New Year letter

Hi all,

Happy new year, hope you all had a festive Christmas.

We have had an interesting year here in Melbourne. Gemma started her new school in Jan, grade 5 at Minimbah. She has settled in well, apart from a few friendship fracas- these are important lessons we all need to learn! Her school work is going well and the peaceful setting is really helping her concentrate, she scored considerably better in her tests than last year. Fingers are still crossed… Outside school Gemma does the most of all of us; Riding, drama and guides being the main things. The TV always scores highly on her ‘best things to do’ list.

Fraser has completed grade 9 this year and is becoming a real man- soon to be taller than Pete! He has taken up piano at school and prefers the Jazz style pieces which he likes to play whilst wearing one of his trilby hats. Minecraft is still popular with worldwide domination games like Civ5 also getting a lot of airtime. He has also become a socialist- much dinner table discussion and argument! Both children are forced to play tennis with Pete and I regularly- after all, we do have the staff for mixed doubles!

Pete has had a busy year at the poker tables - winning a couple of times and qualifying for the state final, where he finished 4^th. His virtual cycle around Australia continues, although it has stalled a bit- he has been in Darwin for ages… Must be hot. He has also taken up veggie gardening, the main successes were- strawberries, leaks, tomatoes, radish, and carrots! Look out, here come the Zucchinis!

I have been working from home for a gas company drawing pipes and stuff- easy to fit in around the odd school assembly or sports day. The choir has had a big year. Travelling to Canberra for the National Convention in May- we came 4^th in our size category. We also recorded for a local radio station and made a Christmas CD- Boy, was I glad when Dec 26^th came around, I had been singing the same songs since August! Looking forward to a change when we rehearse again in Feb. I have had my monies worth from the medical system this year- operation in Jan to remove a rotten wisdom tooth bedded in my jaw. March, a spider bite, and had to have antibiotics in my bottom, then, after blood tests find I have a thyroid problem- fortunately ‘cured’ by a tablet each day. The doctor recognises me now! I am feeling much better and ready to face the next challenge…

The most difficult jig-saw ever

So many eyes and fins!

20 years!

Anniversary flowers

Yes, it's our anniversary. 20 years of married bliss. I remember the day.... Strange flag ceremonies, a light to heavy rain, tent in the garden, dahlias- all at their best, premier entertainment, soupy twist!

Thanks Pete for 20 years of fun, here's to the next 20! Lots of love xxoo.

What- no Lego!

Opening presents- bonus, it's a Saturday! (Gemma was at a guide sleep over)

Gemma's masterpiece- the Mr Men cake

Ready to blow out the candles...

Artists at work

Holiday in Echuca

It's a giant log- with wheels

Disgruntled by the river

On the EmmyLou- going under the bridge!

The EmmyLou herself- ready to steam.

A visitor to our cabin

Paddleboats at the activity centre

A tree trunk- covered in thongs/flip-flops

Riding

Gem is enjoying her riding lessons.

Here she is on Princess. Tahlia is having to lead her as Princess was in a bad mood and wouldn't do as Gemma asked- sound familiar in any way?

They are going on a Bushie, as the instructor likes to call it.

Check out Gemma's new Joddies, chaps and boots- she is looking pretty horsey now- just need to get the helmet jacket gloves....

City Bound

After the rigors of Outward Bound Fraser and his pals are City Bound.
They  go into the City for two weeks, travelling on the train etc and complete a project. Here they are on presentation night Julianio, Fraser, Lewis and Liam. Georgia could not make it. All power to her for being in a group with these dudes. As you can see their theme was transport.

Easter fun

We had a well organised Easter this year at Uncle Sam's

The kids all had a list of the number, colour and size of eggs they could collect. The big kids had to help the little ones to find theirs. Then we decorated hard boiled eggs and rolled them down the hill to the creek- an eggscellent venue for this activity! Grandma was in charge of Lottie- dogs are not allowed chocolate- but try telling them that!

Unusual Visitors

There's a bird on the roof!

We have been visited by a Peahen and her chick- here they are on the roof. They were first seen down by the creek, but are quite tame and visit all the houses in the hope of some food. When Gem was over the road at number 11, they even came into the house and had to be shooed out.

Day in the city

We took Grandad and Gill to a Dogs game. Surprisingly, it was Gill and Grandad's first game- he has usually gone back to the UK when the season starts. This was a preseason game at the Docklands stadium- the dogs put on a good show. It was an exciting game, they won and we got to sing the song! A perfect outing. We also saw some of the new Docklands development along the Yarra.

Keith Bobbinson gets weaving

More fun for the parrots. Here are apple treats susspended in a lattice of rope. This is so that more of them can feast at once. I counted 20 parrots on the superstructure once fully stocked. It seems however much food you put out, the parrot numbers will always cover all the feeding stations with some parrots left over...

Family celebrations

We have been over to Cobblestone Manor for a few birthdays-
Keeley and Uncle Tich.

The cakes were lovingly created by Aunty Dette- Keeley's has a real doll in it- which needed a wash before she could play with it. Tich's was an ipad- it only had a couple of apps- Dette ran out of time!

New school

Gemma started a new school.
Here she is outside her classroom with Maybelle.
There have already been concert performances- they don't have any time for book learning, I'm sure.

Biscuits

The boys go on their 3rd annual camping weekend.
They had lots of fun on the biscuit. Here's Zander and Pete- getting thrown off. It was a very hot weekend, luckily the campsite had an airconditioned room to cool off in.

Grandad and Gill visit

We were honoured to have a visit from Grandad and Gill earlier this year. We mannaged to persuade them to go on a few trips. Here they are at London Bridge enjoying the sandflies- they rather liked the flavour of Grandad's blood... At the Australia Day fireworks, Mornington, a day for wrapping up warm this year. On Oliver's hill enjoying the sunset. Here's one of Kaggs, Gem and Fraser in front of a giant sanddune on Wilson's Prom- grandad and Gill were there too. Perhaps we packed in too many things on their visit- they were exhausted when they got back to England.

Concert season

Here is Fraser ready to play his flute at the school concert. Pirates of the Caribbean and something by Queen. (Fraser can't remember what.)
Christmas carols with the Aussie youth choir. Fraser's last performance with them- his voice has changed!

Keith Bobbinson turns his hand to parrot training.

Here are the Lorikeets enjoying stage one of the bird table construction experiment.

Really, really heavy rain

Patio still not finished when- heavy rain fell. The garage flooded causing remedial works on the drainage channel around the garage.
All survived well- just a few damp things in the garage. We were pretty lucky compared to many.
Here is Gemma checking out the storm.

Patio construction

What a fine bunch of hard working dudes.
After 10 years of fake grass we decided to put down pavers in the back garden. As Grandad would say- it's a job in the town.















Here is Fraser showing how the front door still works and now looks out onto a fancy step.