Artist in residence

Admittedly there's an element of proud parent goggles here, but below you will be able to enjoy the following delights from the pen of an emerging genius...
- Bird with blue wing
- Thea pushing Peter in a wheel barrow
- Woman with child
- My family




Not quite sure who the mystery 5th person is.

Ocean Groove

The second weekend in June was the Australian official bank holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday. Happy Birthday your Maj! (When we come back to UK I'll be agitating for an introduction of a similar paid day off so we can all have a slice of cake and raise a glass to HRH togther.) We were invited by our friends Raechel and Richard to go and stay at Raechel's parents' house which is at a gorgeous place called Ocean Grove down on the Bellarine Peninsula, about an hour and a half's drive from Melbourne. Although it was a bit chilly, the weather was mainly sunny and we had a really relaxing time. There was a lot of going out for breakfast. The kids watched wall to wall Pingu!

Thea was confused about being on a beach in the sunshine and not being allowed to go swimming. She threw a wobbly when Will wouldn't let her go in, so he negotiated that they would go and put their hands in the sea and if it was warm enough he would let her take her shoes off and paddle. Of course, she put her mits in the icy water and declared it warm enough, stripped down to her Dora pants and gallivanted around. We got strange looks from all the Aussies who had their kids wrapped up in fleeces. She did some lovely drawings on the sand, including one with seaweed hair.

On the Saturday we took a ride on a little steam train that chugs up and down the coast. It was really beautiful. The kids loved it and the parents found the rhythmic motion slightly sleep inducing. Shame it was only for 45 mins!

Dulcie's second tooth has now come through the gum and she's also experimenting with pre-crawling moves. Instead of sitting up happily amusing herself all the time, she tries to lean forward onto her hands and ends up splatted on her tummy, unable to do anything. Whinging swiftly follows. Thank goodness she has also started sleeping a bit later in the morning. We had been getting a bit sick of 6am starts but introducing a bottle before she goes to bed seems to do the trick most days.

Winter's coming

It's definitely getting colder. We need the radiators on each day now, and when the heating went wrong on Friday night we certainly felt it. We had to leave our babysitter at home with a hot water bottle! Fortunately the letting agancy were very good and a man came to sort it out on Saturday morning. The problem: the thermostat batteries had died. Which begs the question, why have a thermostat that's not connected to the mains??

We've had a few good evenings out. We found a cool cinema down in St Kilda that's still as it was in the 1930s. It has a huge upstairs balcony and a downstairs area, art deco furnishings and a resident cat. Just like the old ones before they turned them into multi screens. It won't take bookings and shows double bills, but after enjoying The Queen with Helen Mirren, we were too tired to stay for the second film.

Girlies have both had back to back colds (us too) and Dulcie has celebrated the hatching of her first tooth with a few early morning risings. She has also started chuckling randomly, as if she's continually having a private joke. Thea has got her first pair of long boots, which is helpful as she's addicted to skirts and at least with the boots she can wear her skirts into the winter. She was typically unsure about them to start with ("tooooo tiiiiight") but won't take them off now. She has started drawing people with arms and legs attached to their heads instead of just heads. And using words like , 'unfortunately.'

We had a great trip to the zoo yesterday and were particularly pleased to see Timmy the Pygmy Hippo who Uncle Ben sponsored for Thea. Actually Melbourne zoo is quite cool. The elephants are all from Thailand, so their bit is more like a Thai theme park, complete with Thai style buildings, statuary, decor and food in the cafe.