Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

It's been a huge couple of weeks and Orange you glad it's Friday? Pass me the wine - and I rarely do! In Melbourne, November rolled in, and blasted us  with all the promise of an epic hot summer.  Our gardens blossomed  and summer geraniums burst forth. Roses bloomed through out the streets and our neighbourhood looked pretty as a picture  on the front of a chocolate box. Of course we can't eat the chocolates. You see our thoughts are turning to Christmas, swimsuits, and summer holidays at the beach But this is Melbourne ... just as soon as we'd put away our winter woollies, the weather turned. Pass me a chocolate please we may be a while before we get into our cossies this summer! We celebrated in style  at our Melbourne Cup Spring Racing Carnival. We were stunned and shocked  by the deaths of two horses   on the day that the eyes of a nation were upon us. We've...

Whilst my family in Europe   are starting to think about winter we're seeing some delightful signs of summer.  Mum's UK Harvest Festival flowers at church First of all we bought quarter finals tickets to  the 2015 Australian Open.   Apart from the beach,  nothing scream summer  more than the tennis! ... oh, and maybe the cricket! This week was the start of term four Our son has five days left at school, ever. So we have various end of year events Speech  Night and Valedictory Dinner,  and not to mention his final exams, then he has three months summer holidays off before university starts. This weekend I am running in the Run4Refugees team at the Melbourne marathon hopefully my knees hold up for 5 kms! It is going to be 27 degrees we're in that summer mode of thinking;  water, sunscreen, hats... Aussie spring flowers in our park this week I have modified this picture to join in...

I can't say i t's been a massively exciting week But it's always great to get to Friday. For all the other 'work in progress' Mum's out there,  Surviving Year 12 we made it.   Flowers for you.  'Orange you glad it's Friday'? Roses for all Mothers! We went to a brilliant parenting talk last night given by Michael Carr Gregg child and adolescent psychologist. We learned that 'no child ever died of an untidy room,' 'their rooms just reflects the state of their brains...'  and that the rational planning part of the brain  doesn't fully develop until at least 23 years old... I remembered this today when Daughter No 2  currently backpacking round California posted a tweet "just jumped out of a plane" Daughter No 1 in Africa has been quiet, too quiet. With no contact for ten days . she finally surfaced in  a hotel room in Liberia, there because they needed electricity to writ...

Hooray! It's the Aussie school holidays...   The weather is warming up. I've unearthed my summer clothes, replenished the sunscreen, found the sun hats and sunnies, got my water bottle permanently to hand, and have started to get that frisson of excitement when you get the last car parking space in the shade... Orange flowers looking blooming good in the park this week Spring is in the air, and yellow wattle trees have burst into life. All around is a familiar sound, the drone of lawn mowers and the sneeze of summer. The Wattle's out - Bless you! If we were back in China or Hong Kong we'd be on holiday too. It's Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 , known as the Mooncake Festival. Families gather to eat mooncakes and watch the moon. There are lots of brightly coloured lanterns everywhere. Happy holidays to all my Chinese friends and to those living in Hong Kong and China. I hope you are enjoying the full moon festivities and your mooncakes...