Heatwave tag...

Lovely Kitschen Pink has tagged me...ooh! Never been tagged before. So I went to the fourth folder and found these cute pictures of my five beautiful babies taken in 2006.

They were 1, 3, 5, 6 & 13 ... boy how they have grown since then!

I can't believe Rosie will be four this year!! Char is starting year 11, Lucy is in grade 3, Bill Boy is in grade 2 and Sunday is going to be a preppie!!

As KP said all you have to do is post the fourth photo in the fourth folder on your computer and then tag four others to do the same. To keep the ball rolling I am tagging these four fabulous bloggers...

Doilly

Beki Marie

http://susieqiloveyou.blogspot.com/

lilipili

This tagging business is fun! Too hot to blog anymore...fourth day of heatwave and my brain is melting. Hope you are staying cool wherever you are. x x x x

Goodbye lovely tree...

Yesterday was a nasty, windy day... the wind was so powerful that many trees fell and bushfires were scattered all around our lovely region. It was quite scary driving through the red dust and flying leaves - I kept worrying that a tree would fall on the car. (Misty, from our creche, told me it's best, if possible, to try and drive in the centre of the road in these kind of conditions.)

Anyway, on our return from Ballarat (saw Bride Wars with the girls) a big, beautiful gum tree in our street had split in the wind. Sadly this morning the Emergency Blokes arrived and pulled the rest of it down. We sat and watched as they struggled to push over the last remaining part of the tree - it was quite emotional watching the tree hanging on to life. Sunday wondered who planted the tree and I wondered too... such a huge tree must have been planted long ago.

The girls found the whole thing fascinating, Rosie was quite amazed by it all. I am a real softie and I did find it difficult to watch the tree being destroyed. We will miss it's lovely shade and it's beautiful shape. The local birds will miss it too.

This week has been hot, hot, hot and we have taken to going to the lake for a swim. The local pool is great but oh so LOUD with kids yelling, cavorting and having fun. The lake is much more mellow and picturesque. My photo's don't do it justice really.

Lake Daylesford was created on land that was once market gardens - I would love to see photo's from that time. Now it is such a beautiful place to visit, walk around & swim in. We are lucky to have such a great expanse of water in our town. (It kind of makes up for not having a beach!)

Our garden is enjoying the hot weather and the vegies are growing happily. Not a great vegie patch this year, damn snails ate alot, but we will have lots of tomatoes! Also our apple and quince trees are booming, heavily laden with fruit.

While out the back we often hear the clang-scrape-clang of the goats from behind our yard banging on the fence for food. They are gorgeous...and hungry!

This week I have been sorting through the piles of things that seven people have accumulated over time as the kids have been moving rooms. It's partly fun and partly dementing. Each part of the house seems to have mounds of unsorted bits and when we are all home together the combination of kids & chaos is mind boggling. Sigh.

But I am getting through it and it's quite rewarding. Bill's new room is painted a lovely shade of green and it's almost ready for him to move in. His old room, which is a quaint little shed we kind of 'attached' to the house, will become...my new sewing room!!!!! Excitement. I haven't made anything for ages now, what with holidays etc, and am looking forward to getting into my new space and creating.

Hope you are all having a lovely week - thanks for popping by x.

Beach adventures

We have just returned from our 10 days away down the coast! Daisy had so much fun on the beach, chasing seagulls and scampering through the shallows. She turned from a dirty brown country dog into a bleached blonde surfie girl! (Remember that story Harry the Dirty Dog?)
One of the best things about being away I think is living more simply. At first I did miss my usual distractions & pleasures such as the garden, chookies, blogging, friends etc but after a while I did adjust. It's nice being away from normal routines, smelling the sea, seeing different skies, sunsets, trees, birds. There are also a lot of koala's where we stayed at Merricks Beach, gee they are lovely. Haven't got any photo's yet but we hope to go down again so maybe I will get lucky!


My lovely mum was with us alot and kindly took one or two kids off for Nan adventures nearly every day, and night! What a superstar.


The kids loved the beach of course and Billy was fascinated by all the marine creatures he came across. A puffer fish was found and lots of shells and crab bits. Exciting! (Stinky too...)



During our time away Lucy and I went to Melbourne for an appointment at the Royal Children's Hospital to discuss her learning issues. While we were there we made friends with Julie who works in the wonderful children's garden. This special garden provides a quiet and beautiful space for children, families & staff at the hospital. Lucy and I spent an hour or so helping Julie - Lucy watered the new vegie patch and potted up some succulents while I swept the paths. It was really fun and we'll definitely go back again. If you are visiting the hospital you should definitely pop by the garden and see this unique and lush oasis for yourself.

Rosie outside the cherry farm at Red Hill.


Back at the beach we found lots of fun things to do. Morning tea, playground fun, strawberry picking and of course I found myself in a few opshops! (If you are down at the Peninsula try the Balnarring Op Shop, the Flinders Op Shop and the Anglican Church Oppie in Hastings) I did try to be more thoughtful in my purchasing but couldn't resist two spangly sequined skirts for the girls and a super dog costume for Daisy! And some lovely books, a doll's wardrobe and a fabulous 1950's bride & groom cake ornament (for some bizarre & worrying reason I have a growing collection of these items!)


It was good to be away but holidays with kids are not really relaxing are they?? Sometimes I really crave some space for my own thoughts and ideas but it's almost impossible with seven people vying for attention at the same time. I'm not sure if it's all families but in a biggish one there seems to always be someone who is out of sorts. Is that the nature of life though? Something is always affecting us whether it's good or bad or in between. Perhaps it's best not to judge and analyse too much and just go with the flow. So I'm going with the flow, friends, what about you? x