A few more pics of our new (temporary) home!

Loaded up with just a fraction of our house, on a coffee break on the way to our new life!

Christmas at 'Wooshwood' among many, many packing boxes.

A small red dog's view from the verandah, looking away across to the sea (we're not quite high up enough for ocean views though, and probably just as well, that's the Southern Ocean out there and it can get WINDY!)

Panorama couch view.

The front verandah, from the outside couch.

Well, here it is, a temporary home for a few months while we settle in and try and become 'locals', then it will be 'all go' again when we find a block of land to build on.  I'm on the ipad at the moment, which is less than ideal for blogging, but after tomorrow we should be all connected up again.  Munchkins and hubby have nipped down to the beach for a swim, little red dog is curled up on the 'dog couch' (I have a couch all of my own!? That I can actually, really sit on!?) on the back verandah, and I'm about to make a cuppa (or maybe an iced tead, it's quite warm today) and sit on the outdoor couch and just soak up the view and the peace and quiet.  I'm also keeping an ear on the radio updates of a fire to the north west of here, not likely to affect us apart from some smoke, but when you're in the Aussie bush in summer, it pays to stay posted.  

I can't wait to get a desk organised in a corner somewhere (I'm going to miss my studio) and start working, there's so much inspiration here.  More pics and updates soon!

New Year wishes from 'Wooshwood'!

I have NO idea what might actually appear here as I'm attempting to use my iPhone to upload either a video or a photo and nothing seems to be going right...sigh, when it comes to technology, I'm a pencil and paper girl!

ANYWAY...we have MOVED! And this (if it works) is our home for the next few months. It's called 'Wooshwood', after the sound of the wind in the trees. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Once we've got internet service sorted I'll be back properly (can't see myself using this method too often, I'm about ready to launch the phone into the dam right now!)

Hmmm, this is too easy!

Soundcloud seems much easier to use (and post here) than Divshare.  So here's another one, just recorded 5 minutes ago.  This is the poem 'Suibhne's Lover Laments' that I posted HERE, back in May.  I always thought it should probably be a song, had a vague melody floating around in my brain tonight (when I should be in bed!) so had a crack at it.  Still a bit amorphous, might need to pin the tune down a bit better, it seems to wander about a bit lost here and there!

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere...

I've just joined Soundcloud, and thought I'd knock up a test run.  Here's a little bit of dark and gloomy for everyone celebrating Halloween (if I've loaded it properly, that is).  Down here, it's Beltaine, but after yesterday's 37˚C heat, it would appear we've skipped Spring and fast forwarded straight to summer. Going to be another LONG, HOT one.

This is our last goodbye...

You might have noticed it's been rather quiet in the Attic of late.  Well, we've been very busy with something BIG.  It's been a long time coming.  A dream for many years.  A move, to somewhere altogether quieter, greener, a little wilder, with space for growing children and perhaps some chickens, ducks maybe.  Maybe even a goat?  We'll see.  It is a very sad goodbye to this house we have loved and nurtured (and which has nurtured us in turn), renovated and knocked holes in walls and patched them up and built bits on and took off its hat and gave it a new shiny one.  I will miss it so, and there WILL be tears.  But, the time has come to follow that dream.  It's all rather scary at the moment, we want to rent in our new community to settle in and get to know it before we take the plunge and buy (or build), but rents are scarce, especially this time of the year (it's a popular spot in summer), so we actually haven't got anywhere to move IN to at the moment.  I'm trying to hold to the 'leap and the way will open' philosophy, which is very hard for me because I'm not naturally brave, and I like to be able to see the safety net before I even think about letting go.  But things will turn out, I will keep telling myself that, even if we do end up in a tent for a bit!  So here, probably for the last time, are some pics of our little house, looking tidier than it ever has before, all shined up and sparkling to entice potential new owners.  And as you can see from the first pic, it worked beautifully!

And, because a munchkin's bedroom just isn't the same without a munchkin in it, here they are, looking so terribly grown-up.  Mind you, their rooms never normally look this clean!

Transmission may be intermittent for a while, there is much packing and sorting and culling, and of course, stressing and pulling hair out and not getting enough sleep to come in the next few weeks, but I hope to be back blogging before Christmas.  Wish us luck!

A visitor to the garden

Hubby and I were in the kitchen yesterday when we heard a loud THUD in the family room.  I went out to investigate to see if the dove (it's always a dove, I don't think they're very smart) that had careered into the small round window high in the wall had flown off (usually), or was wandering dazed around the garden (occasionally), or worse, had not survived impact and was lying on the lawn (once). As it happened, the dove HAD survived the impact, but not the encounter.  This is the amazing sight that met my eyes through the windows.  Luckily, the camera happened to be at hand!

We are pretty sure it's a Brown Goshawk.  

It sat for a good five minutes or more, waiting, I presume, for the dove to give up the struggle.  Its prey is almost as big as it, I didn't see how it would get off the ground with it.

However, eventually it took off, albeit rather shakily, and only just cleared our fence (just seen in the foreground) and landed on the neighbour's roof.

We've seen these around, chasing the odd dove, on and off over the years, but never this close.  Sadly, this type of encounter is becoming more and more rare, given the amount of Development (AKA total destruction) that is happening in our suburb.  Just beyond the house roof in this photo, there used to be a couple older houses with large trees that could be seen over our fence (in fact, you'll probably see them if you look back through my blog at old garden photos).  Just a few weeks ago the bulldozers moved in, and everything was brought down, including the magnificent large gum tree that, as we saw in disbelief once all the lower branches had been cleared, had a large nest of sticks in the crown.  The tree loppers cut the whole lot down without a second thought, tree, nest AND the bird that we could see still flapping in it.  It was probably a crow, BUT the description of the Brown Goshawk nest I found on the web quite well fitted it too.  Those plots of land will now be filled every square inch, with ugly units and no gardens, and nowhere for our local endangered birds to live.  It saddens me beyond belief.

School holidays and warm weather

This winter has been even stranger than last year.  We had the 2nd warmest and driest June since records began (5 of the warmest Junes have been in the last 8 years), and July is shaping up to be even weirder.  I've been wandering around the house in a singlet/tank top...me, who feels the cold.  It was 23ºC last week, with more sunshine than rain.  And I've spotted blossoms on the almond tree, and a second rose has come out on the McCartney.  And we have another month of winter left!

But the munchkins took advantage of it.  Out in the garden with a thermos of Milo, some snacks and dolls.  I'm going to miss this garden!