Apparently summer is here... It has been slow to start, but that's ok. We've been rather preoccupied. Still, we're trying to take a moment here and there to look for it...
A little climbing...
And fossicking...
I'm sure it will turn up. My family are here now and their summer holiday vibe is rubbing off on us. We're looking at our magic beach through their eyes... Lazy days ahead and perhaps less thought into our unschool days as we just get on with things. But still, opportunities for learning happen all the time...
Today when we got home from our beach wander, we found our favourite tree in the process of being cut down. If you look closely you can see two men in a cherry picker cutting down the beautiful, enormous eucalypt we could see from our bedrooms and the lounge room. We loved staring up at the branches when we walked past on our walks home from the beach... Sadly, eucalypts have a reputation for dropping branches and, although this particular tree posed no threat, its owners must have been a little nervous. As I type this, it has disappeared. The owlets have asked a great many questions, about all sorts of things... Like what the neighbourhood looked like when the tree was here and the houses weren't, or what it might look like if all the trees were cut down. Will a new tree grow in its place? Years of growing and gone in a few short hours... Lots for an owlet to comprehend. Perhaps we are the only ones who will miss it...
That is very sad about the tree.
ReplyDeleteMy children ask often about the landscape and changes over the hundreds of years.
I love using books by Jeannie Baker at times like this.
It looks like an old blue gum, there are so few of them left in Hobart they really should be protected (as long as they're healthy and not about to drop a limb on anyone!) I have a very traumatic memory of my Dad cutting down a big Euc in our back yard that had been planted in the wrong spot and 'had to go'. I was heartbroken, absolutely traumatised at the sight of this big, beautiful tree, home to possums, birds and all sorts of creepy crawlies, being cut down in its prime. I think my Dad was a bit shocked at my reaction!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your Christmas Lauren, full of family - old and new - and I hope we get a bit of summer soon.
Slow to start is right, it's sunny here for the first time in ages, but still a bit cold...!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to come wish y'all a Merry Christmas Sweets, I hope you have a great one with all your precious Owlets!
xo