Saturday, April 28, 2012

School Holidays Round Up




RIP my favourite sunglasses.  
Someone who shall not be named stood on them... 'tis, very lucky the culprit is cute... 



.... and loves to shop!  







Caught up with the gardening.  My assistant landscapers were occasionally helpful!





We also explored some of the local parks and beach paths.  
And, the story behind these two walking together ahead of me: after months of sibling fighting and me desperately trying to referee, R instructed me to leave them to it and that they would sort it out themselves.  Best suggestion ever, as they are finally learning to resolve issues without my intervention.  As we walked up this path they both wanted to be the leader... after a bit of discussion they agreed to walk together and hold hands.  Proud Mama moment!



The Captain is currently obsessed with climbing trees.  Every tree we encounter is examined for tree climbing potential.  At home he spends hours drawing up plans for tree houses.    He has now read all the fabulous Magic Tree House books and I suspect that they might have ignited his passion! I am now steering him towards the Emily Rodda books... both Deltora Quest and the Rowan series.  Any other suggestions?  







Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Lest We Forget


It is Anzac Day today in Australia, a day of remembrance.  Many years ago, in the little country town where I attended boarding school I was called upon to give the Anzac Day Speech.  At the time I was horrified, overwhelmed with nerves and wracked with indecision about what to actually say.  Now, recalling this moment in my life I can't believe I was given such an honour at the age of 17.  The same age, or close enough to so many of the young men who have lost their lives at war.




"In two major wars and in some smaller our young men have marched.  Some did not return, they rest in foreign fields or beneath the seas.  However, many more did return, bearing scars both emotional and physical, legacies of experiences too horrible and shocking for us to comprehend.  We young people today cannot visualise what they went through and how they suffered.  At school and through books we can learn about their experiences, yet to truly understand or more importantly to empathise with them, we need to have been alongside them.  As it cannot be our returned heroes must be satisfied with our remembrance, our compassion and our gratefulness.  In this way we do way little we can to truly honour you."

(An excerpt from my speech that day, 1990)




Lest We Forget.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Seal Rocks

We have just had a fabulous week away up on the mid North Coast of NSW at Seal Rocks.  A gorgeous little spot that reminded me so much of Depot Beach.  Perfect beaches that are totally unspoilt by development, surrounded by national parks.  No cafes, just a tiny little general store and best of all no mobile service.  Woohoo, it was bliss.  The one significant difference from Depot though was that Seal  Rocks has a lighthouse.  The boys having had the fabulous Lighthouse Keeper stories by Ronda & David Armitage read to them from a young age were just besotted with it!


These two are their favourites!




                  I think I could have quite happily lived in the lighthouse keepers cottage on the cliff!








                               I think that they had my husband in mind when they whipped this particular sign up.





          


 This is the house we stayed in for the week.  Yes, we lit the fire every night, despite the fact that we didn't really need to.  There is just something ever so cosy about having stories in front of the fire in the evening after a lovely day at the beach.







                                   


    The locals call this little corner of the beach kiddies corner.  It was divine.   Crystal clear water at a gorgeous temperature, the kids adored it and so did we.  I can't wait for our next visit!


                             

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!








                                                                  Happy Easter to all.  xx

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

A cliche, but oh so true in my case!  It is council clean up in my neck of the woods at the moment and I have been very busy street shopping.


The lamp and shade I found at the bottom of our street when I was out for my evening run with the Captain.   The Captain is such a gentlemen that he carried it all the way back up our street for me.  His father's reaction was not so genteel.  Nevertheless, it is here to stay, especially now that I have discovered it is in perfect working order.


This divine split cane shelf was just a few houses up from ours and was filthy but look how beautifully it has cleaned up.  The little wooden boat on the bottom shelf is from the same rubbish pile and is so sweet.  It was handmade by someone, probably many years ago and is just too precious to end up in landfill.





I have been on the eye out for bedside tables for the spare room and I can't quite believe that I managed to find such a fabulous one on the street.  Now I just need to find something interesting for the other side of the bed.

I often have people visit and ask me where I found bits and pieces in the house and invariably the things that I get asked about are the items that I have scavenged from the kerb, inherited or are op shop finds. The greatest pleasure I get from street shopping though is the feeling of rescuing something beautiful or interesting from ending up in landfill.  It is the ultimate in revamping, reusing and recycling!

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