Well what a few weeks we’ve had. In fact nearly everyone we know seems to have had a bad few weeks. As if Covid wasn’t enough. Sadly we have close friends and family who are very sick and every week we hear more stories of others in the same situation. Is it because we are getting older? Or because we know a lot of people? Or is the universe just throwing everyone as many curve balls as possible and seeing how we all cope. In the current world situation I think we are all on heightened alert without even realising it and one piece of bad news has the capability of sending us plummeting into a sad place. For those who are now either in an extended or 2nd or 3rd lockdown it must be especially hard to stay upbeat and look positively towards the future. No matter how hard you’ve worked your whole life your business may have crashed and burnt before your very eyes or the savings you had so diligently acquired over months and years of sacrifice for a house or a new business venture has now had to be used to merely exist through sudden unemployment and things beyond your control. It’s as scary as the thought of the disease, maybe even more so as the months go by. I do not envy those in charge as there doesn’t seem to be any one way through this crisis and I think that all we can do is to take some self responsibility for our own lives, lower our previous expectations and be grateful for what we have. I am concerned for my family in the UK and Europe and the US as the figures over there for new cases are frightening and coming into winter isn’t helping but all I can do is stay in communication and plan a get together for when this all goes away. There is talk that we will not have international travel to the northern hemisphere until 2022 from Australia but as a dual passport holder I can always go if I really need to for any reason and just do the quarantine on my return. At this stage it is harder for people to get into Queensland than it would be for me to go to England!!! Crazy…..

In happier news we have had a couple of get togethers with our daughter and family. We are trying to squish in as many visits as we can before they relocate to Tasmania in December so we enjoyed the long weekend here in The Meadow along with Tom and some good friends of Lauren’s and their 2 year old Mia which made for lots of cute moments!

Papa finally finished the sandpit and the boys filled it up to much appreciation from our smallest family member who LOVED it! We were lucky enough to have some beautiful weather allowing beach time and one of our favourite pizza nights! We babysat one afternoon and had a grand old time with Myla helping me pick mulberries from the tree (one for the bowl and one for her!!) then watering the pots of flowers with her very own mini watering can (some for the plants then some for her feet!) and then a swim in the pool with Papa (more splashing on the steps than swimming to be honest) and a good time was had by all.

The other person who loves picking mulberries is Bailey. Our little choccy drop is very smart and when she sees me out there with a bowl she comes and loiters under the tree hoovering up all the ones that fall off as I harvest. I have even seen her out there alone nibbling them off the bottom branches with great dexterity and finesse which means she gets the bottom of the tree, I get the middle and the birds get the top!! Still plenty to go around and I am constantly delivering bowls to friends and neighbours. Last week I gave a bowl to my neighbour at 9am and a jar of jam made from the fruit was gifted to me at 3pm!! Now that’s fresh!!

I have mixed feelings about reporting that Atticus has left the building. After his close encounter with the fox he became extra aggressive to the point where none of us could go near him without a stick or a rake as he would run at us feathers flared and a glint in his eye and once or twice he caught the MOTH by surprise leaving him with big scratches on his arms or legs. I couldn’t blame him for his heightened angst but it made life less than pleasant always having to keep an eye out for him and I could never let them out with the grandkids there just in case. So one Sunday morning Cam made the hard decision to let him go. He was sad as he had hand raised him and even a few weeks previously had been able to pick him up with no fear but he now had PTSD and we couldn’t really do much to change that. Atticus had the 2nd last laugh though as Cam chased him around the coop injuring his achilles in the process. The chicken house is now a calmer place and I am gradually getting used to not being charged at every time I let them out! The girls are all getting on ok with our previously head hen Trunchbull back in charge! The babies are now gawky teens and being tolerated by the older chooks, even permitting them to roost with them at night as of yesterday! This was after a night where we lost the little white one, there was literally no sight of her at dusk when they all went to bed and despite looking everywhere we had to go to sleep not knowing where she was or if she had been taken by a fox. The next morning she had found her way into my asparagus patch and was cheeping loudly trying to find her way home! Our little adventurous explorer Chanel!

To thank us for housing them during the Covid lockdown Loz and Berry had organised for us to have a weekend away further down the south coast at Potato Point, a gorgeous little spot right on the beach in a national park. The family cabin was perfect for us and had the most magnificent view over the beach. Although the weather wasn’t perfect it still allowed us to walk and play on the beach, eat outside on our deck each night with a wonderful chiminea to keep the chill off and enjoy a trip into nearby Bodalla, a quaint little town famous for it’s dairy products. Myla was enthralled by the MANY wallabies and kangaroos that populate the area, most of them had baby joeys and we loved being so up close and personal with them.

Nature abounded and no one was more surprised than us when a little possum crashed our dinner table barely 30 seconds after Loz had finished her dessert. Mr possum thoroughly licked the plate clean before vanishing back to whence he’d come!

Sadly on the last night Cammo’s sore foot escalated into a full blown disaster, becoming extremely painful, swollen, hot and red. Something similar happened last year to his other foot and the hospital had surmised it was a flareup of some kind of arthritis. That time it settled within a few days but this time around it was worse and is still swollen a week later. A week of blood tests and we are only marginally closer to a diagnosis but an appontment with a rheumatologist in a fortnight will hopefully shed some light on the situation. It makes you realise how much you CANNOT do when your feet play up, we very much take them for granted until they don’t work properly!

I am going to leave you with a cute animal pic because who doesn’t love a baby rabbit? Did you know that a group of wild rabbits is called a fluffle? I have no idea who gets to name these things but I have never loved the English language more!!