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?

Lamingtons and the Garbage Truck

This morning we made Lamingtons. It was a first for all of us. I have a very clear memory of watching a lamington drive as a little girl. I watched mesmerised as a group of familiar mums worked at unfamiliar speed in a factory line baking what seemed to be enough lamingtons to feed the population of a country town or in this case a school fete.


There is a reason why people do it in drives... it is quite a messy and fiddly exercise. However, for two tactile little boys... they loved it.

CWA standard they definitely were not! Nevertheless, we had fun and I even had 5 minutes peace and quiet to enjoy mine with a coffee whilst they were busy eating theirs!

Sadly said peace and quiet was suprisingly short lived. Today is garbage day and, as is a long standing tradition, the boys kept an ear out for the noise of the truck winding it's way up our street. As soon as they can hear it they both race out of the house, screeching like banshees "garbage truck, garbage truck" and then stand at the top of our driveway in relatively quiet anticipation. Normally, the driver waves at them and he and I exchange a "boys will be boys with their obsessions with large machines" glance and then he continues on his way around the neighbourhood. Today was different though... maybe he smelt the lamingtons baking? He stopped and asked if the boys wanted to have a sit in the cab?

They loved it... he let them press the buttons, move the seats up and down, and the highlight of the experience was a demonstration of the bin collecting arm grabbing our recycling bin off the nature strip and "emptying" it several times!

That driver made their day with this small act of kindness!

Seriously... my parents actually were awesome!

I love this site, there is something very special about it. In particular, the reminder that lives were lived before children. Every photo that I have of my husband and I (pre-boys) I have examined closely, wondering if one day it will be selected to be uploaded!



Here are my parents... looking young and fabulous on holidays in PNG (I think?)!






Another photo of my mother (and baby me!) looking glamourous. We were on posting in Cambodia then and I have to remind myself that she had servants, and thus had the time and energy to look glamourous in every photograph!

Home organisation Chez Pirate

As this little guy starts school next year and we are about to renovate our house, I spent this weekend thinking about what I needed to do to get as organised as possible. Currently the Captain goes to pre-school 2 days a week and I rarely drop him off before 9.30am, next year he has to be at school at 8.30am... clearly, our morning routine needs a bit of streamlining! So whilst child in question lay around reading Tintin comics, I set to work and began a major overhaul inside the house.





I am trying to work out the best place to store art and craft items. I had lots of jars and bits and pieces in various spot so I collated all items used daily into a vintage (literally) harvest basket! I will pull it out whenever they need something and hopefully they will pop whatever is used straight back in, which will make for quick and easy clean up! Positive thinking people!!!


Recently our hall stand has gathered bags of items I have been planning to pass on and just have never got around to doing. As part of "Operation get the Captain to school on time" I decided to deal with it all immediately. The cloth nappies have found a home with a friend who is planning to use cloth on her new little one and the books are off to South Africa with a flight attendant friend who will pass them onto the "Our Kid Project" a charity that supports children with HIV/AIDS.

Look at my hallstand now! Hooray!!! Further tales from "Operation get child to school on time" to follow. In the meantime, if anyone has any brilliant ideas about how to get small children ready quickly in the morning I would welcome any tips or suggestions!

Nicasso and the Avant-Garde art movement

Captain Nicasso has entered his Cubism phase, aged 4 years! He has spent roughly a week creating this and is so proud of it that he took it to pre-school with him this morning for show and tell. R and I are very pleased that the realism phase seems to be over and can only hope that there is no further disgracing of the family at Pre-School.

Ping Karrots and Bumbaids...

My little one just turned 2... and I am heartbroken! The baby years are over... he is thinning out everywhere and I miss those rubberband wrists and baby legs. He is playing actively with his brother rather than just following him around (this is good I know). Most of all I miss his baby language. He used to mispronounce so many words in the most adorable ways, my favourites would have to be bumbaids (bandaids) and Ping Karrots (King Parrots). Happy Birthday my gentle little one!

His birthday present? A teepee with the most divine cowboy print!

The school holidays so far...

We have had a fairly quiet holiday. R (husband/dad) has started up his own business so we don't anticipate travelling anywhere anytime soon. Instead we have had lots of play dates and pottered about at home.

The pond yachts in these photos are family heirlooms! We were in London in the early 1980s on a family holiday and my father bought them for me and my brother at the most extraordinary and amazing toy shop...Hamleys! It was basically a toy department store, I think there were 7 different floors of toys. I can't remember what else we bought but these little pond yachts have lasted well and are now close to 30 years old! The boys have been playing with them in our almost empty pool (it is about to be resurfaced) every day.

The Captain is growing up so quickly. We have completed his school enrolment for next year. It hardly seems to be possible that he could be heading off to big school in six months time! We have chosen a very small (120 students in K - 6), slightly alternative private school that I am confident is perfect for him. They teach meditation (perfect for his somewhat volatile temper!) and provide a hot lunch (hooray no school lunches to pack and ideal for his endless appetite!) and teach classical languages and literature! The whole school even performs in an annual Shakespeare festival, including the lower first , as they call kinder! So looking forward to that!

To assist with entertaining the boys these holidays, R built the boys a fabulous sand pit. In the centre of which is a lovely old wooden row boat that was destined for the tip. It now has a new life as a pirate ship, police boat, naval aircraft carrier, submarine and even occasionally fills in for the Manly ferry! We have all sorts of sand pit toys and endless trucks but the Captain's favourite sand pit toy? Some old wood off cuts that we made into a wooden version of the northern beaches!

Ah yes, Manly Hospital... been there a few times with my rascally boys!