Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

Drumroll -  Here is my big unveil for my A to Z challenge in April It is Wander Victoria with Little Wandering Wren! Now those Aussie's living locally might be thinking 'that sounds familiar' and you'd be right!  As without so much of a ' please, would you mind if. ...' our Victorian State Government have taken the bold, audacious move of launching a new advertising promotion designed at promoting the wonders of our State with the headline "Wander Victoria!" Cheeky or what?! I mean all they needed to do was to add the words 'Little' and ' Wren' and that's me! So if you can't beat them, join 'em, your Little Wren looks forward to taking you on her own little wander  around my adopted home state of Victoria, Australia. Whether it is the beach or the bush  I hope you'll join me for the journey! See you on Friday when it all kicks off. More information on the A-Z C

End of Summer surfboard sale Rye Ocean Beach, Mornington Peninsula Autumn leaves arriving... Muddy paws! linking with Wordless Wednesday

It is with great sadness that I see my Twitter feed  filling up with news of the Brussels explosions.  Belgium is a country that we know well, having lived there on two occasions for over eight years. My son was born there, and until fairly recently it was the country that our kids knew the best. Here are a few pictures from my most recent trip in May 2015 as I share some of my thoughts and memories. Brussels - Euro Statue All three of our children attended the local French speaking schools. They all started at Maternelle, like their fellow classmates when they were two and half years old. 'That's young' I hear you say. Which is true, but with three kids under five, I was not complaining. This early crack at education has given them a life-long linguistic advantage and some beautiful cursive writing... Well, whilst they might be linguistically gifted, it is only compared with their parents. It is certainly not compared with the other students. You

Today is the 2016 Australian Formula One Grand Prix and if you are watching it around the world on the television you will see what a wonderful day it is here in Melbourne! We have the sunshine, we have beaches and we have a whole load of noisy cars! Earlier today I took the crazy poodle for a walk and we came across a 'Born in the USA' car rally.  I loved this number plate! Hot Chevy Dog Linking with thanks to Katherine and friends at Thursday Favorite Things  at My Sunday Photo with thanks to Darren at Photalife

Wordless Wednesday Photos taken at Bruno's Art & Sculpture Gardens, Marysville If you would like to know more information on Marysville you can read it here Linking with thanks to Sue At image-in-ing Wordless Wednesday with Mary Denman :

Feb 7th, 2009 is known as Black Saturday. It was the day of the worst bushfires in Australian history.  A day when 173 people lost their lives. In the small town of Marysville,  a wildfire took the lives of 34 people  and destroyed over 95% of the town's buildings. Marysville was one of five towns that completely burned down. Message to Marysville: Beauty from the Ashes quilt Six years on, I am standing admiring a beautiful quilt in the Marysville's Tourist Information Centre. The quilt has 131 patches donated to the community by people all over Australia to show they care and to encourage them in the long road to recovery.  Beauty from the Ashes Quilt Black Saturday was a day Victorians will never forget.  Our Melbourne day started normally. The kids were back to their first full week at school after the long summer holidays. We'd had an unprecedented hot spell, and because of the predicted extreme heat, school Saturday sport was cancelled. We t

Mr Wren has a new car 'What type?' I hear you ask? A red one! Don't worry we've all been giving him a load of grief about his mid-life crisis and he's heard all the jokes about  'been called out to many fires yet?' However, I did like the reflection up the garden path  off the new fire-engine! Linking with thanks at Weekend Reflections Thank you Darren at My Sunday Photo

Do you know those questions, 'who would you most like to have dinner with'? Well, Aung San Suu Kyi is at the top of my list. Today, being International Women's Day seems to be a perfect day to tell you why! Yangon Street Art Having just returned from a holiday to Myanmar we have got to know, Suu, the most famous woman never to have held office, a lot better than we would otherwise have done. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD) and between 1989 and 2010 spent fifteen of those twenty-one years under house arrest in Rangoon (Yangon). She is a charismatic figure, loved by her people, hated by the military regime who have been running the country. Recent democratic elections have given hope of a change. But the world waits to see how this might be. I am drawn to Suu for many reasons, and I guess the bottom line is that I can't help wondering at every stage of trying to understand her life, would I have been

Dear Sally I'm sending you some Aussie flowers and I know you are looking down and smiling. I've chosen these beautiful and tough plants that adorn many a Melbourne driveways and paths for you today and I know you'd approve of their blue colour. These are the perfect Aussie flowers and I have just realised that I do not have enough of them in my garden. In your honour, I shall plant some for you. They tell me they are low maintenance whilst making a flamboyant statement with their bird attracting flowers - perfect! Agapanthus: Australian Blue perennial flower Blue Monday was one of the first memes I joined as Little Wandering Wren and I enjoyed my regular visits. Australia with its rich blue skies offered many opportunities to participate and Sally was always quick to respond with her lovely encouraging comments. Many of my favourite blogs have been found through Blue Monday and I was very sad to read Sally's final post. You can find it here

We're just gearing up for the start of the 2016 Australian Winter football season. Move over cricket, here come the soccer players! After what seems to have been the shortest pre-season ever,   it didn't help being away for all the warm -up matches,  yesterday was Round One of the Victorian Women's National Premier League. So it's football boots on and off we go! Ha! Well, that's, of course, the right royal "we", I'm just the crazy soccer Mum. This season looks to be calmer than last year when our family were either  playing, coaching or assisting with seven matches over the course of a weekend. No wonder I'm crazy, just keeping everyone fuelled for optimum performance was a challenge and my workout! The photo I'm sharing this weekend is from Myanmar when we stumbled upon a village soccer tournament. What do you see? Village football Yangon, Myanmar I love seeing the Beautiful Game being played around the