It's been a B..... of a Day

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Today has been a B..... of a day.

It all began with butts...

Just look at the size of this butt.

"Does my butt look big in this forest?"
Certainly does, the biggest I have ever seen.

One whopping great butt

When my children were in Year 10 at high school, about 16 years of age , they each in turn spent an entire month with the school classes of that year at a camp in the town of Black Butt.

Black Butt is colourfully named after the remnants of forest when a fire has raged its way through.

The Outdoor education camp was called Googa, and there they cooked, cleaned, washed for themselves and learned orienteering, survival skills, abseiling, horse riding, gardening and maintenance work, high ropes courses, camped out for a few days unsupervised and even completed solo 24 periods out in the bush. They were also encouraged to meditate, journal and to create entertainment for themselves.

Image from Googa Outdoor Education Centre

The goals of the educational retreat are for the students to better understand their relationship to the physical and biological world within which they live; to develop initiative and self reliance; to develop a sense of co-operation, interdependence and community spirit as well as self expression; and to deepen their spiritual lives.

The month long camp had a profound effect on all of the children. There is a total ban on junk food, mobile phones, no TV or electronics at all and only one family visit over the time spent away. They learn how to write letters and some of those letters, bemoaning deprivation and hard work, complaining of homesickness and distasteful cooking now belong in my treasure archive. The Googa experience was an invaluable and indelible part of my children's school education.

Look what is growing on the back of the enormous butt...
monstrous carbuncles!

curly yellow carbuncle fungi

and burnt pancake dinner- plate sized carbuncles

From butts the day progressed to Boots

This clay caked pair of my Beloved's Boots
have been leaning against the garage door
for a few days drying out

They have repeatedly beckoned me
to snap them and tired of their constant badgering
I finally acquiesced

Not content with one photographic memento
of their time sloshing around on a wet building site,
they jumped around the driveway
out to the sunny nature strip

and nestled alongside the ginger plants
under the Golden Canes

While berating the bouncing Boots
I brought the garbage bin in from the road side
and spied at the neighbour's driveway
a bountiful, blooming Bougainvillea

Of the most vibrant hue of red
and you probably wouldn't believe me
if I told you
that this variety of bougainvillea is called Mrs Butt,
so I won't because Mrs Butt is more crimson in colour

and you will doubt me when I tell you
that the owner of the home goes by the name of Butt,
which, cross my heart, he does...


(I myself am a little bemused at this point
as I have only just thought of those last two Butts
whilst writing this page.)

Yep, it sure has been
a B of a day

Beautiful,

Bewitching,

and just simply ...


Bonzer

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