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

Ho, ho, ho...Merry Christmas!

Our local fruit shop, Tonna's, had a dancing Santa outside again this year. Apparantly he enthralled some children and terrified others! Rosie was definitely under his spell and went back several times to dance with him. "Can I cuddle Santa??"

On Christmas Eve we met some lovely friends up at our local Botanic Gardens, high up on Wombat Hill.

Gee it was blissful up there, the kids played in the trees, we chatted and had a wonderful time. Rosie danced in the light of the setting sun and a good time was had by all. I could do that every year.

On Christmas day we had a lovely, relaxing lunch outside in our garden, under a blue, blue sky - with just a hint of summer breeze.

Mum came & spent the day with us too which made the day even better. Our neighbours, Fiona & Toma, also joined us for lots of delicious food and drink. I don't normally eat that much on Chrismas day but I really went to town this year and loved every mouthful. Bit of a pigsie really.

The kids had so much fun and loved all the festivities. This is Sunday with her new doll, Emily.

We are off in the morning to the beach for 10 days of fun (?) yes I love packing up the car, driving for three hours & then unpacking! Also love the settling in period where children don't sleep properly and are eaten alive by mosquito's. Fun. Oh and the kids waking up early and making heaps of noise part is good too. No...seriously it will be good to have a break from normal life and get to settle arguments & practice good parenting in a different location!!!! Do I sound a bit jaded? A bit over it? Not me....I love the holidays! x

ps I'm only whinging because I'm tired, just ignore me... I'm a grumpy bum tonight x

Newsflash! Mark & I went to our friends dress up party on Saturday night - they are leaving for Japan in a few weeks & the theme was Japanese. Do you think we look like John & Yoko? We had a lot of fun...what a party!!

Mental Mama & the Great Outdoors

A quick post this week as things are pretty hectic & I'm struggling to have even one clear thought! What with end of school stuff, parties, present purchasing, reports, children to organise, hats to find, bums to wipe, lists to write, food to make, cards to send, tempers to soothe it's no wonder I'm frazzled. Did I mention exciting housework? I keep feeling like I've forgotton something...yesterday I almost drove off from school pickup without one of the kids! It really is a mental time of year. I was so determined not to get stressed but here I am .... feeling stressed! I guess it's kind of funny really. Ahhh! Anyway, breath, I tell myself, breath, it will all be ok.

Part of my de-stressment program (it's very official) has been getting out and about with the dogs. I absolutely LOVE going down to the lake area and being surrounded by big trees, birds, clean country air and of course the gorgeous lake views. It is so calming.



Watching the dogs have a swim and then run off their pent up doggie energy is good too.

We live in such a beautiful area and one thing I would definitly like to do next year is to explore more of the Central Highlands & take more photo's. Somehow I think the dogs might like that project too!

Newsflash! We just had a call from our local paper, The Advocate, to say that Lucy has won the Write a letter to Santa competition! Wow! She is so excited. It's particularly good too as she really tried hard to write a great letter and perservered even when she had some trouble with it. Her letter also shows her kind nature as she didn't ask for much for herself, more for other people. I am a so happy for her.

Well Christmas is almost upon us and I hope that everyone (including me) finds some peace, (remember to breath!), joy in the small things and most of all good times and love with family & friends. x

Fun in Fitzroy & other stories...

The girls and I had a great time in the Big Smoke on the weekend. We joined some other friends and their children to have some cooking fun at Little Kitchen in North Fitzroy. We popped in to say hi to Muzz & Margaret in their tin shed home on the way. We got to meet Stephen from the British Museum who is organising an Australian Printmakers exhibition for 2010 and had come to select some of Muzz's work. How exciting.

Then it was off to Little Kitchen where I fell in love with these shiny jelly moulds.

What a lot of fun the kids had cooking while us big people enjoyed a quiet cuppa down at the Tin Pot. Walking back to Muzz's in the rain was an adventure too!

That night we stayed at my lovely Mum's house & had a relaxing time. It's so different with only two kids...almost peaceful! I actually slept through the whole night..wow! The next morning we waved goodbye and headed for Footscray to see our best friends, the Pardy's. The girls danced and had fun together...Kitty Rose, you look so fancy in those shoes!

Back home and it's always great to be back together. Just as the kids were going to bed last night we suddenly heard beautiful music coming from outside! It was the our local brass band who come past every December to play Christmas carols in the street. As the sun set on Wombat Hill we swayed & clapped & hummed & sang. How gorgeous, how festive, how country!

Talking of country I just had to show you our first egg since our big chooken massacre. It's been a long time coming. What to do with such a glorious and much anticipated egg....hmmm....

....biccies!!! I thought you might like to try this chocolate chip biccie recipe.

Best-ever choc chip cookies

Ingredients: 125g salted butter

1/2 cup white sugar & 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 small eggs

1 to 2 drops of vanilla essense

1 3/4 cups self raising flour

250 g choc chips

Preheat oven to 160 degress celcius

Using an electric mixer, cream butter with sugars until pale. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in sifted flour until mixed through. Fold through choc chips. Grease or line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll dough into teaspoon-sized balls and place on tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes. If you like them chewy, don't let them brown, as they will crisp up as they cool down. Makes about 48

It really is the best. It comes from the Frankie magazine cookbook, "Afternoon Tea" that Allison gave me for Christmas last year. I have made them a million times now and they are always fantastic! bye for now, x

Lavender, birthdays & random hugs

On Tuesday I popped out to the local lavender farm to catch up with some lovely friends for lunch and a bit of peace amongst all the end of year/pre Christmas craziness. It is such a nice place to visit & how fun is it to be with good friends and have a chat & a laugh? A little willy wagtail kept darting past and the resident doggie cuddled up on the bench next to Sam. It is so green and beautiful & there are photo opportunities aplenty!

Lovely Michelle

Phippala & Sam in the flowerbed

Lots of goodies in the shop

Other exciting events of the week have been, Billy's 7th birthday - yay!! He has recovered well from the dreaded chicken pops and enjoyed tucking in to his cake and pressies. The birthday preparations began in earnest earlier in the day with the girls making cards and presents for their brother.

"can I lick the bowl??!!".

I think he was pretty happy with the end result.

So, another busy week has flown by - Number Four finished up her school transition program and had a hoot of a day. Boy is she ready for school! The kids are enjoying all the Christmas hoo- hah. Charlotte put up The Tree yesterday and it's looking fabulous & festive.

Before I go I have to tell you a quick Happy Christmas story - yesterday I received a great big hug from a sweet lady who was pushing her mum in a wheelchair through the crowd at Big W. She stopped to let us through and as I smiled & thanked her she threw her arms around me and said "Merry Christmas & God Bless you darling". What a gorgeous woman she was and her mum was too. I could feel myself starting to cry (doesn't take much anyway) at the simple beauty of that random hug. Honestly, it's people like her who make Christmas what it should be - about love, kindness, togetherness and joy.

Off to the Big Smoke with L & S tomorrow, should be fun! Have a lovely, shiny, happy weekend, x