We were thrilled when our neighbours recently scored a trip in a friend’s helicopter and took this aerial shot of our house. It has a totally different perspective from above and makes me very glad we kept all the various outhouses cohesive with the commonality of the white weatherboard making it pleasing to the eye. I also hadn’t realised we had quite so many trees but am very grateful that we are a bit protected from those horrible westerly winds that love to whip across the paddocks in winter!

It is quite female dominated here in The Meadow. Myself, the Choccy Drop and ten hens definitely outweigh the MOTH and our new gender bender rooster Boris. Chanel, my sweet elegant little chick who turned into Charlie and is now officially Boris as he morphed into a giant rooster over the past few weeks! So the chook house is once again a place of hormones and rape and crowing at dawn. God help me!! If he gets aggro like Atticus did he will not be welcome to stay but for the moment he is quite shy and is no immediate threat to my safety! Last night however both the ‘men’ in my life proved to be painful. The MOTH was snoring at a decibel rendering sleep impossible (to be fair this is a rare occurrence nowadays) so I transferred into the guest room at 1.30am and was in a deep sleep when the reedy warbling of a juvenile rooster sounded from across the garden waking me pre dawn. The boys basically ganged up on me and ruined my attempt at a good nights sleep. Luckily our bedroom is on the other side of the house so I cannot usually hear the young buck greeting the day.

It has been a busy couple of weeks as we attempted to get the garden under control. After a summer of La Nina and her huge rainfalls and mild temperatures everything has gone completely crazy and even if we spent three hours pulling weeds and grass runners out we would literally only have covered a few square feet. It was like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge…nothing ever got even remotely finished and the whole task became overwhelming so we called in the cavalry in the form of professional help! Within minutes of the trucks arriving there were guys getting stuck into the flower beds, working methodically as a team they soon had things looking spic and span and after 2 days with 5 workers we are officially weeded, mulched and some areas have even been poisoned in an attempt to dissuade the deepset weeds from reappearing. In between we continue to plant ground covers to take up the space the weeds would otherwise occupy and it looks just lovely. However a week later I can already see evidence of life poking above the mulch and as we are almost underwater with the incessant rain it is impossible to get out there and do anything right now. I shall have to make it a priority when I get back from Sydney that’s for sure. For now the biggest challenge is keeping our chooks from scratching up all the precious mulch as they think it has been provided for their pleasure and cannot understand why we chase them away. It means we have to have a sentry when they are let out in the late afternoon as even ten minutes unsupervised they cause absolute havoc!

This is Cooper’s ‘smile for the camera’! He is starting to be aware of it now and if he is in the right mood will bestow you with one of his special grins. It is going to be so interesting to see what he thinks about his new baby brother next week but we will be there to pay him some extra attention while Mum is in hospital and spoil him a bit so hopefully he won’t feel left out when everyone is talking about and cuddling the new bub. He is a caring little boy and I think he will make a super big brother. I’m so excited to see what our next little grandson will look like and what sort of character he will be, special times indeed!

It has been quite a week one way and another. Good news from the UK where my family is being vaccinated as we speak. With everything as dire as it is in the northern hemisphere the vaccine is giving them hope of some loosening of the restrictions that have been in place since October. Six months of isolation for my lovely Mum which she has borne with patience and grace despite the fact she literally only leaves her flat once every 10 days to do her grocery shopping. Thank goodness for the phone, decent TV and her love of reading to keep her from going mad. Six months with no hugs or company to share a laugh with is a LONG time and with her 2nd vaccine being administered next week I really hope she will soon be able to have a bit more of a life outside her four walls. My Sister and Niece have both had their first jab and as the numbers are finally heading in the right direction in the UK lets hope the scientists have it right and we can knock this bloody virus out of the ball park. In the meantime Wayne’s sister has flown in from her home in Switzerland and after 18 months is very keen to see her sons, siblings and especially her 94 year old Dad. She is in quarantine for 2 weeks but as she has already had Corona she should have some protection against any errant germs that sometimes float around these hotels. We are very much looking forward to seeing her once she is out and hope to host her down here in The Meadow at some stage. So with the advent of Spring in the northern hemisphere in conjunction with the vaccine inspiring hope we can slowly dream about reuniting and after the last 12 months everyone will have so much more appreciation for EVERYTHING and hopefully will never take the simple things for granted again!