Hello again. See, I really did manage to update this only a week later!

Toni and Maddie are at a craft market across town, Sam is asleep and I have come to a halt in my current DIY job of fixing the cooker door as I need to go and buy 2 new springs, so he can help Daddy with that when he comes round. (I would post a picture of our oven so you could share Toni's dismay at its sheer age and lack of style/ergonomics/function, but it is so old there are no pics on the internet and I'm not getting the camera out to take photos of it!)

Last weekend was labour day weekend in Victoria (so a Bank Holiday Monday for those in the UK who understand the term). In fact it was just like a UK Bank Holiday because it bucketed down rain almost the entire weekend! We were lucky over where we are though because most parts of Melbourne had the storm of the century!
We did manage to get out up into the Dandenongs on the Monday though - missing the rain, just - and walked around William Ricketts Sanctuary then had a decent lunch up there. Sam behaved amazingly even though we had to wait an hour for lunch to arrive!

Earlier this week we had our crepe myrtle tree dramatically trimmed and as a result the entire area of our back garden (apart from the kids' play house, trampoline and the BBQ) is covered in branches and leaves. I can only just squeeze my bikes out of the shed. Unfortunately progress on clearing it has been a little 'slow' (perhaps if it had actually blocked access to my bikes it would have all been taken to the skip by now...) and I have subcontracted to the neighbours' son + mate to chop it all up and bag it. They have been going for an hour and a half now (he types, drinking his cup of tea!).
The tree looks a lot better for the trimming though.

Next big DIY project is the kitchen which will be a big one but we hope to get done in stages through this year. Got to plan it first though!

This afternoon I'm hoping to get Sam onto the baby seat on the bike for his first ride - it is a beautiful day here, 27 degrees and it's going to be even better for the whole of next week! Summer is hanging on for a little longer.

Photos next time. Hope everyone is well,

Dom