gold fever

we all caught gold fever, panning for gold in these 'ye olde worlde' park outside ballarat, victoria. it was really fantastic; we spent the whole day there (and came back with 0.000000001 grams of gold!)

arrival!

finally the big day arrives - the porters are here! we even managed to be late to the airport picking everyone up! things improved with a gorgeous cake baked by my sis in melb on our way up to daylesford.  i was worried how the cooking on a fire, no electricity, bathroom and resident spiders & snakes would go.... but everyone loved the experience.  somewhere there might be a pic of colin and tippy in a bathtub with a fire lit underneath.  

muddy

fixing the walls for the special grandparents visit! mud and straw should do it. 

pies

 people say you shouldn't play in the road, but this one must be okay - not too much passing traffic. we can't have too much of the big smoke! back in daylesford, anticipating eagerly the arrival of Adrian's parents and brother - all the way from UK and Malaysia. janu is beside himself.  tomorrow! 

red beard

this pic was meant to show niamh tracks - the 'footprint' she leaves as she shuffles along. it looks corrupted somehow.  my lovely sis and i explore a bakery on the way to daylesford. enough to whet our appetites to start making our own gorgeous sourdough (more on that later!) 

happy b'day sis!

sis turned 37! we went to a local park with an old friend we both went to school with and had fun with pigs, ducks, sheep and horses. the animals even got to try some (ahem, interesting tasting) birthday cake and janu and I concocted for sis!

janu is in love with this australian habit of putting 'bubblers' around to drink from.  they are good for so many things. 

room for me?

staying with my sis, i loved her bicycle sheets, and homemade toys that janu crammed in with him. he agreed to sleep in his baby cousin's cot, kicking her out into a travel cot.  he still fits!