Here's Banjo!

Here's the newest member of the family - Banjo the Ragdoll cat. You can click on the photos to get full size ones :)

The dreaded lurgy

The Walker household is awash with chest infections (at the adult end of the spectrum) and coughs and sniffles for the kids. This has by far been the coldest winter we have experienced since living in Victoria, and probably equally as cold as the coldest winter we would have experienced in Sydney.

Global warming and the moderating of the climate has seen us sail through the past 6 winters - but this one got under our guard.

One good thing though - Owen hasn't been hospitalised with asthma since May 2009 (touch wood)! So that's a massive bonus :)

While the sun is shining through my office window at the moment (lovely), the 7-day forecast doesn't look quite so promising :(



I'd better bask in it while it lasts.

July 2010

July has been flat out. After coming back from Sydney earlier this month, the boys returned to school and Angus had school camp in week 2 of the term. This was a 3 day/2 night camp at Phillip Island, and I went along as a parent helper with 2 other Dads and 2 Mums. It was a bit on the cool side which was to be expected, but we had a great time. Flying foxes, giant swings and sleeping in cabins witness their mates, the kids had a ball.

The following week the kids all went downhill with sniffles, coughs and headaches, culminating in all 3 boys having a day off.

This is turning into the coldest winter since we moved to Victoria, but we need the rain that's coming with it.

Our veggie patch is ticking over, and without the earth in the air, the veggies are using what sunlight they can soak up and the eater from the clouds and growing. We should get some veggies before Spring and the be able to sow some more - and maybe even set up a second raised garden bed at the same time.

Kids sports on Saturday mornings are keeping us well and truly busy and logistically challenged. The boys are still enjoying their sports, so I suppose it's all worth it :)

Markets and Museums

On a cold and wintery day, what do hardy Victorians do? We head outside to a market - then inside to the sanctuary of a nice warm museum :)

We headed to the Melbourne Showground Farmers Market but turned one driveway too early and ended up at the Flemington Craft Market (which included some produce!). After braving that for a couple of hours and purchasing Lily a lovely new hat (and some yummy treats), we headed off.

On a cold and miserable day many families decide to flock together - at Scienceworks. This is Melbourne's science museum and it's awesome. The boys were playing with some connecting/building/creative stuff and here's the results of their toil. The images aren't the best, but you get the idea :)

Queen's Birthday weekend

The Queen's Birthday long weekend meant NO KID'S SPORTS! However, Patrick and Angus had their musical theatre performance on the Saturday night, so there was no chance we could go away for the weekend. This year's performance was a tribute to musical theatre writers and lyricists over the past 100 years - from Fiddler on the Roof to Rent, Willy Wonka to Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and many more. Angus was dressed as a yellow Oompa Loompah at one stage!



Anyhow, the boys and the rest of the cast did a wonderful job as usual.

On Saturday we took a drive to Castlemaine with our good friend Kathryn. Kathryn was our tour guide aswe had not previously been to Castlemaine. It's a beautiful country town and somewhere we'll be visiting again - and it's not that far away :)

Knocked down by friendly fire

My own little bio-terrorists (read: children) have finally infected me with their cold germs. I'm blowing my nose more often than I can count and my head feels stuffy and clogged. The kids are pretty much over the worst of it, so they felt it was time to share with Dad!

I know they can't control their germs and how they spread them, but it makes me feel a little bit better to whinge about it :)

Work we've been up to

After the hailstorm earlier this year we suffered a little damage. Most of it has now been repaired, and here's a photo of the new fascia on the deck. It's the decking timber on the face of the deck. It used to be fibre cement sheeting but was replaced with nicer looking and harder wearing treated pine. Yay!


Oh, and that arbor on the right hand side of the picture was built by Brian (Karen's Dad) and myself last year. Impressive, isn't it ;)

Also, we've reclaimed the old vegie patch as we are going to build a hen house here. So rather than do without a vegie patch we've installed a colourbond raised bed next to the old patch. We'll add 2 more over the coming months. We've already planted snow peas, celery, red onion and carrots. The strawberries and rhubarb from the old patch have been transplanted too!


We've used PVC conduit and some bird netting to give the seedlings a fighting chance against the local wildlife - and it seems to be working :)

(By the way, you can click the photos for a larger view)