This was the view from my window yesterday. A  fire on the other side of the river and the fantastic fire fighting helicopter team scooping water from the river. 

Languages

What is a language? How many languages are there in the world? Where in the world are different languages spoken? How many languages do you speak? What language do you speak at home?

I am thinking of having a bit of a language theme for the  literacy work this year. 
Keeping it very simple.....a bit of geography looking at a world map.........maybe the numbers 1 to 10 .....days of the week....etc.

And maybe a books and writing theme.......what is a book?  What is a story? What else do we read? 
Why do we write?  What do we write about?  What is a diary?  What is a blog?

January 2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_Eden

Late summer days here. We just returned from a little trip to Bitou and while there visited the Birds of Eden.

I don't like caged birds but this sanctuary is different. It is the largest  multi species bird "aviary" in the world. It is huge. The birds are unwanted  and would not survive in the wild and this beautifully designed area gives them a chance to live a fairly natural life. 

The construction and the landscaping are very interesting. 

The birds, an eclectic mix of indigenous and exotics, are fascinating. 

Back at the farm the bees that have taken up residence in the owl box got a fright yesterday when the whole thing fell out of the tree in the wind......I guess the honey has made it too heavy. So now we have a bunch of rather cross bees! I think the plan will be to move them up to the area where the other bees live and try to tempt them to take up residence in  a proper hive.

The new school year, autumn term, has begun and the Star Literacy programme will be starting in February. We volunteers will once again be listening to reading and encouraging the learners to explore and enjoy books, reading and writing.

JUDYLIZ