Before that however we enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend. Number one son offered to ‘do’ Easter this year which was delightful! They have a beautiful home and are both fabulous cooks so it made total sense for us to go to them where the boys could stay in their bedrooms and sleeping routines and we were treated like Kings! We were blessed with the weather after SO MUCH RAIN and Uncle Tom came too to the delight of little Coops who worships the ground he walks on! We had a super weekend and we look forward to being able to visit a bit more frequently soon. They live in Seaforth and we had a lovely morning walk along the foreshore where I fell in love with Sydney all over again (except for the $10 per hour parking!!) and enjoyed a fun dinner at a local brewery with food trucks which reminded us of the huge variety of things there are to do in the Big Smoke! The South Coast is definitely improving but some great places have come and gone over the past few Covid years and we are still a bit short on for really good local venues.

The following week saw us escape to Mollymook for the night of the MOTH’S big birthday and the sun came out for us again! A day of mooching around the pool and walking along the beach before our good friends Karen and Phil joined us for a delicious dinner at Rick Steins restaurant made us thankful for the beautiful part of the world we now call home and for all the good stuff we have in our lives. A close friend just had a near miss with a horrible cancer diagnosis and it made me realise it really is now or never. The whole ‘make hay while the sun shines’ thing is more pertinent than ever before so watch out peeps we’re about to take life by the horns and make the most of it! Whilst walking we had a discussion about the disastrous last few months which has seen our property look the WORST it’s been since we moved in and whether or not we want the constant upkeep that our beautiful home requires and deserves. The bottom line is we are trapped by her spell……it’s not her fault that La Nina has ruined things for us and we know how beautiful she is once things are back on track. For now we are hers and she is ours! We have several months work ahead of us once the rains stops and the ground dries out enough to a) mow and b) get things under control and it’s a bit disappointing after so many years keeping on top of things but it’s not insurmountable. I keep thinking of all those people re building after bushfires or floods and realise we are pretty lucky. It’s still a necessity to wear gumboots every time you want to put the washing on the line or feed the chickens and the mud is super thick and slippery but hopefully it will soon dry out and we can get on top of it all over winter.

One thing that has been a joy whilst the weather has been awful is my new found hobby. My art workshops sadly came to an end and I really enjoyed them despite not being very good at it! I loved the whole letting go aspect of it and the fact that you didn’t think of anything else for the whole time you were there. The girls were a lovely mix of personalities and very encouraging and welcoming so I was pleased to be able to go and support one of them at her very first exhibition at Fern Street Gallery in Gerringong. It was a lovely afternoon and her collection of works looked amazing under the lights and professionally hung. She sold loads of paintings and as she herself said she could never have imagined a few years ago that this would ever have happened. The fact that they have all only started painting in the past few years and can produce such wonderful pieces has given me the inspiration to keep going. Kerry has taught me so much in such a short time and now I need to keep practising and trusting myself to have a go and just see what happens! It is a constant surprise as to what I can get onto a canvas both good and bad!

The Birthday Boy’s Big Weekend was memorable in many ways. It was the first time the whole family had “holidayed” together – taking the 4 grandkids out of their amazing sleep routines and sharing rooms with their parents was a risk but after a wobbly start they did very well. The sun came out, the grounds were dripping with Autumn foliage and the escarpment glowed orange at sunset as we sipped drinks around the fire pit and the kids stomped in piles of leaves in their wellies! The boys played golf, the girls snuck away for an hour to paint ‘au plein air’ and we ate and drank and chatted and laughed. Loz had secretly contacted a couple of the MOTH’s mates from his travelling days (thanks Baz and Duncan) and asked for some stories and photos which was ‘enlightening’ and a fun way to acknowledge his earlier years whilst blowing out the candles on his 70th! The kids loved hearing about his youth and couldn’t stop laughing over some of his hairstyles and fashion statements from the 70s!!

The 3 year olds had great fun on an egg hunt, the grounds a perfect hiding spot for leftover Easter eggs from the previous weekend. The hunt itself was as much fun if not more than the chocolate and seeing their little eyes light up as they spotted a glimmer of green or pink foil in a tree or tucked under a plant was sheer delight. It is such a wonderful age and they are both genuinely good company…nothing better than a conversation with a three year old!!

So our next fun thing is planning our holiday to Europe later this year. After a 3 day trip to New Zealand for work this week the MOTH was close to cancelling it as the whole International travel thing has currently lost it’s allure. Hours of pre departure preparation and uploading of tests and documents to attain his NZ travel pass followed by a requirement to arrive at the airport 3-4 hours before the flight to then have it delayed by another hour all to land at 1.30am in NZ as that was the only scheduled Qantas flight to Christchurch!! Painful to say the least…then RAT tests day 1 and 5 before being granted permission to leave! This is all most probably because NZ has only just opened to International travellers and are being overly cautious. As far as I can see Europe is almost back to normal at this stage so I’m hoping it will be less arduous there in September – just the small matter of an ongoing war to worry about now…..but while we’re looking forward to that we will always find joy in the small things…