Mother Nature has packed her bag and gone on holiday leaving her wicked stepsister in charge of Australia. There are no two days in a row that are the same. Hot and windy one day and cold and windy the next. We haven’t had a blue sky in weeks either because of clouds, smoke haze or dust storms. The lawn is dying and the trees in our lane are dropping their leaves a mere few weeks after getting them! The cows spend all day eating the parched grass but their exposed ribs tell another story. We are watering our flowers (too many dollars invested in them not to) but water restrictions are here so we can only use a hand held hose which is fun with 2 acres! All this and we live on the coast, usually rich grazing land for dairy cows and as green as the Welsh hills. Go another hour inland and the picture is tenfold worse. Just dust. My friend Michael travels with a TV station all around Australia and he took these photos of properties seen a few years apart. Heartbreaking….
The fires are still raging in some parts of Australia and there are SO MANY people in need. There are loads of worthy charities doing great work and all in dire need of our dollars. The bush fire appeal, hospitals for fire affected animals, farmers needing feed and water for their cattle and for themselves and then there are the women and children in domestic violence shelters, the homeless, underprivileged and sick kids. So many people in need it’s quite overwhelming.
There is a family I know that is doing it especially tough. Their 11 year old daughter London was putting their chooks away when she was bitten by a tiger snake last week. As they live on a remote property in the Byron hinterland it took over an hour to a) get a phone signal to call an ambulance and b) for the ambulance to get there and administer the antivenom. A helicopter ride to the hospital which is 2.5 hours away by car and she is now in ICU heavily sedated while her little body fights the toxin. She can’t breathe, talk, swallow or eat, she is on dialysis and may need a kidney transplant and her heart is pumping so fast she’s in danger of having a heart attack. London is one of 5 small children and her Mum is currently staying at Ronald McDonald house next to the hospital to help the 24 hour nursing team and to be there when her daughter wakes up. It is just 3 weeks until Xmas. You can just imagine what she is going through. London will be in ICU for at least 2 months but all hope is that she will be well enough to start high school next year if things go well. There are so many financial pressures as well as emotional ones so if anyone would like to help there is a go fund me page set up for the family…
In other news Le Rod has left the building!! He was rather unceremoniously bundled into this cage by the MOTH while he was busy eating and has been whisked away to Ulladulla about an hour south of here where he will father some more baby chicks and hopefully behave more gently towards his new owner. I must say the hen house is a much more tranquil place since he’s gone and our rapidly growing chicks have finally been able to roam free in peace. Not to say that the older hens have exactly welcomed them with open arms (they still let the little ones know who’s the boss) but they are loving their new found freedom and have developed quite a little gang. Trunchbull has resumed her dominant hen status and is the first to run at them or keep them away from the food and we have had to separate her from them a couple of times so they can eat and drink in peace. The littlies haven’t quite plucked up enough courage to roost with the big ones yet and remain in a huddle on the straw floor of the coop at night but surely they will get brave soon? We had them sexed on Friday and are very relieved that there are only 5 roosters out of the 15 chicks, one of which we are keeping (Atticus) and another is being taken by our lovely neighbour Katherine so only three to “rehouse” at this stage thank goodness!
We had a lovely gathering of the clan a couple of weekends ago when my Swiss sister-in-law and her sons and partners all came to stay. Sam, Liv and Coops were also there so the Swiss family got to meet our happy, smiley little boy in the flesh! He took all the extra faces on board with no problems and still went to sleep on time despite the noise level in the dining room being something akin to a U2 concert ! The next day they made a delicious cheese fondue with cheese brought all the way from Switzerland and enjoyed by us all, thanks to my brother-in-law Michel for the thought. You would have thought we hadn’t eaten for a month if you saw us scraping the last little drop of deliciousness from that pot!!!
Cooper had his first swim in the pool which he LOVED! It’s going to be a godsend at Christmas if it’s warm. Much easier for the babies than the ocean and no travelling to and fro either. We stoked up the pizza oven that night and Cooper was very curious to check out the oven with Pa, it felt good to be using all our summer toys again. Young Coops has started moving around the house in a mixture of commando crawling and flipping and twisting rather like a human slinky and he can get from A to B really quite fast so we are going to have to keep an eye on our little boy from now on as he has already discovered the plugs and TV wires and just wait until the Christmas tree goes up….eeeek!
So at a time when we would generally be feeling summery and excited for the season ahead we are all quite on edge. Only a few days into the start of summer and things are very dodgy for lots of people so let’s really look around and appreciate all that we have, for you can bet your bottom dollar there are so many people far worse off. Never forget how quickly your life can change for whatever reason.
My Move To The Meadow 