All The Trees Are Brown...

...but fortunately, the sky isn't grey. Another week has passed down here in 'stralia and we are now definately into the Autumn. Nice warm sunny days but a touch on the cool side in the evening, especially as the houses aren't really geared for keeping you warm! We have a real fire in the living room but as of yet, haven't figured out how to spark it up. Necessity they say is the mother of invention... time will tell. As promised, here's a couple of pics of the neighbourhood in full colour.

The season has also brought out one or two interesting creepy crawlies and itchy things... check out our pet Preying Mantis! He was awesome! If you moved, his beady eyes would follow you. After much deliberation we decided to name him Sir Archibald as he was truly a very statesman like fellow...

We've also booked our weekend away in the Hunter Valley at the end of the month. Yey! Isy's organised it all and all I can remember is we're staying in a log cabin amongst the vineyards and there's an open fire. I mean, what more do I need to know really? It should be great and give us a chance to start mapping out the Sydney surrounds. (At the moment, it feels as it does when you first move to London and all you know is a 200m radius around your tube stop. Imagine that, but Sydney is your tube stop and you'll see what I mean.... The map might as well say 'There be Dragons' 15km around Sydney in all directions.)

Today is Mother's Day so we all headed off to one of the parks for a picnic and a bit of a mess around. My cousin and his family were there with all their kids so it was quite a laugh. Dylan was being his usual adventurous self and wandering off all over the place followed by dad who had to keep going and 'fielding' him. *sigh* The little chatterbox is now repeating lots of what we say and I'm sure he called a truck driver something un-printable the other day. Oops. Amongst many new words, his vocab now includes turtle, beetle, DeeeLan (!), park, digger, and, (this was a proud-dad-moment-of-note)..... beer. He's also very keen on high-fives and handing out the kisses much to everyone's delight!!

Anyway, as I said, it's Mother's Day so I'd better get off this computer and make myself useful. Here's a picture of our little romeo...

Autumn In Oz

Well, I don't remember reading this in the brochure, but apparently, it can get cold and rain in Oz sometimes. Unbelievable. When I say cold of course, I mean it's recently dropped below 20C and the rain amounts to about as wet as you'd get walking through a sprinkler, but all the same... bit of a shocker! I've even started to wear a jacket on my way to work. Nightmare.

Our part of town is quite a leafy suburb and the trees have started turning all the colours of autumn. I'll try and get round to taking some pics if I remember, but the place looks pretty stunning at times - especially in the evening sunshine. I cleared the path to our house (once) and won't be doing it again for a bit as the leaves were covering the place up as fast as I could sweep 'em. My gardening skills also extended as far as watering the back lawn... an hour before it chucked it down. Green fingered me.


Speaking of a bit of the rain, here's a couple of pics of young Mr.D in his rather fetching blue mac at the fair on Anzac day. I can only say it was a bit like having your very own little blue penguin follow you around. Very funny to watch and as usual the young fella made quite a few friends...

He also took a keen interest in the fire truck and loved sitting in the driving seat. Lots of lights and switches to play with but I just managed to grab him just before he let the handbrake off though. Phew.

What else have we been doing? Bought some cutlery. Feeling very posh now we're not eating with plastic forks (The plates are still plastic mind). We're also plugged into broadband which has been a big boost as we can now manage all the boring things like bills etc. more easily and can also check out the local info on things to do and places to go.

Dylan is off to daycare for a few hours this week, just so he (and mum) can get used to it. He starts properly the following week and I'm sure it'll be good for him. Surprising words Dylan can now day include Turtle, Moon, Star, Sore (as in a "Niles Crane" injury to his finger) and he can also hoot like an owl on demand and wave his arm like an elephants trunk. Wicked :-)

Other stuff happening includes us thinking about taking a long weekend up in the Hunter Valley at the end of May. We'll probably try and find a nice cabin or cottage to rent with a log fire and purchase some of the local produce for sampling in the evening. Nothing too hectic you understand.

We've also signed up to get our names down for tickets to see the next Ashes series this November. Unfortunately (for Brits outside Oz) the tickets go onsale to Aussies with a local address first. Seems a bit unfair but hey, when in Rome... (p.s. Anybody interested, email me and I'll see what I can do).

Anyway, thats us. Catch ya next time.