Play date...

An evening with our special friend...some blocks for stacking

...a photo of Savannah's foot...remarkably clean this time.

...then, to finish, some beading.

Makin' eggs....

One of Sebastian's latest passions....making scrambled eggs..

..it should be noted that he doesn't necessarily want to EAT the eggs...he just likes making them.

*sigh* If only I felt that way about homemade cookies...

The Circle...

The Circle....well, more of a Square I suppose...

...still progressing...

Savannah and Teddy raking the path for.....(drum roll please)......seems our neighbour has a chainsaw and happily assisted the transformation of our scavenged stumps into....
My Vision realized...

Snoozing in the 'bat cave'...

This busy life interrupted for a brief time by that annoying necessity of sleep....

A work in progress...

So I had a Vision of a footpath for outside our back gate. We have no grass to speak of out there, just a lot of sandy dirt which becomes a lot of sandy mud when it rains which becomes a lot of sandy mess in the house as we track in and out. My Vision involved some sawn log circles and perhaps some gravel....


Someone in the neighbourhood had cut down a tree and left the stumps of trunk curbside..presumably for folks to scavenge. The only down-side to that....after making enquiries to all likely parties, it seems we don't know anyone with a chainsaw to transform aforementioned logs into 'slices". So I set about digging the garden part and will leave the rest to the Universe.

B brought back some of the stumps which became part of our Circle...a place for the kids to sit and play and chat and rest....




The 'Garden' part...hopefully to eventually become a habitat for the birds...the kids and I went down to the local garden centre and 'rescued' a few sad-looking evergreens from the 'Reduced to clear' rack...the jury is still out on whether the globe cedar will survive but we're doing all we can to help it along...


You can see the outline for the path....the nature of which is as yet to be determined...Oh yeah, and it just rained.

A worm's-eye view of B...

Not entirely sure how this happened...but it's pretty cool anyway.

The playground Posse...

Just a few of the crew to be found frequenting the playground...and our backyard....and the path between the houses...;}

Cicada exoskeleton...

Very hard to see in this picture...and all the other ones I took...but it's really there and is super-cool. We saw (and heard) lots of cicadas this summer...unlike summers past where we heard them, but never saw them.

Always helping...

Snowbell loves to colour almost as much as Savannah...

...her participation usually means lots of markers left without their tops and me finding said tops at various places around the house for days afterward. All the world's a toy to our darling Snowbell.

Crawford Lake...

This was a trip sans Me. Just B and the kids....

An interesting purple plant...


'Twas a bit damp and rainy...


For the Fungus Collection...thanks B!

Atop a mossy boulder...

From the eye of Savannah...Part Two

Kitchen clutter-zone...

Something kinda cool going on with a streaky-rainbow type light...ghost photography?

An interesting angle-shot of our cane plant...named Horatio.
Portrait of PB&J...

From the eye of Savannah...Part One

The title says it all....some views of Savannah-Land...

The Teddys...


Coffee table and under-TV...



Malcolm from afar...

Malcolm up close...

"They did what?"...

Something really bizarre happening on the Discovery channel...

Kerncliff...

This was one of our trips sans Daddy...which means we get to ramble aimlessly and take lots of rest breaks.

A mossy stump....I like it.



We couldn't really decide what made this really neat hole in the tree, but it was a lot of fun guessing. If you tip your head sideways, you might imagine it was a big mouth a la 'The Scream', no?
Checking out the soybean crop...
Wands raised, we summon the spirits of the Harvest...
Atop the viewing stump...

LaSalle Park...

*sigh*....nothing like a little biohazard warning to start off our trek along the waterfront.

...'fish not safe for eating'....no kidding!


Sebastian learning about the fish....that we won't be eating.

Feeding the ducks and swans....having first disregarded the "Don't feed the waterfowl" sign...'cos we don't like silly rules. Hey swans! Are you sure you want to drink that water?

Just because I LOVE taking pictures of really cool tree roots...
From the Fungus Collection...I recently learned that these fungi actually help the trees absorb nutrients from the soil. Neat, huh?

Tortilla art...

The latest installation from Savannah's 'Everyday Stuff Series'...


...fear not leftover-tortilla, you transcend the ham roll-up and become....a stegosaurus!
Note: Wiener-schnozz lurking below...waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting Art...

A little brown teapot...

I just love my little brown teapot...it meets me every morning as I wander bleary-eyed into the kitchen. I can't even think how long I've had this teapot...my nanna brought it over from England for me years and years ago. I simply can't imagine my tea without it.

Bushy...at last!

Lured by a generous wedge of a peanut butter and jam sandwich, Bushy finally consented to having her picture taken up close....isn't she beautiful?

Movie time...

Savannah had chosen a movie gift card from her door prize at our community BBQ last week and felt a strong *need* to go and see a movie right away - she's never been to a movie theatre before - so we were limited as to the options for viewing. The only kids movie available was Wall E which I'd heard some interesting things about. So off we went. Unfortunately it wasn't to her taste so we left after about 40 minutes. Instead, she and Brandt headed off to Blockbuster to rent a couple of more interest. They came home with Snow Buddies and the Simpsons Movie. Savannah has taken to joining her dad in watching the Simpsons and has become quite a fan....and Brandt has been wanting to watch the movie for ages.
A bowl of SmartFood and a cup of berry juice and they were set....
Eventually Savannah lost interest in that one too and wandered down to join Sebastian and I in the playroom for the Lion King II and a game with the jungle animals leaving Brandt to guffaw on his own...;}

Movin' on up...

Sebastian started test-driving big sisters bicycle today....he's tried before but couldn't get the hang of pedalling forward to start - on his trike he tends to back-pedal for momentum but of course on the bike, back-pedalling is the brakes. BUT...he felt the *need* to try again and to his great Joy has now got the hang of it! And his birthday is coming up so perhaps its time to upgrade from the trusty old tricycle.

Note of gratitude to Savannah for graciously allowing us to put the pedals and training wheels back on while Sebastian found his way....