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It’s obviously no news to anyone, but marriage brings together elements of different families in ways that help everyone grow and develop in different directions. I don’t really remember music being a big part of growing up with Mum and Dad. Sure, we had recorded music like most other families, but we didn’t do anything as a family to make music.

Lisa’s family was quite different. They had a very strong sense of music in the house. The piano is still in their lounge room. Lisa’s brother Fred is an excellent keyboard player, although these days he uses his skill for evil rather than good. Peter still plays bass guitar in the same band he’s been in for a few decades, and his son Adam plays bass too. I’ve never heard him play, but Lisa’s Dad was apparently a beautiful piano player.

Because of the influence of Lisa’s family we’re encouraging our kids to think about making music. I’ve got an old and cheap guitar that I bought many years ago (Whitehorse Road days) that the kids have recently dusted it off and have been having fun with. Big Girl is especially taken by it; she’s been nagging us to get some lessons for her, but the few places we’ve contacted don’t start until they’re 10, so she’s going to have to play around by herself for a few years yet. She’s having great fun though. Little One just loves to dance, so after dinner it’s not unusual to have Big Girl playing made up songs while little one throws herself around the rug. She even joins in with vocals.

One of the first made up songs we heard was “Monsters of doom” (don’t ask) and little one is happy to sing that too.

Little One likes playing the guitar too, but she gets bored pretty quickly. She’d rather sing and dance than play, but she still gets stuck in like her big sister.

Even if neither of them goes on to formally learn to play an instrument it’s really nice that they’re playing around with making music at home. As good as recorded music is, there’s something really wholesome about the creativity of playing an instrument and making your own music.

Today was another day of strong winds with significant and widespread damage across Victoria. There’s more on the way, too. I just got the following page from the SES:

ATT: ALL MEMBERS – A series of damaging wind days has been predicted commencing on Sunday evening. An email has been sent to all Units that contains a detailed weather prognosis, in particular a significant severe weather event for Tuesday/Wednesday. Widespread damaging winds are predicted over a prolonged 48 hour period, with average wind speeds of 60-70km/hr, regular wind gusts of 100-120km/hr across the state with wind gusts reaching 150km/hr in the Alpine district.

Tie down anything important.

When I got to Mum and Dad’s last night I looked at the back fence. It’s pretty stuffed. Lots of rotten wood. Kate and I made a few more makeshift repairs so it’s at least sort of standing upright now.

As well as anchoring it to the tree we went over the other side and used the trust Paslode nail gun with gay abandon surgical precision to reattach the rails to the posts and then the palings to the rails.

This wood has obviously seen better days, so the repairs we made aren’t going to last forever. They’ll do until it can be replaced.

One thing worth noting is that the 70mm framing nails are just a teensy bit longer than the depth of the palings and rails, so there’s just a little poking out the other side. Well, maybe more than a bit…

NOTE: These blur in these last two shots is because I took them in relatively low light using VR on the 105mm macro lens I’ve sadly got to return to its owner very soon. It’s a great lens, but when it’s wide open and close up the depth of field is incredibly shallow.

Over the weekend we had a pretty big storm front move across Victoria. Unlike the last storm event where our local SES unit had 40 odd calls, this time we had none. Some other areas of the state got hit pretty hard.

Like my parent’s back fence, for example:

I was planning to go down to the city today anyway; this just means I’ll have to take a few tools with me and try to rescue it as best I can until they can have it repaired/replaced. It looks like the timber is getting pretty rotten so I’m not sure that I’ll get it back 100% as it was. We’ll see.