Christmas Presents (T)

One final Perth Trip (T)

Anita and the boys made a final trip from the east coast to Perth. The return flight to Sydney was pretty rocky, lots of turblence, and when the plane landed Eddie happily announced "We did it Mum. We made it". He then looked out the window and when he got off the plane he reported to me "We came on a big plane and here there are so many medium sized planes".

The Farm - Altogether Now (T)

The six jones (plus seren for a day) have just enjoyed a couple of weeks at 'The Farm'. It was hot and dry most of the time, though the last couple of days we had some rain - the first significant rainfall in the Barham area since June. The best thing about the farm? Probably the lack of TV, internet & mobile phone coverage. The worst thing? The flies. Everybody said that there was an unusually large number of flies this year, but we didn't believe it.

Uncle Stephen's Gravestone in Kyabram (T)

Barham not Balham (T)

I'm under a tree in Balham, updating my blog like a facebook status. Aargh I wrote Balham. I'm actually in Barham - one letter but 10 000 miles. The boys are playing, Sebastian by eating the woodchips, Eddie with his new friend Tyler (whose mother just left him here). Anita has just been at the shops. Tyler is apparently 7, in fact he has probably told me everything about his age, names, school etc. Eddie is loving it. He just came up and said "we've had a wonderful time. But we're still here, playing together".

Eddie has just hit the age of saying the cutest things; he didn't want to go into a dark room in the old Koondrook train station, because (in his soft low serious voice) "there are lions in there, lions and tigers".

Aunt's Are (T)

The boys have had their aunts Seren and Megan for the last week, both have returned home (to Melbourne and Seattle). Eddie took a particular shine to Megan, referring to her ususally as "her", as in "her is still here" when she appeared from the bedroom the morning after arrival, and "her didn't want to get on the plane", when she cried on departure.



On Seren's recommendation we went to Bago winery on Monday, a local winery that makes about 100,000 bottles a year. We all agreed that they had a couple of excellent whites, particularly their Verdhelo, a grape I'd never heard of.



Sebastian remains an enthusiastic fan of the sand, and although it's hard to believe he actually enjoys the process of eating it, he never misses an opportunity.