sing-er-song-of-sixpence

Look at this little sweetheart who has come to live with me!!! And she was way less than a sixpence. She was FREE to a loving home. Well, actually to any home.

She was this () close to being put out in the hard rubbish!

Don't worry you're safe with me, now.

She belonged to my dear friend who, close your ears dear machine,

I can't believe this for a minute, did not want her.

Gasp indeed!

She's not in working order at the moment, but may, in time, be put to rights. Bless her. I'd love to know a little more about her. Anyone know where I can find some more information?

This is the same sort of machine I learned to sew on when I was at Boarding School. First sewing straight lines on newspaper (don't say anything but Flossy didn't graduate past this stage - shh now, she'd be mortified if she knew I'd told - well she reads here from time to time so I guess she'll find out! Hi Floss).

We then moved onto making our science kit bag, much like all the pencil-rolls out in blogland. I wonder where that bag went. And then onto our DS (Domestic Science) aprons.

How quaint and English it all was. It was SO long ago though and I imagine I'm wearing my rose tinted glasses. No it actually was as lovely as an Enid Blyton novel. I did love my old school.

And this one - just to shame my husband into FINISHING THE WALL!! Pleeease. It's been this way for too too long and it's driving me bonkers! I thought if I posted a photo I'd have some evidence to a) show how long it's been left like this and b) to spur him on.

adorable/ad-horrible??

This One!

She looks sweet and much of the time she is. There is also a good proportion of her day, lately, spent not being so sweet.

This One has a scream on her to cause Industrial Deafness. I give you an example of 'feeding time at the zoo' last night. I foolishly dared to touch her spoon and in an instant she reached a note that Mariah Carey has no hope of hitting and did not stop until I gave that spoon right back to her! Naturally Tiggy thought this was hilarious and tested the effect again. I swear my ear-drums shook as she elevated both the note and the duration!

Heaven help you if you actually try to feed her. In one deft move she'll up-end the bowl, fling it to the ground and attempt to hit/scratch/pinch any inch of flesh she can grab hold of.

This One feeds herself now, all the time!

This One will hit her brother. Unbelievably he hasn't retaliated.

This One is so cute when she copies words, ou-t, moh (more), up, nyoh-nai (milk in Mandarin), mama, dada, baba (for Tigs), biiiiii (bye) and hiiiiiii, oddly with a deep Southern drawl. And then suddenly I heard a clear and definite, "No" to any offer. This she started yesterday, it's short and sharp and do not try to repeat whatever it was you just did. I spent some time yesterday trying to teach her "Yes". Didn't work!



This One eats dirt. Any dirt will do, from between the paving, from a pot-plant, doesn't matter to her it all tastes good - apparently.

This One likes toilets! I mean the inside, the flushing water, the rim and yep, even the toilet brush - ugh I feel ill even typing it.

This One is feisty, but still cuddly, lovable and yes, adorable.


This One is mine, she's 13 months now and I love her to bits.

hair today

With the locks Tiggy's been sporting no wonder this is the look he resorted to!

So today with the lure of a video and a chocolate, if he sat still, we went from Rock Dog to Rock Star! And I saved myself $20 to boot.

It really was very long indeed!

No wonder people stop him in the street to tell him he's beautiful.

First the back.

Then the front. Oh my heart melts for this one!

a week?

I can hardly believe it's been a week since I last posted here. I have been feeling blah with horrible sinuses and we did have a lovely busy weekend with friends, but a week? Oh well there's no time like the present.

acers with their brilliant red branches

Last Friday Greg had to return some plants to the wholesale nursery and I tagged along, with poor Woo, who missed her whole morning nap and didn't grumble at all. She's so stoic and forgiving of her impulsive parents. I grabbed the camera as we ran out of the door and took some pics from our happy little outing. I'm so glad I did.

We now have a lovely collection of plants sitting waiting to be planted. A Bay Tree, a Rosemary bush, some succulents to take the place of the violas as they come to the end of their season on the outdoor table and some great drought tolerant ones with purple spikes - the name escapes me!

With Melbourne only having received half of its normal rain intake for September, and sadly this is a recurring monthly pattern, we have to consider the sorts of plants that a) need little water and b) can cope with, potentially, another 46C day. Last year during our terrible heat apart from the tragedy of human loss the non-native and more delicate trees and plants suffered and whole sides of trees in suburban gardens burned, not from fire, but from being cooked by the sun! Extraordinary.

We've bought some fabulous Swamp Fox-tails to go along the driveway. They look ghastly at the moment and in fact part of me thinks the nursery are laughing at us for buying a dozen dead tufts of grass!! The owner initially said that they didn't have any as they are in such rough shape. They've just had a very serious haircut and are not looking their best. Anyway time and a little TLC will sort them out. By Christmas (there I said it!) they should be flowering and looking pretty.
These are not they, but they are beauties!

This is the Swamp Foxtail Grass- Pennisetum Alopecuriodes

here

what a sea of colour
These little ones reminded me of thorny Fly Agaric. You?

here

Now don't let this sweet smile fool you. She's been quite cheeky lately not to mention very 'slugs, snails and puppy-dog tail-ish'. It warrants its own post!

Back soon with more on this subject ...

number 3's

This ad came on my TV the other night.

My jaw dropped and I literally had to check that it wasn't a 'funniest videos' show.

Something about it is SO revolting. Something about it is SO bizarre. Something about it may be very useful to families with new babies.

Something about it eventually makes you laugh (but I still had a weird and slightly distasteful and disbelieving look on my face!).

I think they would go well with Darby's new scented sachets.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Sweetie!

I'm so happy that we have our children and that you are their Daddy. What a special one - our first with both of our precious children. And what a challenging decade or so, to bring them into our lives, but worth it over and over for the joy it brings to me seeing you as the Daddy I always dreamed you'd be. Okay, that makes you out to be perfect, & as we all know perfection is not possible. If only you could handle changing the nappies!!

Tigs was so excited to give Greg the Father's Day presents he made at creche. We've been on a 'sleeps' countdown since Wednesday! I asked him if he'd like to buy something for his Daddy and I received, at once, an aghast and questioning look as he told me, "But I've already made him his present". In a world where acquisition and possessions can become overwhelming I was quietly pleased and proud that he was satisfied without having to make a grand or expensive gesture. I think Greg was perfectly happy too. And the greatest accomplishment of all was that Tigs managed to keep a secret for 4 days!! The first time. My boy's growing up.

Yesterday ...

... was such a glorious day. Until, as is quite usual lately, it stormed and poured in the afternoon.

violas & bulbs

The baby is not feeling well at all. Poor wee one.

So I made her a new hair bow. Isn't it pretty?



And my handsome boy, well he just seems to get more beautiful every time I look at him.

He asked me for a water bottle, "because footy-men need them"!

lavender in the driveway