Holidays...

What a lovely time we've had. The picture just about sums it up... my dear Dad pouring another drop of something rather good to share with family and friends.

We've had two weeks in Tasmania drinking, eating, wining, dining, wandering, chatting and beaching.

There was a bit of rushing of course - there always is at Christmas time. Tasmanians who live abroad  seem to head back every other Christmas rather like homing pigeons returning to the nest. The pull of an island home I suppose.

This time we took five days away from the social whirl at a beach an hour from Hobart... my husband bushwalked a little, the boys ran and ran on the sand and swam in the shallows.  I joined them in the water for quick dips (it's pretty fresh) and also read and played with my Christmas gifts - a fantastic book I finished in three days, my new camera (yippee) and a rather challenging jigsaw.

I'll tell you more about all three this week in between the washing, sorting and gradual return to real life. 2012 here I come.

A very merry...

Season's greetings to one and to all. 

We are surrounded by family in a place we love, looking forward to the end of a rather difficult year.

We have planned a peaceful beachside break to rewind and refresh.

I hope you have plans for the same. See you on the other side. A x

A little Christmas spirit...

I had done zip, nada, nothing to inject any Christmas spirit into our house... until yesterday.

The boys have plenty of the stuff course. They have already met Santa twice -  although the first encounter (at a neighborhood bbq in the local park) rather failed to convince. I think it was the fact that all the kids chasing him for lollies pulled his red pants off.

The guy you see above was a professional and his ho-ho-hoing did the trick for all the kids at my youngest son's new pre-school.

The boys also received their own message from Santa this year via Portable North Pole - it's a little cheesy but you should have seen the looks on their faces when they watched the personal message from The Big Guy. Try it with your true believers.

Unfortunately my second son's ever changing needs are a little hard for Santa to meet. He wanted blue curtains for Christmas and that darn internet Santa has now promised to deliver them.  Although when I asked him ten minutes ago what he'd like he'd changed his mind again. Now he wants a plastic tree and some plastic flowers. And looked at me as though I was an aging lunatic when I asked what exactly those were.

Now that the Christmas spirit has descended (well, our tree is up) I've decided to make Retromummy's rocky road for my son's classmates.

It's the least I could do.

I'm a big fan of the 'least I could do' policy at this time of year.

Flat Stanley...

The keenly observant among you may notice that that large green dip is in fact a volcano and is in fact in Auckland. And yes we do now live in Melbourne.

I am playing blog catch up. 

That is Flat Stanley and this year he came to stay for a week or so with us. He'd been with my old university friend and blogger extraordinaire Jane. Now Jane would not have taken I don't want to think how long to post these pictures... (Actually I know how long - I just checked and it was way back in June. Cripes.)

I love the Flat Stanley project - it's nearly as old as me.

Actually the book is WAY older - written in 1964 about Stanley Lambchop who gets squashed flat by a falling picture and so can post himself to see his friends (I don't want to spoil the ending but in case you're concerned he gets restored to 3D with a bike pump.)

The literacy project sees school kids connect with the world as they send Flat Stanley on from country to country. Of course now you can do it online and as an iPhone app. Our Stan was old school.

We took him to one of our favourite spots in Auckland - Mt Eden.  I wouldn't mind posting myself back there for a stroll.

Stan didn't say much but I think that smile means he liked it. 

Our new door....

Oops. In 2010 I posted 136 thoughts on 136 separate days. In 2011 I have posted just 55 times (now 56).

I think that sums up our year. It all feels a blur. We sold a house, nursed two boys through two broken bones and a decrepit old crone with a slipped disc (me), juggled the administrative nightmare of moving with a husband with a highly stressful job - all first world problems and nothing at all compared to the woes of others I know.... in the middle of it all we reluctantly left New Zealand and gratefully returned to Australia.

I think it's the 'so reluctant to leave' and 'ever so grateful to return' that have me confused. Part of me misses terribly our lovely villa life in Auckland, the other is loving Melbourne with close family close by and the nervous, excited thought that we might actually stay here for good.

I think I have had very little brain space left over this year. As well as a return to part time work I have dived headfirst into the school and pre-school communities - all part of my usual impatient approach to settling. I find it so dull being new and not knowing anyone.

My oldest friends - who I will see over Christmas - have demanded I find my blogging mojo.  We are celebrating with a pre-festive lunch to discuss our New Year resolutions. I can't think much past 'lose three kilos' and 'find a better hairdresser.' My haircut is dire but I know I can do better than that.

Off to dig out the camera and see what you've missed about my last few months.

Oh yes and this is our new Melbourne front door. So like a villa door don't you think?

Looking back and some life lessons...

This is our Auckland garden, mid house sale. It was also the middle of July so while everything is looking uncharacteristically neat it's also clearly in need of sunshine and a warm burst of spring weather.   It had just had a much too vigorous clip and shape when we decided to put it on the market... I'm sure it looks a delight now.

You can see a paint brush on the arm of one of the benches... I think I was probably touching up the walls (again) while no doubt praying that the fence behind wouldn't fall down under the weight of our neighbour's awful towering palm trees - at least not before auction day.

You may remember the garden had more hedging which after much agonising I eventually pulled out.  The old hedges had started to die one by one and removing them was the best thing I could have done.  It really opened up the space and we all used the top level so much more... lots of mini soccer matches and lounging on the bench with a glass of something good as the sun went down.

So what have I learned from my last garden (apart from the fact that I still have a lot more to learn about gardening)?

I don't like too much green on green and would much rather have a colourful, productive space -  more fruit and flowers next time. The pink roses around our new house make me smile each time I catch a glimpse.

I do like the back hedging, a combination of pittosporum (the lighter slightly grey leaved plant) and griselinia - a glossy green hedge plant that thrives in Auckland and would no doubt hate life in dry old Melbourne.

I do love the colour of the brickwork. Before the previous owners painted it was a mess of sandy coloured bricks and sandstone and hideous grey blockwork. The colour is Resene's Fuscous Gray and I will use it again.

I was going to say something clever about the idiocy of paint colour names and then looked up the meaning of fuscous... after two years of sniggering whenever I heard it today I find out it means 'dark brownish grey'.  Another lesson learned. 

Blue days...

Spring is a delight this year. After living with an ordered, green, hedged garden in Auckland I'm so enjoying the daily surprises in our new patch of Melbourne. We have a sea of blue irises that have grown from mere shoots in just two months. I'm busily deadheading forty spent flowers a day to keep them blooming as long as possible.

I'm also drinking in the colourful gardens of our suburb. Not the green on green, slightly austere gardens so favoured by designers and property developers. These are proper gardens grown over years and years with a wonderful array of plants all very happy the drought has broken for now.

Spring blossom in pinks and whites (the crabtree's my favourite). Billowing creamy roses in soft pastels that you simply have to cross the road to smell, wisteria, lime green hellebores in the shady spots, delicate seaside daisies springing from cracks in the pathways and a backdrop of rich fresh spring green.

You can almost taste it, it smells so good.  To hell with the hayfever.