This gap is Dangerous we're told, we need to lay another line of bricks so no child can squeeze under the new fence.

Labels: 8/13, Home

The Quilting friends I made them for didn't believe me, they thought I'd bought these Salted Caramel Macarons... but I didn't buy them... I made them!

Okay so I had a little help from my new best friend Adriano Zumbo and this was the second time I've tried to make these... but Hey... this time they worked!     Wonderful very sinful tasting!

I've been best friends with Adriano since I bought his pack of Chocolate Fudge Brownie mix last year but I went off him a bit when my first try of making these macarons didn't work...

Now I'm in love again  :-)

Labels: Food

They may be a bit Cluttered... But so lovely...  It's almost coming to that time of year when I dust them.  Only happens once each a year and well after we've stopped lighting fires :-)

Labels: 8/13, Babushka

No words needed... 

Labels: 8/13, Family

And Rip as well... lovely happy family memories.

Labels: Rip'n'Rosie

What's the difference between a Corridor and a Hall??  I've done a Google Search (see below) and I find that we shouldn't call this a Hall, it's really a Corridor!  The things one learns on the Internet!

This is our signature Hall or should I say... Corridor.  The first to sign was an American friend way back in 1986 and friends, family and kids are still signing!  :-)


This is what Wiki tells me a Hall is...

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls.^[1] In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door through which the rooms are reached....

And this is what Wiki tells me is a Corridor... 

Corridor

Look up corridor or corridors in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Corridor may refer to:

Architecture

• Hallway, a passageway whose purpose is to provide access to other rooms

Labels: 8/13, Home

Labels: Charlie, Jackson

Check out Charlie striding off towards the boardwalk around the waters edge down down at Bobbin Head... a few years ago now but so cute :-)

Labels: 8/13, Bobbin Head

 Road base being swept out of David's van.

 Relaying of bricks underway... but it's getting late, so...


 Next morning straight back onto relaying the bricks.


All neatly finished and no longer a danger of tripping visitors up!  Brilliant job David and Niall  :-)

Now all this excitement got me racing upstairs to search through old photos, then of course I had to scan them and run outside once again with photos in hand to take more recent shots.

These photos were taken 31 years apart, such fun remembering and if only I had Gwilym here to pose in the same place as the first two photos  :-)

 December 1982, brick driveway has started, David laid our whole driveway by himself.
Doesn't Gwilly look sweet here, he had long blond hair because he wouldn't let me cut it or anyone else for that matter... anyway he looked so sweet :-)   And our old swings on the right of this photo, great use of old car tyres.

 Getting a photo taken in the same place is a bit tricky now but I think this is correct, can't see much of the drive here though.


 Gosh things have changed a lot since this photo was taken...  look at all those bikes on the veranda.


 That's the Big Green Bus under restoration in the garage and my old Volvo and the old London and South West Railway sign.

 The Big Green Bus has gone to the Bus Museum to join his mate the Big Red Bus.     Different cars and the Beware of Trains signs is now Red!  David tells me this is the colour it should be.


 This is the first driveway that David laid to the old house... and look at all those bricks on the right all waiting to be laid!

31 years later and this is the first time we've needed to do repairs on this beautiful old driveway, there are more dips and bumps and so on but that one at the very entrance I'd tripped over twice already and we didn't want one of you tripping over it when you visited now did we!!

Labels: Home

The Front Door and the Staircase of Mahratta, on the corner of Pacific Highway and Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga.

Once the home of ancestors of friends of ours and seen recently in the TV Show... 'A Place to Call Home'.  Mahratta is used as the home of Carolyn Bligh, the Aunt of Anna Bligh who turns out to be her mother.

Andrew and Kirsty.

Labels: 8/13, Turramurra

Labels: Garden

Celebrating his first tooth while watching his Mum and Dad enjoying cocktails as the sun sets in Bali...  Way to go Remy!!

Labels: Remy

In Macao once again...

Labels: 8/13, Macao

 Way to go Remy..... 

Labels: Remy

Having Breakfast at 'The Venetian' in Macao with Tiffany's in the background...

Labels: 8/13, Macao

Labels: 8/13, Garden

My new camera has a 'Pet' setting... Is there anything my new camera can't do!   

Yesterday this dog spent the day here, he came with Kim and Mike who are putting in our new pool fence and when I discovered that my new camera had a special setting for pets I just had to try it out.   

I sat on a chair near where the dog was sitting... who's name is Sparky I think... and as I lifted the camera he posed, first this way, then full frontal,  then just off centre,  then the other way, I was laughing by then but Sparky just didn't get the joke so he wandered off.   What a lovely dog eh!

I've just rung Olympus and told them what fun I'm having with this thing... and I don't know it all yet!  There is a lot more to learn.

Labels: Garden

Our Larder... and no it's not a Pantry, there are no Pans in here... just food!  Actually there is no Lard in here either.

Labels: 333, 8/13

1.   Val - Drawing.     2.  Lorraine - Reflection.     3.   Anne - Punk.
4.   Mavis - Soft Focus.     5.   Mavis and Robyn - Sparkle.     6.   Val - Being herself  :-)
7.   Pennie - Punk.     8.   Robyn - Reflection.     9.   Sue - Drawing.

Labels: Tennis Friends

I went to Charlie's class today to help with the threading of needles, unpicking of knots and helping with the sewing of these wonderful samplers!  I remember making one of these and I think I still have it somewhere... but where??

A little girl, called Anna was sitting at the same table as Charlie... after a couple of minutes Anna looked at me closely and said,

Anna.     How old are you?
PD.   How old do you think I might be?
Anna.     Mmmmm....   99?
PD.   Well not quite, I'm 68, how old are you?
Anna.     I'm EIGHT!
PD.   Well if you are 8 and I'm 68, how much older am I than you?
Anna.    ???????

Now I'm thinking this little one has a speech impediment or did she have an accent...

PD.  If I'm 68 and I take away 8, how much will that make.
Anna.     ??????
PD.   That means I'm 60 years older than you are.
Anna.    :-)

After some sewing, some re-threading and some reverse sewing...

Anna.     Why do you have such a big head?  You do have a very big head...
PD.   Well that's because I'm so beautiful, when you get to be 68 you will have a big head and be just as beautiful as me  :-)

Anna.    Mmmmmm...

A couple of minutes later... 

Anna.   I KNOW WHY YOU HAVE SUCH A BIG HEAD!
P.D.   Why?
Anna.    Because you have so many brains in your head, you need lots of room for your brains.

I later discovered that Anna was from Russia and English isn't her first language...  I also discovered from David who loves the Russian language, that Russians can be very inquisitive!  What a gem is Anna :-)

I dug around and dug around and found this little sampler... now who made this?  It was on my Precious Shelf with lots of other wonderfully hand made objects that my four children have made over the years...

Nerys??  Tomos??  Briony??  Gwilym???

Labels: Charlie

Labels: 8/13, Bugs

 With the new pool laws... we needed to do something about our pool fence.

Work will commence soon...

The original pool fence is 25 years old this November and it hasn't actually fallen down... yet  :-)

Labels: Garden

Labels: Garden