Saturday, July 14, 2007

Winter Escapades

Dear Great Gran,

Julie has a new toy - a bike luggage trailer that was given to us by a friend who built it himself several years ago. I suspect the friend has become a bit embarrassed to own the trailer now that he makes and sells much flasher trailers and bikes for a living. Julie has been using the trailer to getting some hay and manure for the veggie garden (seen under construction in the background.)
Ruth has enjoyed "hay rides" around the backyard on the trailer. I think she poses just like the chariot drivers from Ben Hur.
Saturday, three weeks ago found us dining al fresco, as they say in France, with Ian, Heather, Grumpa, Nana, mussels, bread and wine. It has generally been much too cold since to attempt such sedentary outdoor activities!
Ruth has recently taken to grabbing Julie's scarves and declaring them to be "Ruthies" before running around the house with them over her head (pictured below). Other times she runs around with the scarves over her face until she crashes into something hard and cries. I mention this last point to counter any rumours that you may have heard about Ruth showing early signs of great intellect.
Drawing has recently been added to Ruth's list of favourite activities (obsessions), along with books, fridge magnets, piano playing, playing with water, birds and dogs. She has been drawing with pencils inside and with chalk outside.
I hasten to add that some of the above drawings are not entirely by Ruth's own hand. They were however executed by her studio assistants under her close direction and supervision i.e. directions like "Bird, here!", "Doggie, here!" and "Toddler, here!". And she makes many of the finishing touches herself.

much love
Brendan

Monday, June 04, 2007

Back on Track

Dear G. Gran,

Don't worry! I promise you that there there will be no graphs or other high falutin science from me in this blog. However, this blog is about another one of Julie's recent projects i.e. she instigated a weekend cycle trip along the lines of what we have often done before (but just haven't been doing recently!)

On Saturday a couple of weekends ago, we cycled with friends about 40km north to Gundaroo for a pizza lunch. Here you can see David, Julie, Ruth (asleep at this point), and Rohan on the way there.
It was just like old times - only now the pelaton erupts into animal sounds everytime we passed a horse, cow, sheep or kangaroo! After lunch, Julie gave our two year old friend Vida a short ride in the trailor, in addition to Ruth. Of course, we immediately came to the biggest hill of the day. As Julie struggled up the hill, Vida asked: "Julie, why are you going so slowly?"

Julie, Ruth and I cycled on another 40km or so to stay overnight in Gunning before cycling back home on Sunday. Rather than stay at the old pub (which Julie and I used to do) we stayed at a bed and breakfast which was set in a beautiful 1870 house - except we stayed in the demountable building out the back! I think Ruth enjoys the trailor trip more than travelling by car as she can see a lot more of the countryside at a comfortable speed and has lots of toys and books at hand. And - just like the car - she happily sleeps for long periods while she is moving.

love from,
Brendan

Sunday, June 03, 2007

More details about the greenhouse audit

Dear Gran,

this might be a bit boring for you, but here is the rest of the data (I spent too much time on this so I want someone to look at it!):

Electricity (note the big spike for last winter's heating):


Petrol:


Gas (we've only had this since we moved):


Aviation fuel (here you can see our recent trips):


So, more than you wanted to know!

much love,

Julie.

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