The Bell Family

Some of the girls memorable quotes from the last few weeks…

Laura:
* “Looking…. is like sniffing with your eyes!”
* “Can I use the dumb-puter” (aka computer)?
* “You look pretty Mum”, generally followed by “can I have something”?
* “Holy heck… Katie can reach the door! Just a minute you little polka dot!”

Katie:
* Anytime we mention the beach, Katie says “Oh, oh, oh!!! Swimming and sandcastles! Mmmm, chippies and gravy”!
* Donning her cute pink sunnies, Katie loves to say “cool dude Katie”!
* Anytime Jason says, “you’re kidding…”, Katie responds “no… you’re kidding ME!!!”

Then finally…
“Mum… Dad look….. we made Roxy into a fairy, just like us!!!”

Say no more… Cute as…

C.

Just a few quick piccies from the weekend…

Mmm… chocolate! Cheeky monkeys cooking up a storm

See how our garden grows!!!

We have started picking our first coriander and lettuce leaves… Carrot tops, along with celery and spring onions are all shooting madly and the corn is going strong. All of the tomato plants are in flower and our first little tomatoes are just beginning to form… the girls are so excited and can’t wait to sample them!

Laura couldn’t resist another photo opportunity… she’s such a little performer! Katie was too busy jumping on the trampoline to stop for a photo!

Have a good one,
Chrissy

Hi Everyone

Hope this message finds you all well… time seems to be scooting by so quickly lately, but we thought it would be good to post a quick blog about our Easter holidays to ‘the dam’.

We took a group holiday with some good friends and had a lovely time! We spend lots of time socialising and playing with the kids. The camping was great and we all coped surprisingly well given that between us there were 7 kids under the age of 5!!!

Anyway, here are some piccies to tell the rest of the story…

Laura and Jason going for a leisurely paddle

Row row row your boat!

Cricket at the park

Cool Cat Katie just hanging out…

Laura ready to hit the beach

Group game of ‘freeze fishy’ at the beach

Kids adventures… looking for treasure I guess!

Jason’s big catch of the day

Anyway, camping was definitely a big hit and all the kids had fun (big and small), so we’ll definitely be giving it another go sometime soon!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jas

Well, one of the latest renovations that we have been working on (dubbed the “Great Wall of China”) is a retaining wall, that now houses our veggie garden!

The retaining wall was a long time in the making.

It started with some “digger work”. In which I flattened out the back yard, to make it more level, then added some soil to the back wall to make a raised section.

This raised section then became the veggie garden! But as you can see, there was a lot of work to be done to make this possible!

The retaining wall took a long time, as there were around 8 separate concrete sections, which act as stable footings for the retaining wall. As you can see from the image, we tried to ensure it was as level as possible.

Here are some images of the retaining wall finally completed!

It is amazing how fast the grass grows back, so after we pulled out all of the grass again, we placed a number of trailer loads of mulch on top, to stop the grass from growing.

We let the mulch settle down for a few months, then we turned over the garden and used some “garden mix” to create some rows that we would use to plant our veggies in!

As of early May, this is what the garden looks like!
We currently have growing:

• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Coriander
• Carrots
• Lettuce (2 different varieties)
• Spring onions (though they are yet to sprout)
• A tall variety of broccoli

Anyway, I will try to post regular updates on how the garden is looking and how things are growing.

Cheers,
Jason.

G’day all

I thought I would post a photo of my current office.

As you can see, there are a few computers there and a number of “nice” LCD screens!

The current setup is as follows (for all those geeks out there):

• 4 x 23” Dell LCD Screens (1920 x 1080);
  • Dual Screen Windows XP setup; and
  • Dual Screen Fedora 10 Linux.
• 1 x 24” Apple iMac
• 1 x 13” Laptop running Windows XP and Fedora 10 Linux;

Using synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) allows me to use a single mouse and keyboard to be able to control all 3 computers, as well as being able to copy and paste from each other! I couldn’t do the work I am doing without it, handy program!

Anyway, thought I would show you my work area!

Cheers,
Jason.