Gone but not forgotten....

..... I admit there has been a somewhat enormous gap in my blog postings, so I thought it was about time that I sat down and reminded you all that we still exist, we have just been a little bit busy.....

Well, summer was HOT to say the least. We sweltered through lots of high 30s and 40 + days but did survive the hottest summer for 16 years. Clearly it was a test to see whether we could withstand the Aussie lifestyle. Well we did and bizzarely it became a novelty to see some clouds in the sky. There was even a period of 50 days without rain which was pretty unreal and the day it rained it really rained. A whole day of it in fact, and something like 50cm fell from the sky in about 6 hours. It was very refreshing I can tell you.

During the summer we spent lots of time outdoors which was great. We spent quite a bit of time at the beach and we learnt the trick to go early and leave early before the heat got too much. The girls LOVE the sea, Katie probably more than Isabel as she is not bothered about being knocked over by waves. We all got pretty brown over the summer, (even me!) though I have to say not having to apply sunscreen everyday is a relief. You do have to be very, very careful as it's very easy to burn here.

We've had some visitors too, first Paul and Janet came in time for the Australia Day celebrations. Their second time for this special day, although it was our first. The fireworks were the best we've ever seen. The display lasted over 20 mins over the City and huge crowds watched from the Swan River banks.

Paul, Janet, Rich and Katie, Tony and Isabel, Jane

Australia Day Fireworks display

A few weeks after they left Richard's sister and boyfriend Craig arrived. It was his first time in Australia so they spent some time over East and down in the South West as well as up in Perth. We took them down to Margaret River for a long weekend and a happy 3 days were spent eating, drinking and playing on the beach which was a short walk away from our villa.


My parents arrived in March and stayed with us for 4 weeks. In fact we realised that this is the most time we've spent with them in years and the girls loved having their grandparents to stay :o) and we all had a great time. They loved Perth. Mum fitted in very well with the laid-backness of the place and really appreciated how friendly people are here. Although one memory will probably stay with her which was the day we had taken the girls to a playground when a group of mums arrived, along with a picnic and bottle of wine which they drank whilst the kids played. I had to tell her that this kind of behavious is perfectly normal (!) although I have only taken wine with me on special occasions :o) Honest!!

Katie, Mum, Dad and Isabel at Dunsborough Beach

Mum, Rich and Dad quenching their thirst at Lawrence Vineyard

Mum - proud to be made of tougher stuff than me
(I thought the water was to cold!)

So what else have we been up to? Well, kind of normal life stuff. The usual 9 - 5pm life happens here but we do try and make the most of our weekends. The summer involved days out round Perth - parks, beaches and the occasional shopping centre to stay out of the heat, oh and we indulged ourselves by buying a spa for the "back yard." (Thank you Richard, keep on working...) A pool is out of the equation so a spa is the next best thing. The girls even abandoned their huge paddling pool in favour of the spa even though the spa is smaller but bubbles and warm water apparently make it a lot better :o) Still, it does mean that we have a bit more of our garden back.


Talking of gardens, that's our current project. Rich built a pergola on the back of the house this summer. Not the right time of year as everyone pointed out but hey, we've at least got one now. It's made a huge difference to how we use the house as it means that we can now go outside sun or rain as it has a UV polycarbonate roof. The final look of the pergola isn't yet finished yet as we'd like to put down some decking and add more plants but at the moment we're sitting back and designing / re-designing the layout. Our plan is to try and get as much done as possible before the end of Spring. It'll be us doing the work as trade labour here is very expensive due to the shortage of building/plumbing/electrical tradespeople. In fact they are on the Government's most wanted list of workers for people moving to Australia.

Anyway, when we bought the house we also inherited a courtyard that we're now jazzing up. It's surrounded by the family room, play room and office which all have large full length windows looking out onto it. It's gradually changing from an extremely boring brick paved nothing to look at to a roofed pergola-d water featured adult sitting out area when we want/need to escape for a bit of peace. I envisage some happy times drinking coffee/wine/beer whilst our cherubs happily/quietly entertain themselves.... (delete as appropriate!) I'll let you know how we get on and I'll add a photo when we've finished.

Oh and very importantly I almost forgot to tell you that we have been here for over a year! We celebrated our first anniversary on the 29th April and are looking forward to celebrating our second.

So, instead of rambling on for another few paragraphs I've picked out some more of our photos to show you what's been happening in our part of the world.

Lots of love

Jen, Rich, Isabel and Katie (who has aquired a very Aussie twang to her language) xxxx

Katie making friends at a sheep farm

Katie on the beach at Bunkers Bay
(Note the group of people above her left arm. That was a wedding ceremony taking place.)

Believe it or not this was a fabulous sunset on New Years Day - taken from the balcony of our house!

Me and my man :o)

Isabel concentrating on reeling in her fish from Busselton Pier (she caught 3!)




Me and my girls :o)