Catching up at Clovelly

We couldn't have picked a better place for a family catch up than Sea Salt Café at Clovelly Beach on Saturday morning. Plenty of FREE unrestricted car parking, good coffee and a sweet little kid friendly beach on the café doorstep.

We hadn't seen Leo for a long time. He's 2 now and quite a personality in his own right.

Zoe and Alex spent hours on the beach playing on the sand and in the water, doing cartwheels (Zoe).......

 And engineering works (major and minor - Alex) .........

With the kids happy we had a lovely extended time to catch up on all the news with Clare.......

 .. .... although Zoe and Alex were absolutely soaked by the end of the outing (but happy). Beautiful Clovelly!

A day on the water

We spent a lot of last Friday on the water..... one of those days when this beautiful city was shining at its brilliant best (although who is Lynn??).

Barangaroo Wharf is looking like its starting to own its brand new space........

We were visiting friends who live a few ferry stops up the Paramatta River, just past Drummoyne. Tony and Ann wake up to views of the river just like this every morning!...............

..and this is what they see looking East towards the city and Sydney Harbour...........

Anywhere up the Paramatta River is an easy trip for us by ferry......

Sydney sparkled in the late afternoon light as we headed back to the city!

A cold afternoon

It is a very rare privilege when Abi says it's ok to take her picture.  It was very cold outside this afternoon and the light was fading fast but she ok'd me to document her nature studies and so I tried my best!

Abi loves mixing witches' brews with flowers in the garden. She uses the "teardrops" in the centre of the camellia bush flowers as the secret ingredient.

Abi collected her first "shiner" this week. It was a fall against a wooden stool with a spectacular outcome - ouch!

Father's Day

We had a bit of a get together today - our chance to wish the August birthday boys a happy birthday (finally),

 and give our favourite Dads a shout out for Father's Day!!!!

Is it just me or can you see a strong family resemblance in these pics of the 5 cousins?

Bush capital

On the first official day of Spring we had a lunch date with friends in Canberra. Our hosts, Bob and Lindy live with their alpacas, and various members of their extended family at Pialligo, Canberra's only rural suburb.

Bob and Lindy keep their alpacas as pets these days. They're a well known and loved marker on Beltana Road for cars on their way to the Pialligo plant nurseries and apple orchards.

It was a special occasion because Bob and Lindy were unveiling their newly renovated chicken shed.......

 Lindy's family have owned the property since the 1950s, but prior to that the property was heavily into egg production for the rapidly growing bush capital. Their shed showcases one of the original chicken feed mixers (as well as some beautiful timber roof trusses and rustic timber flooring).

The property is a 5 minute walk from Canberra's beautiful new international airport and a bare 10 minute drive from where we live in Campbell - our bush capital indeed!

it's been almost a decade now since we were doing our bit as principals of Canberra schools and while we've all been busy doing other things since then we still catch up regularly over lunch and a glass of wine. But Bob and Lindy's lunch in celebration of the chicken shed has been a real highlight.