Flat Henry has arrived!

One of my colleagues from home, Tracy Brown, has a son in kindergarten who is reading Flat Stanley. So we have recieved a Flat Henry who is here to check out our last 10 days in Western Australia. He is bound to have some exciting adventures!

Work this Week

This week has been busy at work. We are finishing up moms for my project so we have as many coming in for their remaining visits. We are also starting to work on some of the analysis. Here is one of my cute babies from this week!

View of Perth

This is a view of downtown Perth looking down the Swan River. We rode up hill a bit - so it gives a vantage point from up higher. You can also tell by the sun that fall has arrived here in Perth.

Sculpture

OnTuesday 27th of March we went for a bike ride after work. It definitely feels like fall here! We rode into the wind along the Swan River the whole ride back. We rode up the Swan River as far as a town called Belmont. We saw this great sculpture in a park along the the river. I had to stop and get a shot of it!

Sunset-Cottesloe Beach

We ended our day on Sunday by stopping at Cottesloe Beach to watch the sunset. Remember this is the beach all the Lorikeets come into for "happy hour" and sing up a storm. Daylight savings time ended here today so sunset is now about 6:30 pm. The good news is that it will now be light out in the morning around 6:30 am. Another beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean!

North Fremantle Beach

Late afternoon on Sunday we went to the beach just North of Fremantle. It is a very uncrowded and lovely spot and there is a little cafe right on the beach where we had a late lunch. These are shots of the beach looking North.

Rockingham Beach

The town of Rockingham is quite small but it does have a lovely little esplande/watefront area where we had breakfast that Sunday morning. The yatch club was all heading out that morning

Penguin Island-Rockingham

On Sunday the 25th of March, we drove about an hour South of Perth to a place called Rockingham. What the area is known for is their shoalwater islands. Small islands just off the coast. You can actually swim/wade accross in about chest deep water to Penguin Island. We did not see any penguins on the island though. They are out fishing during the day. However, on the journey wading accross we saw 2 dark shadows just a few feet in front of us! Not sharks, but dolphin!! So that was the highlight-our 2 dolphin friends-no pictures though-because we were wading accross so we only had ourselves and snorkle gear.

These are some views of the islands though.

A Postcard from New Mexico!

Yay-more mail today! We got a postcard from John's cousin, Paula, Marc, her husband, and son Zachary. They have been enjoying the blog adn the photos. Thanks for sending us mail!

Australian College of Midwives

Saturday morning the 24th of March, I did a half day conference for the Australian College of Midwives. I couldn't believe how well attended it was for a Saturday morning and some participants traveled from as far away as five hours! It was a great crowd of not only midwives, but some neonatal nurses, some doulas, and even a nursing student.

Erica and Margot-Our new Kiwi friends!

On Friday night after work we headed down to Fremantle to go to one of our favorite places, Little Creatures. We sat out on the back deck on the boat harbour and we got to talking to these two lovely girls. Erica and Margot are over here from New Zealand to work in the mining industry for 6 months to save money for travel. Their job will be to drive huge trucks back and forth all day long. After they make a lot of money for 6 months, their plan is to travel - to India, South America, Central America and then hopefully onto the United States and stop by and visit us.

The Benefits of my Work

I get to hold really cute babies! This is the beautiful little boy of one of my mums. He loved snuggling with me!

I love Kali!

Kali is one of my student workers from Penn and I just have to say that she is the best because she sends me posts to the blog on a regular basis. Thanks Kali for sending me posts.

A Postcard from my niece Daniela

Yay! Today when I got home from work-We had a postcard from my niece Daniela in Italy.
Thanks Daniela! That made my day, especially since it was very busy! John said he feels like he is back in Philadelphia (minus the kitties) becuase today I did not get home from work until 7:30 pm. We had 4 moms today in the center for my project and then I had two 24 hour milk productions to do which is a long time in the biochemistry lab.

Donna's Birthday Lunch

Donna recently had a very important birthday. I won't say which one! So on Wednesday the 21st of March-we had a birthday lunch for her. This is the team I get to work with, Peter is not here because he is traveling.

Sunset-Trigg Beach

On Tuesday the 20th of March after work we drove North of Perth to Trigg Beach. This is a good surfing beach. There were surfers out at sunset and we had a lovely dinner outside at Trigg Island Cafe and watched the beautiful sky over the Indian Ocean.

Translating Research into Practice

Monday I had two mums in the center and today (Tuesday the 20th) I had another two mums. It it so fun to see healthy breastfed babies and the mums are all so willing to work with us and participate in the research.

This afternoon I had a great session with some of the clinical nurse leaders, staff nurses, and lactation consultants from the intensive care nursery at King Edward Memorial Hospital. I helped them with strategies to translate human milk/breastfeeding research into clinical practice in their unit. They all had great questions and it was a really productive session!

More Mail!!

So we finally feel loved! We got 3 pieces of mail! On Friday we got a postcard from our friend Anne Muller who was in Phoenix for a conference AND a postcard from Gretchen and Brian from their stay in Guam. Then today, (Tuesday the 20th) we got a lovely homemade card from Heather Kelley. YAY! Good mail is fun!

YAY! A Phone Call

I promised Wendy I would post that she called me! She wanted to get one up on those who sent mail!

Leighton Beach

This is a beatiful beach above Freemantle and below Cottesloe. After our four hour bike ride on Saturday we went to the beach for a bit in the afternoon. I thought those of you who experienced the snow this weekend would enjoy these shots.

East Fremantle

Right before the Swan River ends into the Indian Ocean is East Fremantle. There are some really neat old coral cliffs here. All of this was under water at one point of time.

A Four Hour Bike Ride

Saturday morning (Saint Patricks Day), we left the house for a bike ride. The plan was to cross the Swan River and come around back home. Well after crossing, we had to ride all the way South to the river's end in Fremantle! It ended up being a four hour bike ride. Thankfully, we had stopped for breakfast at the Raffles Hotel on the Swan River- it is an historic building.

Notice the handsome biker out front.

The nice thing about my work

This past week we got five new moms for my project. The best thing is that I get to see all of these really cute, happy and healthy breastfed babies. It is great to be able to see healthy babies all the time!

Tuesday 13th of March

Tuesday I lectured for a half day course called "Breastfeeding Challenges". It was a great audience of mostly midwives, some child health nurses, and some lactation consultants. I also had a follow-up mom in the center and a bunch of samples to analyze in the lab so it was a quite busy day!

Two Lectures on Monday 12th of March

Monday was a busy day. A new mom in the center and 2 lectures. I gave grand rounds for the neonatologists and senior nursing staff at the King Edward Memorial Hospital and then after that I lectured for Curtin University for their midwifery students. Both were very positively recieved and I had a lot of fun too!

Coogee Beach

Sunday the 12th of March after our morning bike ride, we went to the South of Fremantle and spent the day on Coogee beach which is a state park area. The fishing pier was very popular at this beach.

Biking

This past weekend we got to take two really great bike rides. On Saturday the 10th of March, we biked from Perth to Fremantle and had lunch at Little Creatures and then biked back. On Sunday morning we did the long loop around the Swan River going bridge to bridge. It is a bit like biking around Kelly and West River Drive in Philadelphia but with palm trees!

Diane's Favorite Sculpture

I voted for this one as the best of all the Sculptures by the Sea.

Nautilus

This is a sculptural depiction of Juloes Verne's fictional submarine that play such a central role in his novels "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island". It was my second favorite sculpture.

Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe

8th of March until 18th of March in Cottesloe they have this amazing art display. We did not even know about it until we went to the beach one day after work last week and all these amazing sculptures were on the grassy areas behind the beach and on the beach itself. How cool!

Salmon Holes

The fisherman told us we had to check out the next beach over, Salmon Holes. Sure enough, we got here and saw another huge school of salmon. AND we did go swimming here because there was a reef -we we hoped would protect us from any Great Whites!

The Fisherman

We chatted with this local fisherman who told us stories about the Australian Salmon and about the "whitetips" which are great white sharks that come to feed on the salmon. We did not see any sharks- only a seal coming in to feed. Check out that fish!

Cable Beach and Australian Salmon

WOW! We have never seen anything like this. We went to Cable Beach after the Gap and Natural Bridge and we saw lots of fisherman - the one guy said to hurry because the salmon were right there. The huge dark circle you see is ALL fish. We found out from one of the fisherman that the great white follows these fish in! (Little did we know-and we had just been swimming in the Southern Ocean!)

The Gap and Natural Bridge

It is amazing to think that all these boulders were once attached to Antartica AND that is you head south from this ocean you will not run into anything for miles and miles and miles -until reaching Antartica!

The Natural Bridge

On the 7th of March we headed over to Albany before going home to Perth and back to work. We were glad we did because there were some amazing sights. This is Diane on the natural bridge made from boulders that at one time were attached to and part of Antartica!

(Can you see me?-I am there!)

Moonrise over Denmark

While we were in the South it was a full moon. We had two nights of beautiful moonrises!

Madfish Island

Madfish Island you could get to by wading accross a knee deep bay about 100 yards wide. The island was mostly just huge boulders and a little beach area. But there were tons of crabs and mullosks and some birds. Plus it was cool to see the Southern Ocean crashing on the island.

Greens Pool

Still have photos from the Southern Coast - This is called Greens Pool. It was absolute beautiful. Crystal green water and just like a swimming pool. You could snorkle right off the boulders. There were lots of families there teaching their very young children how to swim.

Work is very BUSY!

I have 2 lectures on Monday the 12th of March. One for grand rounds in neonatology at the King Edward Memorial Hospital and the second to midwifery students from Curtin University.
On Tuesday the 13th of March I gave a 90 minute lecture for a half day breastfeeding education day. One thing I have learned is that the challenges are equal in Australia as well.
There is still a lot of work to be done worldwide. I will post more pictures tonight after work.

The Southern Beaches

After our morning at Tree Top Walk - we went to many of the Southern Beaches. These pictures are of Mandalay Beach(right) and Conspicuous Beach (left). And we really were the ONLY people on the beach-except for maybe 2 surfers!

The trees continue to grow even after fire.....

One thing that was amazing- is that even when devasted by fire- the trees can regenerate and continue to grow. We had had the opportunity to stand inside many red tingle trees.

The Valley of the Giants

After you walk through the tree tops - you also can walk on the forest floor. This is equally as impressive. Many of the trees are 400 years old and you could not even begin to wrap your arms around them as noted by this picture!

Tree Top Walk

Probably the best tourist attraction on the South Coast in Western Australia is the Tree Top Walk and Valley of the Giants. It is run by the Department of Conservation and it protects much of the native forest. Much of the park is filled with red tingle trees - which are one of the many different types of eucalyptus trees. The suspension walkway allows you to walk amongst the tree tops and it is 40 meters at its highest point!

View from Denmark Observatory

We stayed at this beautiful place in Denmark. When we arrived it was dark so we had no idea of the view that we would have. This is the view we awoke to in the morning!

Ocean Beach

We made it to the town of Denmark on the Southern Coast on Monday the 5th of March.

This is Ocean the Beach- a really beautiful surf beach in Denmark. Great views!

Windy Harbour

At the bottom of Australia is the Southern Ocean. The view would be to Antartica if you could see it!

Climbing Trees!

We traveled to the Southern forests and they have 3 large "kari"trees that you can climb. There are basically metal posts drilled into the tree. I climbed the bicentennial tree half way to the viewing platform but John would not let me go to the top! He would not even climb half way up!

Mandurah Coast

Mandurah is a little over one hour South of Perth. This is a national park area with nothing but bushlands and beach.