The 4th Dog!

We had to move one of the chooks from out the back to the front area, during the day we let it out and it has a lovely time wandering around the garden, around dinner time for the dogs it will wander over and start helping itself to the dogs dinners while they are eating- not a very smart thing to do, but the dogs seem to take it in their stride. We have to try and disract it, or put it back in it's cage!

Birthday Bean

About two years ago Amy got a message in a can for a birthday present. We finally decided to see if it would actually grow- it was a bean, which finally grew, the first two leaves had "Happy Birthday" written on them! I am sure if I threw it out the window we might get a jack and the beanstalk scenario going at our house at the rate it seems to be growing.

Family Dinner

We had the Mamouney's over for dinner on Sunday night. Bindi made some lovely pears in chocolate which were yummy, and some "Just Say No" cookies- especially for Lachlan. Charlie and Mia were scared of the dogs at first, as usual, but by the end of the night, Charlie was throwing dog treats to Benji and he was jumping up and getting them, he helped Bill feed the dogs and then Charlie, Mia and I took the dogs for a walk. We had a lovely night!

Home Hair Cuts for Dogs

It was time to give the dogs a hair cut this week, the easiest way to get to Jack's underbelly was to pick him up and lay him on my legs on his back. He seem quite contended to stay there, so now both he and Clancy are looking a bit neater and less scruffy, and hopefully Jack will not bring home as much grass in his coat when we take him for a walk now!
Benji is the only one that doesn't need clipping, he just loves having a brush, the others are not real keen on getting clipped but put up with it, I am sure Benji would probably just love it!

Bill Thinks Amy Could Be Intelligent

Amy had to buy a white coat for Chemistry Labs at Canberra University. We got her to model it for us and when she put on her glasses as well, Bill pronounced she actually looked intelligent!

Amy Starts University

Amy started at university this week- lectures started on Monday. She is doing a Bachelor of Cultural Heritage Conservation and the University of Canberra. UC operate on a 3 semester system with a short winter semester in the middle of the year, which most of the undergraduates seem to have off. So she has an early start but will get two months off in June and July.

This semester she is doing Heritage Preservation, A Brief History of Civilisation, Chemistry and an elective on Belief and Argument or something like that. First day she had a lab for Heritage Preservation and they were examining clothing that had a bug problem and freezing them, so she was enthusiastic about that.

She has managed to acquire my car to drive herself to uni as Bill has started a new contact in Tuggeranong and so both he and I ride to work so there is a spare car for her to use! I actually got to drive my own car to work this week when it was threatening rain as she does not have uni on Thursdays!

New Stove Top

I now have a new stove top after Lachlan destroyed the last one ( well not really, he was just cooking on it when the glass top shattered) but is sounds good!
I can see why people end up getting a new kitchen when an appliance goes- there were all sorts of dramas, matching the hole to the new stove, finding out that the regulations had probably changed since the first stove was put in, so the nearest burner had to be 200mm from the nearest wall otherwise you needed to put up tiles or something similar. Of course we had no matching tiles, or chance of finding any, and how much would it cost to put up 12 tiles and who would do such a small job. Thanks to Lachlan and some advice from the gas plumber and the friendly staff at Bunnings,the Internet, we put in the tiles ourselves- or rather Lachlan did! They don't match the existing tiles, but where they are you don't really notice them and they are similar to the colour of the cupboards. Lachlan also regrouted along the bottom of all the tiles in the kitchen, hung up a knife rack for me, and put in some hooks so we could hang things up and get rid of some of the clutter in the draws and cupboards. He also put some new hinges on a cupboard door, so he is earning his keep in handyman wages at the moment!

Parrots and Sunflowers

We grow sunflowers each year mainly to attract the parrots but also as they are such stunning flowers, the parrots came again this year, it is always lovely to watch their acrobatic feats as they eat the sunflower seeds.

Alpine Classic 140km Ride

Bill and I did the 140km option of the Alpine Classic this year. This involved climbing Tawonga Gap- 7km each way to ride from Bright to Mt Beauty and then back again and then to ride up Mt Buffalo to Dingo Dell which is about 22km of climbing. It was a warm day, but we had a good ride, setting off at 7am with lots of food and water stops along the way. The apple cake with custard at the top of Mt Buffalo tasted so good I had a second helping. We went with a bunch of cyclists from Canberra as we do every year and had a wonderful time, lots of fun and laughter and good food!

Bright 2012

One day of our trip to Bright Bill and I rode from Myrtleford to Beechworth along the rail trail. It was an 85km return trip, with the section from Everton to Beechworth a 16km steady uphill ride, but as it was the path of the old train track it was a steady, gradual climb. It was a lovely ride, the day was warm but there was plenty of shade and it was quite a pretty ride, Beechworth was relatively cooler than Everton, when we arrived, but the ice cream at the end of the climb was very appreciated! You could feel the warmth as we descended, so it was nice to get back to the motel for a swim and a shower and some air conditioning!

Family History in Mathoura

Bill and I recently went down to Bright as we have been doing for the past 15 years or so, but this time we took a detour to Mathoura- only an extra 400km! The purpose was to visit Mathoura, which is the town that Bill's grandfather lived before heading off to World War 1. He was working in the bank, left to go to WW1, then returned to Mathoura and became the bank manager. The town of Mathoura presented all those who returned from WW1 with a gold watch that Bill now has. Bill had been in contact with a local historian, who had sent Bill a newspaper article about the presentation so this was a chance for us to stand in the hall and see where this event happened. Eric Swanston Frost, responded on behalf of all the diggers according to the article. So we saw the place, took a photo of the building we think may have been the bank residence when he was living in Mathoura. Quite an interesting stop.