Rain, rain and more rain.

We have been feeling for the flood victims on the mainland, amazed at how suddenly people's lives were changed, the damage done to the land and the way people came together as a community offering support with money and deeds. Sometimes the worst situations bring out the best character.

Over the weekend we had our own little taster of flooding, just a wee taster but enough for us. We had water over the floor in two rooms but managed to contain it with constant mopping from 7:30am until about 9pm. The flow had stopped before my 2am mopping shift.

The girls were a great help in mopping up without complaint. One wonderful neighbour spent much of the day digging out side trying to stop the flow into the house and inside mopping. He was soaked though all day just helping us. We are so blessed with the neighbours we have. We are surround by wonderful neighbours.
Railton was struck pretty badly with many houses and businesses flooded.
Josh spent the morning after our clean up in Railton with Tim digging out gutters and drains. He enjoyed his work and the ice-cream one business owner gave him! By lunch he was ready to leave Tim and the others to the task. There is still much work to be done.

A visit to Tasmazia.

Yesterday the children requested an outing to Tasmazia So we very quickly packed a picnic and headed out. We also packed books, thinking we might get a chance to read while the children played in the mazes. The books were not opened as we spent so much time lost in the mazes!



The children loved Cubby Town, running off to explore each house, dashing quickly from one to another and back again.

We had planned a picnic at the 'Three Bears House' but what fun trying to find it! The great maze trapped us until the children were hot and sweaty and the mothers we well ready for a lunch break.

I found this little boy smelling the daisies. He had a lovely time and selected his own house from amongst those along 'The Yellow Brick Road'.


Of course the fairy house found a fan too. The lavender was so lovely not fully open, just looking delicate.





Rain threatened while the children played on the balance maze and bought an end to our outing.

To England and Bangkok and Back again.

I had a fantastic trip with my older girls and little Thomas. The girls were great travel companions, we had so much fun! We all love markets and food and lovely accents and well we pretty much loved everything. We'd love to go back again but I don't suppose we'll ever all travel so far together again.

We just loved exploring the history, it's just so amazing for us to visit such old sites. We did an audio tour of this castle, I could have spent hours there, it was just so interesting and amazing to hear how different historical figures lives fitted together.
We had a great time is Windsor, again we would have liked more time based here to explore both Windsor and to take day trips to other places of interest to us.
Niels Yard, I loved it 20 years ago and loved it again this trip. I think the girls loved it as much as I did, it was so nice to share those special places and experiences with them.
Borough Market was smaller than I expected but great to see, especially the chocolate shop!
In Bangkok we had a mixed experience staying here at the lovely Windsor Suite Hotel with it's air-conditioning and having one night in the slum at Klong Toey.
We had a Thai cooking class in Klong Toey and this was part of our wonderful meal. Before the class we were taken to the market to buy our ingredients, that was quiet an experience! Rather different to Borough Market!!
There were many interesting creatures for sale, fortunately we didn't buy any of them.

We didn't get photos of the live toads tied together with rubber bands, or the turtles scurrying about in buckets, or the fish parts fermenting about the place

Out of all the wonderful places we visited Iffley was our favourite and we'd love to house swap with someone for a time.
WE walked down this road to the Thames which has a walking path running beside it, it would have been so lovely to take this path into Oxford but again we didn't have time.
This is part of that walk we did manage walk. When we find someone willing to house swap with us we'll be able to walk the path when ever we want. In our dreams.

Daffodils!

Every year we look forward to a wonderful flush of yellow in the paddock as the daffodils burst into flower. They were flowering like this when we first bought the house and the children thought it was so wonderful to be able to play amongst such beauty.
They also very quickly realised other people would enjoy the beautiful blooms too and so they began their first business, selling huge bunches of yellow daffodils.

There is a lot of excitement at the prospect of making some pocket money but I think most of all they simply delight in the abundance of the wonderful yellow daffodils. Aren't the colours great? I love the vivid yellow against the vivid green with the blue mountains in the background.

Geocaching

It's been so wet and cold lately. One sunny day we decided to head back through these hills geocaching. It's feeling a bit like treasure hunting. The children and their Daddy love it.
This little one enjoyed his trip in the car but it was so cold outside I left kept him in the car most of the time.
Isn't that lovely what a little mother she is! (I can imagine her Mummy smile down on this picture.) And he loves being fussed over.
So where are we then? This was a truly stunning lookout, sorry no photos of the view though.

The first cache we found, it was just so wind blown here, icy cold as you can see from the way they are huddled with hands in pockets.


All eyes are on the prize, what is it? They don't really mind, the excitement was in the adventure of the hunt. And I guess the shared goal.

Sourdough Bread

I've wanted to try to make a ciabatta style sourdough bread for a while but couldn't get my head around working with such wet dough. Finally I just jumped in and did it. Not nearly as difficult or as messy as i expected. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The dough was soft and had a great flavour. Serena made some more of her wonderful dukkah to go with it, perfect.
This is the whole wheat style I have been making most days. I'm experimenting with wetter doughs like the books I've been reading say to use. The results are good in flavour and texture but I'm not happy with the crust of the free form loaves. Too rough. I definitely have plenty of learning to do but it's fun learning. I was able to cook some loaves in the neighbours new wood fired pizza oven this week. That was fun. The bread turned out great, the tinned loaves we're a little dark on the top and I excepted them to be under done in the middle but no, they we fine. The Turkish style breads were great. And the smell was wonderful. Maybe one day we might have our own pizza oven ...maybe. Surely much better than a solar oven in Tasmania.

And Then She Was Eight.

Such perfect weather for a birthday! Lots of blue sky and sunshine. By midday it was a balmy 10 degrees. The birthday girl had lots of fun with her little friends including her birthday buddy. How special it is to share your birthday with your friend.
Putting the neighbours paddock to good use. A game of soccer was played and lots of running done.
A picnic lunch and a surprise visit from her much adored big brother a visit to wish her a happy birthday.
Look at those beautiful birthday crowns, so special, to be treasured.
This aunty was a gem, how would we have managed without her. What a wonderful aunty she is.
Her most special birthday gift, this cocktail. It's bringing her so much joy. Yes it has been in some scrapes and lost some feathers but we are sure they will regrow in a few weeks. We were so amazed at how quiet this little bird is, it's perfectly secure on Gracey's shoulder and doesn't she love that! A perfect day for a perfectly beautiful little girl.