in the depths of winter

well here we are, on the upswing into spring, temps hitting 25 today. Caitlin is tending to sleeping Boo there in a contraption designed to rock her to sleep.

the weekend was a good one, we headed to Lismore for some shopping, it's about an hour away and feels like returning to the real world, i mean, it has a population of just under 30,000. so dizzied by the swarming crowds, we blew some money on fripperies, somehow managing to spend over 4 hours there before legging it back to Ilarwill. we had been invited to dinner at Mik and Zara's so toddled up there about 6pm and got all the kids settled into bed before relaxing over several bottles of wine and a fine steak dinner (tofu, in young Michael's case). zara peeled off to bed at 10.30...she tried to sneak off at 9.30 but was roundly abused for her pains! James fell away next and trundled home at 11.30 whereas the Scots contingent flew the flag till 1.30. common sense impelled me to go home at that point as i knew we had a big day coming up in the form of Iluka market next morning.
so we set off early doors for Iluka and what a LOVELY place it turned out to be. the market was bigger than we expected, having about 20 stalls and not just fruit and veg. there was some good 'tat' stalls and mik managed to get a pristine Super 8 cinecamera and 2 projectors for $10 and i acquired a set 0f 4 pictures (framed) and about 20 unframed pics of scenes of Christian Martyrdom for $24 (ola, you will be green when you see them). there is one of protestants being drowned in Ireland that i am planning on framing to give to my dear Catholic friend, Mik, for his birthday. he is talking of passing it on to his protestant dad who lives in Harthill, West Lothian. we may not be in dear old Scotland but we are keeping the dream alive....

so the guy who sold us the projector and the prints was from London, and he had spent some time in edinburgh in the 50s learning to play the pipes before come out to Oz in the 60s, not sure if there was a connection there. We then promptly ran into Alan (a friend of Mik's) who is also from London, and also had a scottish connection in the form of a grandfather. we toddled back to their house, met his wife Debbie and had a lovely time there. their house is just lovely, they bought this old fisherman's shack 4 years ago for about $74k and have spent the last 4 years doing it up and what a lovely job...they have remodelled the inside and fitted beautiful old leaded decorative windows. just makes me itch to own our own place now! before being at Alan and Debbie's place we were undecided if we wanted a brick and tile place or what's called a 'Queenslander'...now we are clear it needs to be a Queenslander! anyway, after a great cup of coffee, we took our leave and James, Caitlin and i drove around Iluka, which has to be a contender for places to buy now. it's a 10min drive through a national park to get there and is bounded by the sea on the other side and there is a regular passenger ferry to Yamba. very impressed.

and yesterday, Zara and i + relevant kids met up with Alicia + her 2 at Palmer's Island Playpark for a morning picnic. while the kids ran riot, Zara and i eyed the river and laid our plans to get our fishing licences, dreaming of fishing while the kids played on the swings and slides...watch this space....

and watch this space for the upcoming pictures of goanna pulling....