the tour

It came around again, the annual Tour de Prairie, whilst the real riders biked around the hills of France.  Costume deciding was weeks in the planning (as of course, our bike ride was FANCY DRESS). Mum layed down the rules: must be kept SIMPLE.

Georgie originally had other plans (of which I have forgotten) but embraced my Huck Finn suggestion with gusto (we did have to google some images though, as she hadn’t heard of him before!) Kate wanted to be a rock star, along with her little mate Grace, so they hatched plans to be matching rock stars. Angus, recycling his Where’s Wally glasses, was of course Harry Potter with the addition of a borrowed cape (and use of eyeliner pencil on his forehead).

The dress up theme was embraced by the school and community. Really the bike ride itself (a 14km round trip) is just an excuse.

This one is of Wally NOT TOUCHING THE BABY (if he doesn’t look at her and his butt touches her arm it doesn’t count) Baby is my niece Violet.

A sausage sizzle was enjoyed by all and recovery on the lawn. Then they had to ride back again….some deciding to catch a ride half way.

Kids slept well that night.

Olden Days

This semester at school, the kids have been looking at history. Over the past few weeks they've investigated some local history of our quite old little town and school.

Luckily one of the kids at school has grandparents that have lived here for quite a long time, and are bits of local historians. She was able to provide some old photos and maps, which were fascinating.  And some googling also produced some very interesting results.

In 1947 someone obviously decided that there needed to be a pictorial record taken of the township, I found quite a few images of buildings. This one is of our house in its previous existence of post office and telephone exchange. Very little has changed, except in the 1960's two rooms were added on the left hand side as living quarters for the postmaster of that era. I believe the fence on the right (not the white one, the posts in the background) is the one still half standing that I am wanting to pull down. And the gates on the far right are STILL the same front gates!!

A few years earlier, in the 1930's, and obviously prior to a coat of white paint. Local kids all getting a ride on a travelling cameleer. 

Note the windows: white in this photo and green in the previous. (I know its green as I've met the layers in a window sanding exercise).

A 3D style map of the houses that are/used to be around our township, fascinating, especially when compared to some of the photos I have discovered!

For example, this was the church that was right next door to our house, as indicated on the map. Sadly white ants did their best and the building was pulled down in the early 80's. The school kids scrounged around on the site one afternoon, but all they could find of its existence was some green fragments of glass from the windows, a roofing nail and a scrap of lead roof capping, and one building stump (at ground level). Georgie spent several afternoons excavating that stump from the ground, hoping to find some other "treasure" under it. All that came out of that exercise was a leg breaking hole left in the ground that needs to be backfilled before horses enter the paddock again, and a kid that was kept muddy and occupied for a week of after school afternoons! (and a whole pile of implements that needed to be returned to the shed!)

This is our school in 1947. Same building still stands....

and as it is today.

I don't know about you, but I love history and comparing then and now! Watch this space. I feel a project coming on. Must make time to visit the local historical society to see if I can find more photos!