Papa's 80th Birthday

This is a special day - Papa celebrated 80 years. As we couldn't make it we decided to capture a crazy sort of greeting only this family can do. We all wished him a happy day and wished we could have been there to share it. Jeffery left today and will be up there with Papa and Nona tomorrow so will pass all the hugs from Weipa way.
Bruce and I were to be heading down for the big event but a lot happened this month so the flying away was put on hold as Bruce has left for better things workwise but its been a sad thing for family and we all spent the last night together around the table. Red to black - both marking the skin really well so he will be washing darkened work clothes.

I will have family to keep me going and lots of muddy hands doing my pottery as well as watching the two girls bloom as their finer shapes are moulded into a beauty only becoming of mums-to-be. I said I will be having twins - when they visit - as they are due within 5 days of each other and in the same month Nicholas was born. Must be something in the air up here as there are over a hundred pregnant women in town and still going. Such a shame the new hospital still won't cater for all these young mums who have to fly out a month before they are due - makes it very hard for little families especially if they have to rent for that time.
Now Christopher makes a mean banana cake and so does Nicholas - he watched intently and repeated all the steps mixing like a demon - a chef in the making!
Now the cake making moved outside and the colours just got a whole lot better and creamier. Tania even had her knee decorated so she could feel part of the action.
I just had to add this - after the night's high tide worked its magic on the dreaded plastic bag reminding it that special creatures like fish need protection from its clutches. I didn't think plastic could actually look so beautiful and to think the human hand was not at play in the artistic creation - the scourge became a thing of beauty in the early morning light.
The rain disappeared after that first huge storm but perhaps the bowerbird knows something as this year he has positioned his bower at the side of the road below the track down the hill - some distance from the beach - usually his bower is on the top of the beach above high tide. His beautiful creation is littered with white shells and bright pink and green. Some years its blue which takes his fancy but as always his little dancing area is immaculate - no wonder the ladies converge in great numbers when he prances with his little pink feathers rising on the back of his head a contrast to his dappled drab grey. He also oftens visits for a swim in my water bowl for all my feathered friends - mimicking many birds as he splashes loudly. He is another new bird addition to the front of the house.