On the ropes



In a week of snowfalls (yes in Canberra), a day of solid rain and the coldest day of the year, we were lucky, last Monday to enjoy a sunny afternoon in the garden, playing with the girls.  Abi was feeling very happy to be out in the fresh air, especially when it came to (solids) snack time.  Mashed pumpkin is a favourite at the moment but she is showing signs of wanting a piece of everything on offer at meal times (including yum cha lunch at Dickson today)!

We'd set up a knotted rope from the Golden Ash tree in the back garden and Ella was itching to try it out.  But facing the descent proved to be more daunting than she anticipated.

It took several goes before she got the technique right.

But she persisted..... And then repeated the manoeuvre at least 50 times to make sure she'd got it right.

There were a few near misses so we placed this foam sheet over the leaf pile to make a softer landing if needed. It proved to be a good surface for doing push ups (straight body) in between climbs.

Time travel

Helping Mum to sort through all her photos has been a real journey through time for me too. And an opportunity to refresh old memories, confirm long forgotten timelines and reflect how we can see some reminders of our grandchildren in baby pictures of ourselves.

We can see some of (London) Ed's expressions in this cute sepia toned portrait of his Nanny (Maxine) wearing her silk hand smocked "best" baby dress.

Taken around five years later this is a picture of (serious) me with Mum standing in front of the mango tree in our Brisbane front garden. Rob thinks there is something about my eyes that reminds him of some of Ella's expressions. 

The photo below was taken around the same year. It's pretty rare because it includes our Dad. He was usually the photographer. Maxine and I are wearing matching white voile dresses (no doubt made by Mum). None of us can remember why a professional photographer took our photo standing outside this Brisbane church. We must have been attending a wedding?

And then around seven years later, probably to Mum and Dad's initial surprise, Ros arrived.  Doesn't she look gorgeous in this portrait wearing her best flouncy baby dress (pale blue from memory). She hasn't changed much has she?  I can see glimpses of Ed and Ella in Ros's baby pictures (and Liliana Rose??).

I was so pleased to find this gem below. The three of us sitting with Mum on the couch in all our early 1972 glory.  In case you need some help with this that is Mum sitting on the left, then me, then Maxie and Ros (at 13 and 1/2 years old) on the right.

And nearly 40 years later, here is a picture of the four of us again, this time on a very windy day at Coogee Beach (last September). You can see we all spend a lot more at hairdressers these days (despite the wind), and on skincare, but underneath all that we're not that much different to the three sisters on the couch all those years ago.

AND we're off to London together next year, with our lovely men, and anyone else in the family we can persuade to come.

Ollie is eight

It's hard to believe Ollie is eight already. He loves reading Harry Potter and all sorts of other books, and is still very interested in all things scientific. He's a super fast skier too and an extremely lovable gentle natured boy in our (unbiased) opinion.

I think his favourite present today was the Skylanders set.  It seems to be connected to a computer game. Although he was very excited about it he was mature enough to be able to hold off playing with them until the very end of our family afternoon tea party this afternoon.

Abi took a great interest in the celebrations - especially in the selection of food available. She looked to be very keen to get into everything - but especially the camembert cheese.

The big kids had fun outside for a while. Claire organised a treasure hunt that proved to be very exciting.

 But after that the kids were happy just playing together on the trampoline...

....and swinging from the claret ash in the corner of the garden - which has grown to be a perfect height off the ground for the kids now.

For all his gentle nature Ollie is still super keen and competitive about his games.  He kept Joshy up to the mark shooting hoops with him...for ages.  Ollie would have been playing to WIN!

Claire produced one of her minimal effort (her words not mine) maximum effect birthday cakes to mark the occasion. Just perfect!

And Abi ended off the afternoon happily (and dribbily) with Grandpa and her chew toy while the big kids were finally allowed to play Skylanders.

Three dolls

We joined J & J and Ella and Abi at Yong Jing Restaurant in Kingsford on Sunday for lunch - as they were heading back to Canberra and as we were heading to Coogee. They'd had a wonderful day on Saturday at Luna Park celebrating Ella's success with term two preschool sessions and squeezed in some beach time on Sunday morning before a sharp Southerly blew in the clouds and caused temperatures to plummet.
Abi found the whole Kingsford restaurant scene hilarious - allowing me to get my best pictures yet of her light up the world smiles.

We found it amusing too to watch her watching us eat our spring rolls, wonton dumplings, bar-b-qued eggplant and rice.  She is SO INTERESTED.  Jody thinks it's time to start offering Abi some solids sometime soon - but maybe not Yong Jing spring rolls just yet.

I was so happy to capture Abi's hilarity but struck by the similarity to photos I took of her big sister (see below) at the same age (5 months).  What do you think?

I think Abi's hair is even more wonderful than Ella's at the same age though. Jody has had to cut it already and she still has a patch that stands up like a cute mohawk - the start of a giant curl maybe?

Ella was very happy with herself and had loved her day at Luna Park.



A month back I'd managed to get a another nice shot of her with her current favourite doll using my lovely macro lens.  That makes three dolls in this post.

Hearts and flowers

There was a lot of love in the air when we returned to Canberra and caught up with the girls (after a two week absence) on Thursday.  Ella organised a playdate with us for ALL of Friday....a day to hang out with Granny and Grandpa and catch up on all the things we enjoy doing together on a Canberra winter's day.  She greeted us early on Friday morning - dressed in her best gear (including the new Paper Wings flouncy skirt from Mini Mojo's at Coffs Harbour) and this beautiful little love note, just for us.

We started the day with a visit to the fresh food market at Fyshwick where Ella enjoyed catching up with some familiar people, sampling the freebies and tucking into cinnamon bread sticks (2) and a hot chocolate at Crust bakery.

We then had a lovely visit with Claire and Maxie at Form Studio and Gallery, catching up with local family news and progress in the local art scene, and especially the beautiful new exhibition featuring the acclaimed printmaker Cat Poljski (and my sister Maxie).

That left us with a lovely long afternoon to enjoy some time in our rather winter bedraggled garden, which Ella enjoyed nevertheless - planting flower heart gardens using the early flowering camellia japonicas and some shells Rob had collected from Sandy Beach.

This is SO Ella.........

We took a walk up OUR hill and checked out the big old tree house and swing that was constructed by who knows who in that ancient old gum tree all those years ago.

and chatted with all the local friendly oldies out walking their dogs (and their grandchildren) in the grassy parkland on top of the hill on this perfect winter afternoon.

I have captured the start of an unusual expression for Ella in this pic.  She gets a bit bored with my photo taking and entertains herself by putting on "mango zombie" faces (and other variations on that theme) for the camera.  I've gotta be quick these days.

Ella talked her Mummy into staying with us for dinner too on Friday - Rob drove her home in the dark!...and we've all promised ourselves there will be a sleepover very soon.

Mello Bello

We finished our jaunt up north with another short stay with Ros and Pete last weekend.  This time we headed away from the coast looking for a good lunch spot...to beautiful Bellingen, home of many mid north coast alternative types and some great cafe food, good coffee and interesting shopping that caters to the town's interesting residents.

We thought 5 Church Street looked to be a good choice.  A homey place, full of soul, live music, (although sadly not playing this Sunday afternoon) mismatched retro furniture and lots of fresh local food on the menu (including lentils and red beans, of course).

Ros and I made sure we allowed enough time for a browse through the gorgeous old Hammond and Wheatley Emporium on Hyde Street. It is such a special place that even the boys enjoy a (short) browse themselves before finding a spot to chill out together and compare their phone apps (they're both still novices in this area by the way!).

Ros, Pete, Rob and I had a lot of fun planning our trip OS next year for the WEDDING!  We've got a rough outline already done - some accommodation options even - we just need an idea of the timing now!

Noosa rain

We headed for Noosa last Tuesday for three days at our favourite apartment 10 at the Noosa Lookout Resort. On the way north we stopped off at mellow Maleny in the beautiful Blackall Ranges for a lunch and coffee break in this cute little village with its focus on all things organic and locally sourced.

Under grey skies and shivering somewhat in the cool mountain air we decided against the highly recommended house made gelati at Colin James Fine Food and opted instead for their great coffees and some lentil pasties and locally made ginger chocolates from the Maleny Organic Co-op.

The closer we got to Noosa the greyer the skies became. Instead of the technicolour sunsets and sunrises we were used to seeing from our apartment windows this picture shows it about as good as it got for the next three days of our stay. We ended up quite intrigued by all the variations of grey that washed over us at different stages of the next few days: mist, fog, rain, vapour, cloud, storm, drizzle and wind.

....... A great excuse for some cocooning time in Noosa.

We braved the weather on Wednesday with an outing to the kitschy mid week Eumundi Markets. On our way, heading into Noosaville, we were successful in finding Belmondo's wonderful Fresh Food Market in Rene Street and its star attraction: Clandestino Roasters.

We loved the irresistible array of beautiful food available at Belmondo's including gourmet take home goods, and really enjoyed Clandestino's coffee - served with tasting notes, vintage spoons and information about the source of the beans and processing information - serious stuff!

This picture of Rob at the Eumundi Markets enjoying some of my organic hand made samosas with date and tamarind chutney after he had already downed one of his favourite Eumundi kranskies is just to prove to Josh and Jody that he can eat a kransky without spilling it all over his shirt!

Well away from the overcrowded, over hyped markets, this time we discovered the wonderful Cocoa Chocolat in Eumundi and its hand made, Parisian style, "to die for" chocolates. Our favourites were the dark chocolates filled with locally grown ginger preserved in syrup.

Between showers and storms we were still able to do some beautiful Noosa national park walks and a bit of idle browsing (mostly by me) in Hastings Street and at Noosa Junction.

On Thursday morning I got soaked on my way home from my morning walk so it took a while for me to dry out enough to plan our day's outing. So that day we ended up only making it as far as the Sunshine Beach Surf Club for a local seafood lunch in the club's restaurant overlooking the rain soaked beach.

Tragically there was a fatal accident on David Low Way that morning, only a little way from Sunshine Beach. With the road closed and a sombre mood about we decided not to do any more sightseeing by car on our last full day on the "Sunshine" Coast.