Sarah and Hannah's cardigans are finished

I was so pleased to have been able to finish the cardigans just in time to be able to give them to Sarah and Hannah when they were here on holidays a few weeks ago. They looked really cute in them and I think they like their cardigans.

I still have to knit Olivia's cardigan and am hoping to start knitting Olivia's soon.

It was really nice having Josh, Ruth, Sarah, Hannah and Olivia down in Melbourne. Olivia is so cute and has grown so much since I saw her in April this year. I think she has the most beautiful big brown eyes that I have ever seen. I loved having Sarah and Hannah come to stay. They both stayed over night with me on Friday and then we spent all day Saturday together before having tea with everyone.

On Friday night we all slept in my big bed together - by 'all' I mean, Sarah, Hannah, myself and Charlie the dog! Needless to say I didn't get much sleep but the girls and Charlie did.

On Saturday we got up and baked a loaf of bread in the bread maker, cooked a chocolate cake for tea, went for a walk, did some shopping, had McDonald's for lunch and watched 'The Sound Of Music' in the afternoon.

Charlie did so well with the girls. I was a bit worried as he's not used to having children around but he loved them giving his tummy a rub and would even go and jump up onto the couch and sit with them.

Taking Charlie for a walk was an interesting experience. Everyone had to have a lead to hold so with three leads attached to his harness, one for Sarah, Hannah and then mine attached to a belt around my waist and my crutches we did get a few looks and comments from people along the way.

I met everyone for lunch on Sunday but as i hadn't taken Charlie with me, Sarah and Hannah came back to my place again to pick him up and take him back to Nana's for the afternoon. While the girls played with Charlie and , Mum, Ruth, Josh and Vi played scrabble I finished off the girls cardigans.

Needless to say I really enjoyed the weekend and loved getting to know the girls more, see Olivia growing up and of course catching up with Ruth and Josh as well.

It's Raining, It's Pouring, Charlie is snoring..

It has been raining for most of the weekend now and my garden is absolutely loving it. The rain gauge which holds 40ml was overflowing this morning which is something that it hasn't done for such a long time.

Charlie doesn't like getting wet so he spent most of the weekend inside. He spent most of Sunday afternoon curled up on the bed sleeping and snoring.

My seedlings are all doing well. I love going outside and seeing which bulbs have come up this year and seeing the new winter flowers coming out.

My favourite flower is the Winter Rose (Helebouros) which was also my grand mothers favourite flower. I have two varieties in my garden -Helleborus niger and Helleborus foetidus. The Helleborus foetidus grows a lot taller than the Helleborus Niger. It also has long thin leaves with small green flowers which grow on the top of the plants. This year I have a lot more pink flowers coming out which I really love.

I recently dug out a Dianella that I had growing against the back fence and replaced it with a Lord Byron Fuchsia, helbouros and some of my Danish Flag poppy seedlings. It had grown so big and was spreading too far so I divided the Dianella into several clumps and gave them away to some other gardeners on Freecycle. The fence looks a little 'bare' at the moment but I'm sure with all the rain we are getting that it wont be long before the Fuchsia grows.

Charlie Cameron

I thought I better introduce you to the other member of my family - Charlie. Charlie is a cross between a West Highland Terrier and a Mini Schnauzer. He was only a few weeks old when he was given to me by my family and so small that he wasn't much bigger than my slippers.

Charlie has a kennel however the photo of him in the kennel was probably the only time he ever went into it. He loves going for walks and although he's not meant to he sleeps on my bed.


When I got a treadmill I decided to make one for him so that he didn't feel left out when I went walking. Charlie is pretty clever - he can shake hands, roll over, sit and stay. He even won a prize and had his photo printed in a magazine.

Every time we go for a walk we - rather I should say 'Charlie', gets stopped for a chat and a pat. He has his special friends like the man at the mobile library, the people in the newsagents and the lady in the hot bread shop. They always make him welcome taking the time to give him a pat.

Charlie has some 'doggie' cousins, there's Rex and Oscar, Harry and his newest cousin Dallas. He loves the rough and tumble with Harry but is not quite sure about Dallas yet as she's a much smaller than him and so full of energy that she runs rings around him.