Look What We Caught, Honey!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

When we picked up Ro from school today, we walked along the beach access path that runs behind his classroom and paused to listen in. With about 5 minutes left before the bell, we overheard the teacher helping the kids get their things together, hearing "Here's Ronan's shoes!" no less than three times...lol. Sure enough, he soon emerged from the front of the building...sans shoes. He's really becoming quite the Kiwi...at least half the people we see, and probably 90% of the boys, go around barefoot all the time.

The weather's getting cooler here; although it's still warm during the day, there's a definite nip in the air at night - a lot like Northern California weather. Mark and Ro still consider it shorts weather, but Sherry has broken out her jeans and scarf. There's basically no such thing as air conditioning or central heat in homes around here, so our windows are still open to keep the apartment cool (it catches the afternoon sun); consequently, Sherry and Ro find themselves jockeying for position in front of the space heater in the mornings...lol.

The change in weather has brought out the fish...and the fishermen. The pier at Pilot Bay was packed all day as if it were a weekend. Ro was climbing the walls in the apartment when he got home from school, so Mark took him outside to burn off some steam so Sherry could prepare dinner in peace. They headed down to Pilot Bay to get some ice cream and try to catch some fish with Ro's net. No luck with the fishing as there wasn't enough reach on the pole, so they headed down the block to Coronation Park to catch some easier game - tadpoles. Ro tried to catch some goldfish, too, but they were a little too quick. After tiring of the tadpoles (and releasing them back in the water at Mark's insistence), Ro began pretending he was a tiger, prowling through the woods, "attacking" Mark whenever he would walk by. The look on some strangers' faces as hidden growls emanated from the bushes as they walked past was priceless.

Ro pointing to the rest of the ice cream cone he threw in the water for fish bait

Ro playing on the sign next to Pilot Bay

Ro scooping up tadpoles

Ro climbing to the top of a sculpture in Coronation Park

Ro may have wanted to be a tiger, but he's got eyes like a hawk. "Dead rat!" he exclaimed; Mark looked long and hard at the lump of leaves and detritus in the woods, and it wasn't until he started probing it with a stick that he realized Ro was right. Not too surprising that there'd be a rat here, with the second-busiest port in the country on one side of the park, and the main drag in town on the other. Fortunately, it was long-since dead and all that was left was the skeleton and a little fur. Ro wanted to take the whole thing home, but Mark talked him down to just the skull. Sherry still wasn't too pleased when Ro trod inside carrying the thing in his fishing net, and it was soon quarantined to the deck to bleach in the sun.

Apparently tigers like to play "fetch"

Ro showing off the rat skull he found