Lake Hume fishing

 A lovely sunny Anzac day and Dave took Grace and George to the lake for some fishing, I joined a little later with Matilda.  A few fish caught, lots of tree climbing, sandcastles making, running, splashing, George even went in up to his knees, brave boy it was very cold.  Great to see so many people around the lake camping, fishing, picnicking, chilling out................

 Grace practicing her 'casting out' and explaining her technique to George...

 Matilda keeping a close watch on the fishing activities.....

 George caught a redfin (perch) on his rod

Hope you've all had a lovely easter xx

Matilda movie

Movie of some little noises from Matilda..

Park Trip

Some lovely sunny days this week led us to the park, here we are at Willow Park....

Productive weekend in the garden

 We (that's Dave working, me supplying tea) have removed 5 tired old conifers from this side of the front yard and replaced them with soon to be productive olive trees, one olive tree was planted last year and you can see that one next to the gate, there are five small ones in a row and eventually we will remove that ceramic pot and put another olive tree in that space there.

 Our wonderful tulip tree, the leaves are slowly starting to turn yellow, it provides much shade to the house and the kids love to play in its branches. And theres always birds and parrots singing in it. And in the spring it has beautiful yellow tulip flowers all the way to the top branches.

 One of the swings Grace has made in the tree...

 A new barrel planted with a yellow 'Excel' fig, we've had such a good crop from the other two figs in the barrels we couldn't resist another, and maybe would like another one too.....

 Looking a bit bare at the moment but this is the area that we removed two apple trees and a pear  tree that we had very poor crops from as the coddling moth and fruit fly are a real problem in this area.  So they came out and we (again more tea supplied to keep Dave chopping, sawing and digging) have planted so far two citrus trees the far one is a blood orange and the near one is a 'Honey Murcott" mandarin, which is a late fruiting mandarin to follow our mandarin in a barrel which is 'Imperial' full of fruit at the moment, and in another border we have a young 'Emporer' Mandarin.

Have also planted Kale and pok choy in the brasica veggie bed they're not very impressive at the moment so will take pics when they have grown a little bit more.  Weather forecast is fine for the next few days so there will be a few trips out to the park, walking and bike rides over the week with the kids on school holiday.  I am officially the queen of the lego building in our home, it can get quite addictive building the lego star wars ships. And finally a view across the hills from our bedroom window, clear blue Autumn skies, perfect for a weekend in the garden.

Olive pickings

 Our first harvest of olives from 5 olive trees we're using the salting method of preserving them, hopefully they will taste as good as they look.

Look closely and you will see a pumpkin growing in the dogwood tree, the vines got everywhere and the 'pumpkin tree' is a bit of a novelty with the kids and their friends, some of the vines must be 4 meters in length, the pumpkins we have picked so far have been really sweet with lots of orange flesh, and heavy!

This veggie bed planted up with brasicas, cabbage and two types of broccoli.

Matilda 11 weeks old

We've lost a few pics along the way in between the old computer giving up on us and trying to set up the new one, still a few teething problems, or more honestly our ignorance of new technology!, funny how you get stuck with what you know, windows comps have changed quite a lot since we last used one, anyhow we will get there, slowly.

Now for some pics of Matilda, shes weighing around 11lbs, that was over a week ago so probably a bit more now, shes really alert her big blue eyes following us around now, little noises that she makes that surprise her so she laughs and smiles at herself. Her arms and legs move none stop when shes sat.  Shes just got over a little cold that made her all snuffly and bunged up, more excuses not to put her down and to have lots of lovely cuddles.  Everyone adores her shes a real crowd puller when we go to see the neighbors other neighbors come out to see her!

What a cutie pie...