It has been a lovely few weeks of that summer holiday feeling as we enjoyed the month that traditionally has Sydney emptying out and the beaches of Australia filling up as everyone escapes for the school holidays. The weather has been perfect with just the odd 40 degree day with earlyish southerly changes bringing cool breezes and/or thunderstorms so we haven’t had to endure too many hot days in a row. Australia Day officially ended the school holidays and we joined some friends at The Shoalhaven Heads Hotel for a couple of hours of fun. Jugs of cocktails served from their gorgeous 1950’s caravan ‘Hetty’ to enjoy whilst watching the crab races and then the thong throwing competition! Simple family fun with everyone decked out in Australiana and enjoying the live music and some local fish and chips. Things certainly don’t have to be high end to be fun and it was a great afternoon out.

Trying to write the numbers on the teeny tiny crabs proved tricky but the boys got the job done and there was much excitement in the crab ring as to who was going to win the contest!!

We have been getting stuck into the garden which had gone rather wild during the holiday period and was in dire need of some hours being spent weeding, trimming and harvesting some rather huge zucchinis and cucumbers that had escaped our attention! The landscapers came and finished off the new flower beds with some metal edging, fingers crossed it will deter the grass runners and give the MOTH an edge to whipper snip to, making life easier all round! Our new gardenia hedge is now weeded, mulched and enjoying it’s new position with lots of flower buds and bright new growth. It should smell gorgeous when all the flowers are out!

I went out and bought some nets for my plum trees which were laden with fruit and things were looking hopeful for me to finally make a decent batch of jam. The nets managed to cover about 3/4 of each tree, and I pegged the nets onto the branches to make it impenetrable and felt quite proud of my efforts until hubby said he saw two pairs of lorikeets (little cheeky parrots) hopping up from the ground onto the bottom branches and working their way upwards!! Needless to say they well and truly beat me on the race to the fruit and I literally managed to get ONE plum from each tree for us. They destroyed the entire crop, sometimes only taking one bite out of each plum before going onto the next one. Bailey had it all worked out, lying on the floor under the trees and eating all the fruit that the birds knocked down. Animals 1: Susie 0

As our first grandchild’s arrival is imminent we thought it would be nice to have a night up in The Big Smoke and take the parents-to-be out for a grown up night out with dinner and a show. We went along to The Book of Mormon and loved it. A very funny and irreverent take on The Mormon Church and I’d forgotten how much fun live theatre can be. It was especially nice to celebrate the start of Liv’s maternity leave and she had spent the day washing all the little baby clothes in preparation for his/her arrival! So cute to see their lounge room transformed and a few extra tiny socks to get lost in the wash…..Not long now!!

Last year I won my first ever prize at a long lunch hosted by Claydon Park. It was for 2 nights at Bannisters in Mollymook with a dining credit to boot. A very generous prize and I was excited to use it. Initially I had booked to go with my sister when she visited from the UK but we had to cancel after contracting a rotten virus. Then I thought I could go with my daughter when she visited from Vietnam at Xmas but it wasn’t valid during school holidays so as it was due to expire hubby and I went instead and we had a lovely little mini break away from the daily routine. Mollymook is about an hour further south from us and a little bit of a time warp but in a good way. We loved seeing the kids wandering home from school chatting away and happy to walk with their friends for however long it took. None of the fear based parenting that seems to happen in the city meaning kids have to be picked up and dropped off just in case some disaster befell them en route. We saw other kids, as young as 11 at 7.30am coming BACK from the beach with their surfboards tucked under their arms after a pre-school surf and not a parent in sight. It reminded hubby of the Australia he grew up in and it was reassuring to see that families can still enjoy this lifestyle today if they are lucky enough to be able to live in these coastal towns.

Bannisters has three different small hotels, two of which are in Mollymook and the other in Port Stephens and they are all owned by Rick Stein, the English chef. They all have a lovely holiday vibe, gorgeous pools and tasty summery food and cocktails which very quickly make you feel super relaxed. Lying by the pool under their sunny yellow and white striped sun brollies and with a perfect blue sky it was hard to feel anything other than content. If you are looking for a short local getaway I can highly recommend this little corner of the world.

Coming home we were happy chappies, the countryside was looking fresh and green after some nice rain and little bales were dotted all over the surrounding landscape as the farmers capitalise on their windfall, literally making hay while the sun shines and stockpiling food for the dry days that will inevitably recur. Australia really is experiencing all the extremes at the moment with the north of Queensland in flood, a years worth of rain in a few days and causing havoc. This is being watched on the news by the poor folks in southern Tasmania and Victoria who have been enduring terrible bushfires, with beautiful old growth forests burnt out and not to be replaced in our lifetime and other farmers who have had to cull their herds of cattle due to lack of feed and fresh water. It certainly is a tough continent. If we could only find a way to share all our water around…..

Turning into our lane our feelings of happiness quickly subsided as we saw there was obviously a problem with some cows in the paddock. The farmers and vets were there and our hearts sank as we realised things were not good. Two cows were obviously dead and a third was being put out of it’s misery. Apparently it was a case of kikuyu poisoning which is very hard to diagnose until adverse symptoms are noticed. The grass can produce a toxin after periods of drought followed by good rain and it is still unsure as to whether the army worms that like to live in the kikuyu are responsible for the toxins or if it something else. Either way it is a serious threat to small herds and extremely upsetting to all that witness it. I felt so helpless watching these beautiful gentle animals obviously struggling and can only imagine what it must be like for the farmers that have raised them. Heart breaking. We are all hoping that it doesn’t affect any other animals and they have all been moved away to other paddocks just in case. Honestly, who in their right mind would be a farmer?? I take my hat off to them.

Cows are such lovely animals, social, curious, gentle, quiet and engaging.