As we pass the magical 70% double vaccinated milestone we are looking forward to eased restrictions in just a few days time and hopefully this little swing will soon have some little people in it enjoying that view! It has been a long 4 months since we’ve heard giggles and laughing in the garden and we are READY to see everyone again asap. That will happen at the 80% double jabbed mark and we have tentatively pencilled the 22/23rd October in our diaries to go to Sydney and see our boys and families but it could still end up being a week later if things don’t go according to plan. Tassie is still well and truly shut to all other States so there is no point getting excited to see that branch of the family just yet but each day is a day closer at least! As much as we are excited for resumption of life (and I was OVERJOYED to receive a call from the hairdresser booking me in) there is bizarrely a tiny little tiny part of me that is a bit sad to think our days of just being us and being able to do what we want when we want (even if that is only walking the dog or gardening) and not having to think of other people’s plans is almost over. The diary is already filling in and events are already clashing with so many people trying to reignite a vestige of our “old life” that I am exhausted just thinking about it! I guess it’s all about the balance as always and it will no doubt be like a comfortable old jacket that once put back on you wonder why you ever wanted it any differently. But for now I am a bit wistful, this has been a time like no other in my lifetime and we got through it, reinventing ourselves along the way. The young ones are champing at the bit of course and with Summer and the festive season just around the corner it will be a perfect storm but one that they need. Twenty months of not being able to socialise and feel free must have felt like a lifetime and I am very happy that there is finally a big bright light at the end of this Covid tunnel for them.

I guess this also means that once again Berry will be heaving with people coming and going from Sydney on their way somewhere (and let’s face it we can only travel within NSW for now) and the ‘Famous Donut Van’ will once again have a huge queue snaking around Berry as the hordes descend on our infamous Star of the Town and then we will know for sure that life is almost normal once again!

The garden is full of activity of the mating kind. Hares are everywhere chasing each other through the paddocks, there are new calves lying in the tall lush grass, just a set of little black ears twitching to show they are there and the birds are going troppo as they find mates and prepare nests. We have 4 gigantic cuckoos here from New Guinea who LOVE our mulberries and frighten me every time I go outside as they fly out of the tree, huge wings flapping and creating a ruckus. They don’t seem to bother the other birds but I will be happy when they move on. The greatest joy at the moment is the tiny birds, little flashes of blue or yellow as they flit from bush to bush, their little bodies only causing the smallest of rustling as they hide within rose bushes and hedges where no other bird can go. Their song is so pure and at a pitch that punches above their weight, being heard above the bigger birds and always filling me with the greatest of appreciation for them.

Our gorgeous Bailey suffered a second seizure two weeks after her first. This time it was a petit mal and she didn’t lose consciousness but it went on for hours, her body twitching and spasming and this time she realised something was wrong. She couldn’t find any comfort unless she was pressed up close to us and therefore she spent the evening on the couch (a 1st) with us both stroking her and comforting her. It was awful in a different way to the first seizure as we kept waiting for the big one which never came and as a result we were super anxious, completely incapable of cooking and eating dinner and very worried when it came time for us to go to bed but the next day she seemed completely normal and when we visited the vet they advised us to wait for just one more BIG one before we consider medicating her as the drugs have their own side effects apparently. So we are trying to go with the flow and not worry too much whilst keeping an extra eye on her activities. I am gradually relaxing enough to leave her at home when I go out although not for too long just in case! I still hold on to the hope that it was a reaction to something rather than ongoing epilepsy, I guess time will tell….

Our 11 chickens are happily co-existing with the youngest two finally permitted to join the older girls at night on the roost. We are getting between 6 and 9 eggs a day which is far too many for just two of us and we have a regular weekly delivery to nearby friends who are chicken-less, even then we always have at least 3 or 4 dozen eggs at home at any one time and they range from big double yolkers to a tiny egg that is perfectly formed but just half the size of a regular egg. We thought it was the young ones just beginning to lay but it has been going on for weeks now so maybe that is the size they will always be?

We have been having some glorious Spring weather and some days that are more like Summer but the other day two weather systems collided and we had a huge hailstorm that literally covered the lawn in little white balls and bought the temperature plummeting down by 15 degrees! You can just imagine the sound of the hail on our tin roof, Bailey who doesn’t even twitch when we have a thunderstorm came looking for me and sat at my feet until the storm passed! The strawberry farm down the road lost it’s entire crop in just 6 minutes, the soft fruit no match for the ferocity of the storm. It doesn’t seem to matter what you are farming, there is always something that is going to wipe you out it seems.

While we have all been waiting out Delta, things have been progressing with the 10km upgrade to the Princes Highway from Berry to Bomaderry. They pulled down the 1st lot of trees three years ago and it is finally nearing completion. If you liken it to a renovation all the hard lifting has been done and now they are starting to pretty it up – the floors are being laid and the painting is being done before the final touch of curtains and furniture. The road itself is 95% done and now they are doing the median strip, sometimes including plants and sometimes just a guard rail, the signs are up but covered and the roadside planting has begun with some amazing mature date palms at our local intersection as well as gums and natives where the landscape allows. Once it’s finished and all the mess is gone I’m sure all we will notice is the amazing scenery as we drive up and down the coast.

Last weekend was the October Long Weekend where usually all roads in out of Sydney both North and South are chockers with people escaping the big smoke. This year of course there was barely a car on the road and the only thing on the calendar was the footy Grand Final and with no sons here to shout and cheer at the smallest of misdemeanours or good play with the MOTH, a few beers and a packet of chips was about as big as it got at our place. It was an exciting weekend for me though as the clocks went forward meaning longer evenings and finally a chance for us to sleep past 5.30am. As usual half the clocks in our house are reading different times as we gradually get around to changing them all….not always the easiest of tasks….