A short yet exciting photographic piece on our aquarium... and the secret life of aquatic snails.

I love this picture. Possibly more than I should.



This snail absolutely cracks me up. It was initially clinging onto the end of the reed, in what looked like a gale force current, with its eye stalks blowing back over its shell.

It persisted in slowly climbing further upstream, inch by painful inch, hunkered under its shell like it was fighting a hurricane, until it reached the surface. Then it stuck its head out. I have no idea why. I had assumed a snail, in a tank, would have a peaceful and perhaps boring existence. Maybe this is the resident thrill seeker... there's always one.

This next one might very well be the same snail. It is not attached to the tank glass. It fell off the castle edge into a vacuum of stagnant water and very slowly rotated, suspended in mid-water, waffling and bobbling around, reaching out for the castle in vain each time it floated past. After a few minutes of anti-gravity antics, it managed to get close enough to grip the ledge and resume its journey.



Fascinating creatures.

Speaking of which... here is Amira demontrating the latest in recycled jeans fashion. Yes, this pinafore used to be my favourite pair of jeans in the late 90's (and yeah I am feeling really old after saying that!!).

I am so lazy I used all the existing seams, buttons and button holes to create it.



I am also thinking I will have to lengthen the shoulder straps before she wears it without the modesty of tights!! LOL

And here's me with the youngest 3 members of the household!!! Zac tried to take a picture of me with Kali sleeping on my lap, but the D300 isn't really a camera you can just pick up and use. Gunny tried to rescue him and he even he needed a few mintues of instructions to get the shot. By that time Kali had woken up, decided she was hungry, and started to eat Amira's hair. :)



I hope you enjoy our pictorial journey. We have some special blog news coming soon!!!

It's been a busy week since I got back from Perth on the weekend. Finally got around to uploading some pics from the toughcam.

Before Jac and Andrew left we hit the town Zapata's style! Margaritas all round!



You may have seen Kirst's star-trail photos - well here's the evidence she sat in the cold. She's dedicated alright!



Almost a great photo. Isaac must have picked this up for school - one of the few bad habits I didn't teach him.



This is what Amira would look like to a fish...



It's video time!

There's been something wrong with Bloggers video upload function for a while, so we've given up and uploaded our clips to Youtube. You can search for videos by 'gkianda' or you can watch the embedded videos here!

Zac finally got going without his training wheels about a month ago! Kali was tiny then!



Here's Amira playing boo at Kindergym.



Amira has taken up dancing classes and from what we can tell she's not shy about dancing in public!



Bye!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! SPIDER!!



OK, so this little fellow was only a baby - about an inch from legtip to legtip - and he lived a very short and exciting life, moving from the doorframe to the front yard where it appeared he was promptly eaten by one of the dogs.

C'est la vie. Thanks for sitting still for your portrait, spidie! (And I hope you escaped when I wasn't looking!)

Let's start this post with some synchronised frisbee retrieval!

It looks like one of those lightbulb jokes... how many Ridgebacks does it take to fetch a frisbee?



Only one if there's any Kelpie involved!! What an action shot.

Amira is getting far too big for her boots. I didn't think it was possible to squeeze any extra attitude into such a tiny person... but Amira is already an overachiever. :) Here she is all ready for preschool.

Most days there is screaming, crying and tantrums - and that's just me before breakfast. :)

But seriously, I know how hard it is to believe she is naughty when she looks so angelic. *sigh*

After all the photos of Amira, I had to go back and find one of Zac! He is a hard boy to pin down, with school, swimming, soccer & tennis... anyway, here he is in a new Ben10 singlet which he was really excited about!

Some friends at work had organised a meet up at the beach for dog owners, so after Gunny left I decided to go. 1 adult, 2 kids & 2 dogs provided lots of choatic entertainment for everyone! Especially Kali who had never seen the ocean before. She loved running on the sand but she is still pretty uncoordinated, so she crashed into things a few times (people's legs, other dogs, and at one stage a big wave which shocked her a little!).

Lastly I have been trying new things with my camera. Check out my first star trails!!! You can see the celestial north pole must be just off to the top left. It's not very clear - I needed to adjust my lens and shutter release I think. I was just so excited to see the trails. :)

And from long exposures to short ones! Here is one I call Splash. It is just the tap dripping in my bathroom sink but it was fun to play around with! Can you tell Gunny is still away... this is what I get up to when the kids are in bed!!!

We miss you, Gunny! Come home where there's noise, mess and good food! :)

Two of my favourite things in the world!!! :)

I suddenly remembered these photos from last week! It feels like forever ago now that Jac was visiting with Andrew and the Bean Monkey!!

Here's Annabelle dressing up... isn't she gorgeous! She loved eating the sequins.

She also loved climbing on Amira!!

Looking like a little Easter Egg with one of Amira's hair clips!!

The rest are my two; at the park & home. The last one of Amira is another of my favourites. I am running out of frames at home!

I have so many photos from last week! Amira and Zac absolutely adored having Annabelle stay with us... here are the two girls, more photos to come soon!

A weekend of fun and chaos!

After Zac and I were horribly sick all week, we were especially grateful to get out and about now that we were feeling better!

More HDR... the detail is incredible. To open the full size picture and have a look, just click on the image. This was created with just one frame, but lightened/darkened and then recombined to give the effect.



Same scene, normal photograph. :) Amira dressed herself, by the way.



All four of the 'kids'!! It was so difficult trying to get them all facing the same way, let alone smiling/eyes open/sitting!! It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon.



The kids fed the swans, ducks & a few huge pelicans which were rather scary. Amira was either brave or stupid and walked right up to them. Even Tayla would not get that close (but we all know Tayla is a sook!!).



Here they are - what a magnificent pair. People love to stop and ask about them.

I love this photo. It was Gunny walking back to us with Kali. There were people ducking behind the trees to stay out of the frame (thank you!!).

After all the exploring, Kali was exhausted. She had never seen ducks, swans or pelicans before! All very tiring for a 6mth old puppy. She was asleep on my lap in minutes!! Made it hard to drink my coffee. :)

The kids had icecream - you'll just have to take my word for it because I couldn't get a decent photograph with my lap full of dog! LOL

The kids cracking themselves up about something... who knows what they are talking about!!

This last picture makes me laugh -I call it "Gunny, protected by the Hounds of Superiority." Enjoy!