Is there a better word in the world? Home…. one of the top three words along with love and family. It is great to go away and experience new things, find inspiration to do things differently or finally start that hobby you’ve been thinking about for years but it’s also wonderful to come home to the familiar, your family and animals, your own bed and your favourite coffee. In fact if I didn’t travel I don’t think I would appreciate my home as much as I do. You see it through fresh eyes and your heart swells when you turn into the driveway, knowing all is as it should be. What was becoming slightly boring before your trip now  brings you joy in the everyday familiarity and security of being back in your own place once more.

Unfortunately along with those feelings of comfort came feelings of being unwell and within 36 hours we were down with Covid – a parting gift from either the plane trip or maybe someone in the 86,000 crowd at our last night’s game in Paris. We were literally like a river of people as we left the stadium so no real surprises if that’s where we got it! Luckily it was a relatively mild case and we were feeling considerably better after a week which was lucky as I had a couple of things in the diary for the following few weeks. First stop was a girls weekend in Callala Bay. We were celebrating 25 years of our bookclub which is no mean feat. A few people have come and gone, through relocation and sadly a death but most of us are still here and look forward to our monthly meetings. What was a respite in the past from parenting and husbands and work is now a celebration of friendship and growing families and therapy in this new stage of our lives and is as precious as ever. It’s a rare meeting that we are all together especially now travel is back on the cards but its always lovely and we are grateful to have it and each other. The weather was a bit grey so apart from a daily walk on the beach we were happy to stay inside the rather gorgeous house we’d rented and as we had all bought food and wine we didn’t even need to go out! MUCH chatting, laughing, face and foot masks, swapping of stories and relaxation was had and the consensus was we should do it again sooner rather than later!

Luckily the weather changed just in time for a beautiful lunch in Kangaroo Valley. Held on Melbourne Cup Day but renamed ‘Fill My Cup’ my lovely friend Leigh opens up her gorgeous house every year for a girl’s lunch to celebrate friendship and support for each other. Everyone brings yummy food and drinks and it was terrific to meet some really interesting local ladies with many different stories. Landscapers, Designers, Chefs, a film maker, a myriad of skilled women enjoying each other’s company over a delicious lunch – thanks Leigh!

The following day we left for a few days down at Potato Point, a few hours drive south of us and a place introduced to us by our daughter and husband who took us there after Covid to thank us for housing them during the lockdown. We fell in love with its pristine location and simple old school holiday vibe. Four couples got together for a few days of old fashioned fun – barbies, swims and walks, card games and drinks listening to the waves crash while old memories were rehashed and tall stories told! A nice surprise was a visit from our lovely friend Duncan – a Canadian who has lived in Switzerland for most of his life and made friends with our very own young MOTH when he did a stint working in the ski fields back in the day. They have remained friends ever since and we catch up whenever we can. He fitted in well with the crew and enjoyed meeting our eclectic little bunch! On our last day we had a nice outing to Narooma for a long lunch at beautiful Quarterdeck with its gorgeous view over the water and the food didn’t let us down – delicious as always. We left full and happy and ready for an afternoon snooze! We hope to repeat the trip away at a different beach location later this year.

The next few weeks were a flurry of activity as we got stuck into preparing the house and garden for Christmas and finally started our little conversion project of the old chook pen. The builders didn’t mess around and within 2 days everything was stripped out, insulated and new windows and doors installed! Two days later the walls were up, electrics and plumbing roughed in and we could see the studio taking shape. The trickiest part of the whole job ended up being the polishing of the concrete which proved challenging mainly because there was a 2 inch difference of the floor levels where the old laying boxes had been taken out. This involved a LOT of grinding down of the old concrete before we could even start the polishing. We guess that the floor was at least 40 years old and had no idea how it would come up and it didn’t behave as we had envisaged unfortunately. The middle of the floor looked great with a nice terrazzo effect but all around the edges it was a sludgy brown and it just looked wrong. The only option was for another layer of sealer which made it look more unified but sadly in the brown colour instead of the grey and white. The poor bloke was here every day in the boiling heat trying to make it behave but in the end I was happy to accept it the way it was – that is after all the story of the old coop and once the furniture was in it didn’t look too bad. The painters took over and miraculously just a few days before Xmas we had a finished studio!! Perfect timing for Tom to christen it whilst simultaneously evading the chaos of the main house with his 4 Nieces and Nephews under 5 years of age!