The Autumn Garden

The garden is full of autumn colours, I really love this time of year.

And it is raining again (I promise not to photograph it), who could ask for more.

The Cootamundra wattle plantation has gone (forever if they know what's good for them). Here are the before and after shots that I have been waiting so long to share.

This berry is on the same tree as the tree on the first photo on this page.

The lambs ears here in Monash are mad - it is autumn, it has not rained enough for months, and yet here are some self seeded lambs ears springing up in the front garden!!! I plan to replant them near the BBQ out the back to replace the citronella plants.

MLR's birthday

Some of you may already know that MLR turned 9 on Anzac day this week. She had a wonderful day with lots of phone calls and lots of presents and demanded cheese on toast for tea as she did not want to go out!!!
MLR chose an ice cream cake for the second year running and most of it is eaten now. Thank you everyone for making it such a nice day.

Large Shopping Malls

I just thought I would talk about huge shopping complexes today as I was talking about Miranda Fair (Westfield) yesterday and it got me to thinking about the largest shopping complex in the world. One of my colleagues is planning to go to the largest complex, West Edmonton Mall in Alberta Canada, in a few weeks and I thought I would check it out. Apart from shops it has two hotels and a camp ground, it has a water park and putt putt golf as well as two indoor walking tracks to keep you fit. It sounds like you could spend a whole holiday there.

The largest shopping mall in England is at Gateshead, near Newcastle, Metrocentre. We drove past here last year on our way south from Edinburgh, but did not stop. In addition to the 330 shops it has an indoor theme part and a computerised bowling alley. It claims to be the largest shopping centre in Europe!

While in Scotland we visited the Paisley Centre, on the edge of Glasgow. I thought it might have been the largest shopping centre in the UK, however I think that despite having a skating rink, which the kids really enjoyed, its real claim to fame is that the town is the largest in Scotland. This town had a large textile industry in the 19th century and is where the Paisley Pattern originated.

Terrific Tuesday

This week has become all jumbled up due to the fact that there is too much going on, so I thought I better just mention Tuesday 17th. I know most Tuesday's are busy or hectic and I really do not like them, in fact I have compained before. However this Tuesday was the day that JSR was due to have his exam and I waited with baited breath to hear how it went - started at 1.10pm, due to finish two hours later. So when the phone went at 2.20pm I was convinced that something had gone horribly wrong. But no, he was fine and heading off for a late lunch and would come home afterwards. "Did you pass?" I asked trying to make my voice as unemotional as possible. "Oh yes, 90%!" Right oh then. See you later.

Later that evening JSR got his birthday present, Dylan Moran, on stage at the Canberra theatre, met up with friends afterwards for a drink. It was fantastic and JSR really was able to enjoy it as he had finished his exam. Only one more subject and he will have his Masters in IT.

Camp Grampa

MLR went off to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days. She set off on Wednesday and headed for the council pool at Helensburgh. Here MLR played with her cousins ARC and TDC in the water for some time. Over the next three days she visited Symbio Zoo, near Helensburgh, as well as visiting a lady clown at Miranda Westfield shopping complex, where she was first to offer help and opened a pot that had been full of fire to reveal a rabbit!!! You will be pleased to know that no one was hurt in this display.

Did you know that there are 631 stores at the Miranda complex?

I went to Bundanoon to collect her on Saturday. Apart from the home my parents are building at Bundanoon the other thing that Bundanoon is famous for is Brigadoon, held every year in April and in 2007 it is on next Saturday, 28th.

On the way home we called in at the Brand Depot out at the airport here. Very similar to the one at Moorabin in Melbourne. We both came away with shoes (must be the girl thing).

Birthday and Anniversary in one

Happy birthday Dad, hope you have a great one.

Happy Anniversary me, 26 years ago today, I joined the public service - I thought I will join the PS and then figure out what I want to do!! I thought this would take up to three years. Hmm.

Mountain Trails Camp

This is the third time AJR has been to Mountain Trails near Wee Jasper in south eastern New South Wales.

A bus picks him up from a near by high school and takes him out there (about 2 hours away). Here they ride horses, go caving, practice archery and games. This time AJR caught a yabby, and built a fort in a dried out creek bed.

AJR was not happy to go this time as he wanted to go to a party on Friday, however I had already paid so it was not to be. AJR left on Monday morning at 9am. On Tuesday morning I received a phone call from the party friend to say that the party was moved to Tuesday and could he come? On Wednesday morning I received a call from Mountain Trails to say that he was sick and could I come and take him home?





So far this week has worked well.

Clipart by http://www.1clipart.com/

Sunday at Tilley's

Having not had enough travel for one weekend, I headed for Tilley's
at Lyneham for brunch with Pam I do love brunch. After a wonderful feed
I went to the Lyneham Post Office, which is actually open on a Sunday - proving that Canberra is civilised place after all.

I sent off a letter and a birthday card to Sally in
England. Happy birthday Sally.

In the afternoon I gained an extra child, J, who was going to camp
with AJR on Monday. JSR continued battling with the course and wondering why he ever signed up.

Clip art from: http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/

Painting Music

Try this link, here you can write your own symphony while creating an artistic palette. (the link is in the title)

Happy Easter

Here comes Petter Cottontail
hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppity Easters on its way!

Origin of the rabbit at Easter time:

The rabbit is well known as a sexual symbol of fertility. In various parts of the world, religions which developed from Babel also associate the rabbit with periodicity, both human and lunar (Egypt, China, etc.). As you may remember, the Mother Goddess Semiramis (Easter) is associated with the Moon. In other words, the Easter bunny symbolizes the Mother Goddess.

Origin of the Easter Egg at Easter time:

The egg was also a symbol of fertility; Semiramis (Easter) was the goddess of Fertility. The Easter egg is a symbol of the pagan Mother Goddess, and it even bears one of her names.

From: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

Images from: http://www.webweaver.nu/linkus.shtml

Fixing your slice

Of course there will be no more bad golf days now, as JSR has a new hybrid club that will solve all the slicing.

But just in case, here is a solution to your bad golf day.

Music Links

Found a link to LyricWiki, which is a free site where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without lots of ads. I had a play in there this morning and found lots of lyrics to songs I like.

Another source of music info is Music Australia, which is broader in that it provides information on music, musicians, organisations and services, all from a single access point. You can find music scores, sound recordings, websites and a range of other music-related material held by a large number of Australia's cultural institutions, such as libraries or the National Film and Sound Archive, the material is not necessarily available online.


Image taken from http://www1.medialiteracy.com/visual_aural.jsp

A dogs life

AJR decided to photograph our dog Millie, whom he loves very much. Here are a selection of his pictures.

Hectic Tuesday

Most people have hectic Monday's, while I mostly have hectic Tuesday's.

Here is how this weeks Tuesday went

• 6am up and at em
• 6.10 blogging
• 6.45 empty dishwasher and fill
• 6.50 put out garbage bin
  
• 6.55 get AJR up
• 7 am get food into AJR's camp bag
• 7.10 pack toiletries into AJR's back pack
• 7.15 make cheese on toast for breakfast
  
• 7.25 shower
• 7.45 drive to shop to buy lollies
• 8 am arrive at school to meet bus for camp
• 8.35 bus leaves for camp with AJR aboard
• 8.45 back home and pack lunch for MLR
• 8.50 deliver ironing to Dale
  
• 9.00 deliver MLR to school
• 9.10 get petrol
• 9.30 arrive work - park illegally because so late, then as leaving car see two legally parked cars leaving, so dash back to car and swerve round corner and park properly.
  

After all that, the rest of the day seems so much easier.

AJR is off to Camp

Just had to let you know that AJR is off to Camp in Tathra, NSW south coast today for two nights and three days of fun and mayhem. They will be staying here. He is so excited. It will be interesting to see how much dirt he will bring back. MLR is going to the same camp at the end of the year and is not impressed that he is going now and she is not. AJR is also off to Wee Jasper for the first week of the school holidays, which he also enjoys.
Ciao.

Interesting sites

Here are a some sites that we have been looking at lately

www.expertvillage.com
Has training videos on everything (well nearly), Automotive, Beauty & Fashion, Crafts, Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Home & Garden, Music, Parenting, Pets, Sports, Other. (thanks for finding this TC & RC)

another one we like is

About.com
This has information on everything, although less video's than ExpertVillage. We used it extensively for planning our trip last year.

On a slightly different note we have been tuning into a different way of listening to music.
Pandora
This is set up like a radio station, you tell it what sort of music you like, say Elvis Costello or the Commitments and it will then play music that is a similar genre. Best of all it will play it all day with no ads, and no DJ interruptions. For more of the background check here. You can set up as many "radio stations" as you have interest in music.

Eiffel Tower's birthday!

I thought you ought to know that Saturday was the birthday of the Eiffel Tower. Here are some other useful facts. Happy birthday Eiffel Tower

• Date of birth: March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top), built for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution.
• Age: 117 years
• Contractor: Gustave Eiffel & Cie
• Engineers: Maurice Koechlin & Emile Nouguie
• Architect: Stephen Sauvestre
• Studies: Begun in 1884
• Construction: 1887 to 1889 (2 years, 2 months
• and 5 days)
• Composition: 18,038 pieces, 2,500,000 rivets
• Weight of the metal structure: 7,300 tons
• Total weight: 10,100 tons
• Height: 324m (height with flagpole)
• Coordinates :
• Latitude : 48º 51' 32" North
• Longitude : 002º 17' 45" East
• Numbers of visitors up to December 31, 2006: 229.623.812
• Distinctive feature: recognizable throughout the entire world
• Number of steps: 1665
• Owner: City of Paris

I did spend some time in the garden on Saturday and managed to cut back the roses and a tree close the the drive. All my roses are carpet roses, although no one has told them that they should be close to the ground!! They soar up towards the sky with abandon. I have trimmed just one into a standard, so we will see how that goes. Yesterday was a bit of a revolving door. JSR left for golf as usual and I dozed in front of Thursday night television, thinking about the cooking and cleaning to be done. At 2.15 Liz and the kids arrived with lunch and at around 3pm Sarah and the twins came over. We proceeded to devour chips and large quantities of tea and coffee!! JSR arrived home about 5.30pm. Just before 6pm Liz, Sarah and the kids headed off, as JC and family arrived for an evening meal. Dad arrived home around 7pm.

Today was spent cleaning the house and catching up with watching all the things I did not have time to watch during the week. Still not seen Morse, sorry JSR! JSR has chopped down the Claret Ash, whose roots were pushing up the pavers as they headed for the house!