The Young Ones

The young ones here are all back at school / Uni this week. School holidays always bring opportunities for us to connect with the kids in more relaxed ways - and this July break was no exception.

We take Abi to horse riding one afternoon a week in school time, but this school holiday she had a 5 day "camp" at Forest Park with the chance to put Lotto through his paces over the five days. The verdict? Lotto is beautiful, but probably not THE ONE!

July coincides with NAIDOC Week. This year the theme was "Keep the fire burning! Blak, loud and proud". We were lucky to celebrate NAIDOC at the NGA with a wonderful performance by Eric Avery - playing an ode to the Aboriginal Memorial - 200 hollow log funeral poles - one for each year of European settlement 1788-1988. After the performance Eric was joined by Djon Mundine, the original curator of this poignant memorial for the bicentenary.

We took a road trip to Wollongong in the holidays and met up with Ollie on his Uni break. We enjoyed a long lunch and great conversations, finishing off with a coffee on North Wollongong Beach in the afternoon. We love seeing how Ollie is making his way at Uni, forming great friendships and always focussed on learning (while managing to enjoy a beach side life in his spare time).

We were lucky to have a day just to "hang" with Ella and Abi. We went second hand book shopping, made some focaccia, enjoyed lunch at the iconic Tilley's Devine Cafe in Lynham, ............

played some hard fought rounds of Jenga and taught ourselves how to play an equally hard fought game of poker (with Monopoly money). It was a wonderful day.

These girls are practically grown women now. We are so lucky they are still prepared to "hang" with Granny and Grandpa occasionally. The conversations we have are just amazing!

We had a magical afternoon with Abi and Ringo out at Redlands on Monday afternoon. The arena was too wet for riding, so we just spent the visit watching Abi give Ringo some pampering and then going for a walk around this amazing property, as the sun was setting. 

Ringo enjoyed it all enormously, as we did, especially knowing that Abi's lease on Ringo is ending soon with the promise of new horsey adventures in the future. But that doesn't mean we all love Ringo any less. We are going to miss these Monday afternoons very much!

Note the tail plaiting .....

There were hundreds of kangaroos out this afternoon - but no cows luckily. Ringo is afraid of the cows!

Lots of treats for Ringo this afternoon.

He's a lovely big, mostly good, horsey boy that Ringo. He's going to be lost without Abi too I think!

A month has gone by

We've been back home a month now, a month of settling back into Canberra winter, re-establishing old routines and starting a few new ones.

We had a busy weekend in Coogee two weeks after we got back. We did find time for one of our favourite walks however ........

But the main purpose of our visit was to pack up our apartment ready for the onslaught of window replacement ........

Every room (except for the bathroom) is affected, one way or another.

The new sashes are in place, painted and ready to go into the new frames .......

And just when we thought it was all getting underway we heard the last minute announcement that our joiner was off to Thailand for a few weeks, so install will be delayed another few weeks!!!!

Ella got her driver's licence while we were away, so her life has changed completely. She finished semester one work at college a week or so ago so we met her for lunch in Civic in the middle of the week - an unaccustomed treat. It still surprises us to see her driving around on her own with her P plates in place.

We've enjoyed all the excitement at our National Gallery over the past month too. We were around to witness Lindy Lee's Ouroboros sculpture (wrapped in plastic) arriving on the 19th June. The work had travelled (slowly) by road all the way to Canberra from the Brisbane workshop. There must have been some very relieved people to see it safely in place in its new home. It will be unveiled in its new position in October apparently.

Then we had the opening of the new Gauguin exhibition at the end of June. We spent all day at the gallery on the members' opening day, participating in the very educational Symposium and enjoying a good long look at the over 140 iconic works collected from 65 institutions from all over the world.

This is the first major Gauguin exhibition staged in the Pacific region. There is a strong Polynesian cultural perspective throughout the exhibition, which is great to see.

Rod has landed in South Woodford in the past week and has sent us this latest pic of Ivy in the T shirt we bought her. Ivy likes wearing oversize tops and this one seemed to fit the bill! Rod is going to love his time with the family over London summer and will enjoy all the political commentary resulting from Labour's big win in the UK election.

By some extraordinary coincidence Rod arrived at Heathrow Airport at around the same time as Kay's Mum and Dad arrived on their flight from South Korea. Although this was a totally unplanned coincidence, both branches of the London family were at the airport at the same time - with the best welcoming party any grandparent, from any part of the world, could ever want!

Thank you Kay for passing on these gorgeous pics via Ros. xx

Friday night we headed out to the Baso in Belconnen to catch a pumping performance of "Body Shirt" in a headlining set that really showed off Angus's brilliance on the drums and Ollie's steady bass guitar backbone. A brilliant show by the boys and we were so glad we got to see it. We were easily the oldest ones there in the audience - so much of a novelty that the young woman on tickets gave us an (unasked for) Seniors Discount!

And I have tried my hand at some jam making - marmalade, using the kumquat crop from a friend's garden. I'm a novice at jam making so my second batch was better than my first - but a good learning exercise (and good eating too I think)!

A week in NE London

We were lucky to hang out with Ivy for a few days of her half term break last week. The weather wasn't great but we still found plenty to do around their 'hood (South Woodford). We went for a l-o-n-g walk with her on the first day ........

..... passing by Ivy's school on the way - not a welcome sight for Ivy in her half term break.........

..... and a stop off at the local public library. Ivy is a keen and very proficient reader! 

We had lots of time with her at home too - where there's lots to do ........

The local Tipi Coffee Co. did well out of us this week .........

..... and no matter the weather there were regular walks to Gregg's for a lunchtime sausage roll for Eddie.

Thursday night we all met up with Cath at Sticks & Sushi in Shoreditch for a memorable meal - we all loved.

Saturday morning we were able to go with Ed and Davey to Yonder (rock climbing gym) in nearby Walthamstow, for a bit of a workout (for them, not for us).

It was an eye opener for us to see this amazing facility and to see how confident and able Ed is as he approaches each climb.

We all thought Davey (Belly) performed very near as well as that shirtless climber on the left in the picture below!

An amazing place!

Saturday afternoon Davey drove us all the way out to the Ingatestone Saddlery Centre about a 50 minute drive away in Essex - a very big time commitment on his and Cath's part but a very popular move for Ivy and me ...... a wonderful chance to see the amazing array of horse related goods that are available to English riders (and lovers of everything horse related).

Ivy was happy with her Le Mieux purchase for Max and I am hoping Abi will be happy with our Le Mieux purchases for her (not Ringo!).

We have had some warmer weather too .....

Especially yesterday (Sunday) which was absolute perfection - a dream summer day - 22oC max, cloudless skies, no wind. We all enjoyed chilling out, for hours, in this perfect garden (including Mikey the cat).

Rob and I took a walk in the afternoon to find Epping Forest. We found the southern tip of it and it was lovely - but you'd need much longer to see more of it. Its a very extensive forest! 

We ended the day with a bar - b - que - still in perfect conditions!

It was lovely to see Ed so involved in the final food prep. We had such a happy end to a perfect Sunday.

This morning it was back to school for the final term ........

..... and it was our last full day in London!! We headed to Brick Lane this morning - and were surprised to see it completely without life apart from on this corner where they were shooting something - a film, an ad perhaps??

We noted Cath's workplace as we headed down towards the Spitalfield Markets and the high street shops along Commercial Street.

We ended up doing our last minute gift shopping in Oxford Street, navigating the Underground and lots of walking in the process. London shopping is tiring for us and it was a relief to return to South Woodford and walk with Davey to pick up Ivy at the end of the school day. we have been so lucky to share this time with them.