A Garden Swing

Ever since childhood I have had a hankering for a swing in the garden. As a child living in India I was kindly given a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. My imagination was promptly inspired by this lovely verse:


The Swing

How do you like to go up in a Swing?
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

As soon as we saw the garden at this house, R and I both knew that this was going to be our next home. We were so enamoured with the house and the garden that we actually made an offer to the agent at that first open house and had it accepted the following day! Thank you to my lovely dad for making me the swing and to my wonderful husband for risking his life to get it into the tree! Two wonderful Fathers! Happy Father's Day to all!

This child...

Every night before I go to sleep I go and check on my sleeping babies. The slightly damp curls and the soft peacefulness of their faces and breathing normally generates surges of love that overwhelm. Often I even feel guilty for whatever punishments have been actioned during the course of the day. Last night at the bedtime check I found him like this:

Yes. Completely. Naked. Apart from his muslin blankie that he had somehow managed to artfully drape in order to preserve dignity. Oh he looks like an angel, but the mischief of this child!

Street Shopping

I adore Council Clean Up! Truly someone else's trash is often my treasure! I know how much my street scavenging irritates my husband though, so in the car as we make our way through a neighbourhood that is having Council Clean Up, I very discreetly move my eyes over the piles of inviting treasure rubbish until I spot something that has potential. I am then forced to abandon reserve and screech "STOP THE CAR!!!" at my husband. A mad dash follows, incase one of the dodgy old men in trucks gets to the must-have item before I do. Then there is either joy (from me) as I lug the item back to the car and insist we take it home and excessive eye rolling (from husband) as he futilely attempts to prevent me from taking my treasure home! Or there is disappointment (from me) when I approach the item and discover it is damaged beyond repair or not actually what I thought it was, and annoying smug looks (from husband) as he is delighted that the item truly was rubbish. As much as my love for Street Shopping annoys my husband, he is forced to admit that I have found some gems over the years and this is my most recent wonderful find:

I love it!

NB. Please disregard ugly 1980s fabric on the cane lounges. These are yet to be re-upholstered and I have decided to wait until after we finish renovating to have them done. Researching outdoor fabrics in the meantime though!

The SNOW!

We have just got back from 4 days away! Best snow that I have seen in NSW since I was a little tacker learning to ski and I can't begin to describe how adorable the Captain looked rugged up like the Michelin man and snow ploughing (or pizza slicing as he called it) with his mates in ski school. Too divine!

Conversations with the Captain...

This child, amuses and exasperates me simultaneously!!!

Driving home after dropping his Father at work:

Captain: Can I have car lessons?

Me: What do you mean? (Distracted and concentrating on annoying Sydney peak hour traffic)

Captain: You know, to drive the car.

Me: Driving lessons? What! No, certainly not! Not until you are 16 and 9 months.

Captain: Why?

Me: Because the people that make the decisions about who drives cars and when have decided that that is the safest time to learn how to drive.

Captain: How many years until I am 16 and 9 months?

Me: Umm, a lot of them.

Captain: Can I have two birthdays this year?

Me: What? No!

Captain: But then I can go in the Tour de France sooner and learn to drive cars!

Project Organise (also known as Operation get son to school on time!)

Look what I found to store all my cleaning products in!!! (Yes, I made sure to thoroughly sterilise it first!) I have been looking for a container to put all the cleaning items in for a while now and was thrilled with this find! I loathe plastic, (particularly in relation to storage), and so when I came across this lovely old chamber pot at our local antique shop it had to come home with me as a housekeepers pot!


And yes... that is a flatscreen stuck to my back deck window.... my husband is trialling sticky tapes for a project he is doing for a big fast-food chain. He figured if the sticky tape could survive the rigours of small children it would be fine in the drive through window!

Missing the daffodils and jonquils of cooler climates.

Despite no gorgeous cool climate spring bulbs, the garden still looks spectacular. Kangaroo Paw have been flowering all winter, including this beauty called Bush Pizzazz.

White irises are popping up everywhere and look like dainty little ballerinas amongst all the natives in our garden. I suspect that these are equally as hardy though!

We are just about to make a big investment in some Grass Trees, fingers and toes crossed that they transplant successfully! Anyone have any tips?