Cope Place goes on the market!

In the next month, the place we call home will be up for sale to make way for our new home in the hills. We have had some profoundly special times and memories here - our first home together, our engagement, our wedding, the birth of our first child. Not to mention the many summer BBQs and partys!

R.I.P Lilly Rose.

We thought, while on the topic of animals, that Lilly-Rose deserved an honorable mention, seeing as she passed away before this blog was started.

Lilly-Rose was the first of our fur kids, an important and much loved part of our family. She was with Catherine before the husand and daughter arrived!

Such a loyal, funny old girl, Cath rescued her from being euthanased at the vet where we worked. Despite her many ailments, she went on to have a happy, fulfilling 7 years with us. She came away on all our holidays and we will forever miss her waggy tail, cute arthritic waddle and loud snoring!

RIP Lilly-Rose, October 2009, 17 years of age.

The fur kids and their latest dramas!

Glad there is a vet in the house. In terms of fur kids, we currently have 3 Whippets and 2 cats. Catherine has had to take a break from dog showing due to the shortage of a healthy and non injured show team! Ripley, Scarlett and Leroy (Whippets) managed to get themselves into a fight over a dog chew, leaving Scarlett scratched up, Leroy with grazed pads and Ripley with a very long term injury to his stifle tendon, which he is curerntly having Physiotherapy and laser treatment for. Leroy has gone to live with a friend temporarily so they can show him. Scarlett is fat and has been on a weight loss diet so Cath could get her back in the show ring, when she came into season ..... Ripley proved to be not so immature in mind, despite being only 10 months old .... without going into details, Scarlett is most likely now pregnant!! Not what i had planned just yet, as Ripley was meant to be the new star in the show ring and to gain his championship title before sireing ANY puppies! Scarlett was surposed to be back in the ring after her litter last year, but will be taking time off for maternal duties now.

The cats - Benson is on antidepressants for his anxiety. He has also just finished his 3rd course of antibiotics for antagonising the neighbors cat who rightly so, beats the living daylights out of him - giving him nice big cat fight abscesses! I wonder why he is anxious?!

Dylan came home last night, very sore and irritable, with a swollen chin and fever.

I wonder if goats and sheep are less trouble?!

Glad there is a vet in the house!!

Our newborn friend.

This tiny little gecko decided to pay us a visit today. Im guessing there are eggs somewhere as he was very newborn. He was climbing up our linen cupboard door! We left him be, to explore his new surroundings and find food. Glad i havent sprayed the spiders in all the corners lately (do geckos eats spiders? ....)

Tiles in the bathroom

Our bathroom - feature/border mosaic tile, benchtop, cupboards and olive coloured floor tile.

Kids bathroom - feature/border tile, benchtop, cupboards, olive coloured floor tile.

Malmalling Winery

We visited this winery one day when we were visiting our block. It is a 5 minute walk down the road from us! The wine was lovely and there is a nice little cafe too. What luck - a cafe and winery within walking distance from home!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo ...

On Sunday 14th March, we decided to visit the Perth Zoo. Aunty Stephanie (Laura's godmother) came with us. It was a glorious day, not too hot. Daddy had some fun putting a bit too much tomatoe sauce on Laura's hotdog! The wet wipes were at the ready! The crocodile floating in his tank watching us and the Lions laying right next to the window - were the highlights.

The Invertebrate Collectors.

This was David's project that took him months by hand to complete! He did it in bed, he did it watching TV, he did it till 2am! He made hundreds and they worked a treat. He ventured off the coast of Rottnest and Busselton to sink the collectors into the ocean. A month later, he pulled them up to find millions of critters had made their homes in these very hospitible works of art. These critters are now his focus for most days at uni, sorting, identifying and disecting!

David at uni with his Invertebrate friends!

David is busy at uni, sorting through all his weird and wonderful ocean life that he managed to collect in his home made collectors. These invertebrates that he is studying managed to attach themselves to his collectors by the millions, off the coast of Rottnest. Now he has the task of sorting through them all, identifying them and studying them! Some of them are microscopic - not an easy task.

We survived the BIG storm of Perth, March 2010!

On the 23rd March 2010, Perth had the biggest storm in 50 years (or so they say!). We had little warning and fortunately i was at home that day as i was on night shift that night. I went to pick up Laura from day care at 4pm and at 4.30pm the skies looked very grey and the storm rolled in. We have very impressive views of storms coming in from our loungeroom window. These photos show before, during and after. It was all over by 7pm, but not without causing millions of dollars damage around Perth. We didnt recieve any damage and got off quite lightly - for once, the hills area didnt cop the full force. Nor did we lose power, some people are still without power even now, 4 days later. Below are some news links about the storm.

David was at work so missed it all! I went to work at 9pm that night, to King Eddies in "Code Yellow" meaning - Internal disaster!! Much of the hospital was flooded, the birthing centre roof collapsed and every pregnant woman in Perth went into labour that night - it made for an interesting and busy night shift!!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/23/2853848.htm

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wild-storm-throws-city-into-chaos/story-e6frg1rc-1225843883475

Measuring up the block

We went to the block a few weeks back to measure up exactly where our house and nanny's house was going to go. Laura was very helpful with the tape measure. Pink Akubra marks the spot!! As always, we visited the fairy garden and said hello to the fairies. Click on the photos to make them bigger.

The Kitchen.

The colours for the kitchen, laundry and two bathrooms have been selected. David left this side of the designing to me, so now i have owned up to that - i hope it really looks good! I must have changed my mind a million times, but i knew we both wanted light, earth colours. So i think we did well. It only took a 9 hour day to make the final decision - that whole day spent in a tile shop with mum! Being the natural interior designer she is - it was easy for mum!

The above are our kitchen colours. A turquoise glass splashback to add some colour and sparkle, "New Basmati" Essa Stone benchtop and "Mulga" formica cupboards.

Countdown till freedom.

Only 1 more week of uni for Cath. Only 6 weeks left to hand in a 3000 word essay with 30 references! Only 7 more weeks to do 2 presentations. Only 12 more weeks till the final Midwifery exam. Only 15 more weeks till i get to register as a qualitifed Midwife ...... but who's counting??!!

We have water tanks!!

This will be our new water tank. How very excited we are! Although Catherine was a little disturbed at the size of it and wondered where the house was going to fit?! Our tank is 250'000 litres, that is 10 meters wide and 3 metres high!! I almost had a coronary! But David assures me he has done all the figures and calculations, talked to the people in the know - and this is what we need ..... time for David to have shorter showers i think!!

The tanks will be colourbond, in "wilderness green" colour, as above. Mums tank will be a bit smaller at 120'000 litres. Well at least i can have that sprawling lawn i want now!

Building documents are signed!!

On the 5th of March 2010, we signed our life away and contracted a bad case of writers cramp while we signed pages apon pages of building documents! No going back now, our dream is about to begin ....

Laura the artist extraordinaire!

Laura was doing some drawing a few weeks ago, when we came in the room to see what she was up to, we found this masterpiece on the floor!!

We asked her who it was and it was "mummy, daddy and Laura".

For 2 years and 8 months - we were very impressed at the detail and clarity of the drawing!