Phillip Island (back in January)

A sleep over in a magical garden

This is the garden of a very special friend of mine - who despite of lack of contact since moving on from our uni lives - we are able to fall in and out of each others worlds quite easily. My children and myself just loved her home and garden - we had a fantastic sleep over and play.

The O'Keith Trail

Last Sunday we took a ride along the O'Keith Trail - I have been in Bendigo for ten years and can't believe I haven't done this before! You can down load a map of this trail from the link above.

It runs along an old train track and has plenty of historical landmarks and relics to make the trip into a discovery adventure.



(Hj bandaid from a previous skateboarding accident)

there is a family bike riding day along the trail this Sunday - but it is 50kms - Kd not quite up to it yet (not sure I am either - but will be posting about our enduring canoeing trip earlier this week soon!)

Celebrating and creative activities happening around our home lately

Four Days OUT THERE

Wishing that the school holidays haven't come to an end Kd stayed home from school today - he was tired and a little run down - we all needed a little bit more jammie time together. We really did pack in a lot of activity over the school holidays and having Easter in the middle of it made it even busier.

It was bliss to spend four days in the bush with The Colonial Way, camping and grandly moving from site to site with a Clydesdale horse - a very new and slowing down experience for all of us. I REALLY needed to get out of town and get into the landscape and this trip did exactly that. I had planned for a six night adventure - but right before we left we inherited gastro and in lots of ways I am glad it was only three nights as travelling with young kids and a dog in a new camping setting can prove more challenging that relaxing. J and I have started making plans for regular camping trips around our home - having lots of new free, isolated camp locations revealed to us.


This is our darling Murdoch who hauled our caravan around and all of our stuff - about a tonne in all!!!

Inside the van - very tight but manageable - can't imagine what it would be like with 3 kids in their or 5 adults as it sleeps 5.

The view from outside the caravan while on the road - we were travelling slow enough to jump in and out of the van - I spent a great deal of time walking - maybe up to 12ks a day as our dog misbehaved dreadfully around Murdoch.


Caring for Murdoch included lots of stops for rests, eating and drinking water - he just loved munching on apples.


Camp fires were a hit - revealing the inner fire bug of a certain someone


How is this for beauty?
Yep lots of fun and games

The trip for me was also about growing the love of the out doors and isolation in my children - an experience that just doesnt happen in suburbia. Kd was first afraid of the thought of camping as we would be the only ones there - (while I really can't think of anything better than having no-one around!) They both really enjoyed the trip and agree that more camping is on the agenda.

We visited the place where the sky is everywhere

Where I grew up the sky was large and endless and I have an ongoing romantic longing to return there.

This week during the school holidays, thanks to the magic of facebook and the generosity of a farming family we visited a diary farm not far from the land were I grew up. It was lovely to reconnect with an old school friend and enjoy her family and farming achievements with her husband. They most certainly have a farm to be admired. Although in the following shots there aren't any cows (don't ask me why!) their cows are so gentle, quiet and happy milkers.

Starting school and some silliness

Here is some belated documentation of an evening at the park with friends to watch a kids play - although all the kids did was play in the park while the daddies enjoyed acting as pirates and captains.

What a brave face for the first day of school - the second wasn't so happy - but he is doing so much better this week. It is so hard moving to a new school... I am missing our old school...

The Campaspe

In between moving out of our home, into Mum and Dads (thanks Mum and Dad) we had a window of freedom to play. One of our trips was to Shepparton to stay with a good friend of mine and her family. She opened up her home and we tumbled in for two nights.

One of our special days was on the Campaspe River. Joy, although with all those kiddies I was very tired by the end of the day!