I want to go to bed and read and I am about to after I write this. I love Gary Crew books. I am reading one at present called ‘Edward Britton’ that he cowrote with Philip someone, Nelson maybe, I really should check. If I was Philip I would be annoyed to read this. The chances are he won’t so I will look it up another day because I can’t spare the time right now to walk to my bedroom as it will deprive me of reading time.
I first ‘met’ Gary Crew’s books in the picture book section of our school library. I loved his picture books and read as many as I could. I took ‘The Lost Diamonds of Killercrankie’ to Tasmania with me when I last went there on a holiday and it made the best holiday reading. I have used ‘I Saw Nothing’ with my year 7 classes for many years and I feel it introduces endangered species beautifully. I loved ‘The Lacemakers Daughter’ and was really surprised by it. Before embarking on the current book, I enjoyed ‘Strange Objects’. I have used plenty of the other picture books, and there are plenty with my classes and the thing I love the most is that he has written so many. It’s great.
Stroll through Morwell
Yesterday I had to go to Bunnings to get some more tiles for my mosaic. I have nearly finished putting all the tiles on and I am pleased about this. Andy suggested we go for a walk. I haven’t been exercising much lately so I agreed it would be good. We left from Mid Valley and walked along a drain or a creek, under bridges and through really lovely groups of trees. It was a really pretty view of Morwell and it dispelled some of the impressions I have of Morwell.
I lived in Morwell in the mid eighties. I shared a house with friends close to the town centre. It was when Morwell was less abandoned and I enjoyed my time there.
Unfortunately the battery on my digital camera was flat or I would have taken more photo’s. I had to use my phone camera. There were some really tranquil and pleasant pockets along the walk. It reminds me of the book I love by Thomas Moore “The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life”. In the book he talks about little corners of the world that are magical and special and good for your soul. I think that walk was good for my soul and I don’t know why I so often resist things, which are good for me. 
I also took this photo, of some mushrooms growing. I don’t know if you can see them properly. They were the edible mushrooms not the magic ones! I remember around this time of the year going out into the paddocks around Drouin East near my Auntie Angela’s house and coming back with buckets of mushrooms. I really enjoyed it. You don’t really hear of kids going mushrooming much now. I wonder why?
Andy’s little clip
I love a little movie Andy made about riding him and Ella to Blonde Bay and Waddy’s track. It is really cute. It was on revver but I have taken it off.
Today I watched ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ with one of my classes. I love that movie. It’s great. The opening song ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ is an old American folk song by Anonymous. I love those lyrics. They are so childlike and cute, yet filled with adult longings. We have been reading the book ‘Out of the Dust’ by Karen Hesse in that class and I have totally enjoyed it all. I hope the kids have enjoyed it half as much as I have. It is another repetition for me of both texts and has deepened by appreciation immensely.