daisy chains

some things never change
daisy chains...

lunch

the weather was perfect, the setting beautiful.
mums birthday lunch.
simple, small, perfect.
lots of laughs, memories, stories, travel tales
a special day

photos

.........trying to get some good photos to frame.
i am loving the ones i took of the boys by themselves as well as john and the boys, its rare to get a good shot of him, so i am rapt. but then the ones of me and the boys and all of us not so good......
and then the photos of mum, dad, me and the boys are bad :(

the beach

it turned into a nice afternoon down the beach.
trying to get that one in a million photo that i can frame on our wall..... one day

tadpoles

trying to find tadpoles in our pond... lots of wrigglies but no taddies.....

lunch

today i went into the city with mum for lunch. one of her long term girlfriends whom she travelled overseas with in the 60's and her daughter took mum and i out for lunch to celebrate her up coming birthday.
we went to Maze by Gordon Ramsay. it is on the first level of Crown Metropol.
it was beautiful. it feels like forever since i have been out for lunch, especially with my mum.
we caught the train in together and met the others there. when i go onto the city, its normally to the same old familiar places, but today i felt like a tourist in my own town, i didn't even know that the Crown Metropol (a hotel) even existed. as we walked through the original crown and over the level 1 walk way over Whiteman Street in the Metropol complex there were some great shops i kept saying how long has this been here? we both felt like county bumpkins !!!
Maze was beautiful. we had the lunch menu, 3 courses. we had 2 from the savoury list and one sweet. the servings were small and beautifully presented, just the right amount for lunch. we were all able to eat the 3 courses and it was delicious, beautiful flavours, interesting ingredients and wonderful ambiance.
it was a lovely day with my mum. i think we should do it more often.

mother duck :: day 2

un expected

i had a morning off this morning and went to the hairdressers.
when i returned home i nearly crashed the car as i looked up and saw this.
john was actually doing something to our house !!!
its a bit like the saying "when it rains it pours" when it comes to work around the house, we will start something, john looses interest then moves on to another project and for the past 2-3 years he has done nothing, so all the jobs that are half finished or were to be in the pipe line have been on hold, but today.......
friends had this scaffolding so we have borrowed it to fix the fascia of the roof that was damaged by a falling tree (4 years ago!!!), while it is here we have painted and cleaned the windows that were too high for a ladder and hopefully before we have to return it, we will paint internally HOORAY !!!.
i quickly went to bunnings this afternoon and bought a few more sample pots of paint to test and our bedroom window looks like a patchwork quilt !!
just pray that this interests lasts, as i add to the list of all the things that need doing !!!

mother duck

this weekend we are mother duck to six day old ducklings. we have hatched the eggs at work and they needed to come home with me for the weekend. the boys instantly loved the role and have been very dotting "mother ducks" today.

how does your garden grow?

finally after years of trying we have our first ever crop of something to pick. this afternoon the boys were playing outside and saw that our broad beans had grown, they eagerly lifted the nets and started picking... now what to do with the masses

careful work

lost in the moment of creativity.
arch is drawing and painting a picture for Grandma.

fun day

a beautiful day in Melbourne today, it was just a day pottering around at home till friends suggested an impromptured picnic dinner at this great park.
I'm glad i let my self say yes and was able to watch my kids play in the late afternoon sunshine, enjoying friendships and sharing a meal together. I'm looking forward to may more picnic dinners over summer.