Legoman vs The Tree

There has been a lot of discussion over here at Betsy's about what to do with this tree. Well actually just the one massive branch overhanging the deck. This gorgeous poinciana tree was one of the clinchers for us buying Betsy. Our old house had a tiny yard but the most gorgeous mango tree in the world which had been the main feature for us when we bought there over a decade ago. We knew if we we ever left that house, it would be for another house with equally wonderful trees.

As you walk in from Betsy's front door, you can see down the length of the house, through some bifold doors , past the deck and onto the mammoth trunk of this grand old poinciana tree. Of course at the open house, the deck was  immaculately clean with not a leaf in sight, the gutters clear. The reality is of course slightly different.
Poinciana's have a LOT of really teeny tiny leaves. And they fall all day, every day of the year. In a gust of wind, the kids call it tree snow and it is beautiful. Unfortunately, when it rains (which it has done an awful lot over the last year) the leaves sit in the puddles and leach out a brownish dye that stains everything. The beautiful grey I had started to paint the deck is now riddled with grotty brown blotches that don't scrub clean. And the gutters, well poor Legoman cleared them completely and a month later they are putting him to shame again.

We are planning to build a roof over our deck in the near future which will protect the floors but will create a heap more gutters directly under the flight path of the tree snow. So, after much debate, I agreed to let  Legoman  loose up there to sort it out. Handsaw only, he is desperate for a chainsaw but I like him with all his limbs intact. It is a massive branch that we intend to lop, but the plan was for him to climb up and start at the ends, bit by bit so we could see how it looked. All under my watchful supervision, as he can occasionally go a bit crazy with the pruning until all you have left is a stick.

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This is the branch that is going, as you can see it is massive and a really long way up. Luckily Legoman used to be a competitive rock climber so has no fear of heights. He fortunately does have a realistic fear of his own ability to be  a complete klutz and sensibly tied the saw onto the tree.

Look at that progress. Nothing like a bit of wanton destruction to make a bloke feel at peace with the universe.

Not to mention stopping to enjoy the view of a sunset over Mt Cootha as well as the rolling hills in the far southwest on the way to Beaudesert.

Stretched out to get that one last troublesome branch, after 3 different attempts to get the ladder closer have been thwarted. The ladder, even on top of the deck only reaches to about 8 metres, this branch was around 9.5m above the ground.

Finally, come down to survey the carnage. Typically I had just swept the deck before this urge to chop overcame the man.

Guess what we will be doing all day tomorrow. Luckily, we have at least three handsaws and all seasons family funpass to Willawong Dump. Yes, that is the curbside find in the background. I had been sanding and undercoating until it became unsafe to continue.

And the kids? The were safely sequestered away in another part of the garden. Nothing like raiding the vintage sheet set for some cubby love.

All this sunshine has frankly had us in a garden appreciating  frenzy. We also put together our first raised garden bed, lice treated the chooks, installed the new double nesting box  and did some weeding. And all this in the first week of winter. Another reason I love living in Brisbane.

Chores and chooks

Today Liongirl and I stayed home and caught up on some chores. The sun was shining  down as she got straight to work testing out her new pegs (all her own work, she's obviously concerned those teatowels could lift off in the breeze). While we were outside pottering around, we had a little company. Or shadows might be a better term. The girls - Sooty, Rose and Dora2- associate the sight of me with lunch. So that means Liongirl being a mini version of me, is odds on for meaning at least some sort of snack. And if she is armed with snacks they are a lot closer to the ground and worth following closely.

Ok, Sooty, Dora2 you run ahead and keep her distracted, I'll just hang back a bit until she completely forgets I'm here and she leads us directly to the stash.

Ooooh, I wonder is it worms or beetles, worms or beetles or maybe both. Like a worm and beetle hotpot.

I'll just go and peek over her shoulder, they must be hidden in that pot.

Where's she gone?  She's got the worms I know it.


Oh cripes, run, it's the cat. And she looks cranky that we are stealing the photo limelight (she has Home Beautiful cover aspirations you know). See here for her portfolio. She only has two poses though- asleep or huffy.

See, told you. Huffy huffy huffy.

I think now would be  good time to look busy (until the cat goes back to sleep)

Good work girls, head down bum up....... scratch scratch scratch......I heard there may have been termites here a while back.

Hang on a minute, is that the sound of the toddler taking the lid off the worm farm? Make haste girls, Sizzler has just opened for lunch.

Ok, she really has the worms now. You two distract her somehow and I will infiltrate Sizzler.

Aaarh  that was Deeelicious. By the way, where is that toddler?

Of course, cram the toddler into the laundry tub trick. Good work girls. Where are your shares of the worms.......umm.......hey is that a lizard over there? There, just outside the gate....actually next door....quick, go look now.

This excerpt of the blogumentary " Days of our Chickeny Lives" was inspired by a decade of Gary Larson cartoons. Starring Rose as lead girl. Supporting roles Sooty and Dora 2. Toddler  played by Liongirl. And yes, Talking Animal movies would be one of my favourite movie genres. Except for Cats and Dogs 2, it was bitterly disappointing.

Winter Woollies

I know we are still weeks from winter but I seem to keep gravitating towards all the warm and woolly things in op shops. This lovely soft scarf was from one of those lovely choc-a-block op shops where the little old ladies who run the shop also have a rack of handmade baby cardigans and scarves. Unfortunately the cardies were all a little small for miss Liongirl but this scarf just had my name all over it. Mustard, burnt orange and grey- perfect.

Then there was this woolly blankie. Look at all these gorgeous gelati colours. I'm curious to see which of the kids nabs it first for laptime during early morning TV.

And the little packet of wooden pegs for $1. I had been wanting to get some of these for Liongirl as she has her own washing line but the modern plastic pegs are too difficult for her to use. I wasn't sure if supermarkets even sold them anymore but look, there they were in an op shop, on the top of the craft pile and still in the packet.

And some more books for Roboboy- he is needing them for his" Research". I nearly snorted out loud when he selected the Readers Digest's Guide to the Outback at the last fete trash and treasure and cited that it too was required for " research" purposes. I think that was the same day he was watching a Justine Clarke music videoclip on ABC kids and exclaimed out loud to himself about the " beautiful illustrations". I do have some concerns about how his refined gentlemen style  of language goes down in the playground amidst games of armies and Ben10.

At least now he will be able to at least tell his friends the correct terminology for all the quartz crystals they keep digging up at school. Pockets full, before every washing load.

And this one was for me, the colour and texture was completely enough to stop me being able to walk away.

I had a good feeling about this little daisy pot. It did not have any brand name on the bottom but had a "made in England" and an impressed number 1582. From these two clues and google, it appears to possibly be some Carlton Ware from the late 1930's but I haven't been able to find anything quite like it on ebay. No matter what its history, noble or otherwise, I still love it.
Oh yes, almost forgot- for anyone like me who was unable to post comments on most  blogs ALL THIS WEEK due to a blogger glitch , the way to fix it is when you sign in with blogger, just unclick on the teeny box that says "keep me signed in" and it should all be working.  And feel free to pop back and post about your eternal gratitude as that took me 4 days of scrolling through blogger help forums to sort out.

Orange inspiration

I have never previously considered orange to be one of my most favourite colours. But since I brought this magical cushion home I seem to be drawn to shades of retro orange everywhere.

 There is a pile of not quite finished orange inspired crochet.

And not to forget the painting that has pride of place in the one completed corner of the lounge room.

Gazing out of my lounge room window today, I was admiring a green backdrop dotted with the flame coloured leaves of one of Betsy's crepe myrtle trees. I had never noticed before that they are deciduous.

They are not a flamboyant expression of autumn by any means but in Brisbane you can travel an entire suburb to find a deciduous tree so you have to take what you can get. School pick up revealed another glorious crepe myrtle tree on the footpath.

So it was straight home to find a pair of secateurs and a long ladder. Those crepe myrtles did need a prune anyway.

Now I just hope I don't wake up tomorrow to the sight of some dead twigs in a jug with a pile of gorgeous leaves on the floor.

To market to market we go we go

Yesterday morning we decided to brave the chill in the air and hit the Green Flea Markets in West End. Snack in hand- check. Pink pram with baby doll - check. Toshi  beanie with ears - check. I will not labour the point but beanies with earflaps are just slight overkill for a Brisbane autumn as I doubt we even hit single figure temperatures but who am I to argue with a toddler fashionista. Especially when she has chosen the beanie to match my scarf.

I love the West End Markets. The atmosphere has a buzzing kind of energy and the canopy of grand old fig trees that cover the stalls as they wind through the park, makes it a little darker and more wintery. All the better for scarves and beanies.

Not to mention the avenue of food stalls which is where we were headed. No time for groceries, there were Hungarian treats to devour. Roboboy had gone to the land of Grammy for a sleepover so we did what we always do if he is otherwise engaged, gorged ourselves on dairy laden goodies. Those Hungarians have a lot to answer for with respect to global obesity as not only did they provide the savoury deep fried cheesy/sour cream doughy thing with the name I can't remember, but also this spiral of crunchy lemony cinnamon deliciousness.

As if the morning wasn't going beautifully enough, we turned the corner and stumbled onto the CUTEST vintage caravan in the whole world.

And have a peek inside - try and look without squealing.

Kris, the owner of this beautiful little van, told me that it was a 1964 Glider and that she had just spent the previous 4 months renovating it herself. She had only recently started doing a few local markets where she is selling vintage clothes, using the little van as a changeroom of sorts.

The van doesn't have a name ( of course I put my two cents in on that one) but is known as The best little vintage van in Vegas and she has a blog with the same name if you want to pop over and share the vintage van love. I was completely spellbound by the sight of this little candy coloured treasure and was adding Kris to the list of people whose jobs I covet. She is now in first place followed closely by Set Designer for Playschool in second and Florist in third. I unfortunately couldn't get a photo of the pink 1967 Holden Special she uses to tow this beauty but they are currently featuring on the cover of Vintage Caravan magazine . Yes there is now a dedicated mag to share the vintage van love around.

After a good 15 mins chatting and dreaming, Liongirl dragged me away in search of pears. They are her favourite and her best (her words) and imagine the joy at stumbling onto this. One of apples, one of pears.

And when you approach the man in such a cute beanie, clutching just one pear, he is kind enough to give it to you for free.

And when you drop half eaten pear in the dirt and go back to buy another one, the man gives you another one for free. Goodness, we could have filled a whole bag if only I had a few more children wearing cute beanies.

Fete Goodies

At the school fete we went to on the weekend I was a woman on a mission. With a plan. No matter what, our house was to stay in a Negative Stuff Balance. That is, as we had recently donated a TRAILER load of stuff to charity, under no circumstances was anywhere near that  amount of stuff coming back into the house.

I left the kids (stamped with all day ride passes) with Legoman and hit the hall right on opening. I did not even look at toys, glanced over the kids books ( bagged a few), had a brief ferret in the kids clothes (the mounds were so high even I was overwhelmed) but did snag some corduroy pants for Roboboy complete with leather cowboy pocket and edging. He was impressed as he shares my fond appreciation of all things corduroy but wants me to sew something over the cowboy.

 A super fast scan of bric a brac and proud to say NONE purchased.

And then I stumbled onto the manchester corner. And no one was even nearby. On the top of the pile a glorious Grover Purple chenille bed throw, minor fading in parts but still awesome. I'm not sure whether I should applique some patches over the faded bits or chop it up. I'm leaning towards patching if Roboboy is keen on it. There were actually two but the other one had alot of stains so I let it be.

 Hidden under the sheets and blankets were three boxes of fabric - all $1 per piece. The pile in the top photo was only about a quarter of the stash on offer but to maintain the negative stuff balance I was selective. I also found a pile of felt and beads all untouched so they had to come home too.

Two glorious Australian animal puzzles. Roboboy was straight onto these the minute we got home. I love Australiana and if it's educational as well it's a winner. I had just given away some Postman Pat  puzzles so Stuff Balance = Neutral for this one. At 4 oclock the fete was winding up and it was announced that a bag could be filled for $2. Despite this and the fact that that Legoman and the kids snuck back in with me, we only filled one small bag. Stuff Balance still overwhelmingly well short of  a trailer load. Now I just need to finish painting the curbside find and set up my sewing machine.
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Love a good Fete in May

Nothing better on a gorgeous clear blue skied May day than hitting a local school fete. We have five  primary schools within ten minutes of us and as Roboboy and his old playgroup friends are spread around all five of them, there is a good chance we will run into some mates. This was the much begged for opportunity to fish for ducks and win a prize. Two best mates in green and yellow chose water pistols, Roboboy in orange, chose a stuffed toy lizard. I suspect that like us, that their highly visible T shirt colours were selected for ease of spotting in a crowd.   Liongirl (having not paid to catch ducks) won the man over with her smile alone and received a little stuffed duck toy.

I didn't see Roboboy for a good hour or so as he and his mates just did back to back turns on this.

He is not a fan of things that spin/rotate/lift off the ground but super slides he has had a thing for and has been tackling these solo since about 4. The view from the top was amazing- level with the top of the main school building. Thankfully I had the excuse of Liongirl being too small to do this alone, so we did a few runs together- pink lane of course.

She was more than happy on her new favourite ride, the carousel. She has been on several of these recently and is a little obsessed. She was sitting on Legoman's lap tonight looking at his laptop and excitedly declared CAROUSEL, at the sight of a red retro coffee machine. Hmmm.

Our kids have never had Fairy Floss before so we caved into peer pressure. See this very happy face?

And then he was told he would be sharing with his sister.....

Figuring I didn't want to ruin his first and possibly only contact with  fairy floss (food colouring is not Roboboy's best friend) I relented and bought a teeny one for miss Liongirl. Sunshine all around.

The highlight for me was sneaking off with a few other mothers to have a good ferret  through the enormous Trash N Treasure that filled the school hall. Two bags of fabric and books and crochet patterns later we all emerged into the glorious sunshine. And how had the dads been passing the time with our precious children? A game of alien laser skirmish involving alot of running around, aiming large gun like lasers at your mates with a head shot being the primary objective. Hmmm, so much for deliberately avoiding any exposure to guns for our five year olds. Very pleased later to see that despite his contact with shoot to kill our Roboboy still chose the lizard from the toy pile, over the toy gun. Although knowing him, that  lizard will be embellished with extra features much scarier than any gun. I'm thinking a detachable remote controlled tail, acid secreting glands and retractable claws. Too late tonight to photograph the fabric stash, just enough time to quietly collapse with a cup of tea after throwing on a few catch up loads of washing.