1975....I think

This is one of my favourite photos.  It was taken on holidays at Coolum in Queensland around 1975.  We stayed in a little flat and one day my mum dropped a bottle of milk out of the fridge and it smashed on the floor.  Of course I went over to help clean up, or really just to sticky beak and I stood on a huge piece of broken glass.  I think the nearest place to go to was an ambulance station where they stitched my foot up, I still have a huge scar across the bottom of my foot.

The little Indian dress and head band I'm wearing was made by my mum out of flour sacks.  I think Gabby & I both got them made for Halloween.  I remember Gabby's school class were allowed to come in costumes for the day and I really wanted to go to school dressed up too.  So I did and I was the only one in my class that came dressed up.  I also remember a man at school who was up on a ladder changing light bulbs and he said something about "the Indian's are coming" when I walked past and I felt really embarrassed.

Another thing I remember about that holiday was a kite we had.  It didn't fly very well and needed a tail.  I have vague recollections of my Aunty Desley tying a few bras on to the kite to make a tail.  Funny things we remember.  I'm sure there's more to the story, I just need my rellies to fill in the gaps.

Sam's turn

Well it was Sam's turn for a good game today with no injuries, to him at least.  Lots of fantastic blocks, tackles and big kicks out of the tackles.  That was the first half.......the second half I watched as Sam kind of lost his focus a little as he was chatting to his team mate and at one point seemed to be holding an air machine gun!!  To which he nearly lost his chance of claiming man of the match, but after a little time off the the field he picked up his game and continued to play well and was awarded Man of the Match.  Well done Sam.......sorry no pics still. 

No camera just memories

Our camera is in being fixed at the moment, one of the little prongs or contacts that the memory card plugs into is bent, so the camera doesn't work at all.  I feel very lost not having my second pair of eyes and my second memory to capture our latest activities.  :+(   So to fill in the gaps I'm taking a trip down memory lane.

Here is a photo of my sister Gabby (on the right) and I all dressed up in our party frocks and jiffy shoes to match.  I'm not sure where we were going, a wedding, a bbq, I'm sure someone in the family could help me out.  It's funny because when I look at photos of us when we were little, Gabby is so much like Sam and I think I look like Ethan and Toby.  I love seeing our soft little faces and lovely blonde hair and I love seeing it in my boys today too.  My mum made those dresses with little bags to match, very pretty, alas I have no girls but I'm still happy with my boys.

This photo was taken at the back corner of our house at Kenmore in Brisbane probably around 1972.  I love seeing the old photos and the old neighbourhood where I grew up.  The vacant land out the front is now filled in with houses, I still like to go for a drive around the neighbourhood when I get a chance.

Frolic in the park

Last Friday, for a break from everything, I went on a search for a different egg farm or any free range eggs for sale as I'd run out of eggs.  Donald came along for the drive as he had finished a job and needed to get out of the house.  We ended up driving to Wiseman's Ferry.  It's a nice drive through the outskirts of Sydney along the Old Northern Rd towards the Hawkesbury River.  We stopped and got some  lunch and took it to the park near the ferry crossing.

It's a huge grassed park with play ground and lots of lovely trees.  Most of the trees still had their colourful leaves on much to my delight.  So we had a little play around.  It was rather windy but we still had some fun.

Seeing as there's no snow here we made leaf angels as there were plenty of leaves, you can probably just make out the angels skirt and wings below.

Winter blossoms

When Winter raises its dreary head, the skies are grey with cloud, the leaves have fallen and gardens begin to look a little bare, out pops the beautiful pink camellias.  

These camellias (camellia japonica) are a little different to the camellia's we collect our nectar from (camellia sasanqua's) they have a more full flower and some even have the double flower like this red one.  

Our garden has many of these camellias, when in full blossom there is a carpet of pink petals which I love.  I pick up the heavy flowers that have fallen and put them on our front steps and balcony, it's my way of keeping the beautiful colours around as long as possible.

We have so many different ones dotted around our garden, planted long ago but my favourite is the soft pink one below that has layers and layers of soft pink petals.  

We are very fortunate to be the recipients of such beauty and hard work from previous owners as our garden is always full of suprises.  We also have popping up every year the little white lilly of the valley.  Sorry no pics our camera is in being fixed at the moment but will get a picture on its return. 

Hat trick + 1

Yes he did it again, only this time Ethan managed to get 4 goals in only half the game.  Confused??  Sam's  game was first this morning, we stayed for the whole game and then had to rush over to Ethan's game 25 mins away to arrive just in time for the second half.  Where Ethan was on fire yet again and wanted to make up for not being there in the first half.  Ethan's team won 13 nil.

On the other hand it was a bit of a sad day for Sam.  He seemed to be the bodyline blocker today for his team getting hit by the ball several times.  He finally came off with a bleeding lip as he got hit by the ball full in the face from a powerful kick from the opposition.  He vowed never to play again.  Although at half time, when they were down 8 nil, one of his team mates cheered him up by saying lets get payback for Sam in the second half.  Later in the second half Sam, still with a shaken brain, had recovered enough to go back on, he tried his hardest as a forward with some good tackles and break through kicks.  Sadly his team still went down 13 nil.  

Footrot Flats

When I was younger.......a long time ago in a galaxy far far away......... I used to go to the newsagent and scour the shelves looking for the latest edition of Murray Balls Footrot Flats comics.  My family used to read them in the Courier Mail newspaper everyday and grew to love "the dog".  I still have my collection and love to read through them every now and then to have a good laugh.  I love reading about life on the New Zealand farm where Murray Ball gives such character and expression to all of the animals.....and humans.  He is such a clever artist and writer.

The boys have now been reading them and devouring them.  Even my mum read them all when she stayed with us.  Every spare moment in the last few months, Sam & Ethan have had their noses in the comics, occasionally you'd hear a chuckle, but mostly they would want to share the funny page that they had read, "Mummy look at this one" or "Why does the dog think he's the Scarlet Manuka?"

One day I was getting hot and cranky and Sam asked if I was "on heat", it made me laugh so hard.  If you know of the comics you would know that Jess the bitch is often on heat tantalizing the dog with her long lashes and lazy smile.  The boys are discovering a little more about farm life and the birds and the bees, what better way than with a bit of comedy to bring up the topic.

Sadly the books are out of print and the only way to find them is in second hand book shops or ebay.  I am now addicted to ebay, searching and searching for more of the books.  I've been adding to my collection and it's like my birthday everyweek when a parcel arrives with one of our missing books.  If anyone has Footrot Flats numbers 23 to 27, or Weekenders 5 to 8, we would most happily take them off your hands.  You will be compensated of course :+D

Lemon Meringue Pie

Never before have I attempted a lemon meringue pie, but I was inspired by Debbie's snowball pie a little while ago and have been wanting to try her recipe. 

The pie was a success and we ate it warm from the oven on Monday night.  Part of the success was that the boys didn't like it very much........which meant more for Donald & I.  Sam screwed his face up when he tucked into the lemony bit and wasn't so sure after that. 

It even tasted better the next day cold, in fact I think I preferred it cold and on an empty stomache.

I pretty much followed Debbie's recipe, but used only 1/2 cup of lemon juice and I only had 5 eggs left in the fridge, just enough to make the pie, so my meringue wasn't as high as I'd hoped but it was still plenty to cover the pie anyway.  I did want to make it a snowball pie, maybe next time.

Kids Day

For the past few years we have started a tradition in the Walker household.  Every time mothers day comes around the boys start asking "When's kids day?".  Now my mum and dad's response to that when we asked was always "Kids day is everyday".  I still tell my boys about this, but I also decided to do something about it as well.  I declared that the first public holiday after mothers day (usually the Queens Birthday holiday in June) was to be kids day.  The boys get to wake up to little surprises on the dining room table, they get to choose what they would like for breakfast and pretty much get to play nintendo on and off all day in between other fun stuff.

The lead up to kids day has been a little hazardous, with rain all week and not enough energy being burnt, so last night the crazyness rose to a crescendo where "Kids day" was in threat of being cancelled.  However after the boys were all tucked up in bed and I finally got to relax I softened and brought out the little goodies on the dining room table and left a note for the boys.

They chose soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers for breakfast and the first activity was a light sabre battle outside in between rain showers.  Sam called himself the red ninja, not really sure about Ethan and Toby, I think they were just happy to be attacking the red ninja.

While it rained I cleaned the house (finally) and the boys played nintendo.  Late in the afternoon the boys even managed to get a bike ride in.  They had been wanting to ride their bikes for the last week but the rain stopped that activity as well as me not being able to go out and supervise while trying to get things done inside.

Kids day finished with lasagne and lemon meringue pie, Family home evening and a game of sardines. 

Hat trick

After much rain this week and the majority of soccer fields closed we were suprised to find that Ethan's & Donald's soccer games were still on.  Even though it was a beautiful sunny day Sam's game was cancelled due to the field being too waterlogged.  So we got a little sleep in this morning before heading to Ethan's game.

Ethan was on fire today.  I should probably let Donald tell his proud tale as he was clucking like I've never seen him cluck before. I managed to capture Ethan's first goal today on film.  He made a magnificent run up the field, to finally boot it into the goal with an enormous effort that he almost seemed to fly as you'll see in the third photo.

He went on to score two more goals giving him his hat trick at last.  A couple of weeks ago he was robbed of his third goal by his team mate who stole the ball off him just as he was about to kick it into the goal.  All was forgiven, just a little excitement on his team mates part.

Ethan continued to burn up and down the field with his defence and stopped many opposition goals too.  He certainly deserved the Man of the Match trophy today.

After his game was over, Donald & I were chatting with other parents and we found out that one of the other Under 6 teams that Donald helps train had only 2 players turn up.  Fortunately Ethan and one of his team mates were around and they got to play another game, helping the team to win.  What a day!  On our way home  at 1.12pm Donald gets a phone call..........oops we're late for his game which started at 1.15pm not 3.15 as we'd thought.  Anyway we made it to the end of the first half.

I didn't get to watch much as I was busy ferrying children to and from the toilet.  Donald's team drew nil all.