I’m snuggled up indoors while the wind roars outside and down the chimney, rattling the old sash windows and occasionally making the whole house tremble. At times like this it is reassuring to remember this house has stood since 1896 and has seen numerous “weather events” over the years and is unlikely to buckle for anything less than an earthquake! They made things well back in the day and she is as solid as they come thank goodness. We are actually grateful for the wind (but why does it have to be the freezing cold westerly?) as it is doing a grand job of drying out the mud. We now have a crisp eggshell of dry mud enclosing the squishier stuff underneath making for an interesting moonscape of our previously flattish green lawn as it is all lumps and bumps from previous footsteps that sunk with each step we took and which will probably take months if not years to even out again! It has however stopped raining for which we are very thankful and after years of fires, floods and a pandemic we are hopefully on the way back to normal – whatever that is!! So despite the coldest start to winter since 1982 we are feeling a bit upbeat and cautiously optimistic about planning things again.

It has been a lovely few weeks of celebration – starting with Toms birthday where we ventured up to the Big Smoke for the night and indulged ourselves at one of the nicest restaurants – Freds – in Paddington. Like eating in a friends home and with a true Farm to Table philosophy we loved the food, service and sense of old fashioned generosity that the place exuded and it was the perfect way to toast our youngest family member! A trip to the downstairs cocktail bar Charlie Parkers capped off a delicious meal – it has a great heritage feel whilst boasting an extensive list of very modern cocktails, a modern day speakeasy which is well worth a visit at the beginning or the end of an evening out. To end our night Tom had bought us tickets to The Comedy Festival which we thoroughly enjoyed – all the more so because we haven’t seen a live performance for so long and just being in a room with loads of other people all enjoying themselves was a novelty in itself! All in all a super night out.

The slightly bigger celebration this month emanated from London and was of course the Platinum Jubilee – a huge party celebrating Lizzie’s 70 years on the throne and a magnificent 4 days of unbridled adulation for Her Maj with everyone wishing each other “Happy Platty Joobs” as only the Brits can!! I was still living in England in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee and remember well stringing up loads of bunting and waving my little flag as she drove by in her Rolls Royce looking every bit the star that she was. Fast forward 45 years and this bigger, better and much flashier Jubilee was the most fitting way to celebrate her history making reign and to have a good knees up after the stresses of the past two years – uniquely British and totally fabulous.

Back in Berry we have enjoyed a few outings, firstly attending the opening of a local artist’s exhibition held at Belle Property to help raise funds for a foundation that provides free counselling services for young people navigating challenging times in their lives. – KYDS. A silent auction and a portion of all sales by the artist Alexandra Strong meant over $4000 was donated directly to the foundation. My friend Kathy did a great job speaking at the event and also bought the beautiful artwork featured above. A great local initiative and a terrific turnout.

A totally different offering was The Celtic festival held enthusiastically at the very muddy Showground. A lot of people turned out to watch the jousting which was quite entertaining but not as much fun as seeing the diehard Celts all dressed up in their kilts and playing the part so authentically I felt I was in an episode of Outlander! Their tents, food and weapons were all on display and in the muddy conditions gave a true likeness of what life would have been like back in the day! It made us really quite excited for our own visit to Scotland later this year when we are hoping to explore the area that the original Camerons hailed from and find out a little bit more about our family history.

Our other celebration of sorts came when the MOTH went to Melbourne and his upcoming retirement was officially announced. A big day for our Cocoa man and more emotional than he had anticipated. After a long time in the industry his knowledge and down to earth approach to Sales will be much missed I’m sure – I’m pretty sure no-one can get away with not doing spread sheets or budgets any more but luckily his figures always spoke for themselves and he never had to delve into the murky world of Microsoft Excel! He will be finishing up at the end of July and has lots of travelling to do before then as he hands his accounts over to his colleagues and says goodbye to customers who have become friends over the years. I’m sure it will be a strange transition after working for over 50 years but it will also be wonderful to be able to do what you like when you like without having to think of work while you’re doing it! More golf, more road trips and catching up with friends and family and some time to do a few projects around the property that we have been wanting to do for a while so hopefully it will all be good times ahead and he won’t miss the work buzz too much! Now I’m off to brave the wind and sweep out the cubby house ahead of the long weekend arrival of the grandsons and no doubt lots of cuddles and laughs. What else could possibly go wrong? Plenty apparently….