Melbourne turned on a beautiful summer weekend.  Lots of sunshine for making electricity, lots of breeze for drying the washing, and a lovely atmosphere for making the most of the city.

On Saturday morning we visited friends for morning tea.  So good to chat to loved ones and watch our little girls playing beautifully together!  In the afternoon Grandma and Pa arrived, much to the delight of Clare and Stella, so we had some terrific family time.  Mum and I dressed up (me in my new dress – blog post to come soon) and headed into the city for dinner before seeing The Drowsy Chaperone at the Playhouse Theatre – what a wondeful production!    It’s such a long time since I’ve seen something so entertaining, and our pre-theatre meal was divine.  A highly satisfying day!

And on Sunday, Clare and I headed back into the city (this time by train) to see Drape at the NGV International.  We diverted to visit the Sunday Craft Market at the Arts Centre on our way to the NGV.  Clare had a nice time playing with the Water Wall, while asking whether it was environmentally sound or if it wasted too much water.

The Drape exhibition was small but beautifully curated, and it included a dress by Vionnet – oh, what craftsmanship! Just divine. Clare’s favourite was a 1950s full-skirted Dior number. Since we were at the NGV, we thought we’d better call in on the Ron Mueck exhibition as well. My goodness, those sculptures!

They are astoundingly realistic and full of expression and meaning – moments captured in time. The variation in scale is quite powerful – the sculptures are either quite small, or extremely large.

Clare and I had lots of interesting discussion about the works, and she’s taking photos along to school on Tuesday to talk to her art teacher about it.

And afterwards – gelati at Southbank, where Clare filled in her diary about the day and we had a great view across the city.

Then back to Flinders Street station and a 15 minute train ride later we were back at our car and almost home.

On weekends like this I realise how much Melbourne has to offer, and how marvellous it is to share it with my kids. I’m glad we live close in to the city. I was even home in time to get the ironing done, the house tidied up, and be organised for the week ahead, before settling into my comfy chair to watch Doctor Who regenerate (farewell David!) and enjoy the absurdity of Bones.

It’s a perfect day for making. Making lots of…

electricity! We had solar panels for electricity installed on the garage roof a week or so ago (we already have solar hot water panels on the roof of the house) and with a forecast of sun and 34 degrees, it’s a perfect day for making power and watching the electricity meter spin backwards and feed back into the grid. Well, that’s until we turn on the air conditioning – it uses a huge amount of electricity! That’s the view from the upstairs window across to the city. If I was up early enough it would also contain lots of hot air balloons floating above the buildings. I love that view.

Mr Thornberry is so excited about the solar panels that he is obsessively watching how much power is being generated and I would not be surprised if he records those figures and plots them on a graph.  He has already been up on the garage roof this morning cleaning the panels in order to maximise their efficiency.  If only I could get him to clean the filthy kitchen windows with as much enthusiasm.