Nature is amazing, beautiful, awe inspiring, unpredictable, scary and awful in equal measure. We have had a hell of a few weeks here with an East Coast low bringing a massive rain event causing widespread flooding and damage leaving our local area looking more like the Canadian Lakes than little old Berry. People along the river had to be evacuated as the levels rose and people lost cattle, sheds and machinery to the roaring swollen river. A huge shed from the Shoalhaven Zoo was seen floating down the river at great pace and narrowly missing the pylons of the Nowra bridge as it hurtled downstream. Some panoramic shots from Cambewarra Lookout show the widespread inundation and we were SO happy when it all came to an end. A years worth of rain in the past 6 weeks is more than enough thank you very much. It has been good timing however for the farmers coming into Spring and Summer and hopefully with overflowing dams they can finally say goodbye to the drought.

Of course Mother Nature wasn’t content to leave things like that and decided to top it all off with three days of horrendous westerly winds that could almost blow your head off if you went out of the wrong door by mistake. Branches fell on cars and trees and land slides blocked roads. There were more sirens and more rescues and the only place to be was indoors with the fire blazing as the temperatures plummeted and the great outdoors became a decidedly unpleasant option.

So today I ventured to the beach with the Choccy Drop as the wind had calmed and the sun was out and the world was washed clean and shiny. The wild seas had carved huge cliffs into the sand and washed up loads of driftwood and shells. People had had great fun making teepees out of the logs and the beach looked a little like an outdoor gallery as we enjoyed our first outing in ages. Miss Bailey did at least 4 happy dances and didn’t seem to care that the water was freezing as she frolicked in the shallows with not a care in the world!

We managed to sneak away for a weekend in between weather systems and we headed to Canberra to visit the kids in their new place and see their local area. We were like kids at Xmas as we packed the car up….a roadtrip whooopee! They had only been gone 2 weeks but it felt like ages since we’d heard the incessant chatter of our little granddaughter and it was so lovely to see her all full of beans and enjoying her new life in our nation’s capital. Her Dad takes her out every day rain, hail or shine and she is Queen of the playground as she waddles determindly up the equipment, all sass and nappy, to stop and reverse onto the slides and zoom down with absolutely no regard for anyone that happens to be below her!!! Occasionally she will spy a puddle out of the corner of her eye and over she goes for a good old splash (her cute white sneakers are a thing of the past) and then when she tires of that she will occasionally get down on her tummy and drink from it!!! Our little pocket rocket is definitely “at one” with the outdoors that’s for sure! She started daycare today and I am sure her Dad will love finally having more than 2 minutes to himself and can now apply for some casual teaching as well. Loz loves her new job, working in a hospital environment isn’t for everyone but just like her Mum she LOVES it and her day flies by in a whirl of busy-ness before returning home to her two loves.

Our journey to Canberra took us through the Morton National Park which had been badly affected by the bushfires earlier this year. Even though I had seen the footage in the news I was still surprised to see the extent of the devastation, still to this day as far as the eye could see in all directions was a lunar landscape, dead as a dodo and very sobering. Shoots were on some of the trees but from a distance it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off…

As Canberra has no covid cases we were able to enjoy as close to a normal weekend as we have in months. We visited the fabulous Fyshwick Markets and enjoyed the cosmopolitan breakfast options on offer before buying some seafood for dinner and then heading out on a little tour of the city. There are so many amazing parks and each suburb has it’s own shops, schools and daycare so it is all very convenient for people, nothing seems to be more than 15 minutes away from anywhere and there is no stress getting from A to B.

So as plans for travelling overseas and even interstate are non existent whilst the borders remain shut, people seem to be turning to home and to a list of “projects to be done”. All those old platitudes of being ‘too busy’ or ‘having no money as we’re saving for a holiday’ are also non existent so finally things are being built, decorated, renovated and landscaped. So now instead of our trip to Italy we are getting a new driveway!! Not quite as exciting as my epic birthday trip but excited I am nonetheless! The boys started ripping all the old broken bitumen out and widening it today ahead of edging it tomorrow and it already looks a whole lot neater. Our neighbours are constructing a pergola (dreams of a nice spritz on their back deck are not too far away now…) and my friends in the Valley are excitedly digging a gigantic hole to house a new rainwater tank. The projected plans for the landscaping around it would put many city gardens to shame and what is fundamentally a functional thing will now also become a place of beauty. The plant nurseries are overstocked with flowers and shrubs as people flock to make their own backyard somewhere special that they want to spend time in and to entertain their friends and families. A bit like the 1950s on steroids really. It’s taken a global pandemic to make us appreciate our own backyard again…!!

These diggers are amazing, if we had to dig this all out by hand it would take weeks and our backs wouldn’t be too happy either but in the space of 2 days it will all be dug and edged ready for the new bitumen! Brilliant stuff!

As parents around the globe have had to take up the mantle of their children’s class work they have come to realise just how wonderful teachers are. Teaching the little darlings is NOT EASY. Add into the equation the kids are at home (with all the distractions that brings) together with Mum and Dad not really knowing what they are doing and kids are getting away with all sorts. They are genuinely missing school because school is so much more than just lessons and the social interaction part of it is huge so we are seeing a huge leap in childhood depression and suicide which is heart breaking so for the physical and emotional health of the kids and the sanity of all parents lets hope we can get everyone back to school asap. In the meantime this made me laugh….