End of April

It's the end of another busy month for us and a beautiful time of the year here in Canberra. This was the view outside our front windows a week ago.......

And the same view a day later in the afternoon sun ......

We're in election mode all over Australia - with federal polling taking place on Saturday the 3rd May. We voted early, on the 26th, and made our best effort to keep despicable Dutton out of contention!

We accompanied Abi and Sammy and a few of Abi's friends on a 6klm trail ride out at beautiful Freshford on Saturday afternoon. It was an absolute joy to see them all living their horsey dreams, far from the troubles of the world, in this beautiful bushland setting. It felt like a huge privilege to be a part of it with them.

Then Sunday (two days ago) - late afternoon - and those Autumn colours out the window seem to light up the whole room.

We've spent yesterday and today back in Sydney. There's more bathroom fittings to purchase and drop off and a kitchen maker to chase up. I haven't quite caught him as yet, unfortunately, but inching closer I hope!!

We stayed at the Novotel in Brighton-Le-Sands (because the price was right!) last night, in a part of Sydney we've not explored before. Its close to the airport and the hotel was great but the area itself doesn't seem to have a lot of character other than that. However, we did enjoy our walk along the "beach front" this morning, in perfect conditions - a pleasant break from chasing up tapware etc at Alexandria and Moore Park.

Builder Greg has everything neat and tidy and ship shape in our Coogee kitchen (and bathroom) ready for the renderer tomorrow. Hopefully it means we can have a break from rushed visits to Sydney now and Greg has everything needed for the reno to proceed smoothly.

Another Narrawallee Easter

We celebrated Easter at beautiful Narrawallee Beach with the young ones again this year. We set out on Thursday morning with Ella, while Abi, Josh and Jody joined us later that night. We enjoyed an early lunch at the new Dom's at Braidwood on the way and had a leisurely afternoon exploring the beach and relaxing before everyone else arrived. 

The surf on North Mollymook Beach looked pretty wild on Thursday and Friday having been stirred up by the Southerly winds and the high tides. It was wild all along the East Coast apparently with quite a few fatal drownings at a number of beaches. Luckily, this part of the coast is somewhat protected from the worst of it by its rocky headlands.   

We love our Easter breaks here at Narrawallee/Mollymook, with a well worn recipe by now for enjoying our four days together.

There's always some time spent in nearby Milton (with great shopping for the girls!) .........

..... and time for the joys of Easter gift giving .........

...... The girls spend hours devising an Easter egg hunt for the oldies - always with very sassy, funny and clever clues of their devising!

........ with time for a few handstands thrown in .......

...... our "Diamond Vista" had a great space for hiding some eggs too .........

..... there's always plenty of beach time too - and this year we were lucky to have 26 - 27oC max days - almost like summer .......

... just perfection .....

.... but probably what the girls enjoy most at Easter are the extended fishing sessions down on Ulladulla Harbour. On Saturday afternoon Abi caught so many fish from her spot on the wharf she was reluctant to come home when the sun went down - she wanted to keep on fishing in the dark! (Point to note - all these undersize fish are returned gently to their families back in the ocean!!!)

Sunday evening we made it a family affair - joining thousands of other holiday makers celebrating the big Easter Blessing of the Fleet down on the harbourside park.

... but the girls were not to be distracted by the live music and other festivities - there was fishing to be done!

.... a family portrait...............

.. another successful catch ........

The evenings are beautiful here. We saw dolphins in the harbour, pelicans, turtles, a stingray and dozens of tiny fish, of course, looking for food around the harbour wall.. just beautiful.

And plenty of big fish bites too!

Besides all this we get the chance to relax and unwind a bit at "Diamond Vista", playing Scrabble and catching up with old fave shows on TV, eating beautiful meals on that breezy ocean facing deck and eating way too many chocolate eggs. Its wonderful!!

Meanwhile, in the past week or so there's been more progress with the Coogee reno. The kitchen floor has been patched and all the new plumbing and electricals are connected. It's ready for the renderer.

The bathroom also has all its new plumbing and electricals in place. The new shower wall niche is there and it's ready for rendering too. It's all proceeding to plan, thanks to builder Greg and his team!

A lot going on

This has felt like one of the busiest times we've had in a long while, with major renovations underway in Coogee and minor (but disruptive) works going on here in Canberra too. And we were without a computer at crucial times this month, which was especially stressful at the strata approval stage of proceedings with the Coogee reno. 

We have a new computer now but the hours required to update everything and get used to the new platform has certainly added to the fun this past month. Despite all this Autumn is a beautiful time in Canberra and we've been able to enjoy regular seasonal pleasures too like the French Film Festival offerings, and all the usual (enjoyable) busyness of our lives. There's been a lot going on!

Things started gently with the delivery of a new armchair in mid March......

..... and a new dining table a day or so after. Its not too different from our old one - just a lot bigger. We can even fit 10 people around this one at a pinch - very suited to our big family gatherings!

Much more major was the resurfacing of our marble bench tops in our kitchen, a process that took over a week counting the coordination of various trades involved. The cooktop was removed on the 26 March and things weren't back to being usable again until the 4 April - a very long 10 days in total.

For the duration - this was our "kitchen" set up. Let me tell you there wasn't much cooking going on here.

I found time for some crafty work in amongst all this. The Shibori dyeing I tried didn't look right made into a cushion cover - so I made it into a tote bag instead... cushions to coordinate with the distinctive claret red of our new armchair will have to wait!

But the hugest thing that has been happening in the past month (starting around the 27th March) has been getting our Coogee renovations underway at last! After a two and a half year delay it happened quite suddenly in the end. Our builder gave us the word that he was ready to start (surprise surprise) in early March. From then it was a mad rush to get by-laws drafted, plans finalised and get strata approval, involving a massive amount of paperwork and quite a convoluted process to follow. Somehow we managed to do all that in world record breaking time (12 days total) - but only after a huge, stressful effort on our part!

This is my last pic of our old Coogee kitchen ......

And this is how the kitchen looked last week when we visited: ceiling taken down, reinforcing beams in place, "nib" wall taken down, kitchen cupboards removed. The room already looks a lot bigger!

This is my last pic of our old Coogee bathroom....

...... and this is how it looked last week with EVERYTHING removed.

Tonnes and tonnes of dirt, dust and debris (100 years worth) came along with all this destruction. Our wonderful builder screened off the rest of our apartment to protect it from the deluge. ..... and it's worked, bless him! (we checked).

We spent a lot of our visit to Coogee last week in Harvey Norman at Alexandria - selecting tapware, hardware, mirrors, baths, basins, toilets and appliances. It was mind blowing to have so much choice (too much!). But after two days of concerted effort we got everything selected (spending many dollars in the process!)

We stayed at the lovely old Royal Randwick Hotel and managed to squeeze in some early morning walks around our 'hood as a break from all the reno planning.

On the way back to Canberra on Friday we stopped off at our fave Pool Cafe in Maroubra for lunch and made a vow to make a return visit the beautiful Mahon Pool (in front of the cafe) sometime soon!

In our busy weeks we've still been able to take Abi out for her evening visit to Sammy most Mondays. We love doing this with her and Sammy - and admiring the progress  this pair are making together. 

Joshy sent us this pic of the fam at the Yass Show in mid-March. The young ones really are a full blown horsey family now!!

Sammy shares his lovely home with mobs of kangaroos.

We haven't been able to keep up some things as well as we used to. We don't do as many lake walks, we haven't walked up Mt Ainslie at all this year and our morning weight sessions are a bit erratic. It's always good though when we can get out walking. This is a beautiful walking city, and it will be good when we can get back into it.

Rod has been at the Uni of Canberra Rehab Hospital for 48 days now. He has made great progress physically and is now walking unaided and conversing better. Just under two weeks ago he sent his first text unaided (and made sure the spelling was correct) - a big step for Rod and for us. We visit Rod most days and we're looking after his garden and Rob is managing his finances. It all takes time. 

Like I said there is a lot going on here.