Wishing you friendship and joy for 2012

photograph by Candice Herne 2011

Joy in the garden

The weather here is superb! I have been spending hours in the garden picking flowers and making arrangements and giving them away! All the Camellia's are in full bloom which makes for a magical sight! Suki turned 3 and we  have been fighting Flu's.

Open air photographic studio set up for 2nd Birthday Party on the Murray River

 Happy Birthday to my darling daughter Suki who turned 2 yesterday. We had a little party on the Murray River as we are currently camped 8kms outside of Echuca, Victoria. We had a fun day, playing freeze, ate way too much junk food and set up an outdoor photographic studio and took some pictures of the momentous occasion.

Autumn is beauty

Tasmania and Rhody and Suki in a Victorian Yarra Valley vineyards

Tasmania and our Yarra Valley Cousins, Jackson, Gemma the dog Lauchlan and Matilda

Benny the dog,  raking autumn leaves and a Yarra Valley Vineyard

Tasmania

Feeling the Flow

Suki 19 months Yarrongabilly Caves Village Camp. Koscioszko National park

I feel as though we have just really begun our trip. We all have become familiar with our caravan and each other- sounds a bit strange, but true, as we all have never spent this much time together. The last time Rod and I spent this much time together was travelling overseas 1995-1998. We are no longer having daily battles with gadgets, inverters, tiny and little space, batteries, technology and personal space. We installed a solar panel, which has improved our power supply by 100% and we no longer have to constantly monitor our power output, unless we have many consecutive days of cloud cover/rain.

We have formed a packing and unpacking routine which works smoothly and we have all relaxed and surrendered,'it is what it is' the children adjusted very quickly with Mummy and Daddy especially Mummy lagging behind. Rod even went fishing tonight. This speaks volumes to me as he has never liked to fish, to boring, maybe if I had three lines going at once, he says. Me on the other hand, I love to fish.

We are currently travelling through Tasmania, north west of Hobart. We had contemplated moving here a few years ago, however decided to stay in Queensland. We have only been here 9 days and I am already in-love. Such beautiful country. I'm surprised how beautiful it is considering how dry it is. There are fields, hills and farms of golden grass, that run straight into the blue ocean, small seaside villages that could have come straight out of England. Beaches laden with driftwood; our minds are running wild imagining a house made of driftwood. Can't you just picture it. Superb! You can take the driftwood off the beach here at Arthur River as the beach is thick with it. Huge logs everywhere. Rod and I have even discussed how to get it off the beach with a 4WD truck and crane and even discussed how to cut it to get the best look on the outside. If you cut a straight edge on each side and have the natural side showing.

Arthur River Beach

There are huge oysters to eat and sweet Australian Salmon. Cool most of the year, and Melbourne a short flight away. Sounds enticing. Maybe?

Now I know why people paint landscapes

We took the chair lift up to the top of Thredbo slopes today, to do a 6km walk to Mt Koscioszko, Lookout. Hopefully I will be able to spell Koscioszko after these posts. I've spelt it different everytime I have typed it. After a few tantrums the children finally relaxed and enjoyed the walk up. The landscape of these mountains is so beautiful I wish I could capture just how stunning it really is. Streams, and wildflowers everywhere. Their are 24 different species of plants that are not found anywhere in the world. I could imagine this would be a landscape gardeners paradise very inspiring, the landscape itself has many mini landscapes in itself perfect for the back garden. Large rocks and boulders with flowering ground covers squeezed into the perfect spaces. The ground covers species must be abundant their is so many beautiful varieties. And the bonus a patch of snow to play in. This is the first time the children have seen snow, very exciting. I'm loving the snowy Mountains. I want to paint fields of wildflowers.
p.s. Rod wants me to let everyone know that the first photo is by him and it is copywrited, ha!

Happy 1st Birthday Suki June

Fairy Light

Dancing-Tess and Suki

Cousins -Jessma and Suki

Hyper- the Nash boys Jack, Rhody, Will and Adam

Aunty Jenny

Party Princess

My goodness our little darling is 1. I planned a last minute family birthday party for the special day. It was so easy for her 1st birthday to just slip by and merge in with daily life, with out giving it another thought. 2nd child syndrome. I really had to make an effort. I'm glad I did. When I started with the pink thing (something I swear I wouldn't do) that was it Pink took over, along with the pink fairy, meringue dress my Aunty Glynis bought Suki on her birth. I was looking for a special occassion to dress her up. Her first birthday ws the perfect occassion. What fun we all had.

Look what the Easter Bunny Cooked Up

Hope you all had a happier Easter than I did. We went camping to a new spot recommended through a friend of a friend. Not far from Nanango. Supossibly 1.5 hours away from home 2.5 hours later we arrive to a dried up old creek bed with it's banks covered in prickels. I held my breath daring myself not to utter a word. Where was Suki supposed to roam? To think we contemplated not even taking the port-a-cot. I think I must have manifested illness through my private anger. We came home a day early as I caught a diarohhea virus. Much to our friend Rob's suprise, I wasn't prepared to tough it out with my butt down the stinky dugg out toilet as the smell was pushing it all to come out the other end as well. Things are looking brighter, today.

Shirtskirt

Rod (my husband) was dressing baby Suki.

Rod: Rhody please pass me Suki's shirt
Rhody: There's no shirt here Daddy. Only a 'shirtskirt'.

*Shirtskirt: A shirt with a frill at the bottom (Rhody, Age 3)

I remember wearing skirt-shorts as a kid but I've never heard of the 'Shirtskirt'. Have you?