We are at that stage of the year when the colours begin to look more like Scotland than Australia and the leaves are crunching underfoot as I walk to the washing line and the chookhouse. The nights are cool and we have upgraded to the winter duvet and the electric blankets are about to be brought out of storage. Day time temps are still mild from 19-24 degrees and this creates the most spectacular morning mists. I awoke today to a complete whiteout and lumbering through the mist came huge hulking shapes passing our back fence in a steady stream. That they were cows became apparent as the sun rose and the heat burnt off the mist, so much less menacing in the daylight and already steadily ripping and chewing the grass in the paddocks. A chorus of silent chewing as they go about their daily task of eating their body weight in grass – they need every minute of the daylight at this time of year to get their necessary calories. I love their collective concentration on the task at hand just occasionally looking up if we venture too close to the fence or a certain chocolate dog cheekily barks at them whilst running past. The younger cows are very curious and will run across the paddock to see if we have anything special for them and will follow us until they are stopped by a fence, they remind me of a pack of large over excited dogs.

It has been a lovely few weeks with a trip to Sydney for a surprise 60th birthday lunch for my Sister in Law who is here from Switzerland. Her sons and their partners did a great job of rallying some of her oldest friends and family from far and wide to come together for a lovely sunny afternoon in Bronte where we enjoyed a seafood and champagne extravaganza in her honour. Lots of the cousins hadn’t seen each other for 4 years or longer so it was a very special afternoon for many reasons. I loved that she had absolutely no idea that it was going to be anything other than a lunch with her sons, we managed to capture a few pics of her shock when she arrived!

It was a great opportunity to see the latest additions to the tribe and for Aunty Sue-Ellen to grab some rare cuddles with the littlies. As she and I know to our cost, the decision to live in a country that is not your birth country and without your extended family on hand, means we miss out on a lot of these kind of events and have learned to grow a thick skin or we would be forever a babbling emotional mess, Covid has upset the apple cart further by taking away what was basically an exercise in saving the money and then taking the time to visit our families overseas and has made everything sooooo much harder to plan anything for the foreseeable future. We both try not to think about it too much as it would really be upsetting especially as we have parents in their 80s and 90s and we feel precious time is being wasted. 2023 will hopefully be the year we can once again safely plan a trip to Europe.

This lunch gave us a great excuse to have a quick catchup with our little grandsons. Oliver is growing fast and is so far a dream baby and Cooper really couldn’t be any sweeter as a big brother. He gives him little cuddles and pats him gently with the odd kiss to his head and has shown no jealousy at all so far which is always a relief! He has however started to escape from his cot, even from within a sleeping bag he can climb out and waddle down the corridor to Mum and Dads room. Great timing with a 5 week old and already with limited sleep, the last thing they need is a midnight wanderer!! Here he is caught in the act via the baby monitor!!

A week later Myla and Lauren arrived from Tasmania for a two week trip. As she works remotely she can easily work from here but Rara has to provide the daycare that Myla would normally go to 4 times a week! We made the most of a Sydney Airport pickup to stay in Sydney so that Aunty Loz could meet little Oliver and Myla and Cooper could reconnect. They are really so close together in age they are almost like twins, one minute cuddling and kissing and the next proclaiming the same toy to be “mine” and having a bit of a Mexican stand off! It works well with both of them having their midday nap and bedtime at the same time so basically life is either STOP or GO depending on the time of day!!

We have some new baby chicks! After thinking that the eggs Peaches was sitting on were not viable the MOTH went to take them away after 3 weeks but when he lifted a squawking Peaches off the nest there was a little fluffy chick and he could see that another egg had signs of activity with cheeping from within! So we are very happy that two of the 6 hatched and it is such a different experience from when we bred chicks in an incubator. It’s fascinating to see how Peaches looks after them and they became independent far more quickly than those born without a Mum to teach them. They follow her around copying her every move, scratching up the straw to find treats and now we let them outside every afternoon (separated from the other bigger chickens) they bury themselves in the dust with Mum as if it was the best fun in the world. My Swiss SIL has named them Citron and Plume meaning yellow and feather and I think it’s just perfect. Now let’s just hope that they are both girls……pleeeeeeeease?

So Rara is now girding her loins for a very busy couple of weeks of Myla daycare and hoping that the weather gods are kind to us so we can play outside a lot although the forecast is not looking too good……HELP, wish me luck!!!