frannie and jim

frannie and jim have been and gone - it was a busy two and 1/2 weeks

we walked and travelled and partied

i managed to get frannie back into the walking pattern with my early morning walks around melbourne although unfortunately the ballarat lake walk didnt happen.
one morning as we walked past Fed square we were offered free plants for our trouble - f and j went back latter and got another 2 and so my offices now have 4 free plants - 3 maidenhair ferns and a baby bamboo shoot

we walked around melbourne zoo and inspected the baby tigers and elephants which i hadnt seen and looked at the new seal enclosure - although the sydney zoo has its views i still think the melbourne zoo is much better -easier to walk around - both kid and elderly friendly - lots of flowers and the lovely butterfly house


















we dined - carlton, the prince patrick in east melbourne, monday nights steak nights at simons and the flat,and in darling habour in sydney, and oh i forgot my home made chicken apple and white wine sausages and i forgot our visit to matt and belindas to eat and drink.

belinda,matt,sage, jim, frannie and william











sydney hadnt been on the original adgenda but ian was working up there for a couple of days and i had enough frequent flyer points to take f j and i there with only paying taxes. ian found us a nice apartment overlooking the harbour and we saw the queen elizabeth liner berthed in the harbour and the queen mary in the next - oh yes that was another walk - to see the queen mary and then an amble into the sydney city centre via an exhibition of the chinese terracotta warriers.
we caught the ferry across to manly to have fish and chips - a custom for sydney trips - i think at the end of sydney frannie had decided it wasnt too bad a city to visit.

frannie and jim - contemplating their next travel mode - hello the queen elizabeth liner

we celebrated tony's 80th with a party at the mornington golf club - we had food, alcohol, balloons , a party hat and lots of frannie made cupcakes















and then they went again - a whirlwind visit - i waved goodbye at melbourne airport and headed home for normality to start again - as if!

i have am now recovering from a mild episode of shingles - the stress of looking after my overseas guests i say. frannie says BS except that she doesnt cos she doesnt use such words

we have ant christian ( congrats on getting your PhD) and john C up to visit this weekend to put up a fence for my recently acquired geese ducks and hens - we have got fed up of supplying fox feed.

these birds want to free range boys so it is time to get up and moving!!

and tabitha - where is this baby??

Summer rain

ok - in ballarat we have now had enough rain this year to keep us above average til the end of June and we havent reached the end of Feb yet.

The family has decided that it is time we had some summer weather - some heat and dryness

Tony and I went and looked at Dights falls near Simons place - the merri creek meets the yarra and there was plenty of water




and they were right

Someone put a tree into the middle of the yarra


and another one

( ok this is really the merri creek)



Christians place isnt rainproof just yet


but its going to have good views of the city and the freeway





Happy birthday Stella

Central Highlands Victoria - 40d heat

Its going to be 40d today - our first hot day for the summer

Here are some pictures from the garden first thing this morning



the magnolia has been in for about 10 years - we are having its first flowers this year



Sweet and George enjoy a swim





Some veg is growing - have had a few peas and the beans are starting to grow



we dont have many flowers - i prefer aussie natives but there are some scattered around


we have birds come to visit - they like the chook and duck food and the leftovers that are put out for the chooks





we love our views - the plains are starting to brown off - they are very late this year but we are still very green in the garden - helped by the record 200mm in 4 days mid january

Meet George

how could anyone abandon a small defenseless duck on a train in a box?

but someone did and I now have a new duck called George

He/she was left on the upfield line train in a box and was taken to the lord smiths animal hospital where my nurse's daughter is doing her Vet student placement.

Does any one know someone who might want an abandoned duck? So I got George

He/ she has moved in and at present is living in a large plastic box during the night and the spare hen house during the day.

He/she seems to get on with the other ducks and chooks but lucy would be quite happy to have him/her for breakfast.

Sweet and sour have grown lots and over the past week have decided to free range and have joined the chooks in wandering around the garden during the day. Most nights they go back into their coup but tonight for some reason they have put themselves to bed in the chook house - not sure that the chooks are impressed as they take up quite a deal of room and tend to dirty the water


Spring has decided that it might visit us and we have had some wonderful blossom
Goodnight George and Ian

new family members

A lot has happened since my last blogging.

Frannie and Jim have been and gone.

Frannie and Jim with Bernard and Sleepy Hippo

We had lots of fun eating drinking playing visiting and relaxing.

Lindsey not sharing her wine

Lindsey not sharing her food

Frannie caught up with friends rellies ex work colleagues and i chaffeured. Bernard and sleepy accompanied jim and frannie.

Jennifer Cuddles meets Bernard and Sleepy

We went to a hens night - a nude painting art night, we went to a wedding, had family meals at mt martha and warragul and travelled a lot.

The Family at Mt Martha

We are off to a wedding

Then frannie and jim went home again- the icelandic volcano had stopped causing mayhem and was allowing flights to resume.

Then we started may which is the birthday month.

Emily asked me what i wanted for my birthday - "ducks" i replied - " you cant have ducks" said emily - i thought that was a little rude seeing she had asked me what i wanted.

anyway on my birthday tea - the saturday before 2 three week old pekin ducks appeared with ant and em - poor krumm was left home as it was thought he might eat them.

Sweet and Sour - my pekin ducks

Tony and stella ventured up to mt helen for the tea and stayed overnight- wendy christian and cass also came up for the evening. Ian cooked a wonderful tea- we had ventured out to our first farmer market and bought some tender beef and superb lamb with organic veg including some nice kipfler potatoes which we roasted up. Ian also cooked a moroccan fish casserole for the non meat eaters. Dessert was an apple crumble bought from the market.

Sunday morning saw stella tony and myself head out to look for some more chooks - this time we went to the car park next to one of the farm machinery showrooms. A ute arrived with lots of different sort of poultry and i chose 3 hamburg chooks - they are a brilliant black-green colour.

The girls

the brown chooks are producing their first eggs - or at least one of them is - i am getting one egg a day which ian fried up today with baked beans mushies and bacon. Delicious they were.

The first egg

Life continues to be busy. I am off to brisbane next weekend for a work shop and am doing regular accreditations of gp practices- i am trying to limit this activity to once a month so that i am not away from the practice too often. I am enjoying being on the board of my local gp division and ian and i are planning our trip later in the year to the UK to stay with frannie and jim in a house for a week on the norfolk broads.

An artistic photo Tribeca building East Melbourne
Thanks frannie

Easter 2010

Home grown roast potatoes, Christians parmesan cheese paprika roasted zucchinis and finally my scarlet runner beans all went down to mt Martha for the Easter feast.

Matt and Belinda and the kids arrived. Wendy was already there when we arrived and Christian and cassie turned up last – having got lost – not sure how they managed this as they have been coming down to mt Martha for years.

Ian and I picked up Simon on the way down. We stopped off for ians obligatory 2^nd coffee of the morning and picked up a chocolate crayfish at the same shop to take for Stella and tony.

Ian and I have stayed down for the night – and indulged in fish and chips for tea. Midsomer murders was the TV viewing for the night. We have lost daylight savings so it is getting dark too early now but ian and I managed a walk down to the foreshore before tea.

Emily arrived via Bendigo and Beaumaris. The clutch on her car is playing up and getting in and out of gear is entertaining so I gather – we are all hoping that her car lasts until the end of the year when hopefully she will be gainfully employed and can afford a loan otherwise the bank of grahyde may have to come out of retirement – yet again.

Ant and jess and krumm didn’t come down as they are spending Easter in Blackwood with jess’s family. We went up there for Saturday morning – we watched the blackwood easter parade and then went down to the carnival. It was quite entertaining for a small community of about 300. There were many out of towners at the carnival. We managed to find 2 camels – a finger puppet and a bag. Wendy did remarkably well – she found an old camel – thermos we think – I definitely don’t have one of those. Well done Wendy

Ant then took us a walk along the creek and to the springs – fizzy water coming out of the ground – very odd.

We are off to chaddie today to catch up with ians mother and then we will do a shop at Chadstone.

The house is as usual being babysat by Ross – we are eternally grateful to him and his assistance with the dogs and now the chooks.

chook run extension

one has to love ebay.

i went exploring chooks, chickens and poultry on ebay and found a chook run extension.
i checked out the prices and descriptions and bid for it and it duly arrived yesterday.
Ross must have been home as it was inside when i got home last night and bright and early i was up constructing my run.

The construction and materials werent as good as the bunnings chook coop but i wasnt expecting them to be considering the price and the feedback on the ebay site but it was remarkably easy to put up by myself and the chooks will enjoy it during the week while i am at work.


ross seems to have taken over the middle of the day letting them out and in again in the evening.

they are exploring further around the front garden and are chasing off the sparrows from the bird seen on the ground. hopefully the native birds which are larger will put up a better fight.

i have been back on ebay and bought an upright bird feeder and drinker so that their water will last longer and the feed will be above the ground and hopefully away from the mice. will probably be delayed in delivery due to easter but we will see.

All we have to do now is await the arrival of our first eggs in about a month and also hopefully the arrival of more rescue chooks from the vet school.