The weekend...

Meet Percy:

I love him!  Made by a local artist, wish I could credit him/her! 

Apologies for the appalling photo, husband took it on my phone.  Lucky his job has nothing to do with photography!  Anyway, on Saturday night we attended the Ronald McDonald House Gala Ball which was lots of fun and excitingly they reached the target of a million dollars raised in one night!  Husband also acquired a signed jersey belonging to Cadel Evans from the 2011 Tour de France in the silent auction.  He has been instructed to hang it in his office.

On the Sunday my Mum and I took the opportunity to duck out and explore a nearby garden that was open for the weekend:

Set on 8 acres with meandering paths beside creeks, waterfalls, ponds and rainforest gully's. It was a fabulous place to wander through and explore.  Dotted throughout the garden were all sorts of lovely treasures.

Including this divine little fairy house. 

One of the highlights of the garden is Lily:

She reclines in the garden permanently! Her face is carved out of sandstone and her body is made from moss.  Truly magnificent!

The base of the waterfall, the water trickling down the rock has created a natural waterslide into the pool. The pirates would have loved to try it out!

The garden was also full of interesting plants.

Lastly, I think that this has probably done the blog rounds but as it is my favourite love song and now a love song to an iconic Sydney landmark I wanted to share it with anyone that might have somehow missed it:

The Tempest and the lovely Lola

"Be collected.  No more amazement." Prospero

(The Captain took his part very seriously!)

The Captain recently performed in his first school play!  There are two Lower First (Kindy) classes at his school (about 30 kids) and combined they performed an abridged version of The Tempest.  Yes, that would be five year olds acting out Shakepeare and although the play was abridged, the words themselves were not simplified in any way.  When I have mentioned this to friends and family the reactions have been varied.  Ranging from, "how ridiculous (in the interests of keeping the blog g rated I have edited this comment somewhat...)" to "how fabulous!"   To the sceptics though... the Captain can tell you the basic plot of the Tempest, he has a good understanding of the characters and can recite whole chunks of the play.  Do we underestimate the abilities of the average five year old?  Possibly.  It seems his school doesn't though.  Thankfully!  Most importantly though he adored the whole experience.  Well done Captain, I was so proud of you and we all thought you did a marvellous job.  Special thanks to Grandma for making the Prospero costumes!

This is Lola. 

She has been a house guest Chez Pirate for the last 2 weeks. 

And as a child of the 1970s that grew up watching this show:

Image

The theme song of which I can still sing for anyone who cares to listen!

Anyway, ever since I have had a special place in my heart for Border Collies, although Blyton only ever referred to Tim as a mongrel.  Having Lola to stay has been great fun though and the boys have adored every minute of her visit.  The Captain in particular who is currently as obsessed with the Famous Five as I once was and thus also sees Lola as a surrogate Tim. 

We made several visits to the waterfall with her!  She loved it there.

Also the nearby lake. Having a dog in the family definitely encourages you to get outside more and at times and moments of the day when you would not normally be out of doors. 

 I love the photos taken below at dusk.  We spontaneously stopped off at the lake on the way home after Music to let Lola have a run around.  Normally,  I would race home and start the dinner/homework/bed routine but having a dog around encourages you to live in the moment a bit more!  I can see why pet owners are supposed to live longer than everyone else! 

I will do a renovation post soon, but just to amuse you all in the meantime:

My favourite apprentice!

Photo Challenge - Day 12

It has been raining in Sydney for days now.  The chance of my capturing a sunset on the camera is slim...  I had to improvise with this photo.  Taken on this night!

And a huge thank you to Julia for making my lovely new header!  I would never have been able to do it despite having a few people try and explain it to me!  Thanks Julia!

A fabulous discovery on the Northern Beaches!

 One of my most beloved cafes, The Boat House at Palm Beach, which I adore because of it's fabulous garden/beach setting:

and the scattered lobster pots:

Hmm, lobster pots, I definitely  have a thing about them!   As a littly we often holidayed with my cousins at our grandparents house, south of Bateman's Bay at Circuit Beach.  One of our many school holiday traditions was to jump into bed with Gran in the mornings.  Grandad would then serve us all (6 of us!) breakfast in bed.  In summer it was always buttery vegemite toast fingers and freshly squeezed orange juice. In winter, porridge with brown sugar and cream. As we ate breakfast and fought, sort of good naturedly  about whose feet were coldest and who was taking up too much room, we would all simultaneously be keeping a weather eye out on the little beach and rocky inlet that was literally at the bottom of their garden for the lobster pot man. He would row out to the pots in a little white wooden boat that we could spot from the bedroom window and it was always a great thrill if you were the one to sight him first. This early obsession with lobster pots has had some impact on me I think! 

Back to The Boat House though:

Fresh produce and flowers are for sale and the way it is all arranged is stunning!

But!!!!  Even better is The Boat Houses' new sibling Armchair Collective, a very short drive from Pirate HQ.   It is in Mona Vale just by the SLSC for anyone interested in popping in (worth it):

Same styling and fresh produce:

Inside there is so much more though:

Am trying to convince husband that we need this lamp (on my side of the bed of course):

Because of this chap that hangs out on the deck at Depot:

A claw foot has been on my wish list forever (still haven't got my way on that one) so I spent ages admiring this one and it's tree of birds (hoping to make evil husband feel guilty):

Anyway, the coffee is excellent and we have now eaten there a few times, everything has been delicious except the burger, husband is a burger connoisseur and he only gave it a 5/10.  He is very burger fussy though so it was probably delicious as well.

As for the renovation.  This is what our house looks like:

And, we are living in it.  Naturally, my dirt monkeys are adoring it, me though.... well, it is time consuming and overwhelming and the reason why I haven't been in here much or had time to catch up with all of you properly.  I don't want to jinx anything by typing into words here so will just say...  hopefully I will have more time to catch up with everyone soon!!! x

Exterior/Street Front Inspiration for Chez Pirate

The renovation is about to begin in earnest and the pressure is on to make some decisions.  For some time I have been photographing houses in our neighborhood and the surrounding suburbs for inspiration and one of my husband's hobbies is to spend hours perusing real estate sites so we have amassed quite a collection of images to inspire us in our latest renovating endeavour!  Currently concentrating on exterior colour, weatherboard style (ie. classic,rusticated etc) and fretwork...

Love the colour of this house (am pretty sure it is the house in the Dulux ad!) and we are also planning to do a similar path of sandstone pavers across the back lawn to the pool.

Closer shot for y'all of the colour!

This house is in my Aunty's neck of the woods and everytime we drive past I swoon!

Another divine weatherboard!

Love the porch light!

This house is even further North at Palm Beach and is truly spectacular.  Image is from Architectural Digest and if you want to see more photos of the interior (divine) see here.

Love the colour of this house as well, in fact I love it so much that I knocked on the door once on my way back from the beach with dripping wet hair and still in my bathers and asked the owner what the colours she had used were.  She was just gorgeous and very kindly shared with me!  (Image originally from Domain.)

Another jewel on the Northern Beaches.  The pirates often play at the playground across the water from this house and I find it very distracting! (Image originally from Domain.)

Here are all the colour samples painted onto the side of the house... we are leaning towards the centre one.  Any thoughts? 

A lazy weekend.

Recently we have been frantically busy.  Partly as we are just about to undertake a fairly major renovation,  (plans approved, builder engaged, organising storage and rearranging bedrooms right now!) and partly due to the Captain starting school and R's business expanding.  So it was a lovely change to have a relatively quiet weekend with only a few comittments to attend... and for the first time in ages we actually managed to capture all four of us behind the lens.  This is such an unusual event that I have posted the photo!  Here we all are, admittedly not the best photo of all of us, but as Jane would say... we're keeping it real people!

Saturday night we went to Hugos Manly for dinner. A truly great local restaurant.  It is in a fantastic location on Manly Wharf and has an amazing colonial/plantation style ambience.  It also manages to simultaneously be both intimate and romantic and yet family friendly!  We have had dinner there on date nights and also pizza early in the evening with kids and it is perfect for both.  Not many restaurants can accomplish this!  Can you tell I love it? 

The view from our table.  Note the bicycle leaning against the railing outside.  Every time I looked at it I thought of Julia and her fantasy bike collection.

This is the dish that we go there for... not the little one's pizza, although the pizza is fantastic, proper crispy thin crust! No, we get cravings for the... Wagyu beef carpaccio with roasted baby beetroot, whipped goat’s curd & balsamic  glaze!!! Delicious! I also recommend the Pimm's cocktail.  As a Pimm's aficionado I often find it undrinkable unless I have mixed it myself.  Hugos gets it right everytime, half ginger ale, half lemonade and just the right amount of fruit to cucumber!  Refreshing, delicious and perfect for a late afternoon or early evening cocktail.

The boys like it there as well. He is spotting fish!

Carmen at Sydney Opera House

Last night, for the first time ever, I went to the Opera... at the Sydney Opera House! 

And... I went with my dearest and oldest friend, (her lovely Ma has a subscription), 

and...

we saw Carmen!

Here we are having a quick champagne beforehand.  That is me on the right and Veronica on the left.

The entire experience was amazing.   Highlights included; listening to the orchestra.  A lovely reminder that music doesn't just come out of a little rectangle.  Hearing Habanera sung so exquisitely, although as a child of the 1970s this image popped into my head during the performance! And in the tavern scene in Act 2, the cast performed a dance similar to the Pasodoble (my only knowledge of which comes from Strictly Ballroom though so I could be wrong) with tambourines that was a visual and orchestral feast for the senses.

Thank you Veronica for a truly wonderful experience.