A couple of years ago I made friends with two ladies new to Berry and we connected initially through our dogs. Kathy has a Golden retriever (Bear) and a Beaglier (Billy) and she met Vanessa through her business – Golden Retriever Retreat – which is basically a luxury retreat for Goldies! The dogs have the run of their house and garden and it is literally a home away from home for these very well-loved pooches. Us three girls hit it off and got together for walks and coffee and the occasional lunch and Bailey LOVED her walks with Bear and Billy (we called them the 3 Bs) which made it a no brainer for Kathy and I to meet up for a regular walk and combined chats! However Kathy’s life changed dramatically when she and her (English) husband decided they would like to move to the UK and bought a gorgeous stone Georgian house in the country and two weeks ago they boarded a plane with their 2 dogs and 2 cats for their new life. Our farewell was bittersweet as we will miss her but we’re also excited for her and her new adventure and wish her much happiness for this next stage. Thank goodness for WhatsApp keeping us in touch 🙂

Speaking of friends, I recently caught up with a girl I initially met when I was 11 and I started at boarding school in England. There was a group of us that became exceptionally close and to this day 5 of us stay in contact 50 years and a few continents later!! There is nothing like old friends where you can go months or years without seeing or talking to each other and once you do it’s as if it was yesterday and you pick up exactly where you left off! Jenny lives in Hobart now which is fabulous as I can meet up with her every time I visit Loz. Friends both old and new are little treasures in your life.

Our recent 10 days spent with Lauren and family in Hobart was lovely. Our son in law who is a sports teacher was taking his year 9 and 10s skiing to Victoria for a week and had suggested it would be a perfect time to come and spend some time with the girls and help out with the logistics of daycare etc while Loz worked. She has a fantastic new job as Tasmania’s inaugural Carbon Action Advisor to Tourism, a role that combines her communication skills with her passion for environmental sustainability and what better state to do this than Tasmania! On her days off we visited wineries, cideries, distilleries (can you see a trend here?) as well as every park within a 50km radius!

We also played mud kitchens, read books, painted nails, cooked brownies and danced to Barbie, Frozen and Moana. We did craft – made necklaces and pom pom pictures, taught them Connect 4 and drew endless pictures and had LOTS of cuddles and fun. Little Myla cried when they dropped us off at the airport saying she thought she’d never see us again (despite them coming to us for Xmas this year) which was so sweet but also heart breaking!! Hopefully she doesn’t know something we don’t!!

On our last day in Tassie we found out that our little grandson Ollie had been rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties and after various tests they think it was a viral induced asthma attack. He stayed 2 nights until they could get his oxygen levels operating properly and once again we are so grateful that there is a good hospital nearby when time is of the essence. At 2 years of age it was hard for him to understand what was going on and he HATED the mask and fought it until eventually he was so exhausted he finally gave in. A worrying few days for Mum, Dad and all the family as he is usually a little ball of action and it was hard to see him like this…

We are back home now and we have a longer list of jobs than usual as we have undertaken another project. We decided to repurpose our rather gorgeous chicken coop into a studio in the garden for me and my painting/writing and the first step is to relocate our 8 chickens. We have cleared an area that had been home to some dilapidated duck houses within the chicken yard and have taken delivery of a flat pack chicken coop which will eventually look like this.

There is quite a lot to do before the strip out officially begins, new windows and doors to be ordered and made, our potting shed has to be sorted out and relocated and all our “stuff” either chucked out or relocated – we have bits of wood and rolls of wire and all those bits and bobs that you keep “just in case” so we have plenty to keep us occupied. We are also on a bit of a timeline as I go away mid September for our 2023 sojourn to Europe so I have to have all my ducks in a row before I leave or the MOTH will be making decisions solo which is always dangerous! This is the before and hopefully similar after pics…

So we have 6 weeks now to get everything under control before our big holiday. The snowdrops are out as well as the blossom on the pear trees, the camellias are still in full throttle and the lavender has joined them and even a few roses and salvias are still blooming despite having been cut back so our winter garden is not without colour but I’ve spent this week preparing and sowing loads of beds with meadow flowers so I will hopefully return to lots of cheery flowers in amongst the veggies in the patch. My sweetpeas are loving this warm weather and have already started flowering so the bees are happy chappies and will no doubt help the veggies with pollenation which is the basis of my plan! The citrus are in full fruit so the next gloomy day we have I intend making a few batches of marmalade to use up all the fruit that is falling off the trees! I did have a little daydream this week when I bought my ticket in the $100M lottery that maybe if I won I could get a gardener in to help me and then I started thinking what else would float my boat….. this hit the spot!

Hell yeah!!