Vale Poppy Stan

Mother's Day here was a bit mixed. As I was in bed being treated to cold cereal made by Hannah, the phone rang. It was Paul, to tell me his dad had just died. This had not been unexpected - Stan had been in hospital for tests for a week after he deteriorated rapidly, and had come home on Friday to die in his own bed. Paul had been spending a lot of time there over the last few days, helping his mum to care for his dad. He had been very scared of how Stan's final days would play out, but in the end, everything turned out as well as can be expected (if you can say that of someone's death). They got to make some peace, Paul helped his mum, faced a lot of his fears and made sure his dad died in his own bed just as he wished.
Paul and Jeannie seem to be coping okay. Stan's death has been a long time coming, so it's not really a shock, more an adjustment period, I guess.
The obits in the paper today were very nice. Stan was a much loved and respected person. He fought his unwinnable battle valiantly, I wish the children had had the chance to know him before he was mostly bedridden and so wrapped up in his own pain.

Fishy update

On Saturday when I went to feed the fish, I noticed that Saturn, the little orange fish in with the yabby, was missing. Then I noticed half his body being chomped on by the yabby. So the yabby (Nipper, his name is) had the best plan - he ignored the fish after the first few minutes, lulled it into a sense of security for a few days and then had a feast!
Silver Dart is still going strong in with Huck.
We had a naming controversy over the fish too - Hannah wanted to name them Saturn and Venus (planets are the in thing here at the moment) but Ryan wanted to name them Silver Dart and Orange Something-or-other. Much tears and yelling ensued until we settled on the obvious compromise...

Fishy fun

Today Hannah wanted to buy some feeder fish to keep Huck entertained for a little while. We went to the fish shop but they didn't have any little fish. Hannah was keen in investing in some nice brightly coloured things but I figured it was a bit steep to pay $6 for one's days food for Huck.
After talking to the lady in the shop, we decided to get some comets (fast goldfish) as they can often survive with turtles. They were only $2.50 too, which was a more reasonable investment. The lady chose the biggest comet, which is actually pretty big (although not as big as the perspective in the photo makes it look!). We also got a smaller bright orange comet for the yabby tank.
Coolest thing, when we got home to put them in the tanks, I thought for a second the yabby had had a baby, but it had actually shed it's skin. I wish we'd seen it happening. I fished out the old shell and it's drying on the sink right now.
Watching Huck with the new fish was hilarious. They just did laps and laps around the tank for a while. I put a few bits and pieces in there for the fish to hide in, but it didn't really take the hint. And been a goldfish, of the famous 5 second memory, it would race frantically away from Huck - ah! a turtle! - then just sit and relax - 'this is a nice spot', then 'ah! a turtle'. 'this is a nice spot'. 'ah! a turtle!' and so on. Too funny.
The yabby also chased it's little orange comet frantically for a little while then realised it was far more hassle than just waiting for other food to magically rain down upon it.
So both fish have survived for about 12 hours now, here's hoping they last a lot longer.

Food photos

I keep trying to take photos of the food we make, but they never do it justice. I'm pretty happy with these though, of mini lemon meringues, and mini banana caramel tarts. Both have been auto-corrected with Picture Manager, they had real sepia tones before because of the reds and browns and the warm lighting, which looked nice, but I think they just look a bit more cheerful like this . I took about a million photos of some mini cottage pies I did too, but they just didn't work out the same. I couldn't get the camera to focus where I wanted - I think because there was too much white (I put them on a white plate).
The food was all yummy though of course!

Fruit salad of kings

The kids decided to make fruit salad the other day. It was a real team effort. Even Sophie got in on cutting up banana. They got one of every fruit in the house (and there was a lot!) and chopped them industriously. Then globbed yogurt all over it and ate. The whole process took about an hour, I reckon, from cutting everything, sorting it fairly into the bowls, adding yogurt and then enjoying it.