On the Pier

Weston Super Mare Pier last weekend.. I love a good pier!

Mini Molly

We're all a bit sad tonight because today Mark delivered Molly to Heathrow and she flies at 10.30 pm to Perth!

Poor girl... I hope she's not going to get too stressed out. 

Luckily she met a nice Labrador who's also emigrating so at least she wan't be on her own.

Here she is with her mini-me at the weekend!

The Ancestral Home

It's nice being home - although it hasn't really been 'home' for a while it still feels like home.

Things don't change much round here - the clocks still each tell different times..

There are even more books than ever- when they run out of room my dad just makes a new bookcase...

The garden is still jungle-like, in a good way - with a giant fennel plant...

And my dad's shed smells the same as it did when I was little - a mixture of creosote and wood shavings...

It's good to be home.
For a little while..

All over the place

Life is pretty chaotic at the moment - we moved out of our house and in with my parents - which, let's face it, is something you shouldn't do after a certain age.

Like 18...

This motley collection of photos from the last week pretty much sums up my state of mind!

An 8th birthday cake in the shape of a trilobite! (As requested)

Moving on..

Today is the first day I've sat down since Saturday... moving house is really not fun!

This was the scene on Monday afternoon when the packers had gone crazy with their brown paper and tape and were packing up everything that stayed still - I thought they'd packed the dog at one point.

You may think it's a bit flash getting someone else to pack for you but this is no ordinary move...

Fourteen years ago Mark arrived at Heathrow from Perth (via Nepal) with a backpack and £60 in his pocket.
Nine years ago he met me.
Eight years ago we got married, bought a house and had a baby.
Five years ago we had another one!
Two years ago we decided to move to Australia..
and in three weeks that's exactly what we're doing..

September

It's a bittersweet time of year, September. 

It can be an exciting time - new school year, new beginnings, a chance for a new start.

It can be also be a sad time, because sometimes new starts and new beginnings mean saying good bye.

We're moving out of our house next week so we've spent the weekend ferrying seven years worth of accumulated 'useful' stuff to the tip.

I sorted through a cupboard of baby clothes, sent a lot of them to the charity shop and got a bit overemotional!

It seems like a good time of year to move -  a turning point. So I'm thinking positive and holding back the tears...