Roleystone 1983 – new school for Rob and Mum

February 1983

Our house is still being built.

Robert is heading off to his first day at school, full of confidence. He’s just turned five in December and looks so small. His teacher seems offhand compared to John’s first teacher but as soon as Rob was settled in his desk, he told me to go home. I felt most unneeded.

 

We have another orphan. The goslings and ducklings have started to hatch. John found a duckling wandering in the rain. It’s been housed in an incubator in the family room. It has formed an attachment to EP. The little thing likes to snuggle into the ‘pouch’ and sleep with him, unaware of the danger of being squashed.

 

 

Grandpa helped make a scarecrow to keep the crow away from the chickens

I made EP’s pouch from an old jumper and lined it with sheepskin. He still wears a nappy for the scours but is improving. The ‘pouch’ hangs on the back of a chair in the dining area or sometimes around my neck. The thing about marsupial is that they are noiseless so I can take him anywhere without anyone noticing. He has even been to the movies in Perth.

 

 

March 1983

Now the kids are both at school, I am enrolled at W.A.I.T. (WA Institute of Technology) to do some art studies. EP has been taken to Mrs More for temporary fostering. I am home in time to pick up the kids from school and have resolved not to bring work back to avoid conflicts of interest

 

We have had a lot of excitement with snakes. Our property seems to be riddled with them perhaps because we have rampant Paterson’s Curse for them to hide in. I have seen at least 20 this summer and we’ve had no eggs for three months. We saw a dugite entering our small feed shed last week. We gingerly moved everything out until there was just a board on the floor. David was being cautious but I was sure any self-respecting snake would have found a way to escape, with all the commotion. I lifted the last board and then hurriedly dropped it as I found myself face- to face with a large dugite.

On Friday night as we were driving home from squash, a large Carpet Python was crossing the bridge. It didn’t move as we approached so we wanted to have a look at its beautiful markings. I knew they were non-venomous but didn’t know they can still give a nasty bite until later. Having had a few drinks after squash, I tried to catch it. I reasoned it could live in the roof and catch mice because I hated cats. However, it didn’t like my advances and sped away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another snake decided to rest in, what the kids called the ‘Wild Tree’, a gigantic ancient Ficus where they spent hours playing. They came running to the house with white faces but we never found it.

 

I took the kids to the peace rally – great turn-out. All the children had gas balloons with origami paper cranes tied to them. When they let them go it was a great spectacle. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when John and Rob’s balloons kept getting tangled and they had a punch-up in the middle of a peace rally. I pretended not to know them.