grill

Nowadays, bush food and bush medicine have become growing industries, with ever increasing interest from restaurants, food companies and medical researchers.  Of course, we had to try out some bush food, so my dear husband took me out for a "date night" while my parents kindly stayed back at the hotel with the kiddies (they were all happy to consume ravioli carbonara at the hotel).  We went to the Bo Jangles Saloon, an intentionally seedy-looking cowboy-themed restaurant, where we found some interesting, and delicious, "bush food" dishes.  Malcolm ordered the bush meat mixed grill, which included a crocodile rissole, an emu sausage, a buffalo meat medallion, camel shashlik and a kangaroo fillet served with a chilli and bush plum sauce.  I chose the slightly less adventurous, but still delicious, NT camel and stout pie seen below.

Northern Territory camel and stout pie

I'm afraid this has turned out to be a rather long and overly detailed blog post!  I wasn't intending on it being this long, it just came out this way, hee hee.  My next holiday post will be a much shorter one looking at the playgrounds of Alice Springs (yes, you read correctly, I said playgrounds).  Stay tuned!

My Northern Territory Holiday - Amazing Scenery

To help myself get back into the rhythm of my normal life, I am going to spend the next few weeks posting about various aspects of my holiday to Alice Springs and Uluru/Ayers Rock.  For today's post I thought I would share some of the many pictures we took of the amazing landscape we saw on our travels.

 

 

Malcolm with miss 2 and miss 4 at  Standley Chasm (Angkerle), just outside of Alice Springs

I would love to share all of my photos with you, but I have to admit that after a while, the various rock formations and caves all sort of blur into one if you weren't actually there when the photos were taken.

The landscape of the Northern Territory is like nothing else I've experienced before.  It is a fairly dry and barren landscape (with the exception of the day we arrived where we were treated to an unusually large downpour just as we were picking up our hire car) with predominantly red soil and marked at various places by large, and often odd-looking, rock formations, hills and mountains.

My mum walking through a rock formation on the trail to Standley Chasm

I was quite unprepared for the number of dry (or mostly dry) riverbeds, streams and creeks we saw on our travels.  After the downpour we witnessed on our arrival in Alice Springs, the locals told us about how flooded the Todd River was compared to its normal state.  For someone from Melbourne who had experienced freak storms and floods in March, the flooded Todd River didn't look particularly flooded.  However, six days after our arrival in Alice Springs, we saw just how quickly the river could dry up if there was no rainfall!

The view of Simpsons Gap from the mostly dry riverbed (and miss 4 being a bird or aeroplane down the bottom of the picture, LOL)

I was also quite unprepared for the difficulty of many of the interesting walks and trails around Alice Springs and the nearby gaps and gorges.  The trail up to the Standley Chasm was rocky to the extreme and made more difficult by the many little streams and pools of water we had to navigate.  When we visited the Emily and Jessie Gaps, we had to practically long jump over small streams to get to our destination (not fun while carrying a two or four year old).  We unfortunately had to stop when we reached large pools of water which we decided not to wade through due to a lack of swimwear and towels and the amount of non-waterproof gear we were carrying.

View of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) as the sun was setting

The 5 hour drive from Alice Springs to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park provided us with a rather flat and barren landscape, making the drive a relatively monotonous one.  The relatively flat landscape served to accentuate the size and beauty of Uluru and Kata Tjuta - it was so exciting to be able to see them in the distance while we were still on the road.  We did get fooled for a few minutes by Mount Connor - this mountain is apparently frequently confused for Uluru at first glance.  We were so excited to see Mount Connor, and really surprised to be able to see "Uluru" when we were not that close to the national park.  Once we had calmed down, we realised that we were too far away from the national park and the shape and size were not right for the real Uluru, ha ha ha.  It did give us a good laugh and broke up the monotony of the journey.

The sky over Kata Tjuta at sunset

One of the most beautiful things we saw on our trip was not actually the landscape, but the sky.  Sunset and sunrise at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park are stunningly beautiful!  We managed to view the sunset on the first night we spent at the national park, although the lateness of the sunset and the long drive back to our accomodation meant that we sat  down to a very late dinner.  We had hoped to view the sunrise over Uluru the next morning, but decided it was too much of a rush to fit into our already packed schedule (and very hard waking up early enough to view the sunrise from a decent location).

A view of Uluru (Ayers Rock) from the car

I hope you have all enjoyed the pictures I have included in this post.  I know some of them aren't brilliant and most of them really do not do justice to the fascinating sights we saw.  If you are planning to visit Alice Springs or Uluru in the near future, feel free to drop me a line and I can give you my perspective of travelling in these areas.

One of several caves one sees on the Mala walk to the Kantju Gorge at Uluru