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A frosty Melbourne morning.  The fog surrounded us as we turned off the freeway.  Leila and I both agreed that fog is romantic, enveloped in it, unable to see anyone else but each other.

A lovely morning spent meeting a dear friend's new babe, sharing a coffee with them and her parents who have travelled from so far away to share in these early months.  I googled before we left home, "Ahoj" Leila and I offered in welcome.

Dam!!

Maroondah, that is. The idea was for a bbbq breakfast, but with very fine but very wet dampening our spirits we changed to take away coffees and delish pastries from Giant Steps.

We jumped in puddles, we threw stones in rivers, played inside child size houses, took self portraits, climbed steps and called "cooooo-eeee". A great place for a weekend romp. Be sure to take your gumboots!

Change of plans

On today's agenda was a visit to the Andreas Gursky exhibition at the NGV. We have seen his work at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and it's amazing. Some of the scenes so ordinary (supermarket aisles, forests) which, simply through the scope of the frame, become something else altogether. We arrived only to find "Closed Today" outside the gallery - bother!

So a trip to the gallery turned into visiting some of the landmarks those of us in Melbourne will recall with fondness from our own childhoods.

Then to a favourite place that children of my children's generation will associate as a Melbourne childhood destination ...

Fishy Business

Guest photographer - Ella Hargreaves

Bushland so close

There are a couple of blogs I read that are from people based in New England, US and on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. Now these are parts of the world I have been lucky enough to visit and which count amongst my favourites, so perhaps my judgement is coloured. It does, however, seem as if they have so many natural riches at their fingertips. Farming land so close, gorgeous woods and streams to explore, seeming wilderness around every turn. I do forget that we too have riches so close to us.

In trying to shake the funk that has descended on our house we got our picnic together and head to Westerfolds Park for a couple of what turned out to be, glorious hours. My shots are poor, I admit, my girls are firstly too fast for me to capture and I have a very sad very compact camera which has few tricks and a poor operator.

You'll also notice from the photos, we didn't have to share with many others - ours was the only one in that carpark.

Ella has been feeling the loss of companionship with friends since our confinement and today we met two separate groups of lovely boys her age which she played with so happily for the hours we were there. Is it just my daughter who always asks her new "friends" over for a sleepover?

Perfect afternoon, so worth dragging ourselves out, you rarely feel worse after a good dose of fresh air and sunshine.

Big Day

We let Ella choose Leila's present this year - she chose a Care Bear! Ella received one from her aunty and cousins on her birthday in October and it was an enormous hit. Leila hasn't had much of a shot at "Cupcake" as she's called, as it's one toy Ella won't share. I think Ella's motivation in buying one for sister was partly to keep her away from hers, but also so she could "share" the new one! Somewhat suprisingly, it was a huge hit, she's been dragging it around with her all day. We bought her a wooden Noah's Ark which she opened appreciatively and then Ella played with - there's plenty of time.



The Sanctuary was great - I haven't been there since I was about 8 and my parents now live literally 5 minutes from the front gate. The place was absolutely rammed but it covers so much area that you didn't feel crowded at all. Ella's fave was the platypus, a very strange animal for anyone to see the first time - amazing playful considering how shy they are.

The cake is very unme - store bought nasty icing etc - but forgive me, in 42C weather baking is beyond even me. I'll make up for it Sunday when the family are over for morning tea and I promise it will be more impressive.

For anyone not local - here's one of Ella with some local wildlife. Koalas aren't known for being the friendliest of animals (they spit and bite), but this one, sadly (or thankfully), has gone to a supposedly better place, hence the relaxed pose!

Happy birthday gorgeous small one, I'll think of you most fondly at 11:25pm tonight!