Like Winter in Sydney

A gorgeous week of weather - blue skies, sunshine and 23 degrees - but chilly enough in the evenings for a small fire - like a perfect winter's day in Sydney. Flo is absolutely loving school and is shattered every night, asking to be taken up to bed soon after 6pm every evening. I remember being told this would happen when Scarlett started school, but it never did. She would return home with just as much energy as normal.

The Duthie vegetable plot has been excavated after a summer of production, and my tomato plants are approaching the end of their season, producing their last gasp of fruit before I start hoarding the leftovers to make a load of green tomato pickle.

Rob's hair needed a trim this week, and he amazed me by letting the girls take turns on his head with the electric clippers. Surprisingly they did a very good job, and I didn't need to leap in and tidy up when they'd finished or drive him to the Emergency Room.
On Saturday afternoon, we popped in to see our neighbours Janice and Roger, to belatedly celebrate Roger's 50th and to warm their recently built nautical-style deck, perfect for sundowners. With several bottles of Champagne relieved of their corks, we tucked into fish pie before asking everyone back to ours to watch X Factor.


This afternoon,  we went to nearby St Leonard's to sit in the splendid St Leonard's Gardens, a beautiful planned Victorian park, to meet friends and have a picnic. We were also there to see a production of Twelfth Night. This was a roaming affair, so after every couple of scenes we had to follow the cast through the park to a different location for the next few scenes. It was great fun, the kids loved it and we kept bumping into people we knew, which was lovely. We ended up back at Adrian and Laline's nearby house for an impromptu dinner. Smashing.

Finally, a top shot of Rob and some of the boys in Budapest last weekend. They look like they're having fun, don't they?