Family holiday in FNQ

how lucky are we to have spent 10 days in divine port douglas FNQ.
A far cry from the chilly nights in country Kyneton.
Our friends Nick and Tanya were married and we were not to miss it for all teh tea in China.
A planned trip and our first family holiday.
Sylvia and Mike also on vacation, joined by Carole and Barry Hynes who are such good family friends. Mum was the celebrant to marry Nick and Tanya and did a truly magical job.


3pm, still, warm afternoon sun beaming towards the point where we gathered, surrounded by amazing milky skies, pale glistening waters and layered mountains, I doubt there are many locations in the world more beautiful.
Tanya arrived by boat, her brothers carried her ashore over the rocky beach. tears loomed in everyones eyes.
the feast afterwards was truly amazing. seafood to die for. I was very excited and felt spoilt.

So Josh, Otis and I spent our days in the sun strolling, eating, lazing by the pool and chatting to friends and family also there for the wedding. It was lovelty to stay in accommodation where others to enjoyed company. Nick's 2 sisters Lonnie and Vanessa were such great company along with their partners and Bella.

The Sunday market is a favourite. Multi talented locals display their crafts. anything from Daintree grown rare breed orchids to local mango icy poles.
The colours are green.....so many greens, so alive and vivid. The vegetation strong and wild. The air sweet and sticky.

We did sneak a look at the boathouse where we stayed last year on our 'romantic' vacation prior to the arrival of Otis.
But that's life and we are blessed with this incredibly beautiful, spirited little man.
Otis was a hit with all. Poolside and beyond. He is a real charmer and has a wicked smile and giggle. Only at 3am and many other times during the nights it somehow loses it's charm !!
Otis is eating pureed pears, sweet potato and apple and loving it.

Gorgeous friends Mischee and Reddog were there with their 2 monkeys Lena and Isabella. So nice to spend time with old friends. It was 16 years since I first met them and lived in Port.


We are happy to be home and have nestled in well to the very cool nights and the totally different skyline, smell, colour and atmosphere of our new town.
Farmers markets are on every weekend where we purchase local produce. The wood fire is going and we are rugged up in woolies.

love to all.
xx


















Sunday market relaxation.
















Habitat wildlife sanctuary. Otis and I explore
















Reddog, Mischee, Nick and us.






















kicking back in the hired help

















not overly keen on the pool

















what a beach!

Country Nights

Autumn is well and truly settled in here in Kyneton. Plenty of Ash's turning their beautiful strong shades. Not allot of news here from 'sleepy hollow'. The natives are friendly, and the weather has been at its best ( beside the perennial lack of rain ). Last weekend was spent poking around the area, as well a a trip to Red Beards in Trentham, and a wander past our little plot of land.

Days consist of me working, either here or in the city, Champs looking out for the Otis, who is about as predictable as a greyhound. In her spare moments, walking cooking, and befriending the native fruit, flour, wine, coffee, book & meat sellers. She has been cooking, and made the most amazing apple tea cake today ( very CWA ), which was dismembered well before I thought to take a photo.

A couple of the photo's attached are from this evenings walk. There was a beautiful autumn chill in the air. The sun was setting, and all was nice and peaceful. The exact moments, I think, that we have come here to experience. The more time we're spending here the more it fits. Hope all is well. x J

we just feed him and he grows!
















Just around the corner from our house.

The nearby coliban river in its autumn glory.

House Guests & Sunshine

What a beautiful Easter long weekend. We had many visitors this weekend. Beck (friday/saturday), Mike & Sylv' (Monday/tues), Caro & Jay (Monday) & A Chook (Thursday).

We had beautiful sunshine and got out and about to see more of this little part of the world we find ourselves in. We went to Trentham to red beards bakery and got our hot cross buns cooked in the scotch oven. We went to a little coolroom shop out the back of a house in Musk called istra for some beautiful small goods, and to cap it of we visited zig zag rd wines on the way home.

We had a lovely quiet couple of days in the garden which has been bathed in sunshine, beautiful warm days, but admittedly the nights are getting chilly. The garden is greening up thanks to a bit of rain a few weeks ago, although it wont be long until it needs it again.

Otis is growing so quickly, and is adorable. The country air seems to agree with him.
In fact I think its agreeing with us all. We all seem a little more relaxed.

The town certainly seems to have all we need, with one significant omission - the bottle shops are appalling. I can see a monthly trip to see Barry & Tim ( Carlton Cellars ) to get ourselves a mixed dozen.

We're Here

Hi Guys,

The have telephones here and everything. In fact even internet, although due to the sad untimely death of our ADSL modem, we are working of the trusty dial up at the moment.

We have all settled in amazingly well, a few boxes here and there and many of our conversations begin the same way; 'What we need is one of those ........ '. Storage is a little interesting, I cant believe the lack of foresite shown in the 1910's.

Otis is well and growing, chatting and generally ruling the house, followed closely by two very housebound cats. Who despite having been lovingly built the Cat-mahal (thanks dad) still see a much more interesting world full of bigger and stranger birds for them to stalk.

We've had a few visitors in the last few weeks. Lol came by on the first leg of her little regional Victorian Jaunt. Of course we had Uncle Luke (Lucas pictured above) down from Byron to meet his little nephew and catch up with family and friends.

Our 3rd wedding anniversary the other day. Seems like yesterday. My beautiful wife is more beautiful than ever.

Must run - but cannot stress enough that the last few weeks would have been alot more hairy without the support of both our family's, we've been supplied with removal help (and advice, surprise surprise), food, and just general hand lending. Couldn't have done it without them.

X J

A few photos for the members of the otis fan club. A shot of Lucas, Mike, Champs and Otis. Uncle Lucas and Otis Lucas, & A view of our new house from the backyard.

Otis Is Growing Up / Smiths on the move

Busy Busy times in the Smith household.

For some of you it may come a bit of a shock to learn that we a relocating our little cult to Kyneton. We've been so busy handling Otis, Work, & Packing that we wont have seen many of you. And you'll all be more shocked to learn that its this weekend. We're on our way to a little cottage in Wedge street, Kyneton. Which is the first step in our Trentham tree change. We're very excited, as well as being a little apprehensive over leaving a home that has recently had so many special memories. So you all must start considering your little country sojourns and we will look forward to our outing to 'Town' to see all of you. It less than an hour away at the right time of day so don't be scared. We have been wonderfully supported by our families and I'm not sure we could have attempted this without their support.

Hard to believe that it was 3 months ago when our little man arrived. Otis has changed so much in the last few weeks its hard to know where to start. He loves a chat. When I get him up in the morning he will quite happily spend 45mins just chatting away, telling me how to do things.
Its so difficult to catch him in a smile when I take a photo now, 1 because he's so intrigued by the camera & 2 he's to busy telling me how to do it. He is sleeping a little better, will go down for little naps during the day, and is still a very healthy little man.

Beautiful Charmaine is doing amazingly. She is such an instinctive mother and I'm so proud of the way she's taken on all that this year has thrown at her. Otis is lucky to have her, and so am I.

Hope everyone is well and happy. Uncle Lucas is in town and we look forward to spending some time amongst the boxes with him over the next week.

xx Josh

daydream

Peter Neumann's first hold of baby Otis

Judy was sure to take him home -

very funny - the park was breezy so we used the sweet little beanie



































in the car





























Hi all,
how time flies with a bubs and how i have no concept of days and weeks....otis is growing as you can see. he is adorable, smiling a lot with his dad and remains cheeky - not loving sleep. he is now 9 weeks old, over 60 cm long and making lots of chatting noises. we have little doubt that he will be doing many things early...so get ready for action !!
here are a few snaps of him smiling and of josh and i in the park with him last week. today poppy and nan neumann came over for a visit all the way from tweed heads. it was delightful to see them and they loved meeting otis. very hot...38, house is stinking but have a cooler in the bedroom. i love the weekends as josh is on deck and i love the company. had a hard week just gone - a few days that otis didn't sleep at all. have started a sleep / feed / pattern yesterday so will be trying to implement it over the next few weeks as things became desperate for all and baby otis neds more sleep to be happy.
so ....here we go all into week 9 of life for our otis.
love to all...
he is screeming as i write this....as josh is holding him.....but i am comforted by his happy face and adorable smile.

HOW DIVINE ARE THE SMILES... the cute little woolen hat was knitted by sandra, there is also the sweetest matching woolen cardigan.
xxx

toooooo cute

monday night at 10.15pm and we have just got cheeky baby otis into bed after a 2 hour session and some very loud screaming...we think hot, tired and probably everything else a baby can feel.
need to head off to bed now as my second wind is running low. josh is reading over a pool contract for work on the couch, cats going wakky in this cooler evening. sandra and steph spent yesterday afternoon with us which was lovely - although otis had a bad day as was very hot and just did not want a sleep. steph was very touched by the little mans alluring smile (how can you not be) days roll on and seem to disappear....loved seeing photos of phoebes birthday and the celebration that went on, she is divine and mel an amazing mother. off to bed.
love to all.
HOW CUTE IS THE SMILE !!!!!!! AND JUST A LITTLE BIT CHEEKY
the dress i am wearing in the above photo is one of beck's little numbers (clever girl).

growing up

Hi,
Otis is growing up. He was 6 weeks old yesterday. we can't believe it. He has changed so much since birth and developed a really strong little personality. He loves to feed and watch everything going on around him.

Aunty Beck is looking very comfortable with the little man. She is divine - sewed me 2 dresses and a top just because.....they are gorgeous. We have continued to have a steady stream of visitors...Kate and Scotty cooked us lunch on sunday, rick and Kaz popped in with a cake a their beautiful daughter ruby, Tima and Louise from the Prince, Katherine from Romsey, Tash and the girls, Brett and Lisa...to name a few. I did make certain that I informed Brett that just because we had a baby didn't mean that we had nothing else to talk about !!!!
The days fly by - up early with the boys, feeding, washing, settling etc etc etc. by the evenings things can go a bit pear shaped. He seems to have a witching hour /s from around 6pm to 10pm ish. 6 weeks seems to be the time people refer to as when change occurs and crying increases. This has certainly happened as his body is developing and he is observing his environment.

Mum popped in yesterday with fruit and veg...she is in very besotted in otis. Mum and I cooked a beef casserole for our dinner.....food is very welcome as I am still eating like a monster and it seems to be hard to get dinners together. He is totally divine and very cheeky. josh and I still cannot believe that we have a son. went to a picnic party in the bot gardens last week. With both josh and I there it was easier with Otis. Our friends little boy turned 1. We are officially amongst our friends as the couple with baby...never thought it would happen as we were always at gatherings with kids as the couple without child. I think all the practice has paid off a little as we feel comfortable amongst crazy kid world and speak.....


off to maternal health nurse tomorrow to see how much our boy has grown over the last 2 weeks...


love to everyone.


champs, josh and otis

The three of us

Hi all,

beautiful rain ! love it.

It is Saturday afternoon / evening and Josh is trying to settle baby Otis.

He has been awake most of the day which is not at all preferable.

Just doesn't like sleeping very much at the moment and is very stimulated and active / especially for a 5 week old (this Monday).

He is toooo cute though and although we are sleep deprived and a little testy - you can't help but adore him.

He has a very strong little personality and seems defiant and determined. very cheeky (takes after mum) and incredibly strong.

Since birth he has grown 4 cm in length and has put on over 900grams.

Josh has been busy working again after his break and is finding it difficult to focus and cope with the busy load. Although he is busy which is wonderful.

Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support. It certainly is a trying time, one where so many adjustments take place and a confidence needs to be built between the three of us.

take care and enjoy watching him grow.

He is offering little smiles which is divine.

xx

A few more photo's