Eight on 9/10/11.

Dearest Jazzy,

Very, very early this morning you jumped out of your bed and came into ours for a cuddle. There were no more days left on your calender for you to cross off. Your birthday had arrived.

We spoke about the day you were born, you did a dance for us in your birthday suit, you opened your prezzies, ate some lollies and got dressed in the dress you had been saving since Broome.

You could not believe your day had finally arrived.

We gave you a new bike, a PINK helmet, a dolly I knitted, lollies, a tiara and lots of cards.

Your road trip friends Sammy and Shelby came over and gave you prezzies and we cut up lots of fruit

and feasted on a stack of J pancakes.

A man came over and gave you a red fishing rod. He said he was leaving Exmouth and didn't need it anymore.

And then you ran off to play with your friends at the playground next to our caravan.

Later on we watched the movie of your life that Dad made for you. You cried. You swear you never cry in movies but you had tears streaming down your face while you watched this one.

We rode our bikes into town and came across a little town market. You jumped on the jumping castle, then on a trampoline and came home for a swim in the pool.

As I write this you are at your friend Stephanie's cabin making a stuffed toy.

No wonder you can't stop telling us that this is the best birthday ever!
And its only 4.30pm. You've still got candles to blow out, icecream cake to eat and the outdoor caravan park movie to watch that you and Indi chose.

To think that I worried about celebrating your birthday away from your friends.

Happy birthday Miss Jazzy our fairy princess.
May your life be filled with sparkly, sweet, giggly, happy things.

xxxxxxxxx

Miss Jazzy's 6th birthday here.
Miss Jazzy's 7th birthday here.

Bikes::Broome

After a week in Broome, we took the bikes off the roof of the car and headed to the beach. We could resist that seemingly endless expanse of sand no longer.

It was still early in the morning and relatively cool. Especially with the sea breeze.

We didn't make it very far.

The breeze was a head wind. The sand was a bit too soft. The water too inviting. The shells too interesting.

But while we lasted it was fun...and good for the bum...

I think we need to find out a bit more about tides and water content in the sand.

And I think Miss Jazzy has grown tall while we have been away and has outgrown her bike.

On the way back we met a Dalmatian called Stanley, a woman who came on a holiday to Broome many years ago and never left, a couple who told us about dinosaur footprints and a gorgeous family who are friends of friends.

And then we chucked all the bikes in a pile, stripped of our clothes and dived in...

See ya later hot potata. xx

Riding around the rock.

I think one day, a loooooong time in the future, when I am old and wrinkly and grey sitting in my rocker thinking about my life gone by, today is a day that will stand out. Today is a life highlight I think.

Today, after the biggest three year old tantrum ever, Indi made us a packed lunch, we hopped in the car and drove to Uluru. Once there we took the bikes off the roof of the car and rode off around the base of the great rock.

We had been looking forward to this moment for so long. We were buzzing with excitement. Even having to stop to repair two punctures didn't spoil the mood.

We were at Uluru. On our caravan adventure. And that rock is MASSIVE!! Bigger than any of us had imagined.

It is a beautiful track around the rock, dotted with bits of information and stories. Many places are fenced off because they are sacred Aboriginal sites. In fact the whole area feels sacred. There is a kind of sense of calm and awe.

It was difficult to explain to the girls though why it was that despite the fact that it was made so clear that the traditional land owners do not want people to climb the rock, people still do. To get to the climbing path, one must walk right past this sign explaining that fact in several languages. Hmmmm...

Despite the fact that the car parks were full, we passed so few people on our ride and felt like we had the park to ourselves so much of the time.

An amazing day.

Today I rode around Uluru with my family. The five of us. Pepper on the Trail-Gator behind me and Jazzy mostly riding alone and sometimes with Bren.

We laughed, sang, picnicked and adored the scenery. The rock was cold to touch but we had the most beautiful, warm, brilliantly blue skied day.

I still feel a little self conscious about using Foxslane as a travel blog, but I do want to record this time and blogging is a comfortable way for me to do so, so for now I will. Maybe there'll even be a bit of craft thrown in the mix from time to time. Hope so.

I hope you are making some memories for you as a granny to look back on and smile one day too.

Before you go, I almost forgot I have one more little story that I must to share:

We had just arrived in the Uluru Cultural Centre this morning when this gorgeous girl came over and asked if I was Kate. Obviously I replied that I was. She said she had just gotten off the phone from her sister Aimee who reads my blog and told her to look out for a black haired girl in boots with three girls. As her sister was saying the words, apparently I walked past and fitted the description. Foxslane is here she told her sister. We chatted, I met her friends and heard about their trip and we headed off in our own directions.

I love how blogging sometimes makes the big wide world seem like a smaller, friendlier place.

Hi Aimee!

See yas all later eh! xx

Critical Mass.

Today I am grateful for choice, opportunity and freedom of expression. Today I am sitting here thinking about how lucky we are to be living in this time, in this place with endless opportunities and only our own imaginations to limit us.

Late yesterday afternoon about 60 cyclists from the Daylesford area met outside the primary school and proceeded to ride their bikes up and down the main street of our town. Exactly the same thing was happening in over 300 cities all around the world.

These bike rides are called critical mass. While they do hold up and block the car traffic, they claim not to be protests against cars but celebrations of bikes. We aren't blocking the traffic. We are the traffic is a popular critical mass catch phrase and the name of a documentary about the phenomena.

This was the second Daylesford critical mass and the first one with an angry swear word yelled from an irate car driver with a hand gesture. It seemed so strange considering the happy, peaceful feeling amongst the riders claiming the streets of their own town for ten minutes once a month.

It is such fun and such a great feeling to reclaim the streets of your own town, to blow whistles, ring bells and to laugh and chat with your fellow cyclists. It is such fun for me to be the event photographer and to run up and down the street snapping away and watching my family riding/scootering.

Gif animators

If you are in the Daylesford area on the 26th of November (the last Friday of the month) at 5pm you should come along. If you would like to ride along but live somewhere else why don't you google critical mass and the town that you live in, grab your bike/scooter/pusher and cycle on.

Like I said, today I am feeling grateful for where and how I live and for my right to be involved in events like the critical mass without fear of any retribution.

Sometimes I do take my freedoms and rights for granted but today I am feeling grateful.

How about you? What are you feeling grateful for today?

Oh and if you are reading this as an email, why don't you click on the Foxs Lane link here or at the bottom to view the blog and the animation the way they should be seen..

See ya!