Last of the summer crops

With the days cooling off and autumn quickly approaching our veggie patch and garden offerings are sadly coming to an end. A late crop of corn is still yet to be picked. Best crops this year were the green beans. Ended up with 2 kilos of cherry tomatoes by the end and decided to make passata. Sorry Dad you've missed out on the green tomatoes chutney although I still do have a jar left over from last year! Also was given some dehydrated tomatoes from a friend which I put in olive oil and intend on making red pesto - a job for the weekend along with planting some winter veggies!!

Undoing our hard work

No doubt you would of heard of our plans of renovations...I mean they been going on for years. Actually looking back we began this process back in 2008. Thats our average for most things - 7 years to get married, 7 years before kids......

At the end of last year the reno movement began to get serious with final plans drawn (see below) and builders being contacted. Not much happened thanks to Christmas and summer holidays however by the end of Jan we received the 3 builder quotes. After scrutinising the quotes which were pretty similar, the decision boiled down to availability and so we chose the builder who could start the earliest.

With the money in the bank waiting to be spent, we thought we simply had to inform the certifier (who had had our building plans since early December) of our decision on the appointment of a builder. Hoping that the certifier would sign off to allow building to begin. Easy right? No, The certifier suddenly wanted tree approval.

Without going into too much detail both the architect and the builder think this is completely unnecessary however the certifier won't give us a tick to proceed with the renos until such approval is granted. Discussions between the architect and certifier resolved nothing and so began the tree saga.

The appropriate form was submitted to TAMS immediately. Three different contacts, three weeks later and we may have an inspector coming out on Monday fingers crossed.

In the mean time we've been busy preparing the backyard, commonly known as undoing all of our hard work over the past 7 years. We said goodbye to the sand pit and recycled the lid to replace the chicken's roof - an old interior door that was showing how it shouldn't have been outside. Thanks to the girls the chicken have a newly painted turquoise roof! Various trees, bushes and plants have been removed, trimmed or replanted. The shade sail has come down and part of the back deck stairs removed. The flagstone path and numerous railway sleepers moved.

Before all the handwork and building renos begins we took some photos of the back of the house for sentimental reasons :)

Too many choices

With the lull between sports we are suppose to be taking a breather on our weekends however that hasn't been the case. It seems now the girls are getting older, we have to fit their activities into our already limited spare time. I shouldn't really complain yet cause I know life is only going to get busier as they grow. You think we could do heaps of things on a long weekend...

Anyway the Canberra long weekend is full of fun stuff - there was enlightened (didn't get to that - everyone was too tired on the friday night), the chinese lantern festival (clashed with dinner at a friends house on the saturday night) and the ongoing balloon spectacular (yes got to that one!)

Up at the crack of dawn on the public holiday monday -  actually it was still dark when the alarm went off at 5.40am. A quick check of the website showed the balloons were flying today. Bundled the girls in their pjs into the car for the short trip into the parliamentary triangle where the balloons were leaving from.

As we arrived at the lawns in front of old parliament house,  lots of busy people were inflating several balloons. We mingled along with half of Canberra to observe this process. As the sky lightened, we found ourselves under three recognisable balloons - Dodo, Angry Bird and Yoda who came complete with a guard of storm troopers!

At regular intervals the balloons lifted off, only just clearing the trees to the ohh and ahhs of the crowd. I think we counted 20+ taking off. The only balloon not to join in on the party was Yoda who appeared to being used for tethered rides not that we hung around to enjoy one.

Autumn is definitely my favourite season in Canberra - riding to work in the crisp morning air, through the cork oaks and arboretum watching balloons float in the morning light is just magical. And then of course the trees begin their wonderful displays of yellows, oranges and reds as they prepare for winter.

Whose eggs are these?

I love having chickens! Opens up a whole new world as I discovered a few weeks ago during my morning jobs. Looked inside the egg box to discover one normal looking egg and one tiny, mini egg. Took them both inside to show off to the rest of the family and discuss our thoughts. Well we were all pretty confused at first but thankfully google sorted us out!

Turns out these tiny, mini eggs are a natural result when a small bit of reproductive tissue or other small foreign mass enters the hen's oviduct and triggers the regular formation of an egg. Inside the hen's body, the bit of tissue or stuff is treated like a normal yolk, so it is swathed and enveloped in albumen, membranes and a shell and then eventually laid. These eggs often only contain the white of the egg and no yolk.

So while googling about our mini eggs we discovered their name has evolved over time. In folk tradition these are known as cock eggs - that is an egg laid by a rooster or cock. During the Middle Ages, they were known as Witch Egg while in the mid to late Victorian era they were Fairy Eggs. In Scotland and some parts of Europe they are known as Wind Eggs and in recent times in the US they are called Fart Eggs! Very interesting to see how language reflects cultural ideals and concerns!

I personally like mini eggs and we were treated to another mini the next morning!

Canoeing

We undertook a new activity down at Lake BG a few weekends ago! Invited by the family of a school friend of Katy's, we joined them at Black Mountain Peninsula. Luckily the weather was still warm, making it the perfect spot to spent several hours swimming, canoeing, sand play, picnicking, tree climbing and generally playing!

We canoed (in two trips) over to the unnamed island on the west side of Black Mountain Peninsula where one of the girls randomly found a geocache. Consequently we loaded up the app only to discover it wasn't on there! Rather than canoe back, Andy, Ella and I took the opportunity to swim the 50 or so metres back. Was interesting to see how Ella coped with this challenge.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon/evening and hope to do it again next summer!

Seasons Best

Last weekend was the final Little Aths competition for the 2014/15 season.

Katy seemed to enjoy her first year at athletics making new friends and learning new skills. We had a nice but rather large group of under 6 girls who were all getting the hang of it towards the end of the season!

Ella also looked forward to hanging out with the gang of under 8 girls.

Just for the record here are their season BPs with Ella's 2013/14 season in italic -

50m      Ella    10.79    (11.27)          Katy 12.83
70m      Ella    14.77    (15.65)          Katy 17.39
100m    Ella    20.76    (22.53)          Katy 25.08
200m    Ella    49.0      (53.1)
300m    Ella    1.20.5
Walk     Ella    3.35.6
80m Hurdles    Ella   16.42

Long Jump    Ella    2.48m     (2.15m)          Katy     1.74m
Discus           Ella    8.75m     (9.06m)          Katy      3.36m
Shot Put        Ella    4.00m     (4.02m)          Katy      2.22m
Javelin          Ella    8.48m     (6.40m)

A Hidden Gem

Currarong, the little coastal town on the south coast is an absolute gem of a place. After packing up the campsite, we headed to Abrahams Bosom beach located at the far end of town and adjacent to Beecroft Peninsula.

While Andy and Al headed off on Coomies walking trail (a supposedly 9km loop around the headland) the rest of us wandered down to the beach to do the usual beach things -  wave catching/jumping and building elaborate sand castles. It wasn't very long before Andy reappeared. He had unfortunately rolled his ankle badly enough to stop running.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day spent at a really beautiful spot. Once Al had returned and cooled off we decided to relocate to the rock pool about 200m away. The tide was fairly low and ideal for the kids to have a go at snorkelling. Ella had been itching to try out her christmas present and after a few false starts mostly getting used to different breathing technique she started to enjoy herself.

We spotted a few small stripey fish however our snorkelling adventures were short lived. The slight sea breeze began to chill everyone and hunger had set in so it was a quick dash back to the cars!!

Our weekend was topped off with lunch cooked by Al and Rob - egg and bacon rolls on the bbq! A nice touch before the drive home.