photo friday challenge {blurry/oof}

 

It's Carly's photo friday challenge. 

This week's theme is 'blurry/oof' (out of focus).  

This photo of little Woo was taken some time ago, but I love it and was waiting for a chance to use it. Now seems perfect!  It was while we were away at our friend's farm (which happens to be around the corner from my sister's new farm - much to our excitement).

 

We took the children for a lovely walk and as you can clearly (sorry, blurrily) see it had been raining.  The muddy puddles were full to the brim.  Three out of four children stepped in the puddles right up to their middles - and ultimately lay down in them to get fully soaked!! They stomped and splashed and splattered all over the place, squealing with delight.

The fourth, you may have guessed was Tigs, who laughed like billy-o and remained pristine, and more importantly warm.  As you can imagine the smiles on three faces were somewhat less visible, although they did remain remarkably chipper, as they trudged back up the hill, sodden, cold and very, very dirty.

And so as I stood with Tigs on the grassy verge shooting this image, I roared with laughter, my darling friend Lizzie, lay curled on the verge beside me head in hands, hysterical at the sheer madness of it all and with joy at the fun our children had. There was absolutely no chance of stopping them once they started.

Note: I missed the cut-off for last week's photo friday challenge but I still managed to get around to blogging it (in the previous post) if you're interested. I also realise that, technically, I've probably goofed the game up but hey-ho, I just had to share the whole story.

Thanks for visiting,

E x

10 on 10 [loch sport]

 heading out at the start of the day

 me and my boy

 me and my man!

 ours...

 ... alone!

 freedom

 summer toes and lazy days

 sand kissed

 safe - if Daddy's there

tired and happy - the end of the day

A few weeks ago we had a magical trip away to beautiful Toora in Gippsland.  It has to be one of the most lovely areas of Victoria.  Green and lush and with such wildly varied landscapes,  beach, flatlands, rolling hills and dense forests.  So beautiful.  We stayed with out lovely friends and although Tigs and I were pretty unwell for 24 hours we had a ball.  Babies played in drawers.  Big boys, bush-bashed, which is an Australian term for rambling through the bushland searching for interesting 'things'.

The tiny town of Toora even manages to have a skate ramp.  I  love that directly over the road is farm sheds and acres of land.

The locals have created a lovely dry river bed and the children made their own fun here for some time while the grown ups relaxed or took pics!

These two have a deepening love for one another.  They can be terribly 'three' at times but also kind and gentle and fun loving.  I love that as their language increases they have sweet little conversations with each other.

When we're out Tigs usually finds a stick.  I know a lot of people don't like children playing with sticks but something about it reminds me of my Daddy who when we were out always looked for suitable thumbstick.

I'm sure Tigs and Daddy would have loved this kind of time together.  In some ways so different and others so alike.

Back up at the 'farm'.  Love that the old truck has found such a beautiful resting place. 

And oh, the views are just breath taking.

I hope your outlook is as wonderful today too!

E x



merricks

On the first weekend of the school holidays we packed up and headed down to beautiful Merricks.  You may already know just how much I love it on the Peninsula.

We camped with a wonderful group of friends.  Well it's not really camping - not quite my style - more glamping, which made it much more comfortable.  We all share a common thread in that we were all made families through intercountry adoption.  What a happy, blessed and grateful bunch we are.  I just love having all the children together. They see each other too infrequently these days as the Big Boys, who brought us all together, are now at school.  

I barely saw my babies as they ran and played for two days straight.

Woo with her best buddy, JoJo.

 Just before we left I managed to have a little walk on my own with Tigs and Woo.  He was so protective of her on the little pier and really thought she'd jump on in - which in truth she may well have done! 

Love the warrior spear, Tigs.

Woo discovered the joy of the monkey bars - it was hard to get her off actually :)

As we prepared to head for home Tigs became quite overcome with emotion that the trip was over and that his friends were gone again.  So we decided to head to Flinders for a quick walk on the beach and a milkshake.  In a case of splendid serendipity, as it turned out.

As we headed down the steps I noticed a familiar scene.  In fact, it was as if a photograph suddenly came to life.   I whispered to Greg that the three figures on the beach seemed so familiar to me for some reason.  Then I realised I'd just spotted Kristi, from giggles down under, heading past me up the stairs and her lovely boys out on the rocks, where we were heading.  Kristi takes the most beautiful photographs and has such a gentle way about her (as I discovered in person too) - I think you'd love to visit her blog ;) 

Anyway, I know for sure that I've reached a "certain age" as I didn't think twice before introducing myself to her very sweet husband, who may well have thought me completely mad!  We all had a very cold and blustery chat, where I know I talked too much and far too over excitedly.  But hey-ho, I've officially reached 'that' age, haven't I? 

What I didn't know was that poor Woo, apart from being completely ravenous, was actually coming down with some horrible bug, that is still haunting her tiny body.  And Tigs was just plain over-exhausted.

Anyway, I wish I'd taken a pic of the crazy scene. 

Especially, Kristi's gorgeous little boys and Tigs all in their matching BOAT tops. 

Blogging is great for a whole host of reasons but our chance meeting made me realise that it can be even more surprising than I ever imagined. 

May this week bring you something unexpectedly nice - and thanks for popping by.

E x

dig a hole

We had more than our fair share of drizzly cold days while we were away.  There is only so long you can either entertain children or ignore their whining.

I read Enid Blyton books over and again when I was little. 

In most there is some reference to Mummie sending the children into the garden.  In one I recall the children telling "Mummie" that it was raining and asking if they could come indoors now.  "Presently, my dears.  Put on your Macintosh coats and Wellington boots and Nanny will call you in later for Tea".  The children happily skipped off in the rain and not another word was said. 

No, "But that's not fair", or "I don't like the rain", or "It's cold" to be heard.

So by the second week I completely gave up and ordered my children O.U.T!   Delighted, they were!    They were instructed to, "Dig a hole!".

'See Tigs dig. Tigs digs a big, deep hole'.

'Oh, no Tigs lost his boot in the big, deep hole'!

As ever Woo has to keep up.

The second she saw Tigs lose his boot hers was royally kicked off and up she got to plunge her delicate little toes into the oozy, gooey mud.  She's wacky!

I popped back inside for a while and enjoyed the squeals of delight outside.  Mmmm.  Can you see that syrupy sludge dripping down my baby's forehead?  Courtesy of her charming brother. 

And so on yet another glorious, wintry, drizzle-filled country day my babies played and played and were bathed, dried before a roaring fire and slipped into fresh warm 'jammies by 2pm!

I hope the sun is shining wherever you may be.

Thanks for coming over today,

E x

cold and frosty morning

A day too beautiful to waste and not to share.

We decided to keep out of the way of Sonia as she tried to clean up after us - no mean feat.  Woo in particular has the ability to undo faster than anyone, or even a team of housekeepers, can redo!

The last of the fog rolling away and a big ol' jet airliner roared out from within it.

I often forget this view of the property but actually it's very beautiful, not as broad a perspective as my usually favorite view but stunning actually.  I love the hills folding across each other, like origami.

The fog may have lifted over us but their was frost to be melted first.  The pups helped by racing like mad things across it in zig-zags following the bunny tracks.

I love how we've only just arrived at the bottom here and Woo is saturated.

The back of the dam up to the top.  I love every square inch.

I have a grand idea for hosting a summer party down here.  Hay bales, a banjo player for the first couple of hours and a crooner with a guitar for dusk on singing Pete Murray songs that we can all join in with - actually Pete Murray himself would be better!  I picture big old dressers laden with food and pitchers of cool homemade lemonade.  An old reliable tractor to ferry guests dressed in their finest cotton summer dresses and sandals.  Sunhats for everyone,  big floppy ones for the girls and debonair fedora-style straw hats or even cool straw cowboy hats for everyone.  I'll think about that part a little more.

There will be paper pompoms hanging from the bottom of that big old tree and lanterns lining the way from the tree to the house.  It would be so beautiful.  I'll be sure to let you know the date - bit don't hold your breath.  Dreams can be big you know.

Magic dew drops.

Boy and Dog.  I just love this image.

Rocker!  Actually he was explaining something to me.

Proper bush-bashing and brotherly help.  Look how filthy she was by this stage.  Only Woo.  Tigs is still relatively clean.

Shouldn't every child be able to run free and happy and uninhibited?

Miss Mimic doesn't want to miss out.

Dear old ancient Pippy having a ladylike paddle - a rare treat for her.

Ambushed!  Those beastly pups stalked her for some way around the dam and then ATTACK!

The morning was so perfect that even the dratted thistles looked glorious.

And as we sang our usual Grand Ol' Duke of York up the hill Tigs, with his grandfather's supervision began noticing these adorable little webs. 

No bigger than a 50c coin. 

I'm sure they were actually fairy sheets hanging out to dry.