ANZAC Day

Today is a special day where we pause to remember those who went to war and fought for our country and the freedom we all enjoy today. Lest we forget. We attended the service mid morning in town with a very large crowd.

Our grandfathers fought in the wars. My Grandfather in the 2nd world war and Peter's in the 1st world war.

This is Peter's grandfather in his uniform and the photo was taken in 1915. He served in the Australian Imperial Forces 32 Battalion 8th Brigade, it is believed much of his time was spent in France.






This my grandfather in his uniform and the photo was taken in 1942. He did overseas service in the 2/2 Battalion in New Guinea and Borneo and was not discharged until 1946.


Wreaths which were laid at our local was memorial.

Inspirational @ 95

Today is our dear family friend Nanna A's 95 th birthday. What a fabulous milestone. We have known her since the early 1970's when we lived next door to her and her late husband Alex in Collie ( he also lived into his 90's). Dad, Janelle, Sarah and I visited her this year in January. She is such an inspiration still living independently, baking cakes, going to swimming classes, writing short stories and poetry, gardening on her balcony and is right up with technology using a computer and emailing. She didn't even put on any glasses to look at something very small. The girls were very inspired by her activities and humour. I phoned her to wish her a very Happy Birthday and she told me all her family had gathered on the weekend for a celebration and she had a lovely time. She has always lived the simple life and we are very privileged to know such a wonderful lady.

Karri Valley Weekend

With Nicole settled back to work after her holiday in Broome, Janelle back at uni and Sarah enjoying a school trip over to Sydney and Canberra Peter and I headed down to the Karri Valley Resort near Pemberton for a well earned break. Unfortunately Dads previous wrist surgery didnt "work" so he had to have the operation redone so he is staying with Steven this time. So that just left us with the dogs which meant much to their disgust a few more days in kennels. This time we took them to High Tree Kennels in Busselton. We then drove down to Nannup and had lunch there. As we headed closer to the resort there was a lot of smoke about so we were very disappointed when we arrived to see nothing much more then a grey haze everywhere.This is a view of the lakeside units and restaurant. We were on the top floor third balcony from the right. The smoke eventually cleared and we able to enjoy a drink on our balcony and admire the lovely view. The next morning we set off on a bush walk to the Beedleup Falls. The morning was crisp and fresh and although the bush was very dry it was very beautiful. We then hired a canoe and went for a paddle around the lake. After some lunch we hired bikes and rode around some of the bush tracks. It was quite hilly at times and hard work so we enjoyed a nice cuppa lakeside for a rest.

With all the activities available there our next bit of fun was the mini golf which I managed to win.

In both the reception area and mini store at the resort were heaps of mini cans of Edgell Corn for sale. I thought this was rather strange but we were later to find out that this is what they use for bait to catch trout in the lake. Anyway Peter had a go but got nothing except a marron that fell off. We finished off the day with a lovely meal in the restaurant.

The next morning after we were all packed we went for another stroll around the lake to admire the view again.

We drove into Pemberton and got tickets for the tram ride for nearly 2 hours through the bush to Warren Bridge.We rode over 5 bridges some were quite high up and quite old. It was an interesting ride and very pretty.

After some lunch in Pemberton we went out to see Gloucester Tree. I thought I might climb it! It is over 60 meters high and not much to catch you if you fall. Anyway we both chickened out and went up a few meters for a look as did most people who were visiting it as well.


It was a nice relaxing weekend. We picked up 2 very excited dogs and went to visit Mum and Dad J in Busselton and the came home. Lucy continued to suffer from separation anxiety and refused to stay in her bed all night and wanted to be with us.

Easter Sunday

Today was a beautiful and hot day for Easter Sunday (31 degrees for Bunbury). Nicole came over with Sonic for our annual egg hunt. Sonic joined in.

Lucy and Bella are still scared of Sonic but eventually ventured outside with him but then climbed onto Pop for safety. Big sooks!
Janelle made some cupcakes and we had fun decorating them in an Easter theme with eggs and some little chicks.

We then all headed over ot Busselton to have afternoon tea with Nan and Pop. It was a lovely warm afternoon sitting under the Jacaranda tree.





The girls then had fun "playing" with the chicks off the cakes. Small things amusing small minds!
They then took to photographing Nannas flowers.

We finished off the day with a walk along Marlston area with so many people out and about with very unseasonally warm weather. Pizza for tea and then we watched The Notebook movie.

Last Thursday (9th April) Peter and I travelled to Perth to pick Dad up from the SJOG hospital in Murdoch after he had his wrist surgery the day before. We then headed up to Kings Park for a picnic lunch. We found where the Boab tree that had been transported down from the Kimberley had been planted. It was good to see it was actually shooting and had settled into its new home.

We then picked up Janelle from Trinity and headed home before the heavy Easter traffic started.

Weekend away

We spent this past whole weekend away in Perth. As no one was in town we had to put Lucy and Bella into boarding kennels. We decided to take them to Perth and use kennels there to save rushing back to get them. Here they are having a much hated bath the day before we went.

We took Dad up with us as well. It was a long slow trip as there was an accident near Myalup so we had to backtrack to Bunbury and go up through Harvey. It was nice to go through the different towns. We dropped the dogs off and then took Dad to Steven and Kyms where he stayed. We then went over to Trinity to see Janelle. We went to an undergraduates welcoming tour and speech at UWA. Janelle and Sarah caught the bus into the city and did some shopping. We then headed up to see the Brooks family for dinner and celebrate Simone's birthday. We spent the night at the motel section of Trinity.

Janelle and Sarah had a game of tennis after breakfast while Peter and I went for a stroll down by the water and through the gardens of UWA. This time we found this great outdoor theatre.

We then headed over to the airport to pick up Nicole who had flown back from a great week in Broome. She did all the tourist things like camel riding on cable beach, visiting the crocodile and pearl farms and sunning herself on the beach. They also managed to celebrate Danika's 21st.

From the airport we went up to Guildford Grammar School where we met Dad to attend the Freemason Lodge Scholarship Presentation Afternoon. It was a nice ceremony and Janelle was presented with her cheque for $700. We then enjoyed a nice afternoon tea.

Then it was back to Trinity to take Janelle back and for the first time in a very long time we had our 3 girls riding in the car with us which was just wonderful!

We left Janelle and went over to Canningvale to pick up our 2 very excited little dogs and got back to Bunbury safe and sound around 8.30. A busy but enjoyable weekend.

Changing rooms and more golf

Today we ventured back out for another 9 holes of golf. We both did some terrible shots and only lost 3 balls between us. We also managed to do some good shots.

This is where I unfortunately spend a lot of my time although I sometimes get out on my first try.

Here Peter is retrieving my ball from the reeds thankfully it didn't go in the water!

I am not the only one who finds the bunkers!


We have been busy moving changing our rooms around with Sarah shifting into Nicoles old room and finally having Sarah's old room as an offfice come craft room. This meant moving all my sewing and scrapbooking stuff from the spare room. We also gave away the old brown desk.



Here it all is in the lounge as we had to wait a few days for new vinyl to be laid.



With a nice new floor covering we could finally put all the new office furniture in that we bought from Fullers. The room quickly filled up.

Now back to the fun part of moving all the "stuff" in. Peter has also been busy painting all the doors and frames which has given the whole place a freshen up.