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...