Someone's going to lose an eye...

Unless you live under a rock you would know there's a new Star Wars movie coming out in December. So of course Christmas presents in our house and many others are bound to have a galaxy far, far away vibe. The boys and Scarlett all got a lightsaber (or is that a lightsabre?) and costumes and immediately started duelling. Till Sam whacked someone too hard and had his confiscated. I bet that never happened to
 Anakin.
 

 

Nearly made it

Every year with the boys I try to hold out till December before we put up the tree. Not mid December, but the first but they get excited and I always give in. With Scarlett visiting and an early exchange of presents happening, I thought it was the perfect time to put up the tree.
It's looking a little lopsided and imperfect but I'm resisting the urge to tidy it up.No perfectly decorated, colour co-ordinated trees here.

Rottnest

When I was in fourth grade I remembered learning about Dutch explorers discovering Rottnest island of the coast of WA and quokkas.They thought the Quokkas were giant rats (which is how the island got its name). For some reason I decided that I really, really wanted to go there and somehow never let go of the idea.
When we moved here I thought we would go immediately but with one thing and another we never got around to it. Craig and Lou and Scarlett came for a visit and Lou (bless her grant wishing socks) organised for us to go.
I didn't manage a quokka selfie as they appeared a tad camera shy but we did see some and gave them a pat (apparently you aren't supposed to).
We also explored a little and went for a swim and ate. It was an all round lovely way to spend a day and I cannot wait to go back. If only for the quokka selfie.

Wednesday Morning Milkshake club

Sam started going to daycare this year. He likes to call it preschool. He's never really been sold on teh idea and my mother suggested it's because he has too good a time with me. Hmmm.
A highlight is the wednesday morning milkshake club where we go to a cafe (usually Dolce & Salato) and Sam has a milkshake and flower biscuits and I have something like a sfogliatelle (a flaky, ricotta pastry). I started taking photos and posting them and then people started asking where the photo was if I was late. And that's how it became a thing. After a successful change in location (to the beach for an alfresco nude edition and a memorable visit back to Ajanta in Coolamon) I'm thinking we should venture further afield. Like out of Fremantle.

Wednesday Morning Milkshake Club alfresco edition

Crabb, Sales and Helen Garnerbread

I've always been a bit of a fan of Annabel Crabb. I've really enjoyed her series Kitchen Cabinet and am addicted to the podcast she does with Leigh Sales. I adore it's funny tone, the way they tease one another and talk about books and baking.
Like any crazy person I was convinced that we would all get along swimmingly and could chat and chat and chat about our shared interests. When I saw Annabel was coming to Perth I decided that I had to go. And then I thought about taking a gift. I like to put a lot of thought into the gifts I give people. Annabel and Leigh talk about the lovely gifts they receive from listeners and so one night as I tried to get to sleep I started thinking about how Annabel and Leigh love Helen Garner and maybe I should make a gingerbread Helen.
Not all ideas that come to me at this time of night are winners but I thought I would have a crack and set about making the gingerbread then icing it with fondant. I put a little Stone in Helen's hand as a nod to her book the First Stone. 

I wrapped up one for Leigh (in bubblewrap) and one for Annabel  in cellophane and caught the train in to Perth for the lunch. Annabel was going from table to table during the meal and I was able to catch her eye and hand over the Helens. Her reaction was better than I expected and I was so chuffed. I had a pretty crap view during her talk and I didn't care.

My view - Annabel was behind the column

The next morning I got a message from my friend Sonya and immediately looked at Twitter where Annabel was talking about the garnerbread. So I replied and then Leigh joined in and S and Jack and Sam were asking me about breakfast and lunch and showers and I was thinking Ahhhh! and be quiet I'm trying to tweet!
It was very exciting. Lovely to meet someone who I thought was wonderful and find out that they actually are.

Halloween

 When I was younger my family really got into Halloween and we had great parties with fun games and bad taste cake and fancy dress. Living on a farm for a while meant that trick or treating wasn't a happening thing. Here it's big, not USA-dress-your-pug-as-a-superhero-big but definitely popular. I decorated the house with a giant spider and web (some real, some fake) and a proper Jack-o-lantern. Scooping out the seeds was disgusting.
I made witches fingers from Lorraine's blog (Lorraine is like the queen of halloween) and a costume for S. We had quite a few trick or treaters who liked our treats and spider but were unsure about the devilled egg (the parents liked it).

A visitor from the east coast

 We are finding that now we are in lovely Freo that people are quite keen to visit. One such visitor arrived recently for a two week stay and whilst we normally aren't great with people who stay longer than 3 days, he was very easygoing and low maintenance. While Flat Stanley or Flat as we called him,  was here we tried to show him the sights and I think we did pretty well. We took him to the Maritime museum and Shipwreck Galleries, the Fremantle Arts Centre (where we saw a band!), Fremantle Prison, Kings Park, Perth Concert Hall, plenty of street art and of course the beach. While he was here there was a festival (there always is) and he saw a thriller flash mob and Katie Noonan. I took a lot of photos and got some funny looks and reluctantly sent him back to Wagga with a travel diary chock full of memories.