The boys and their favorite toys; Thomas the Tank Engine.

I thought a lot about toys and what I wanted to spend money on. My priorities were not so much about education (which seems to be the marketing byword for toys these days) but to keep plastic to a minimum, buy second-hand or vintage where possible, stick to quality, well-made and well-crafted toys and toys that were open ended (blocks, lego, paints, boxes, playdough). Mostly, I think our toy choices have been successful and our wooden Thomas would be one of the most beloved, both by us and the boys.

The Captain can spend up to two hours engineering complicated routes and elaborate disasters for his trains to cope with, including landslides of dirt as you can see above (I went inside to get a cup of tea...), sometimes he even has the tracks running from room to room.

It is hard to decide what he loves more, the hours spent setting it all up, the playing, (I really should say crashing) or the time he sometimes spends simply admiring?

The Mulch Mountain

Across the road from us, a house is undergoing a fairly major renovation. The boys have just adored all the associated activity. In particular, the diggers,trucks and cement mixers that have been roaring up and down their long driveway. Recently there have even been tree surgeons chopping down some absolutely enormous trees. Naturally, they are fascinated by all this and unfortunately are not content to observe from the house. Instead, I have to sit on the nature strip with them so that they can project manage the whole operation. With the tree surgeons came a mulching truck and once again they stood mesmerised as the workmen fed the trunks and branches into the mulcher and then they watched fascinated as the mulch streamed out into the truck. As we were watching all of this the workmen asked me if I would like some mulch. "Ooh yes please," I foolishly said. I seriously thought that they would give me the equivalent of a couple of bags worth or at the most a big wheelbarrow load.

Shortly afterwards we left to go to swimming lessons and upon our return I discovered that they had indeed left us some mulch. They had emptied the entire trucks worth onto our nature strip. As I stared in dismay at the mountain of mulch, the boys in stark contrast were delighted. They immediately mounted an expedition to the top with the kid from down the road. Hesitantly, I rang Ross (who rather inconveniently was on the Gold Coast working) and warned him that we had a little mulch problem on the nature strip. What do you mean there is a trucks worth of mulch on the nature strip, he exploded? After I had explained the whole story to him his instructions were to make a sign saying free mulch and then to ring everyone we know and ask them if they would like some mulch!

Two weeks later it is all gone! The sign worked. We literally had people stopping and filling up trailers, utes and even plastic buckets with mulch. I am so grateful to all our lovely neighbours. We actually have met almost everyone in the street now, thanks to our mountain of mulch!

Mulching the garden was actually suprisingly satisfying and inspired us to do lots of other much needed gardening. Even "Bill and Ben", my super-cute flower pot men got in on the act!