The green, green grass of home

Who could have imagined that a lawn could be, well, so GREEN!
None of the crunchy, brown needle-tipped variety here...it almost feels incorrect to call it 'grass' without bindi-i.
(Walking across a lawn without sporadic hopping and cursing? Where's the fun in that?)




We even went so far as to purchase a lawn mower! We felt that an inexpensive prehistoric mechanical push-pull jobby would be just perfect for our postage stamp*, and as the evidence shows, it fits in nicely with C's fitness regime. No room for recreating memories of early morning Saturday's when the sounds and smells of two-strokes permeated the suburbs!



A has rounded off the week by practising a little more of what the natives do best—gardening. Garden fixation appears to be the national past time. Alex has weeded what she assumes are weeds, sown lettuce and herb seeds and is now eargerly awaiting the next installment of Gardener's Question Time on the Beeb. (Are we blending in yet?)
Tomorrow is May Day. Let's see what Rites of Spring we can create...

* For our British friends, please don't think that we are being derogatory regarding the size of our garden—we love it! We are simply comparing our new outdoor area with our enormous and enormously neglected Sydney bushland, a.k.a. "Redevelopment Project".

P.S A requiem for those plants whose lives have been tragically cut short in A's attempt at gardening will be held at a later date...

The most recent 7 days

Hello again. Transmission is resuming as we're now back from an all too short week-long break...thanks to everyone who replied to our Easter email (and apologies to those we accidentally left off the group e). It's really fantastic to hear from you as we do feel a bit 'out of the loop' at times with life in Sydney. Did you know that you can write a comment or send a quick email from this blog? Just click on the icon at the end of an entry—we'd LOVE to read something from you!

Some messages while we think of it:
• Welcome to the world Rafe! (and congrats to Rowan and Geoff)
• Thank you Andy and Mary for having us stay with you all day last Wednesday. We came away from you sooo thankful that we have you as friends. We have missed you and your Wintry tribe.
• How are you doing Jane? Have been thinking of you...
• Hello (and woof) to Michelle, Daniel, Arianne, Jack and Molly! Thanks for leaving your blog comments in the past...Have you got an email address so we can write to you directly? We miss everyone at the dog park. Life is simply not the same when you are not standing around in the dark for hours at a time whilst your spaniel is tearing around with other mad things!

We've just cleared the camera of it's contents from the past week. Nothing too special to look at. Just like us really!


The decoration in the Priory chapel is simple.



Cam plays educator and tour guide to Ellie (Alex's mother's cousin's daughter's daughter) and Sasunnach at Foxton Locks, Leicestershire



Our friend Ishaya after his first Chinese take-away meal. No ill-effects.


Farm life is truly exhausting but Sasunnach and Bobby get the best seat in the house



Happy Birthday Your Majesty! Sorry we didn't send you a card.

Heaven is a chocolate biscuit

A little tale of surprise and good works.

You can know that you have connected with a good thing when friends ('A'+'B') invite you to a meal where you then meet one of their equally charming friends ('C'). Over coffee, you casually mention how, after only a few months of abstinence, you are missing certain foods from home.
Now, here is the good part: a few months later, new friend 'C' travels to Australia and brings back to England, not one but TWO, packs of Tim Tams...we are happy on sooo many levels today!

Thanks so much, Maryanne, Pippa and Tim!


We are having a week of holiday now that Easter is over and so will be away from all things technical and internet-related until next weekend. We shall be driving back to Rutland (where we spent Christmas) and are very much looking forward to both the Rutland countryside and a short peaceful break.

Would you like to know some interesting facts about England's smallest county?

•It's so small that most English have never heard of it.
•It has a castle in the county town of Oakham that looks like a shed.
•Rutland Water is the largest man made lake in Europe.
•Rutland is only 18 miles across in each direction.
•It was home to the world's smallest man (Jeffrey Hudson), the father of tourism (Thomas Cook), the 6th worst Briton of the past 1,000 years (Titus Oates) and Sir Isaac Newton.
•It schooled Boris Karloff, who was born the significantly more mundane name of William Henry Pratt
•... and a distant cousin of Alex's created the strongest beer in the known world at 22% alcohol content (Baz's Bonce Blower')

See you again in about a week-as long as we steer clear of the local brew!

Easter

See God's salvation plan
Wrought in love, borne in pain, paid in sacrifice
Fulfilled in Christ the man
For He lives - Christ is risen from the dead!



Happy Easter friends!

Picking is a bad habit

I've just written a crackin' good entry (if I do say myself) about why we haven't posted for a while, and where we have been, only to see Blogger swallow my words and crash. Aarrgh! I'm not in the mood to rewrite, so I'm leaving that for another few days.
Rest assured, we are still here! (thanks Rach for your concern)

I'm a little disappointed that only one person has commented on my aspiration to become an udist, as outlined in our one-line blog bio. (That's right no 'N'-that's completely different!)
I'm not discouraged, despite your complete lack of interest, but have decided that Ud teachers would be a rarity in wild Hampshire. So I've changed track just a little...let me introduce my new pickin' stick...



It has a trademarked name of a Mcnally Strumstick and it is basically an upright Appalachian Dulcimer (oh! Sooo much clearer you say...). It sounds a bit like a mandolin, a bit like a banjo. It looks like a wedge of brie on a stick. You are laughing I know, but I promise it came from a famous folk music shop in the big smoke of London. So ner.