I had to ring P this morning to check he had survived this morning's climb. Yes - every time it rains (just when the tarps are extra slick and slippery) he gets the ladder out, scales the tarp-covered roof and empties the pockets of water that collect there between the wood battens. He's worried the water will get beetween the tarps sheets onto the roof and warp the wood again - which would be a disaster. I just wish someone else would do it. He's decided to test the sand which has been delivered for our external mortared brick walls and made a dash to Bunnings last night to procure the required thickness of plywood to use as a drying base for the mixed mortar. He also wants to get 2 mover's trolleys (a board on wheels) to transfer the sliding doors and windows (complete with glass) from the carport (where they are in danger of being damaged) down to the building site. This would involve building a temporary ramp from the end of the driveway down to the slab over what is a rough and muddy patch of ground. I think he wants me to help him... I can just see a runaway window hurtling down the hill only to stop with a great splintering crash at the piles of mudbricks sitting neatly on the driveway.

All this activity on P's part is filling the hours while we wait for the electrician to complete his work. The contracted electrician hasn't been responding to calls (apparently the poor man has a new baby and there have been complications) so we've had a replacement semi-retired guy come in who had to attend a funeral last week and hasn't returned since - too much whisky at the wake..? As you can see, it is a life or death situation... ! And of course the builders can't continue their work until the electrician is finished. So the roof remains tarped and the frame is festooned with unconnected wires and we pray that the good weather holds out long enough for some sort of progress to be made.

I'm busying myself with plans for L's party this Sunday. The theme, after some negotiation (he wanted dinosaurs to begin with) is lions and tigers. He has some suitable furry outfits with tails to wear - so that's covered. I've started on the cake decorations and now I'm wracking my brain trying to think of some themed party bags that don't actually contain lollies - yes, I'm taking a stand. There is too much sugar at parties these days! So I'm trying to minimise the levels of glucose by combining the sugar with cake and serving fructose in the form of fruit instead. There will be more savoury snacks than sweet overall. We're having the party in the park which should work well - lots of space and climbing equipment for the little ones, and an oval right next door for the bigger kids. Also, I don't have to worry about tidying up!

I had a go at making some liquid hand soap - not too hard: take a bar of soap, soak it in a bucket of water overnight (I had to grate the soap - it didn't dissolve as quickly as it should have), mix it up, add a few squirts of sorbolene and a few drops of essential oil (I used lavender). I estimate I made about 6 litres of the stuff. Then I had to find bottles to store it in! I rescued some from the recycling bin. I found 2 litre washed milk cartons to be just the thing. We will be able to reuse the pump dispensers we've already got from the supermarket. The idea for all this came from the Simple Savings website which has some very good ideas I must say. I'm all for saving a bit of money - it's good for your wallet, requires a little creativity and lateral thinking and helps the environment too!

By the way - I have to apologise for not including my sketch of the sunken garden plans last blog - I'm sure you were all very disappointed. Here they are then... The sketches on the left are side on views, the ones on the right are aerial plans.
We could have a vote for which one you all like best - what do you think?

Where do I begin....? It's been so long since I last blogged and there is so much that has happenend (and not happened). Just to get everyone in the picture (for those who don't see me often) we now have 3 dimensions! We have a frame made of lovely cypress posts and oregon beams and part of a roof. I never thought it would be so lovely to look at in the flesh. The sketches of the house design we're using and the photos I've seen on the Post & Beam website don't do it justice. You get a real sense of the space now - including the cathedral ceilings and the light streaming in the top row of windows.

The builders were half-way through the roof construction when the deluge began again...! We had some vapour sheeting covering it which turned out to be permeable (isn't it supposed to be) - so the rain got through. It actually buckled the slatted pine ceiling underneath and a month and a few sunny days later the builders are back and attempting to nail the slats straight again. The ceiling did actually re-straighten slightly in the drying out process.

Before the rain came - we've been checking the forecast daily - we asked the builder if the roof would be OK with the sheeting and they assured us it would. You would think the builders would've known that the sheeting wasn't waterproof - well they didn't. And the instructions they're following from the house design company weren't specific enough - we've checked. All of which means we've been hiring tarps to the tune of $200 a day until we came to our senses and bought our own.

P was looking around the site yesterday and yelled out 'Hey there are animal tracks - look over here!' He asked me to identify them so I duly took a look and saw some finely formed three-prong chicken prints in the mud near the front door. Apparently our two-legged fowl friends have been wandering further afield lately in search of tasty morsels in the upturned earth around the slab.

We celebrated P's 4oth birthday in April with family at the same time as our nephew William who was turning 3. True to family tradition we made a train cake made from chocolate swiss rolls - pictured here. I remember Dad making these for us when we were little - and I think he enjoyed it just as much as we did! In fact I called him before making this one for some expert tips... Just so he didn't feel upstaged we made sure P had an extended birthday with friends on a long weekend near Jervis Bay along with a mob of kangaroos and a pod of dolphins offshore.

Today after work I'm heading off to a local newsagent to collect a pile of last year's newspapers. No, I'm not trying to catch up with the news - I prefer to get mine online these days. Actually once I get the papers home I'm going to soak them and then wheelbarrow them down to our 'sunken garden' to lay as a mulch and weed barrier before we spread the gravel around. I've got some ideas for planting this part of the garden, but most of it will have to wait until the council inspector has been and gone. The official use for this sunken garden is a storm water retention pit, complete with drainage and pipes laid in. I, however, have other ideas for it. It has a low wall around it which would work really well as seating for a small garden party (in good weather - so it's dry). I can imagine a nice curvy arabesque deck (we have a pile of offcuts etc that would be useful for this purpose) reaching out from two sides to meet at a small garden island in the middle of the space. This could be more seating or a table for refreshments... Here is a sketch I've done with my ideas. I have my eye on a soft stone sculpture workshop in the area where I could learn to create my 'two hands' sculpture for the centrepiece and possible water feature.

On Saturday we celebrated our Playgroup's 3rd birthdays out in Mangrove Mountain. It was a lovely day and the kids had a great time running around, rampaging through the jumping castle and generally stuffing their faces. I made some animal cupcakes with cat, duck and monkey faces which went in a flash. Forgot to take a photo of them before they were all scoffed - sorry. But here is an image of the martha stewart website cupcake competition entry that inspired them...