Nature versus Nurture

There has, for many years been an ongoing debate about the function of 'nurture' versus 'nature' in the formation of a child's characteristics. It's not an easy call. Like all these 'one thing or the other' debates, there have been many attempts to delineate some kind of once and for all answer, and like all debates like this, none (to my knowledge) have been successful. Those of us who are not living in academia suspect that it is a bit of both.

However, the subject has long been of interest to me since Josh was always inclined to play with girls toys, and reject boys toys. Ali and I even considered (very briefly) having him looked at by a child psychologist. (We went to meet one, and he freaked us out.. so we decided that Josh was 'his own man' and left it at that!). I for one, have always respected him for taking on the whole establishment and in my own little way, I identify with the fight to be acceptable as 'different'.

Daile and I have given a great deal of thought to the conundrum with regard to Matilda who is very like Josh, but the other gender! She considers herself to be a boy, and frankly... she IS very like a boy! Whilst Molly was complemented by Josh's predisposition to play dress up etc, Phoebe is by dint of being a sister to Matilda, frustrated in her expression of her girlishness. She is constantly foiled in her attempts to play girly stuff, because it doesn't compute for Matilda, who being verbally dexterous, tends to put it (and Phoebe) down.

We've tried to point out to Matilda that Phoebe has her own agenda, but it's a difficult one for Matilda, who genuinely finds 'girls stuff' abhorrent!

So, in response to constant pestering by Matilda, this weekend we conducted our own social experiment. Matilda and I went camping... and for Matilda it was VITAL that no 'girls' came. Daile decided that she and Phoebe, would hang out and do 'girly stuff'.

Well, Phoebe was IN HER ELEMENT! Poor little squirt! Made us realise how desperate she was to express herself in ways becoming of a self respecting girly girl.

So here it is, pictorially...

Daile had been out to get pampering gear. Face packs, massage oil, little make up pack, that kind of stuff... setting it all up was a thrill to Phoebe!



The bed with a towel on to catch the oil...







Then on to the smelly bath oil impregnated joint bathing... complete with feathers inside see through pillows!





Nail painting...



Dressing up, and going out....!





The next day, Phoebe was up at six, raring to go for it all again! Ha ha. Poor sausage!

Matilda and I drove to the ferry at Cleveland (about 30 mins). It was the 'Big Red Cat'. We went up top, and it was really windy!





The boat lands at Dunwich after about 40 mins. If you look (click on it) at the north of the map, just to the right of Amity is a red 'x', which is were we camped. (Flinders beach)







We were camped just in behind these bushes... (below)



A while ago when Wayne and Dette's fence got nearly blown over, I used our guy ropes to bring it back to vertical. So we went down to BCF to get some more rope. BCF is up there for me with Bunnings. It stands for Boating, Camping and Fishing. Whilst we were there, Matilda talked me into buying her a fishing rod. They were really cheap. Hers was $29 and mine was $50 (so about £12 and £20 respectively. They came with reels ... so what could I do?) When we were in Amity, we got chatting with Steve at the local store and he told us that a good place for us to fish as newbies would be off the jetty. The wonderful thing about the jetty is that you can see the little fish nibbling on your bait. If you're lucky, a bigger fish comes along and you can catch it. I actually caught one! (But it was only about 6 or 7 inches long so we threw it back. (They have to be over a foot long to be able to keep them). Matilda caught a Moray Eel (small one about 15 inches) but it dived into the rocks you see in the picture below. Whilst she was trying to pull it out this ray swam past. It was AT LEAST 5 ft wide! (OK maybe 4ft!)





Beautiful! Such grace.

Here's a self timer pic, with the camera balanced on a tree bough.



Note the makeshift chess table.. the easel.



Matilda made frequent field trips with the new bait box over her shoulder to collect things. We got a lot of shells and pressed several flowers.



Then one of these strolled into camp! It's a Goanna, and is about 3 ft long. There must have been a family cos we saw several over a ten minute period. Matilda decided to track them. They are masters of disguise though, and excellent tree climbers.





Kookaburras...



Little yellow crabs live in these holes... scuttle out and in quickly. Matilda found lots of skeletal evidence in the shape of bleached white claws and the like.





Lacewing... (below on the rope)



Arranging Cicada shells (the skins of cicada's) which are so delicate that we keep them on the dash.



We stopped here to look at the view. Here we were near the 'N' on 'North' on the map on that dotted track. Matilda was writing something....





...and then giggled.



On our way back to camp we saw what I think was one of these... thin, and just less than a metre long.



Either this, or a Taipan perhaps. This one is an 'Eastern small eyed snake' and it's highly venomous. My camera was in the back of the Ute, so telling Matilda to watch it from her window in the cab and tell me if it came my way, I went out to get the camera. (The snake was at the front left of the ute). As soon as I stepped on the deck, it slithered off to the bush so we didn't get a picture).

This is the Eastern end of Flinders, near to Rocky Point.



... and this is how the Aussies go to the beach! .... Sod the deck chairs and ice creams.... they take the 4WD and a freezer!



We'd taken a couple of easels, and went to paint at North Gorge, which the cafe owner at Amity had told me might be a good place to go.



By this time, we were really short of time on the Sunday, and had to rush. We had about 50 mins.... and this is what we painted.





...then we headed back down to the jetty, at speed to cram in a last desperate fish. Matilda really wanted to catch one, and is now a committed fisher[person]. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck. We had to rush for the ferry, with Matilda in tears at the injustice. We nearly hit a Koala that ambled onto the road... and we pulled up for a few seconds to look at her. Matilda perked up at that.

This was the view from the boat as we arrived back.



So, now we're all back. There is an air of having had a good time all round. We need to find a way for us all to go next time. However, an interesting experiment eh?