Post script….yes I know they normally come at the end but the sheer magnitude of everything going on in the world right now demands that I cannot write about the minutiae of my life whilst such sadness, disaster and fear ravage the planet. It’s easy for us here in Australia tucked down at the bottom of the Earth to shut ourselves off from the happenings in the rest of the world but in this age of technology and 24/7 media we are all very much immersed in the horrors going on in Ukraine, unbelievable in this day and age that we haven’t evolved past blowing up innocent men, women and children in the name of territory. A flagrant misuse of power from Putin and now young men from both sides lay dead, entire cities are demolished and the threat of “worse things to come” linger in our heads. If the thinly veiled threats of nuclear or chemical warfare come to fruition it would mean that Europe and their allies would be forced to join in and that would mean a World War. Surely he wouldn’t do that? Unfortunately he is the kind of man that when pushed into a corner plays the bully and goodness knows what he is capable of doing then. How can humankind be so evolved in so many ways yet still act this way? The world has responded by sending as much help as it can, food, clothes, blankets, medicine, some military equipment and many heartfelt wishes to the people of Ukraine. Putin bans Facebook and Twitter from Russia so they cannot see what the world thinks of them or indeed what he is actually up to and effectively shuts the average Russian Joe out from the rest of the free world. Not that social media is the only form of media information but I presume their newspapers and television are already heavily censored or like the BBC have packed up and gone home. Some poignant pictures have emerged that are reminiscent of WW2 and the reminder that at the heart of this human beings like you and I are just trying to keep their families safe and escaping with hardly more than the clothes on their backs and a favourite teddy….

It seems trite to write of our life here at such a time but the very thought of us all being involved in WW3 makes me want to make the most of life all the more (while we can??) but with such sadness all around nothing is being taken for granted. We are profoundly aware how lucky we are to be able to live like this even if it is in a country that experiences such harsh weather events on a regular basis. Hopefully it will transport you to somewhere different even if it is only for a few minutes!

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After two weeks of being busy in Tassie I was looking forward to coming home and getting stuck into the garden, walking the dog and doing some Spring cleaning (even though it’s Autumn) which involved washing all the curtains and washing the house down – white weatherboards are picture perfect but show every speck of dust from our non sealed road when you look closely. All of these tasks have been impossible and I’ve been ‘forced’ into day reading with countless cups of tea and my dining room has turned into a makeshift laundry. It’s perfect weather to bake but then I’d just have to eat it so I’m back to tidying cupboards! Luckily I have squeezed in a morning walk with the pooch every day as the rain seems to clock on at around 9am every morning for which I am grateful!

I have no right to whinge when you see how badly the people of Northern NSW and QLD are faring. It has been a truly rotten couple of weeks for thousands of families and countless animals caught up in the biggest floods in 100 years. What next seriously…it is very biblical going from fires to plague to floods, all that is left is famine! Whole towns are under water, some rivers flooding over 14 metres and inundating shopping centres and forcing people onto their rooftops to escape. Imagine the sludge, the smell and the mould that will be left once the water dissipates, all your furniture and possessions ruined and a house no longer fit to live in. Even if you were one of the lucky ones who could afford flood insurance (most can’t as it’s ridiculously high) it will be a long hard road to recovery. Getting trades to come will be nigh on impossible…imagine the demand! For the sick, the elderly and families with babies and toddlers it is even more of a nightmare. Therefore I will not bore you with my overgrown garden, mouldy outdoor furniture and overflowing washing basket and I will count my blessings.

Despite the rain I enjoyed a lovely birthday lunch at The Blue Swimmer in Gerroa, a little blue weatherboard cottage that sits almost on the beach and puts out great breakfast, lunch and dinner for locals and visitors alike. With the rain pouring down our watermelon margaritas and fresh seafood went down a treat and we rounded things off with their signature haloumi doughnuts – sounds weird, tastes amazing!

Needless to say the animals have been struggling in all this wet weather. The local cows have had their feet underwater now for over 2 weeks which apparently makes them get various foot problems such as foot rot, ulcers and heel cankers; our chickens are looking very bedraggled even though they have a dry coop to roost in at night; we have had a couple of drowned rabbits and the usually happy kennels at the top of our lane is a mud bath. Wet Dog smell is pervading our house and I cannot wait for the sun to come back so we can give her a bath! We thought that we may have had some sort of lawn grub when we saw these patches scattered over the property but it is actually where a rabbit lies overnight and nibbles all the grass all around itself!

Despite my veggie patch being mostly under water and almost all the veg dead, my ‘tropical corner’ is doing amazingly well. The ginger plants are taller than I’ve ever seen them and my newly planted turmeric has blossomed with the warm damp conditions and even bloomed to let me know it likes it there! Apparently once the flower dies I can harvest the rhizomes and have fresh turmeric to cook with. It is a wonderful anti-inflammatory and you can freeze the tubers and grate them into your food when needed. I shall replant a few to hopefully get another crop next season.

The other animals who seem to be a bit put off with all this rain are our micro bats. We have found them sheltering in our raincoat pockets and under the rainhood and this little one somehow found it’s way into our hall light – a hanging pendant with an open top. Although exhausted after trying to get out all night he lived to tell the tale and hopefully their sonar will be working better once these conditions ease. They are harmless and not carriers of disease like the fruit bats but they are noisy little critters. We have two families – one in the loft of the garage and one in the roof space above our bedroom. They enter via the smallest gap under the eaves and are like teenagers coming home at dawn and we can hear them settling into their sleeping spots and chattering – a bit annoying at 4.30-5am and we are considering relocating them if I can find the right people to do so – not as easy as advertising for someone to catch a possum though I imagine? Watch this space……

I am writing this from beautiful Tassie while my little 6 month old granddaughter sleeps and my daughter works from her home office while the almost 3 year old attends daycare. The 2 grandmas are helping out so she doesn’t have to put little India into daycare until she is over 6 months old so we are doing 2 weeks each which has been a lovely opportunity to be with them all again. They grow up so fast and in the 10 days I’ve been here Myla has given up her day sleep and is fully toilet trained and India is sitting up with 4 new teeth! Crazy!!

It is a beautiful place to hang out. Literally surrounded by water, their house has glorious views from every window and there are several local beaches within walking distance. The weather has been great and there is just a hint of Autumn in the air, especially in the morning which makes it very pleasant. Often this time of year is hot and humid in Sydney and makes doing just about anything quite unpalatable so I am enjoying the climate here…more like an English summer’s day than an Aussie one!! At night once the kids were asleep we would head outside, glass in hand, and wrap ourselves in blankets while the sun went down, with the softest flamingo pinkness spreading across the horizon as if tucking it into bed.

We have managed a couple of day trips together which has been fun. We visited New Norfolk, a town built around an old mental asylum from the turn of the last century and now most famous for The Agrarian Kitchen – a fabulous cooking school and restaurant. Sadly it wasn’t open the day we visited but we had a good look around the grounds and the adjacent antique centre before heading off to Westbury raspberry farm to pick our own fruit. As it’s the end of the season they only had strawberries and blackberries left but the plants were laden with lush fruit and Myla absolutely loved that she was tall enough to pick her own little basket full even though she ate 50% of what she picked before it even hit the basket!! A lovely day out for all of us.

Tassie is a special place, a mix of everything you like…beautiful scenery, amazing produce and a genuine paddock to plate philosophy, wineries, history galore, friendly laid back people and a love of the outdoors. Loz and Berry’s friends sound like something out of a Bear Grylls movie…avid surfers, abalone divers and hard core hikers. Their preferred weekend activity is camping off grid on the wild west Coast, barbecuing their catch, swigging rum cocktails and enjoying a sing-along to a guitar. Understandably things have changed a bit since the babies came along but their love for everything outdoors continues. They have wetsuits and surf and SUP boards and they make sure they use them most weekends weather permitting. The ocean here is REALLY cold…an Arctic current runs through it and 10 minutes in it is pretty hardcore. This doesn’t really align with my Noosa in January preferred ocean temperature but it tempts me with it’s lack of waves and sheer beauty.

We attended the Clarence Jazz Festival on Saturday afternoon which was delightful. A hot summer’s afternoon on the water at Bellerive with local ciders and wines on offer and some chilled music to lull the crowd, a few Disney songs to please the kids (as well as hot chips of course) and everyone was happy to enjoy a lovely summer afternoon of entertainment. After 2 years we are grateful for live music of any sort and a new appreciation of performance and participation. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone as the expression goes!

My favourite part of the day is when we all sit on the couch just before bed and read to the girls, it brings back many fond memories of reading with my own kids pre-bedtime and it still feels like yesterday despite the fact they are all now in their 30s….how time marches on! (Also good to note that kids still ask for “just one more” book in 2022!!!) India appears to have an early appreciation for books but she also likes to eat them so I’m not reading too much into the situation! She is now 6 months old and is the sweetest happiest little baby and smiles every time her big sister appears, tolerating some very boisterous cuddles with not a blink of an eye. I’m sure they will be firm friends down the track but she will have to endure the fate of most 2nd siblings in games with the firstborn which is to be the pupil to their teacher or patient to their doctor, taking the secondary role until one day they refuse and the tables get turned!

As my birthday was imminent Loz took me out for a lovely meal which provided us a great excuse to put on our heels and make-up and feel like girls again! As it was a Wednesday night I had imagined a rather subdued Hobart CBD but the contrary was true as it also happened to be O Week at the local Uni and the place was pumping! We went to a little wine bar called Willing Bros in North Hobart and perched at the window we watched the world go by whilst we sipped some Nebbiolo and enjoyed some Mediterranean food finishing off with a delicious tiramisu complete with sparklers to mark the occasion! Thankfully Loz discouraged the staff from singing as I feel there are far too many birthdays under my belt for such a public display! There was a great buzz around the town and we enjoyed our special night out chatting away and enjoying a night off from the kitchen and the kids! Thanks Lozzy I loved it xx

As they say, all good things come to an end and I felt a little bit sad waving goodbye to the girls to fly back to Sydney, although I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and not being so knackered that I can actually read a chapter of my book before turning out the light. I have a new found appreciation for my adult kids dealing with the constancy and tyranny of their toddlers! I know I did it many years ago with 3 kids aged under 4 but somehow times were simpler and expectations were less and we were younger so maybe it was easier or maybe I have rose coloured glasses about that time in my life! Even dropping them to daycare is more complicated nowadays, there are codes to get into the building and then electronic sign-ins, pin numbers and of course currently there are mask rules on top of it all! They have to have hats and sunblock and water bottles, sleepwear and comforters and blankets. There are government forms to fill in and incident reports if they hurt themselves. Back in the day I literally dropped mine off at a local Italian ladies house along with my friend’s kids where they all played together regardless of age, ate homemade minestrone for lunch and crashed out on a huge mattress together (that woman was a miracle worker – how on earth do you get 10 kids to sleep at the same time on the same mattress I ask myself?) Everyone should have a Nonna in their life that’s for sure. Rose coloured specs….most probably!!

Talking of simplicity this rather took my fancy…..

The decorations are gone, the kiddy paraphernalia is back in the loft, the house is tidy and everything is very quiet. It’s all over for another 2 years and all the planning, shopping and cooking was worth it for a couple of weeks of crazy togetherness. Thank goodness the weather came good and we could all use the pool and hang outside or at the beach, a must with toddlers in the house and for the sanity of the adults! I must say – considering they were uprooted from their regular routines and shared bedrooms for the very first time they were all pretty good and as long as we hit the sack at a reasonable hour we all got enough sleep to cope the next day – many hands make light work and all that jazz! We actually managed our one formal meal on Xmas Eve in our dining room and some lovely dinners on the veranda once they were asleep which was a miracle with four kids under 3 in the house. I miss their little chubby hands in mine as we go to see the chickens for the 100th time or hearing their shrieks of joy as they jump into the pool for the 200th time and their warm little bodies cuddling me after they wake from their afternoon nap and I am very grateful that we all managed to get together considering the never ending pain in the bum that is Covid. We literally just squished Christmas in before Omicron swept through Sydney spoiling all sorts of plans and shutting shops, restaurants, cafes and decimating weddings (sometimes for the 3rd attempt at getting hitched). We are all a lot more resigned to it, more accepting of it even as we have huge case numbers and a lack of supplies in the supermarkets. Most people are expecting to get it and now it is more about getting it at the least inconvenient time rather than a fear of severe illness. Boosters are being rolled out and that combined with a level of personal responsibility and self care is all we can do at this time. Another year beginning with no guarantee of anything changing. Trips still on hold and plans with a mere 20% chance of fruition!

Luckily the beautiful South Coast provided us with many escapes and as there was always someone who could stay at home and babysit sleeping babies they could all variously take off for an hour or two with the older kids, almost a holiday in itself! Once they were tucked up in bed we could enjoy some nice meals on the veranda and relax.

On 27th December just 3 days after his 95th birthday the Cameron Family patriarch left us. Col was a much loved Dad, Grandad and Great Grandad as well as a lovely Father in Law to Heather and myself. He had been steadily declining this year and we knew things were looking a bit grim so thankfully Covid let up just long enough for everyone to visit him in November and December and say their goodbyes. I am so grateful that he managed to come to Lauren’s wedding here a few years ago and spent a Xmas in The Meadow our first year here leaving us with some lovely memories. You started quite a dynasty Pop and our kids have been very lucky to have three of their four grandparents here for so long. You will be missed and fondly spoken about for years to come. So glad we have a couple of pics of him with his various offspring!

I feel totally blessed that after a 12 month hiatus I got to visit him at the end of November with the MOTH and even happier that he was having a good day. I was prepared for him to not recognise me but after about 5 seconds his face lit up and we spent about 40 minutes together chatting about old times (he claimed he couldn’t remember a lot of it but he definitely did have flashes of memory) while he held my hand and kept stroking it. The very best visit we could have hoped for and as it turned out it was our very last. Farewell Col, we love you and hope you knew that right up until the end. We will continue to keep your stories close to our heart and chatted about around the firepit with the little ones as they get older, thanks for everything – we will cook your chicken Maryland recipe in your memory xxx

So a new year begins, maybe not the one we had envisaged but a year to look forward to and make the most of nonetheless as who knows when it’s our last? This whole epidemic has made us realise we have to enjoy every day, appreciate what we have, make an effort to change the things we dislike, have a go at something new while we can, keep growing, cherish our friends and our loved ones and let them know what they mean to us, be kind and considerate and immerse yourself in nature as much as you can. Simple things that nurture you are the way to go – want to make your own pasta/grow your own tomatoes/learn to play the piano or to speak French/buy a puppy – whatever it is just do it!! Life is what you make it after all. Love to you all and let’s make 2022 count for all the right reasons…..

I finally made it to Tasmania to meet my littlest love Miss India Elizabeth Cook. She is the sweetest little thing with an earnest expression until a smile lights up her face and the love shines out. She is such a placid little girl and is so far the perfect baby just eating, sleeping and smiling! I now feel like I have properly bonded with her and reconnected with little Myla ahead of our two weeks together over Xmas. It is a full on life with toddlers and the excitement you feel when they have their midday nap is immense! What to do first…the housework, prep the dinner, hang or fold the washing or just flop on the couch and restore your batteries ready for round 2??? It’s all so rewarding though when they look up from their toys and say “Rara, I love you” and your heart melts with love for them. It was great to spend special one on one time with my three girls and we squished lots of fun into 4 days!

Before I left we had a rather lovely couple of weeks finally being a bit social after our lockdown. I took a pottery class with a few local girls one night which was great fun. I loved getting the cool wet clay in my hands and attempting to form it into some sort of usable object. I didn’t make anything spectacular but I really enjoyed the evening. I thought about doing the 6 week course but in reality how much handmade pottery type stuff can you use? I’m certainly not good enough to make something practical like an entire set of dinner plates so I think I’ll have to give it a miss!

Our Sydney friends had a few days holidaying on the South Coast and we met up with them at beautiful Cupitt’s Estate at Ulladulla. A lovely lunch followed by a few drinks listening to live music outside catching up on life after 6 months was a perfect way to spend a Sunday. It’s like a little bit of Provence there and probably the closest I’m going to get at this stage!

We had to get prepared for Xmas early this year. We have always had a real tree but due to the massive bush fires two years ago there has been a real shortage of trees and the only way we could guarantee one was to go to the Xmas Tree Farm and cut one down ourselves! It was a fun experience but we had to do it the 1st week in December before they sold out meaning our poor little tree is starting to dry out just in time for the big day! The tip they gave us was to top up the water with Coke every week but even that fix-it-all sugar hit hasn’t really worked! The house is looking Christmassy though and we are READY for the clan to arrive tomorrow!

We had an invite to Hyams Beach one gloriously sunny day to have lunch with our Nephew who had rented a beach house to spend some special time with his Mum who had flown from Switzerland to finally meet her little grandson Kane. We had a super time with them and this smiley little guy in one of the most beautiful areas of Jervis Bay. You cannot help but feel uplifted by that turquoise blue water and you can see why it is one of the most popular places to come for a summer escape. Imagine eating on that deck every day – you’d never want to leave!

So as Australia finally gears up for a Christmas we weren’t sure we were going to get (and to be honest we are only just squishing it in between Delta and Omicron surges) this is likely to be the scene on our main highway South from today. It makes popping out for milk a rather frustrating endurance sport so I really have to be on top of my game. I have ‘to do’ lists galore and fridges bursting at the seams, the pool is ready, the cubby house cleaned out and ready for small people to serve us pretend cappucino and the beds and cots are made up so…. let’s do this folks!! With 7 adults, 4 children under 3 years of age and one perpetually hungry Labrador I’m imagining a wonderfully chaotic couple of weeks lie ahead – please have a holiday La Nina so we can all get outdoors and let off steam! I’m wishing you all a time of togetherness with loved ones and a sense of gratitude that we made it through this far. Merry Christmas to you all from The Meadow – see you on the other side!

After two cancelled weddings thanks to Covid my gorgeous God-daughter Francesca finally got married to her person Goodsy! On a gloriously sunny afternoon overlooking the beautiful Kangaroo Valley they said ‘I do’ to each other in the company of a small group of friends and family and their two little daughters, India and Harper. As the days leading up to it were decidedly wet and gloomy we all felt so blessed to be in this wonderful place witnessing two people who are very much in love pledge their vows to each other. Chezzy’s Mum and my bestie Leigh had worked SO hard with her hubby John to prepare their property to look it’s very best for this special day and no matter where you looked there were flowers and trees and green vistas. The sound of birds and the breeze whispering through the trees was the backdrop to their ceremony before the sounds of eating, drinking, chatting and laughter took over as we celebrated into the night. A really beautiful day with some of my favourite people. Just magic.

I felt like a 5 year old off to my first party when Tom insisted on taking my photo as I left for the wedding! It was so nice to get dressed up and put some make-up on and feel like a girl again even if it was only for one day! My feet had forgotten what it felt like to wear heels after 18 months in sneakers! Sadly my gardening and walking clothes have become far too prevalent in my daily wardrobe and as they are so comfy I find reasons to stay in them for way longer than my walks or gardening efforts take! After losing 7kilos of covid squishiness it is so lovely to access a whole new wardrobe without having to shop as all my old clothes now fit again and feel like new! I even ventured to Wollongong and the BIG shops for some new swimmers and actually enjoyed the experience for once!! I was surprised how lovely The Gong was, the main central shopping district was as pretty as a picture with troughs full of flowers everywhere (Berry township powers-that-be take note please) with leafy suburbia and a CBD that is literally a 5 minute walk to the beach and all within an hour of Sydney. I will definitely go more regularly from now on.

Apparently it is Storm Season. I don’t really remember anyone referring to it as that before but the media have definitely coined the phrase this year and I can see why. We have had some magnificent storms, some with gnarly cloud formations and short sharp downpours and others with great rumblings of thunder that make the house tremble and with flashes of lightening that split the sky with such force you’re grateful to be snuggled up inside. We’ve never had any issues with Bailey and storms thank goodness but there are lots of local dogs that really hate it and either run away in fear or whimper and hide indoors. Now that La Nina has joined the party the storms are starting to give way to rain, lots and lots of it and two years since we were in the midst of raging bushfires we are now hearing about many areas under water and crops lost. Life in Australia is never gentle. I am trying to be grateful for the rain, at least I don’t have to water the garden and I must admit the hydrangeas are loving it!

Since restrictions have eased somewhat we have dipped our toes back into the waters of a social life, starting by inviting our lifelong friends over for dinner on Melbourne Cup Day. It was the first time we had seen each other in months and we were like kids in a candy shop being able to chat mask-free and enjoy an afternoon of food and wine together again. We all appreciated it so much more for having been deprived of company these past 6 months and since then we have seen other friends and the MOTH has even been to Sydney for work, staying in the Big Smoke and enjoying the fancy restaurants again!

How adorable are these little boys? Cooper is really keen on cooking and helps his Mum at every possible opportunity all dressed up in his Chef’s outfit and with his little sous chef gurgling happily in the background! He is a really loving little boy and loves nothing more than snuggling up with his Mummy on the lounge holding hands and watching some TV on a rainy afternoon… a happy place for both Mum and Son! I am so looking forward to having them and their 2 little girl cousins here for Christmas this year. It will be Bedlam of course – but of the loveliest kind!

So as our little town starts to open up we are back to fighting for parking spaces and restaurant seats as people from Sydney and NSW travel once again. Some shops and restaurants have undergone renovations and used this time to reinvent themselves with new hours and different offerings. It has been a time to rejig what is important to people and redefine what they want going forward. The workplace will probably never go back to a pre-covid format which means people are much more flexible which should be a good thing and give people a better work life balance. We are starting to dream of going back to Europe, our much planned and looked forward to trip from 2020 now reimagined for September 2022. It is still too early to look for flights but we have a vague itinerary that gives us something to look forward to at least and once we see how Europe copes with Covid this winter (so far that isn’t going too well) we will have a better idea what we can and can’t do. In the meantime we dream and plan and save!! And if we get stuck there is always a road trip?

After 4 long months we were finally allowed to travel to Sydney to see our family. It was so exciting, I was like a kid at Christmas packing up the car and Bailey dog even came for the eventful reunion! When I pulled up at the house and Cooper came running out to greet me with that million watt smile on his face I was truly happy. Yes we may have missed out on holidays overseas and eating out in restaurants but what we REALLY missed was being with the family, hanging out and chewing the fat – nothing earth shattering, just being together. As you can see from the pictures we were happy little vegemites all round. Sadly Tasmania is still shut but has announced they will open their borders on December 15th so Rara already has a ticket on the 10am plane to Hobart! I will finally meet my smallest granddaughter and have a couple of precious days with her before returning to The Meadow for Xmas and the arrival of the ENTIRE family!!! It will be chaotic but fabulous I’m sure…..

This was the Princes Highway (the main road from Sydney to Melbourne) the day before travel to and from Greater Sydney resumed. It will probably never be this empty again and it has definitely been the silver lining of lockdown that the traffic has been almost non existent. They have forged on with the upgrade and as you can see it’s just the finishing off of the median strips that needs doing in most parts now. Hopefully by Xmas the road will be 4 lanes allowing the holiday traffic to flow, unlike the past 3 years where it has been a 10km traffic jam between Berry and Bomaderry!

I had to laugh last weekend when I went out into the garden and saw the MOTH and our neighbour having a chat over the fence ‘country style’ The sound of ride-on mowers is the playlist of my weekend as we are all back to mowing about 3 times a week with the sunshine and rain causing it to grow about an inch every 3 days!

As we pass the magical 70% double vaccinated milestone we are looking forward to eased restrictions in just a few days time and hopefully this little swing will soon have some little people in it enjoying that view! It has been a long 4 months since we’ve heard giggles and laughing in the garden and we are READY to see everyone again asap. That will happen at the 80% double jabbed mark and we have tentatively pencilled the 22/23rd October in our diaries to go to Sydney and see our boys and families but it could still end up being a week later if things don’t go according to plan. Tassie is still well and truly shut to all other States so there is no point getting excited to see that branch of the family just yet but each day is a day closer at least! As much as we are excited for resumption of life (and I was OVERJOYED to receive a call from the hairdresser booking me in) there is bizarrely a tiny little tiny part of me that is a bit sad to think our days of just being us and being able to do what we want when we want (even if that is only walking the dog or gardening) and not having to think of other people’s plans is almost over. The diary is already filling in and events are already clashing with so many people trying to reignite a vestige of our “old life” that I am exhausted just thinking about it! I guess it’s all about the balance as always and it will no doubt be like a comfortable old jacket that once put back on you wonder why you ever wanted it any differently. But for now I am a bit wistful, this has been a time like no other in my lifetime and we got through it, reinventing ourselves along the way. The young ones are champing at the bit of course and with Summer and the festive season just around the corner it will be a perfect storm but one that they need. Twenty months of not being able to socialise and feel free must have felt like a lifetime and I am very happy that there is finally a big bright light at the end of this Covid tunnel for them.

I guess this also means that once again Berry will be heaving with people coming and going from Sydney on their way somewhere (and let’s face it we can only travel within NSW for now) and the ‘Famous Donut Van’ will once again have a huge queue snaking around Berry as the hordes descend on our infamous Star of the Town and then we will know for sure that life is almost normal once again!

The garden is full of activity of the mating kind. Hares are everywhere chasing each other through the paddocks, there are new calves lying in the tall lush grass, just a set of little black ears twitching to show they are there and the birds are going troppo as they find mates and prepare nests. We have 4 gigantic cuckoos here from New Guinea who LOVE our mulberries and frighten me every time I go outside as they fly out of the tree, huge wings flapping and creating a ruckus. They don’t seem to bother the other birds but I will be happy when they move on. The greatest joy at the moment is the tiny birds, little flashes of blue or yellow as they flit from bush to bush, their little bodies only causing the smallest of rustling as they hide within rose bushes and hedges where no other bird can go. Their song is so pure and at a pitch that punches above their weight, being heard above the bigger birds and always filling me with the greatest of appreciation for them.

Our gorgeous Bailey suffered a second seizure two weeks after her first. This time it was a petit mal and she didn’t lose consciousness but it went on for hours, her body twitching and spasming and this time she realised something was wrong. She couldn’t find any comfort unless she was pressed up close to us and therefore she spent the evening on the couch (a 1st) with us both stroking her and comforting her. It was awful in a different way to the first seizure as we kept waiting for the big one which never came and as a result we were super anxious, completely incapable of cooking and eating dinner and very worried when it came time for us to go to bed but the next day she seemed completely normal and when we visited the vet they advised us to wait for just one more BIG one before we consider medicating her as the drugs have their own side effects apparently. So we are trying to go with the flow and not worry too much whilst keeping an extra eye on her activities. I am gradually relaxing enough to leave her at home when I go out although not for too long just in case! I still hold on to the hope that it was a reaction to something rather than ongoing epilepsy, I guess time will tell….

Our 11 chickens are happily co-existing with the youngest two finally permitted to join the older girls at night on the roost. We are getting between 6 and 9 eggs a day which is far too many for just two of us and we have a regular weekly delivery to nearby friends who are chicken-less, even then we always have at least 3 or 4 dozen eggs at home at any one time and they range from big double yolkers to a tiny egg that is perfectly formed but just half the size of a regular egg. We thought it was the young ones just beginning to lay but it has been going on for weeks now so maybe that is the size they will always be?

We have been having some glorious Spring weather and some days that are more like Summer but the other day two weather systems collided and we had a huge hailstorm that literally covered the lawn in little white balls and bought the temperature plummeting down by 15 degrees! You can just imagine the sound of the hail on our tin roof, Bailey who doesn’t even twitch when we have a thunderstorm came looking for me and sat at my feet until the storm passed! The strawberry farm down the road lost it’s entire crop in just 6 minutes, the soft fruit no match for the ferocity of the storm. It doesn’t seem to matter what you are farming, there is always something that is going to wipe you out it seems.

While we have all been waiting out Delta, things have been progressing with the 10km upgrade to the Princes Highway from Berry to Bomaderry. They pulled down the 1st lot of trees three years ago and it is finally nearing completion. If you liken it to a renovation all the hard lifting has been done and now they are starting to pretty it up – the floors are being laid and the painting is being done before the final touch of curtains and furniture. The road itself is 95% done and now they are doing the median strip, sometimes including plants and sometimes just a guard rail, the signs are up but covered and the roadside planting has begun with some amazing mature date palms at our local intersection as well as gums and natives where the landscape allows. Once it’s finished and all the mess is gone I’m sure all we will notice is the amazing scenery as we drive up and down the coast.

Last weekend was the October Long Weekend where usually all roads in out of Sydney both North and South are chockers with people escaping the big smoke. This year of course there was barely a car on the road and the only thing on the calendar was the footy Grand Final and with no sons here to shout and cheer at the smallest of misdemeanours or good play with the MOTH, a few beers and a packet of chips was about as big as it got at our place. It was an exciting weekend for me though as the clocks went forward meaning longer evenings and finally a chance for us to sleep past 5.30am. As usual half the clocks in our house are reading different times as we gradually get around to changing them all….not always the easiest of tasks….

Over the past 20 months we have all been intimately acquainted with our local area. Who would have though the immediate 5kms from our house would EVER become so important? It’s a bit of a suburb lottery as to what you get to see everyday on your walk and never have we been so grateful to live where we do. The 5km rule doesn’t apply to us in rural NSW as some people’s driveways are that long!! We have the whole of our Shoalhaven LGA to play in which goes as far down as Jervis Bay but stops just north of Berry. We have about 5 different regular walks which luckily include the beach and the river but mostly we just stay super local and wander the local lanes. At this time of year they are a joy…let me take you on a bit of a virtual walk down the lane..

As I cross over the Highway and pass the church where my daughter got married there is a sweet waft of perfume from the self seeded freesias growing on the verge outside and sometimes I pick a few to pop in a little vase for next to the kitchen sink or in my bathroom. As I continue on past the stud the horses stand as still as statues, only a few ears twitching and turning acknowledging my presence. As I get nearer to the little creek I hear the gurgling of water thanks to the showers over the past few days and the air is full of the sound of throaty singing as the frogs call to attract a mate. I check out the house at the end of the street that has been coming together over the past 2 years in fits and starts. A lovely weatherboard with wrap around verandahs and views to the escarpment and nearly ready for occupation. Sensibly they planted a garden when they started building and now there are beautiful blossom trees and flowers around the perimeter for them to enjoy and masses of bulbs have come up with a veritable florist shop of flowers to choose from to pick for the house.

Around the corner I pass the duck pond where two duck families share lodgings quite happily and then I stop to say hi to the goats, a small goat farm of around 30 and they are very sweet, often running to the fence to greet me on my daily travels. From there it is open paddocks, black Angus cattle dotted in fields of yellow which look very pretty but are in fact fields of the noxious Fireweed. These invasive plants originated in South Africa but have taken firm hold in the countryside here and as each plant holds 30,000 seeds which are light and fluffy and easily dispersed by the wind so you can imagine how inundated we all are with it. It contains a poison which is toxic to cattle and horses and they will naturally avoid eating it but it tends to get cut in with the silage and can have an accumulative effect on their livers if they eat enough of it. It’s lucky the flowers are so obvious at this time of year that we can easily pull them out of our garden, you can only imagine how many of those seeds get blown in on the westerly wind!

As I turn for home I hear a rustling in the long grass and out of nowhere 3 hares scamper across the road in front of me. They are running so fast around and around in huge circles and I’m not sure if they are three adolescents having fun or perhaps 2 bucks chasing a poor doe with a definite sense of purpose and a twinkle in their eye! A flock of white corellas swirl above me twisting and turning like a shoal of fish before landing in a paddock to feast on some unseen delicacy. The birds are all very busy now that Spring is here and we have witnessed a large amount of parrots in our garden. The mulberries are starting to fruit which always attracts them and we have several pairs of King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas as well as a group of Rainbow Lorikeets that have taken up residency in my giant pear tree just awaiting the next thing to ripen or seed…a giant smorgasbord in The Meadow.

So as the lockdown has gone on….and on…and on I really felt the need to achieve something positive during it, to make it a less negative experience and to give me a sense of purpose in what was otherwise a rather strange world where I had no control over what was happening or what could happen in the future. As a result of a somewhat blasé previous 6 months when the only fun thing we’ve been able to do is cook, eat and drink and say what the heck, I was starting to push the boundaries of my fat clothes and something needed to be done. As there was no chance of socialising it seemed like an ideal time to try and lose those covid kilos and for some unfathomable reason I woke up one Thursday and decided to start! Starting is always the hardest part for me and I didn’t hold out much hope to be honest but I made a 3 week commitment which seemed doable and it really has been so much easier than I thought it would be! I am now in week 5 and have lost 6 kilos so far. More importantly I am feeling so much better, am LOVING my 5-6km daily walk and am not missing my evening wine half as much as I thought I would! Better still by the time we open up I shall be looking a whole lot better and have a little buffer for the inevitable dinners and get togethers that will be on the cards.

Last week I experienced 2 minutes that I never wish to repeat. Our beautiful Bailey Dog started barking as if she was being attacked and then fell to the ground in a seizure that seemed to last forever but in reality was only about 2 minutes long. I didn’t really know what was happening and thought she might have been choking on something but there was nothing blocking her windpipe so I had to just let her go through it. I was beside myself not knowing what to do and fearing the worst. She means so much not just to us but to our kids and the grandkids too, I just couldn’t face losing her and having to tell them. As she started coming out of it she shakily stood up, her eyes glazed and she was foaming at the mouth. I eventually managed to get her into the car and set off to the vet 9 kms away. By the time we got there she jumped out of the car happily wagging her tail when she saw the MOTH waiting for us in the carpark. If I hadn’t seen it happen I wouldn’t have believed anything had occurred! She drank about 2 litres of water while the vet checked her over and she has been given the all clear despite low blood sugar and low red blood cells which could have been explained away for a variety of reasons. The only thing we can put it down to was her scavenging some old maggoty chicken necks at the back of a nearby property which she eventually vomited up the next day. Perhaps they released some sort of toxin? She also presented us with a couple of dead rabbits that she must have found in the paddock but we are certain no one around here would be baiting/poisoning animals as there are too many livestock around and everyone in our lane has a dog. At least I will recognise what is going on if it happens again and if she does has another seizure they will prescribe her medication for epilepsy going forward. I have been loathe to let her meander off on her own since just in case she finds another ‘treasure’ and we are keeping a very close eye on our beloved Choccy drop as we would be lost without her.

Our garden is giving us great joy at the moment. As a rule we spend more time working in it than enjoying it but I think that is starting to change as it matures. Our wisteria which was planted well before we arrived is really a major job throughout the year, keeping it trimmed and winding the soft new tendrils around the arbour post to encourage it’s growth along our balustrade. However, when those first purple pendulums burst into flower I forget about all the work and just love seeing it drip in heavy fragrant clusters called racemes which the bees absolutely adore. This whole corner of the garden is very bee friendly as the lavender is also in full throttle and the spring daisies are also competing for some attention. In a few weeks it will all be over for another year or if I deadhead properly perhaps we’ll get a second showing in Autumn. I’m pretty sure this was planted back in the 80s so I am very grateful for the gardeners that came before!

In an interesting twist it looks like we may be able to fly to London before Hobart if our State Premiers remain stubborn and keep their borders shut to NSW and our far flung family may have to plan a holiday in Fiji in order to be reunited with each other! Surely once the government has worked out a usable home quarantine system we can once again plan a few overseas jaunts with some sort of confidence? I know Australia is a beautiful country but sometimes you just want to launch yourself into a completely different culture, lifestyle and enjoy the diversity of food that comes with it. For now Europe may be a step too far but maybe, just maybe, The Camerons may be able to start planning that holiday in Fiji….

Well it’s been a few weeks folks, because, well…Covid… and let’s face it every day is like Groundhog Day adding or subtracting the odd trip to the supermarket, garden centre or medical appointment. I must say however that as each day creeps towards Spring we have noticed lots of changes in the garden which help to keep me focussed on lovely warm days ahead and hopefully a Christmas with the sound of laughter and children playing whilst their parents enjoy a cold beverage! Dreaming is free right?

So as the fresh new leaves unfurl on the trees and my wisteria is sporting fat purplish buds just waiting to burst open any day it makes me hopeful that better days lie ahead. The jonquils and hyacinths have been and gone and now the sweet peas and salvias are having their turn, a prelude to the roses which after their recent pruning are already filling out with leaves and the promise of flowers to come. It is so nice to be able to bring some of the outside in with blooms strategically placed around the house to make me smile. Covid may have spoiled our lives over the past 18 months but nature carries on regardless and has probably even enjoyed the lack of people out and about. It is uplifting to see the cherry blossoms on our daily walk and the birds are dipping and darting and flirting with each other ahead of some serious lovey dovey and nest building. I love seeing the parrots sitting in pairs canoodling and snuggling up together, they seem to genuinely enjoy the whole process as opposed to other creatures for whom it’s all over in a second or two, occasionally coinciding with their death! Nature is sometimes very weird!

Before the lockdown I was having a lovely old time as I have made some new friends! Whether you are 6 or 60 it is always nice to meet new people who you enjoy being with and who have similar outlooks on life. In these times especially I relished meeting up with some girls who I met initially through a mutual friend but have continued to see through our love of dogs! We all love our furry friends and it is so nice to meet up for a walk or at our houses for some afternoon tea and chatter while the pups play together! Vanessa has the most beautiful views from her house and has sheep, cows, alpacas and goats whilst running a home away from home specifically for Golden Retrievers. Luckily Bailey and Billy have been granted a special dispensation to join in on Doggy Daycare Thursdays!

In the best news in ages, we were so very happy this week to welcome India Elizabeth Cook into the family. She kept us all waiting an extra 9 days but she was definitely worth the wait. 4kgs of deliciousness and already settling into family life in Tassie. We are so happy that they are all free over there with no Covid cases and as they are locked out from the rest of the world they will hopefully stay that way. Sadly that means I can’t be there as we had originally planned although I still hold out a tiny bit of hope for my October 18th flight yet to be cancelled. Luckily her In Laws came to the rescue, staying with them before, during and after the big event to help with our little Myla. She was very much looking forward to being a big sister but I’m not sure the reality is quite what she expected and she isn’t too keen on sharing Mummy at this point in time. I’m sure she will get used to it all very quickly and be Mummy’s Number One Helper before long. In the meantime she is rather overly enthusiastic in her affection to her baby sister and her Dad has suggested they may need to bring in security! In a lovely nod to our family India bears her maternal Great Grandma’s name – Elizabeth, as Myla has her paternal Great Grandma’s name – Josephine. A wonderful duo to emulate that’s for sure and a little bit of history passed down the line. Needless to say Gigi is very chuffed!

Another thing that brought a smile to my face this week was a parcel we received in the mail with these words on the back!! Inside was a batch of homemade baklava from our friend Nick and it definitely left us feeling all warm and fuzzy as well as overjoyed to have something delicious to eat with our afternoon cuppa. A simple kindness that meant a lot. It has inspired me to try and pay it forward …a chain letter of deliciousness and kindness…

When you move to Australia from another continent as I did and know absolutely no one, your new family and friends really have a lot of work to do to fill the void of home, but I have been very lucky with my In Law family. They are all lovely and even if we don’t see each other very often we always pick straight back up where we left off and now as we are slowing down a bit we hope that we will get to spend a bit more time with them all. Heather was my local sister in law and with 3 kids each and married to the two Cameron brothers we had a lot in common. We used to call each other every Wednesday to chat and de-brief, especially when we were missing our kids who were living overseas or the husbands were being especially Cameron-ish!!! Thirty minutes later having solved the problems of the world we would hang up feeling much better about things. Sadly 18 months ago she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour and it all happened just as Covid raised its horrible head meaning we haven’t really been able to see her. She passed away two weeks ago at home with her family around her as they luckily all live nearby. She had some good patches in that time and was so thankful that her expat children had all come home prior to Covid and she could spend some time with them and even witness the birth of another little grandson. Family was everything to her and she would have derived immense pleasure from cradling that little guy. We went through a lot together throughout the years and I will miss her a lot. Make the most of every day folks, you never know what lies around the corner…

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As the UK celebrates “Freedom Day” and covid restrictions are all lifted with people free to live ‘normally’ again, we in NSW are plunged into the biggest crisis we have so far experienced since the pandemic began. Delta is causing havoc and so far we are in week 4 of lockdown in the Greater Sydney Area. Here in rural NSW we are not in lockdown but we are feeling the ripple effect of it. Being only 2 hours from Sydney a lot of our businesses rely on the weekend tourism and local holiday homes to provide them with income. Things here are VERY quiet and as masks are once again a requirement most people have cancelled their gym and exercise classes and with so many friends and family unable to visit from Sydney cancelling restaurant bookings etc – we are mostly just waiting for this to pass before resuming normal activities. I have been personally affected by the shutting of State borders to NSW leaving me with cancelled plane flights to Tasmania where I was due to fly this week ahead of my Daughter giving birth. Her In-Laws are also stuck in Queensland (where they were catching up with their daughter who they hadn’t seen in over a year) when this escalation occurred. As they have their car and caravan with them they are finding it hard to find an allowable route back to the car ferry in Melbourne by August 2nd as it is tricky trying to avoid all the border closures. Not what we had all hoped and planned for and needless to say we are more than a bit devastated that we may not be there to help but we are madly hoping that Tasmania will open it’s borders to rural NSW again soon and I can hop on that plane asap.

So as life has shrunk once more to our immediate environment we just thank our lucky stars that we have such a lovely choice of local areas to walk around and grab lunch outdoors which is still a delight in the winter as long as the sun is shining. Kiama has a wonderful coastal path that hugs its shores and you can walk as little or as much of it as you desire. Diggies is a fantastic café-restaurant where you can tie your dog up and enjoy a delicious lunch outdoors with a view of the coast that fills you with gratitude for our natural environment. I’m praying that Covid stays out of the regions as it would be a death knell for these little places.

We’ve had a rather bird orientated week here in The Meadow. Firstly the Corellas have come back. They hang in huge groups of at least 200 and we can hear them coming from kilometres away, great swathes of white in the sky as they swoop and turn before settling on the perfect trees or water troughs making a great hullabuloo as they do so. I have NO idea what they are trying to do? There is no food here for them? They stay only 10 minutes or so and then they are off again in search of goodness knows what. They look like baubles on a Xmas tree when they land, screeching across to the other trees which are similarly laden with birds.

The plovers are also in full throttle, their calls are heard constantly across the paddocks as the Dad wheels and soars above the nest where much against the odds they somehow raise a few chicks right in the middle of a field which houses cattle and the odd fox. Goodness knows what their success rate is but you wouldn’t want to be betting on it.

Our “chicks” who are now almost the same size as their Mum, are demonstrating teenagerish habits in as much as they don’t want to be thrust out of the nest. Peaches has up until literally two days ago been a supremely diligent Mother, still tucking them under her wings at night in a nesting box but the tide has turned and now she has abandoned them, finally returning to the roost at night and after so many months you can’t blame her. The kids have now got to be brave and follow suit and despite the pecking order in the hen house I don’t believe the older chooks would actually throw them off if they gave it a go??

One thing that discouraged all of them to enter the Chook-Mahal yesterday was the presence of 2 crows who had greedily snuck in and stolen the newly laid eggs before realising they couldn’t get out again. Rather stupidly they forgot how they had entered and spent a few fruitless hours flapping about trying to get through the mesh to the great outdoors. I managed to get the adult crow out as he was too large to take refuge in the rafters like the juvenile crow and ended up on the floor right next to the exit. Sadly the younger bird spent hours trying to escape and rather exhausted in the end was easily caught by the MOTH and released to its family who had gathered on the fence line above the chookyard trying to encourage its departure. Hopefully once bitten twice shy and they will stay away.

Our own little chick, Oliver, has been growing steadily while we have been locked out of Sydney and we are so sad we cannot be there to enjoy this gorgeous stage of his babyhood. He is a happy contented little chap and proof that good things can still happen during a global pandemic. Hopefully we will be able to make up for it big time when this is all over. In the meantime thank goodness for facetime eh?

I have taken some solace from the garden which continues to need my attention. This is the time of the year that we prune everything back – especially the roses and the salvias. The hydrangeas have to be trimmed back to the fat buds and the fruit trees need to be thinned out and pruned to a height where we can actually pick the fruit. The wisteria is best trimmed back whilst it is leaf-less and we can see its winding tendrils, even now there are new buds arriving every day so I am on notice to get it done soon. My veggie garden has been bare this winter as we let it rest and breathe. The weeds have diminished (for now anyway) and I have added loads of compost and soil improver to build it up ahead of Summer. I’m planting some perennial basil to encourage the bees around the perimeter and I’m looking for a good spot for a new lemon tree and to transplant my Olive tree, which currently lives in a pot. Our exposed position in the middle of the paddocks mean we have very little sheltered area away from the wind so despite our couple of acres we are not spoilt for choice unfortunately. I picked the last of the roses mixed with some camellias which made me feel happy for a day or two at least!

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One of the biggest things we’ve learned from this pandemic is how important it is to have something to look forward to. A visit from your family or friends, going out for dinner or a drink at the local pub and most definitely holidays. A trip abroad is on most people’s to do lists after all this is over. A trip to Queensland is almost as hard to organise with State borders opening and shutting like a barn door. With a visit to the UK high on my list to visit my Mum and Sister I also have a yen to revisit Greece where I lived for a couple of years back in the early 80s. I have such fond memories of it despite the fact I was living on the smell of an oily rag, sleeping on beaches and in Youth Hostels and limited to one main meal a day! I think I’ve been scared that if I went back it would spoil those memories but I now think I owe it to myself to do it in a bit of style! I can just imagine the MOTH and I wandering these beautiful little alleys and enjoying some great food overlooking the Med……

1. The only travelling we are doing right now
2. The crazy ups and downs of Covid….