The frangipani which means a lot to me has finally fought back and sprouted yet again. Another stick in the ground moment where I thought I’m going to have to pull that up shortly.

"Fat Tony" my favourite little nephew helping Uncle plant some more of those trees. I'm not sure who enjoyed his company more over the week, us or the boys. Another Japanese Maple, Autumn in a few years time will be something special if I can get all the new trees to bite in.

Everyone finally getting along - even the bin chicken who has been hanging the last couple of weeks.

You know I had the pleasure of watching (probably for the 20th time) the original version of Charlie and the Chocolate factory over Christmas late one night and I have to say it would be probably 10 years since the last time I seen it. And whilst I still loved the character that Gene Wilder portrays (and man wasn’t it good) not to mention the Oompa Loompas I found myself watching and critiquing it differently than I have in the past. I’m not sure if it was the fact that we had spent so much time with the kids in the recent days, but I started comparing them to all the kids and the different characters in the movie and yes while watching. It was upon there especially at the end that I had a little proud moment because they all have a little Charlie Bucket in them in their own way with not too much reminiscent of the other characters. I love this photo and everything it stands for and the explanation is in itself.