Yarra Valley Wine Tour

This past weekend promised to be hot and sunny, so we decided to get out of the city of Melbourne and do some travelling into the countryside. We booked to go on a Yarra Valley wine tour. This is near the area of Victoria where the terrible and tragic bush fires happened exactly one year ago. We had all been encouraged to head out to this area at some point, to help build up the tourist industry in this ravaged area once again. The day was called "Black Saturday", a commemoration of those who lost their lives, their buildings, their property, their loved ones exactly a year ago. We visited five independent wineries, each one having a story to tell. One could still see the burned out trees, evident a year later. The owners of one winery had pictures of a lovely barn and cottage on February 7, 2009 and another picture of just a blackened roof on the ground a mere day later. It was sobering, and we all had a minute of silence at 12 noon in memory. The region is very hilly and beautiful , in spite of dry drought conditions. Some of the owners explained the wine-making process to us; others let us taste the different variety of grapes that made up the different kind of wines. We were able to see the grapes on the vines ; some vines were netted to keep out the birds. We ate lunch at one winery with our small group of twelve people. Three of the others in our group were also from Canada, but from Quebec. Yet another winery had a wonderful exhibit of Aboriginal art which was an surprise addition to the wonderful wine-tasting day. Rick is planning to take a university course starting in March on Aboriginal art, so this place held an added bonus for him.

Flora and Fauna Around Melbourne

Well, we have already sent a blog about animals, about cars, about trains, and now it is time to give you a glimpse of the many beautiful trees and flowers around Melbourne! We have been enjoying all the flora and the fauna - beautiful flowers , palm trees,

unusual plants like "Hens and Chickens" on a bush , and greenery in areas where there is sufficient water, in spite of the hot weather. Who has ever seen a geranium hedge before? So, let the pictures speak for themselves.

Resending Malvern Primary Blog with added Pictures

Thought I would tell you a little about my Malvern Primary School in Australia, now that I have survived my first week there. It is an old school dating back to 1880's, with two stately main buildings, surrounded by lots of portables in a very big schoolyard. There are three separate play areas for "Morning Tea" (that's recess) for the different grades. There is a "No hat, No play" policy at recess, because of the hot sun. The hats all have to be slouch hats (having a long back covering the back of the neck) or floppy hats- on my first recess duty I wore a baseball cap, and then discovered thereafter that Baseball Caps are NOT allowed!!! The students all wear uniforms, which is either a blue top with black shorts or a blue patterned dress. They all have blue backpacks which they line up along the edge of their classrooms each morning. Each classroom has a door directly to the outside, through which the students enter and exit.

There are just over 700 students in the school, all mostly from upper middle class homes. Ours is a government public school, but it is situated in a very classy neighbourhood, and has very high ratings academically. So, many of the parents in the neighbourhood choose to send their students to our school for the lower grades and then move them on to private school. This is why we have only three classes each of Grades 5 & 6, but 6 classes with 120 Prep (that's Kindergarten in Australia) students. I am not sure that I will ever learn to know all their names! The name choices are completely different from our classes in Canada- we have at least one James, Will, Emma, Chloe or Harry (or some derivative) in every class, and sometimes even two. In one of the pictures, you can see the Prep students having their first assembly in a beautiful old building known as the "Junior Hall".

The kids are VERY well behaved, and rarely need to be disciplined. Mostly we spend the time speaking in our quiet voice and only have to mention their name for them to settle down. At our first assembly with the Grade 1 - 6 kids (600) they were so quiet that you could hear a pin drop! I was amazed! When the bell has rung, each grade has a designated area to assemble. The kids SIT DOWN in lines and wait quietly until they are called by class into school (check out the Grade 4's assembling in the picture)!

The staff is very helpful and friendly. The gentleman who has the Prep students visiting him in the picture is our principal. The school also has two assistant principals and three ladies working in the office.The school teaches Italian as its second language. There is a very extensive art program with two specialists; there is also a drama specialist part-time. Malvern Primary also has a very extensive waste recycling program. They even have worms that eat all the food leftovers from lunch!

My assignment is to teach Prep to Grade 2 music classes. For two days I will be providing support for Grade 3-6 students who have some learning difficulties.

Hope you enjoy the first day of school pictures! Three pictures show our music room that I share with the full-time music teacher, who is just great! The outside of our school can be seen in an earlier blog.

I am really enjoying teaching here. Today we had +35 degrees. I teach the Grade 1 classes above the gym on a mezzanine level, and our room was sweltering at 26 degrees even though the air conditioner was set for 16 degrees! Last week it was so hot that the hydro went off from all the power being consumed by the air conditioners!! I take the train for an hour to and from school each day, which includes a healthy walk to the school from the train station. Today it was very exhausting to walk back to the station in the heat - you never go anywhere without water!

They do not really celebrate this event out in Australia, so guess who introduced it in the Prep to Grade 2 music classes? We had a blast passing around hearts in my "Love is Something if you give it away" singing game! Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! We both want to wish you lots of love and best wishes!

Wherever I May Go

You’re in my thoughts and in my heart
Wherever I may go;
On Valentine’s Day, I’d like to say
I care more than you know.