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The first time we took our Millipede into the backyard we were greeted by an adorable inquisitive koala. I've only ever seen a koala in the wild once before. That was about a year ago in a park, a long way away, very high in a tree. So THIS was very special.
The koala seemed as interested in us as we were of it. Then after some time of checking each other out, it lost interest, climbed down the tree, leaped onto another one, and was gone.
We couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the joys of the back yard.
Do you remember when E.T. went from his normal/healthy pinkish-brown pallor to that terrible pastey deathly white when he nearly died? (Don't pretend you don't remember... I know you cried). Well that's what has happened to all the earth worms here.
It has been bucketing down heavy rain here for 3 days straight now. There comes a point where the ground fills up with water, and to prevent themselves from drowning all the worms start wiggling their way to dry land. (I assume, do worms breath air?)
They've arrived, exhausted, waterlogged and pastey, on our veranda's, the front porch, inside the garage, and underneath the darkness of our doormat. And when I say "they" I mean LOADS of them.
Mr You launched a rescue and retrieval mission yesterday, relocating the survivors into dry potted plants, and removing those who hadn't made it. Sadly, we discovered some that were washed straight into the swimming pool. And when I say "some" I mean, ooh, about 50 or 60! (All together now, eeeewwww).
I watched as Mr You scooped them all out and checked to see if they were alive. At one point he nudged one so many times, from where I stood inside our dry house, I thought he was giving it CPR.
He came inside afterwards sodden and saddened, saying he just didn't like seeing so much death.
While other men of the nation were watching the football grand final, mine was rescuing worms. And, oddly, that makes me so proud.
We have a long history of rescuing slimy creatures together. I must tell you about it sometime...
The town where we live is always in the depths of discussion and planning suggestions of how to make it more appealing... To make the beachfront more attractive to visitors... To help our town become as interesting to tourists as the rest of the towns on this pretty coastline.
While there are 20 year plans for development and restructure, I believe (while it certainly needs alot of help) it really wouldn't take much to get it started; just a little soul.
Last weekend we took a day trip to visit a little town only 40 mins from here. We've been here before, and I LOVED the mosaic wall in the centre of town. But this time we went down along the waterfront, and were amazed by the beautiful breakwall.
Each rock is "graffitied", but in the most loving, pre-planned, community minded way imaginable.
It's a little tourist town, and on each rock is a record of people's visits, from near and very far, and even some which we're told are freshened up and added to each year when the original artist revisits the town. One rock (a local lady pointed out to us) has a new grandchild's name and picture of a toy added each time a new one is born.
Surprisingly, we only saw one painted rock that had been needlessly tagged over the top of. The rest are left as they are. We vowed to return one day when we have a family, armed with paint and brushes.
This clever couple had constructed an entire flowerpot:
The white side of this one invited all other Swiss tourists to sign their name:
This one took advantage of the shapes of the rocks:
And my personal favourite, for no other reason than I love a good pun:
 When I mentioned getting the keys to the kingdom, I was being metaphorical... I didn't expect to get enough keys to support an entire kingdom! I'm new to this, but surely 37 keys is a little on the excessive side for the 3 bedroom house... No? ;) I'm about to pack away my computer, and those last few things... We start moving house tomorrow. I'll be offline for about a week while we set back up in our new house. See you from a different aspect soon.
 If everything goes according to plan, this time next week we will have the keys to our new house! We're peeing our pants with excitement!!! ... But we're pooing our pants a bit too. Fear of a mortgage, fear of being entirely responsible for something so costly, fear of what we've gotten ourselves into in terms of how much work we will have to do to it. (That'd be, ah... LOTS!).We looked at it last week and discovered lots of things we didn't notice before. Ceiling fans, for example! The spot for the dishwasher has no plumbing or electricity, and is therefore nothing but a kitchen cave. Aaaand plenty more things too... But there is a toilet! I double checked. (A friend of mine bought and moved into their house before they even realised there was no toilet!) ;) The house is butt-ugly actually, but we'd hoped to be able to beautify it. Turns out we'll need to spend the "beautification" money on fixing things instead. Things you can't even see! Arhh, that's going to be so so hard. Nevertheless, regardless of the fact we will be surviving entirely on sausage sandwiches from Bunnings for the next 10 years, I'm getting pret-ty, very, lotsly excited! A week! A week! :D
 A . H O U S E ! ! ! ! A whole life sized, real bricks and mortar, mother-lovin' house! Our first... We will no longer be renters. We will be able to paint the walls whatever colour we like, and positively litter the walls with picture hooks. We will be able to rip things out and tack things on, and even plant a garden! Our pot plants have done us well over all these years, but they deserve to stretch their roots and live as they should, with their toes in the earth. We move in a month. W e . A r e . V e r y . E x c i t e d .    Images from Etsy:
Letterpress Paper Pop-Up Houses, by 1canoe2
1. Balloon Factory, by Pearson Maron
2. Bird House Cabin, by Barkin Mad
3. Yellow House Print, by Swallowfield
4. Little Houses Zipper Pouch, by Moon Tea Artwork
5. Pop-up Patchwork Doll House, by Sarabande Press
6. Tiny Porcelain Clay Houses, by Shoda
7. Avenue Screenprinted Fabric, by Summersville
8. Carriage House 2, by Artworm
YESTERDAY our neighbours moved away. These were the nice ones; the nurse and the part-time snake handler. TODAY, can you believe it, we discover a snake. A BIG LONG RED-BELLY BLACK SNAKE... Speeding across our back yard and disappearing under our house!!!! Never happened before, (that I'm aware of), and the day after they leave a deadly snake moves in. F-REEEAKING OUT!!!!
SCENE 1: End of a hot day, at the end of a yucky emotional week. Mr You and flossy-p pull on their swimmers, grab their towels, pull the gate closed behind them and walk off in the direction of the beach, eager to cool down, cleanse and cast off.
SCENE 2: Mr You and flossy-p ambling down the street together, cars rolling into driveways delivering workers home, cicadas squealing in tree's as they walk by chatting about their day... [MR YOU] - "I was eating a handful of almonds today, one, two, three, (re-inacts nibbling the almonds from his palm), four...four...four! I had the fourth one in my teeth but I couldn't pick it up... It was my ring! I thought my wedding ring was an almond and I was trying to eat it! (flossy-p giggles, cheering up immediately) I'm still not used to having something stuck to my hand." SCENE 3: Singlefile they walk through the little bush track and come out into the clearing by the lagoon. Kangaroo's congregate, pouches bulging with joeys, little heads, feet and tail tips simultaneously poking out the furry openings. Some pouches stretched so far they nearly touch the ground. Mr You points at the too big joeys and laughs... [MR YOU] - "Hey, what are you doing? You're too big, it's time to move out." SCENE 4: Serenity Beach is their favourite. Calmer than the others. They are quite often the only people there, today there is only one other family. The water is calm, the waves are occasional, lolling in slowly in sets of three, then disappearing back into a smooth rolling calm. The water is clear, they can see their own shadows cast on the sandy ocean floor beneath them.
They float and play in the water, stretching their weary bodies, relaxing into the rhythm of the sea, reminiscing and re-inacting their favourite childhood wave games. flossy-p swims over to Mr You... [MR YOU] - "Hi, what's this?" [flossy-p] - "I'm coming in for a sea cuddle." [MR YOU] - ""Sea cuddle"!!??? Pfff. It's not a sea cuddle, it's an "aqua hug!"" (flossy-p giggles, cheering up immediately)END.
This time last week we were selecting outfits with the most "give" in the mid-region... getting ready for our NYE feast. We were invited to a dinner party at Chunky Chooky's house, to take splendour in an gourmet 8 course degustation evening.       It was amazing!
I've been wanting to join in Pip's "My Place and Yours" for a little while now, but this week I actually have something good to contribute... Stuff I've been wanting to show off ;) This weeks theme (by Shelley from Femme De Montmartre) is "Through the Front Door". Outside our front door we are now greeted by turtles. We didn't buy each other wedding gifts, instead we bought ourselves these adorable hand carved turtles on our honeymoon. See? Two turtles, swimming together, hanging onto each other... get it? Romantic eh? hehehehe. Anyway, they give our house a new tropical beachy look, it's prefect to lead us into Summer.  And just inside the front door... the super cool retro buffet we got at a garage sale on the weekend! For $10! It's in excellent condition, and if we do end up updating the handle, and painting the inside a bright colour (as we had planned) its going to help Mr You's smaller instruments stand out very well, and look even more cool. (Although it's in such good condition I'm not sure I want to tamper with it... but a deep red inside would look pretty impressive). Of course when a new piece of furniture comes into the house, it sparks rearranging, impromptu cupboard clean-outs, etc. An unexpected mini Spring clean!
I can't keep waiting for the photo's before I post... So chronology be damned, I'm going to start from the end and work backwards! Take that for rebellion! ;) Here's our honeymoon... ahh, it was lovely. Perfectly honeymoony. I'll show a few pics each day this week (this is my pledge), so you can see for yourself. I don't think I'll need too many words. You'll get a good sense of it through pictures and wordless quietness. So grab your sunglasses and a sarong, let me take you to Vanuatu. Enjoy...   
 "eye-spy something soothing". I've had urchy flu this week. Urck. But lucky for me it's coincided with the most Summer-like weather. We're not even out of Winter yet, and it already feels like late Spring. So to sooth myself while feeling urchy, I've been perching myself in the warm sunshine on the back deck with a cup of tea. Sitting quietly with my eyes closed, feeling my muscles melt, and my skin unclench. The sunshine is that perfect level, not too hot to feel burny, just warm and relaxing. It's so warm I can smell jasmin in the air, and the birds are in full sing-song. It's been very soothing come to think of it. Aaaaaaaaaahh. :)  (Thanks to Aussie Waffler for this week's theme.)
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