It was good to get home and enjoy the amazing space that we have here – surely one of the luxuries of life and one I will find hard to do without one day. The lack of outdoor space in Japanese apartments would send me potty if I was there for any length of time and I now have extra appreciation for our house which lets us all do our thing without being on top of each other. Travel broadens the mind but also makes you realise how lucky we are here in Australia. We had a few nice days to get out into the garden before the rain came back….again. We have had the worst few months of rain – sometimes up to 8 inches in a day that completely floods our property and fills our pool with mud and frogs. Our local town was inundated and the bowling club was flooded inside and out, the locals turning out in droves with their spades and hoses to help get it back on track as soon as possible which was a great community effort. We are so over the constant squelchy-ness underfoot, We still have little lakes all around the property and the chickens are up to their knees in water and mud. The poor cows are sinking into the paddocks with every step and all outdoor work has come to a grinding halt. One more week of heavy rain is predicted before we see any sunshine and it’s beginning to remind me of living in England! Hopefully things will ease off then and we can enjoy what is usually one of my favourite seasons – Autumn.

Luckily our 10 day trip to Tassie came with no rain and plenty of sunshine. It makes me laugh that people say they couldn’t live in Tasmania because of the weather as we very rarely get any bad weather when we are there. The temperature might be generally lower than here but inevitably we have sunshine and are in T shirts despite the number on the thermometer. Lauren took us to yet more fantastic local places – all with great food, wine and views (and no flies or mozzies) which had us in delightful sounding places like Flowerpot and Snug!

We packed so much into our 10 days and as it was school holidays we had Myla (5) for a couple of days while little sister India (2.5) was at daycare. It was rather special to have her one on one and at such a great age. We took her to the pancake train for a special breakfast and into Salamanca on the Hobart waterfront where we treated her to a 20 minute horse and carriage ride which she LOVED. She was waving at all the tourists who were madly snapping photos of her (there was a cruise ship in town so you can imagine how many photos she featured in!!) and bravely patted the huge horses to say goodbye before some fish and chips on the wharf. A trip to the museum where she wrote madly in her notebook (just squiggles mostly as she has only just started kindy!) and oooohed and aaaahed at all the stuffed animals etc.

The whole reason we went when we did was to celebrate a double birthday. Myla and the MOTH share a birthday and the last time we were all together for it was her 1st birthday during lockdown in Covid so this was a bit special. Lozzy as usual had planned a thoughtful getaway to mark the occasion and we all packed into 2 cars to stay overnight in a Tassie shack on the Tasman Peninsula not far from Port Arthur. It was a cute little retro cottage with a great view and huge deck overlooking the water. A sweet shop cake which had been highly requested had been carefully transported and successfully assembled to celebrate our special birthday people along with bbq’d bacon and egg rolls which had been brought along for breakfast but ended up being dinner once we realised the only local provider for dinner had shut at 4pm!! We explored the area, played games and drank wine and enjoyed our escape from the everyday routine.

While we were over there Loz and Berry arranged to have the girls baptised. Myla was born in Vietnam and things had been very busy since India arrived so they had never quite got around to it and this provided a perfect opportunity with 3 of the 4 godparents, all 4 grandparents and an Aunty, Uncle and cousins all in Hobart for the occasion. It was a lovely day, with the boys carrying on afterwards to an AFL game and the girls home for chats and wine on the couch! The girls were both very good at the church and I think you’ll agree they look very angelic in their gorgeous little dresses.

Before we knew it we were back on the plane to The Meadow and a chance to get things organised before the MOTH flew to Melbourne to resume his life as a Cocoa Trader! Yup, after almost 2 years of retirement he is going back to work. His old company asked him if he would be interested in coming back as they really missed him and his experience and they negotiated a part time contract which will give him some time to still enjoy his golf and for us to go away for long weekends etc whilst also getting stuff done for them. Win win! Life is all about balance and I think this will give him that. Watch this space….

We have just had the little boys for the weekend (while the rain fell and fell) and thank goodness Uncle Tom was here to help create the best fun for them. Usually they are outdoors running around, scootering at the park and generally using up lots of energy but this weekend we had to be creative indoors! Tom made the cubby house of all cubby houses indoors and they all snuggled in it to watch Spiderman on his laptop which they LOVED. We made cupcakes, had drawing competitions, played snakes and ladders (ad nauseum), did jigsaws and read books. Tom made some brilliant swords from some old offcuts with the help of Cooper who LOVES anything to do with chopping, sawing and nailing things. They discovered shuffleboard at the local bowling alley and that the local library was actually quite fun! We all survived to tell the tale and they went home happy and full of news of their exploits! It really is a lovely age as they are starting to have their own ideas and a real sense of humour and are such fun to be with, we just forget how constant kids are at this age – no wonder that they fall asleep in seconds by 7pm every night and Rara and Papa are not too far behind them!!