On an expedition to find a basket for Eva-dog, Rosie and I found ourselves in a pet shop looking at the animals. She was especially fascinated with the birds - so many colours, squawks and fluttering wings! I must admit to a dislike of caging birds. They really should be flying free. However they are good entertainment for an 18-month old...

The girls' grandparents went back to Sydney yesterday, after a two-week stay in Hobart. Every day of their stay, bar one, they entertained the girls, took them on adventures, counselled, guided, coached and loved them. There is nothing in the world quite like doting grandparents. The girls are very lucky, as am I - one of them is my father!

These wooden bench seats sit outside the Treasury building in Hobart's CBD. As the leaves on the trees in front of them change colour the deep dark colour of the wood of the benches contrasts beautifully with the green, yellow and orange of the leaves worshipping the ground beneath them. I walked past on a public holiday. I hope the street cleaners aren't too quick to take up their work before people have a chance to see them in the morning!

One of the things I love about Hobart (Tasmania, Australia) is the sometimes quirky juxtaposition of the old and new. To ye Olde World-ers, the fact that Hobart was settled in 1804 doesn't impress. But in Australia it makes it this country's second oldest capital.
In this photo we see the old savings bank and an old-fashioned light post. If it weren't for the car bumper you could almost mistake this for a scene from the century before last (doesn't that sound old?!).

I love walking around the garden, camera in hand, watching for something to catch my eye and lens. Today I was graced by the presence of this lizard, which was brave enough to let me move fairly close with my camera. Perhaps it though the lens was another reptilian eye? More likely, judging by the stump that remained of its tail, it was too brave or silly for its own good!

Ah, the beach. On a sunny afternoon I love wandering at the beach, poking into rockpools, clambering over rocks and marvelling at the forces and forms that nature throws at us.
I took this photo of my footprint in the sand and thought about what an amazing substance sand is. Hard and soft, gritty and smooth, corrosive and a bed for sunbathers.And a fantastic canvas for pictures!

This dry, crumpled leaf doesn't even have the energy to drop from the grapevine. Perhaps it's confused by the lovely early autumn weather we are enjoying in Hobart at the moment. 25 degrees (celcius) and sunny. Perfect!
But before long my daughters and I will have the daily task of collecting the leaves that do drop and bagging and binning them. Good exercise and a pocket-money earner when they're a bit older!

or is it a zebra, or a Tasmanian tiger....?
Anyway here she was under the table on an exquisite early autumn day in Hobart. It was warm enough for Eva to need to shelter under the table, and the sun was high enough to pass through the table to make these stripes. If you could only hear her snores...

Today has been a toddler-filled day. More than it usually is around here, with two of my own and several friends with one or more of their own. Days like this I can understand the stories about women in the 1950s who were full-time mothers, trapped in the suburbs with little or no support from a working and sometimes disengaged husband, who found themselves using all manner of prescription (and non-prescription) drugs to keep themselves going. Remember the line about a 'Bex and a good lie down'? This photo gives away my outlet on hard days.... I can never go past a good g&t!

Seriously, though, full-time mothering is a difficult job. I consider myself lucky - I have a partner and friends who all see ourselves and each other as more than mothers/fathers and we regularly discuss anything from the difficulties of parenting to the problems with US hegemony in the world... I would be bereft without these means of using my mind in ways other than taking care of my children. And possibly quite mad!