In a year that started with catastrophic bushfires followed by damaging floods and the arrival of the big Rona we should be very grateful it’s all coming to an end. A year of challenges and acceptance, of realisation of what is important to us and gratefulness both for what we have and that we got through it unscathed. Australia has been lucky, isolated by geography and with good leadership who weren’t frightened to impose strict shutdown rules early we have avoided the horrible numbers of cases experienced by other parts of the world.

For our family it has been a mostly happy year. A wedding bought our family home at just the right time to avoid being stuck abroad at the outbreak of the virus. The wedding was cancelled due to restrictions but we were all home together to face whatever was to come our way. Two of our kids had to pack up their life in London and Vietnam via Facetime with friends packaging up their belongings into boxes for them and leases had to be sub-letted and jobs resigned from. Both of them have embraced a difficult time to come out the other side with good jobs and a future to look forward to – not an easy task in Covid – and I am very proud of them both.

Our Bride and Groom may have missed out on their wedding but instead they have bought a beautiful new house and are happily making it a home for their expanding family. They could have been sad or angry especially as the wedding was cancelled a mere 48 hours before it was due to take place – everything was organised and paid for, hair was cut, nails were manicured, boots were polished and the flowers were all ready for the bouquets but they took it in their stride and made the best of things and we were all just grateful that we were together and safe. I am so proud of the way they have handled everything and their focus is now firmly on the future and the arrival of baby number 2 in 4 months. We had a lovely weekend with them recently at their new house and it is so fabulous to be able to stay with them now they have a spare room for guests and to enjoy some quality time with little Cooper who I think thought we existed only in photos or here in The Meadow!!

I have also made the most of having Lauren and Myla a mere 3 hour drive away with a couple of trips to Canberra to help out with babysitting while they worked and to spend time with our little Hurrricane a.k.a Myla!! She is a ball of energy and at this stage has absolutely no quiet side. She is either awake and full of beans or asleep – no grey area for our Myla Moo! I took her to Canberra Zoo for an outing which we both loved although poor old Rara was feeling rather knackered by the end of it – why are zoos always carved into a hillside??? I completely mistimed how long it would take me to get down and back to the car and our little intrepid explorer fell asleep in the stroller and stayed asleep throughout the whole car trip home, through the labyrith of the apartment block gardens, the trip in the elevator and into the house only to wake up full of beans as soon as I tried to lie her down in the cot!! I look forward to having them stay with us for a week before they fly off to Tassie in mid December to start their new life in Hobart. Still a plane trip away but a lot closer than Asia!

The veggie patch is in full throttle with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, spinach and lettuce all available for eating and green beans, capsicum and eggplant just around the corner. This is the time of year that we plan meals around the patch rather than what we may fancy and I think we end up eating more plant foods this way by far. Our rustic entrance with it’s rusty gate and shabby pergola is one of my fave bits of the property and I am resisting the various “suggestions” to paint it and smarten it up.

The erratic weather courtesy of La Nina has been both a blessing and a curse to our garden. The ferocity of some of the storms has been amazing, in the pictures here we had four inches of rain in an hour and lost one of our lovely spready trees as well. The upside was all that rain soaked in pretty quickly and gave our trees and flowers a deep water at just the right time for flowering and we now have a garden that is green and full of flowers and fragrance.The gardenias are a picture and together with the jasmine is sending a lovely waft of fragrance over the garden, The roses are as gorgeous as ever and the newly planted salvias are coming along a treat. I have changed tact in my constant battle with the weeds and have decided to plant more groundcover plants to fill in the gaps that weeds would otherwise pop up in and hopefully in another year our work load will be reduced considerably. The apricot and plum trees are in full fruit so if the birds can stay away I should have a bumper crop this year. Hello jam and fruit tarts and chutneys!

Our dear friends Baz and Kathy drove down from Forster to stay with us for a week. It was so lovely to see them again but unfortunately I was riddled with daycare germs and quite sick which curtailed our normal high jinx to a degree although we still managed to celebrate Baz’s birthday and get a whole load of little jobs done. These two are pathologically incapable of sitting and doing nothing and miraculously pictures were hung, the ironing basket was emptied, garden beds weeded and planted, chook fences mended, cupboards fixed and the garage tool section completely revamped! Thanks lovely friends for all your help!! One day you will come and stay and just relax I promise!!

So as the year comes to an end I have never been more grateful to be living here in The Meadow. We have been shielded from the worst of lockdown and have the beautiful countryside all around us to remind us that life is good. Home has become more than the sum of its parts and family and friends more important than ever. The rest of the world sometimes seems a long way away but the fact we have close family still struggling in the northern hemisphere keeps it close to home. Let’s hope that next year brings some worldwide relief and a return to a more sensible guy in the big white house on the hill….

Well what a few weeks we’ve had. In fact nearly everyone we know seems to have had a bad few weeks. As if Covid wasn’t enough. Sadly we have close friends and family who are very sick and every week we hear more stories of others in the same situation. Is it because we are getting older? Or because we know a lot of people? Or is the universe just throwing everyone as many curve balls as possible and seeing how we all cope. In the current world situation I think we are all on heightened alert without even realising it and one piece of bad news has the capability of sending us plummeting into a sad place. For those who are now either in an extended or 2nd or 3rd lockdown it must be especially hard to stay upbeat and look positively towards the future. No matter how hard you’ve worked your whole life your business may have crashed and burnt before your very eyes or the savings you had so diligently acquired over months and years of sacrifice for a house or a new business venture has now had to be used to merely exist through sudden unemployment and things beyond your control. It’s as scary as the thought of the disease, maybe even more so as the months go by. I do not envy those in charge as there doesn’t seem to be any one way through this crisis and I think that all we can do is to take some self responsibility for our own lives, lower our previous expectations and be grateful for what we have. I am concerned for my family in the UK and Europe and the US as the figures over there for new cases are frightening and coming into winter isn’t helping but all I can do is stay in communication and plan a get together for when this all goes away. There is talk that we will not have international travel to the northern hemisphere until 2022 from Australia but as a dual passport holder I can always go if I really need to for any reason and just do the quarantine on my return. At this stage it is harder for people to get into Queensland than it would be for me to go to England!!! Crazy…..

In happier news we have had a couple of get togethers with our daughter and family. We are trying to squish in as many visits as we can before they relocate to Tasmania in December so we enjoyed the long weekend here in The Meadow along with Tom and some good friends of Lauren’s and their 2 year old Mia which made for lots of cute moments!

Papa finally finished the sandpit and the boys filled it up to much appreciation from our smallest family member who LOVED it! We were lucky enough to have some beautiful weather allowing beach time and one of our favourite pizza nights! We babysat one afternoon and had a grand old time with Myla helping me pick mulberries from the tree (one for the bowl and one for her!!) then watering the pots of flowers with her very own mini watering can (some for the plants then some for her feet!) and then a swim in the pool with Papa (more splashing on the steps than swimming to be honest) and a good time was had by all.

The other person who loves picking mulberries is Bailey. Our little choccy drop is very smart and when she sees me out there with a bowl she comes and loiters under the tree hoovering up all the ones that fall off as I harvest. I have even seen her out there alone nibbling them off the bottom branches with great dexterity and finesse which means she gets the bottom of the tree, I get the middle and the birds get the top!! Still plenty to go around and I am constantly delivering bowls to friends and neighbours. Last week I gave a bowl to my neighbour at 9am and a jar of jam made from the fruit was gifted to me at 3pm!! Now that’s fresh!!

I have mixed feelings about reporting that Atticus has left the building. After his close encounter with the fox he became extra aggressive to the point where none of us could go near him without a stick or a rake as he would run at us feathers flared and a glint in his eye and once or twice he caught the MOTH by surprise leaving him with big scratches on his arms or legs. I couldn’t blame him for his heightened angst but it made life less than pleasant always having to keep an eye out for him and I could never let them out with the grandkids there just in case. So one Sunday morning Cam made the hard decision to let him go. He was sad as he had hand raised him and even a few weeks previously had been able to pick him up with no fear but he now had PTSD and we couldn’t really do much to change that. Atticus had the 2nd last laugh though as Cam chased him around the coop injuring his achilles in the process. The chicken house is now a calmer place and I am gradually getting used to not being charged at every time I let them out! The girls are all getting on ok with our previously head hen Trunchbull back in charge! The babies are now gawky teens and being tolerated by the older chooks, even permitting them to roost with them at night as of yesterday! This was after a night where we lost the little white one, there was literally no sight of her at dusk when they all went to bed and despite looking everywhere we had to go to sleep not knowing where she was or if she had been taken by a fox. The next morning she had found her way into my asparagus patch and was cheeping loudly trying to find her way home! Our little adventurous explorer Chanel!

To thank us for housing them during the Covid lockdown Loz and Berry had organised for us to have a weekend away further down the south coast at Potato Point, a gorgeous little spot right on the beach in a national park. The family cabin was perfect for us and had the most magnificent view over the beach. Although the weather wasn’t perfect it still allowed us to walk and play on the beach, eat outside on our deck each night with a wonderful chiminea to keep the chill off and enjoy a trip into nearby Bodalla, a quaint little town famous for it’s dairy products. Myla was enthralled by the MANY wallabies and kangaroos that populate the area, most of them had baby joeys and we loved being so up close and personal with them.

Nature abounded and no one was more surprised than us when a little possum crashed our dinner table barely 30 seconds after Loz had finished her dessert. Mr possum thoroughly licked the plate clean before vanishing back to whence he’d come!

Sadly on the last night Cammo’s sore foot escalated into a full blown disaster, becoming extremely painful, swollen, hot and red. Something similar happened last year to his other foot and the hospital had surmised it was a flareup of some kind of arthritis. That time it settled within a few days but this time around it was worse and is still swollen a week later. A week of blood tests and we are only marginally closer to a diagnosis but an appontment with a rheumatologist in a fortnight will hopefully shed some light on the situation. It makes you realise how much you CANNOT do when your feet play up, we very much take them for granted until they don’t work properly!

I am going to leave you with a cute animal pic because who doesn’t love a baby rabbit? Did you know that a group of wild rabbits is called a fluffle? I have no idea who gets to name these things but I have never loved the English language more!!

Our cocky rather scary rooster nearly met his match last Sunday when Mr Fox came a visiting and as a result he no longer sports his manly bits. No not THOSE bits but his magnificent rooster tail feathers which are now scattered to the four corners of our property. Mr Fox got a full mouthful of feathers but nothing else luckily, Atticus now looks decidedly out of proportion with his huge rounded body and no tail plumage to balance it and he has a slight limp but all in all he was a very lucky boy. This all happened at 3.30 in the afternoon when they were out free ranging in the sunshine. So much for foxes being nocturnal eh? Bold as brass he was and even stood his ground for about 30 seconds after I came after him brandishing a big stick and screaming like a banshee. Bailey got the message that something was wrong and chased after him barking crazily for at least 10 minutes letting him know she was NOT a happy camper and to not return on her watch thank you very much.

So now when I look out of the kitchen window in the late afternoons and see them picking about in the garden it is not with my usual feeling of serenity and tranquility but with a slightly anxious feeling in my tummy that they could be taken by surprise at any moment and become badly injured or killed right in front of my eyes. Cunning as they are I am sure Foxy will wait a few days until we are lulled into some sort of false security and then come back to try his luck again……aaaaargh!! There are animals everywhere at the moment and a wedge tailed eagle swooped down and took a young hare a couple of weeks ago (the worst sound ever incidentally) and we have also had an injured Corella wandering around our garden for weeks now – it’s wing flopped to one side and unable to fly. I wondered if that was the work of the eagle too? I wanted to take it to the vet but the MOTH made some very unkind remarks as to “there being millions of them and one wouldn’t be much loss to mankind” and said “to let nature take it’s course” which translates to let it die in my book. As if to prove him wrong Albi is still here and seemingly getting around ok and I always love it when I turn a corner and there he is waddling around and just getting on with life. Seems a bit lonely though as they usually belong to a flock but if you can’t fly I guess you can’t be in the gang.

This however has been the only negative thing in the garden the past few weeks as Spring has invaded The Meadow and we have trees full of blossom, a wisteria that is now in full leaf, jasmine about to burst into flower and the jacarandas are budding up ready for their huge show of purple in a few weeks from now. The summer veg have been planted and withstood a huge westerly wind, luckily I had staked and tied the tomatoes or we would be back to square one now. Our baby chooks are now scraggly teens with most of their fluffy down replaced with their new feathers. As feared at least one of them is a rooster but the smallest sweetest and prettiest is definitely a hen, named Chanel for her understated elegance! They are starting to mix with the older chooks for a few hours at a time and it wont be long before they fully transition to the big kids coop. None of the other chickens look like they are being mean to them thus far at least so fingers crossed it doesn’t all end in tears.

I had a lovely few days playing Grandma in Canberra recently. I went down to babysit Myla so the kids could work some extra days on the days she isn’t at daycare and I had been looking forward to us doing our thing together but I arrived to a rapidly unfolding situation.Viral gastroenteritis tore through Kindy classes Rainforest 1 and 2 with 30 of the bubs getting sick and a couple having to go to ER with severe dehydration. Myla succumbed first followed by each of us adults, luckily in a staggered start so at least one of us was always ok to look after the others so although it didn’t work out that I could help out while they worked it was a good job I was there to be on Myla duty at least! We spent an afternoon at IKEA where she loved playing in the kids section and we came away with a circus tent which she loves, taking her books and her “babies” inside and I’m sure if she could write ‘No Adults Allowed’ on the outside she would!!

Luckily we were all fine again for my last day and we enjoyed a day out in Canberra on the lake, hanging out in several of the Capital’s beautiful Parks and enjoying the 2020 version of Floriade which this year due to Covid has been reimagined and is scattered all over Canberra with wheelbarrows and window boxes of brightly coloured tulips and pansies for everyone to enjoy no matter where they are.

I got back home just in time for the boys to come and lay the driveway, the whole place was buzzing with trucks and men in high vis vests doing their thing and just like that we had a flash new drive! There is still some finishing off to do and it will take a while for the grass to grow back up to the new edges but the hard lifting has all been done! All ready for some little people to ride their bikes on when they are big enough…

In some very exciting news we have another little Grandson on the way! Due April 1st 2021 and growing very nicely he will make a beautiful little addition to our growing family. Cooper will be a super big brother I’m sure and if his Dad and Uncle are anything to go by he and his little brother will be as thick as thieves and mates for life. Watch out world, there is another generation of Cameron Brothers on the way!!

I made a passionfruit sponge to celebrate with the last of our fruit from the garden. I love that this recipe belongs to Bill Bevan who died in 2017 at the ripe old age of 94. Bill discovered his talent for baking late in life. The former trawler skipper and truck driver from Corrimal in NSW stepped up to the stove in his 60s and has since perfected the art of baking, winning a sponge competition at his granddaughter’s primary school, and making the family Christmas cakes and puddings. When his wife became ill during her early 50s Bill took over the cooking and began to bake the cakes his wife fancied. This was her favourite of them all and we love it too, all the more because of the story behind it. Cooking is a bit like a painting – far more than the sum of it’s parts and hence the nostalgia that comes with favourite family recipes, conjuring up the gatherings where these prized recipes would be served up with panache and a whole lot of love. (Bill’s recipe is in now in my kitchen section if you fancy trying it)

So as we lead up to the Long Weekend I will be planning a few nice meals for the family as we get together in The Meadow. The weather is predicted to be beautiful and for the intrepid amongst us the pool may be calling, I can envisage sipping an aperol spritz with my legs dangling in the water at least and it’s hard to feel anything but happy when the sun is shining and the sky is blue. The clocks will change too thank goodness meaning we may get to sleep in past 5.30 in the morning and have the longer evenings to enjoy eating alfresco. Bring it on!!

A gentle warbling wakes me at first light, it’s slightly apologetic as if the magpie knows it’s silly to be talking this early but “hello the day has begun and surely you want to know?” As the light gets stronger around the edges of my curtains other birds join in the morning chorus, some melodious and others not so much (yes Mr Kookaburra I’m talking about you) Our rooster Atticus can be heard joining in and sometimes in the distance a huge flock of local Corellas can be heard with their loud screeching as they fly en masse to a nearby paddock, resting on the fences and overhead wires as they search out some tasty morsels in the surrounding countryside. While we potter in the kitchen making that first and most wonderful coffee of the day we can hear a clear call – like a bell, which is then repeated from another tree and we know our feathered friends the King Parrots have dropped in to say g’day. They are the most magnificent colour and with the cutest little faces which tilt to the side as they check us out through the window. They are so friendly and unbothered by our presence we think that someone must have been feeding them but we have offered them chopped fruit and also sunflower seeds and despite flying down to check it out they haven’t ever taken anything. One morning we literally had four types of parrots walking around on the grass – King Parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets so they obviously like SOMETHING in our garden!

I was very proud last week to share my part of the world with my Book Club girls. Our intrepid travel gal pal Carolyn found a fabulous house on the top of a hill at Foxground overlooking Gerringong. It had an amazing 180 degree view and was luxuriously appointed yet comfortable with lots of different areas to sit either outside in the sun or shade or inside around a huge table or curled up on the deep squishy lounge. A glorious pool made for sipping aperol spritz around was just a tad too chilly this early in Spring but was perfect for an afternoon chat in the sunshine. As we are all avid cooks we decided we would self cater and we all contributed various dishes and ended up eating like Kings! Beautiful French champagne and cheeses at 4.30pm started the ball rolling and flowed effortlessly into a delicious Ottolenghi baked chicken with amazing salads and sweet treats on day 1 and a meltingly slow cooked mediterranean lamb with braised greek beans and fetta, roasted kipflers, med style salads and a peach and frangipane tart dolloped with thick cream on day 2. Who needs to go out? The Sydney girls walked early every morning discovering the beauty of the south coast before a banquet brekky where I learned a healthier variation of the Cornish breakfast my Mum adores (a nice tangy marmalade topped with thick clotted cornish cream on toast) which was Leigh’s homemade cumquat marmalade topped with thick greek yoghurt on toast – equally delish but considerably less calories! Do yourselves a favour and try it folks….

The value of a friendship of over 25 years was evident in these couple of days where we all just slotted together working seamlessly in the kitchen and chatting – sometimes all 8 of us simultaneously!! True skill! It was soooo good just to take a break from routine, no chores to do, slob around or walk, dress up or stay in your pjs, read your book in the daytime, have an afternoon nap….you get the gist. The simple things but good for the soul.

So from the ‘do whatever you like whenever you like’ set up at Foxground I raced home to prepare for the imminent arrival of the kids and grandies for Fathers Day Weekend. We are equidistant from both Sydney and Canberra so about 2.5 hours driving for both families which is about the maximum an 18 month old can tolerate! After being cooped up in the car they were happy to run around exploring all the wide open spaces and hugging Bailey and generally reacquainting themselves with The Meadow. We had booked breakfast at a nearby winery to celebrate Fathers Day and also Lozzys birthday which fell on the same day this year. Indoors is a no no with the bubs so this was a perfect location where they could run amok outdoors and we only popped them in the highchairs when our meal came which meant we were all happy! We attempted a family photo but it is nearly impossible to get us all facing the same way….this was as close as we got !!

We packed so much into the next 24 hours, the boys played golf, the babies had a play on a make shift water slide, we had a lovely visit from my god daughter and her 2 year old Indi, we enjoyed a bonfire at dusk before the cousins shared a bubblebath and snuggled into bed exhausted, followed by the people’s favourite – pizza night! Sam prepped everything beautifully, slicing things into separate bowls – salami, olives, pear, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, chicken, mushies, roasted capsicum, fetta, buffalo mozzarella and gorgonzola – a mix made in heaven! Full but happy we tumbled into bed – another day done well in The Meadow!

Spring is definitely here, the wisteria is in full throttle, the fruit trees are blossoming and the birds are nesting. You can’t drive down the road without seeing baby calves or goats and we have a few new babies too. The MOTH has always wanted some Plymouth Rock chickens and when he was buying some firewood recently old Reg mentioned he had 30 eggs in the incubator, lots of which were Plymouths so he bought two and we collected them last weekend. Sadly only 3 hatched successfully so we couldn’t leave the other one behind and therefore are now the proud owners of 3 new chicks (PLEASE don’t be roosters) who are happily ensconsed in their separate accommodation in the chook shed away from Atticus and even the hens just in case they get attacked. They will stay here until they are at least a few weeks older and ready to take their chances with the others.

So as we come into the season that most represents hope let’s pray that we can start to get back to some sort of new normal and enjoy the world around us again. We were supposed to be in Italy this week for the start of our holiday to celebrate my 60th but instead we shall maybe have a week in rural NSW, still beautiful just different, and there is certainly a lot to appreciate in our own backyard here in Australia, especially once the borders open up again. The dollars usually spent overseas are being ploughed into the local economy and that my friends is most definitely good!

Nature is amazing, beautiful, awe inspiring, unpredictable, scary and awful in equal measure. We have had a hell of a few weeks here with an East Coast low bringing a massive rain event causing widespread flooding and damage leaving our local area looking more like the Canadian Lakes than little old Berry. People along the river had to be evacuated as the levels rose and people lost cattle, sheds and machinery to the roaring swollen river. A huge shed from the Shoalhaven Zoo was seen floating down the river at great pace and narrowly missing the pylons of the Nowra bridge as it hurtled downstream. Some panoramic shots from Cambewarra Lookout show the widespread inundation and we were SO happy when it all came to an end. A years worth of rain in the past 6 weeks is more than enough thank you very much. It has been good timing however for the farmers coming into Spring and Summer and hopefully with overflowing dams they can finally say goodbye to the drought.

Of course Mother Nature wasn’t content to leave things like that and decided to top it all off with three days of horrendous westerly winds that could almost blow your head off if you went out of the wrong door by mistake. Branches fell on cars and trees and land slides blocked roads. There were more sirens and more rescues and the only place to be was indoors with the fire blazing as the temperatures plummeted and the great outdoors became a decidedly unpleasant option.

So today I ventured to the beach with the Choccy Drop as the wind had calmed and the sun was out and the world was washed clean and shiny. The wild seas had carved huge cliffs into the sand and washed up loads of driftwood and shells. People had had great fun making teepees out of the logs and the beach looked a little like an outdoor gallery as we enjoyed our first outing in ages. Miss Bailey did at least 4 happy dances and didn’t seem to care that the water was freezing as she frolicked in the shallows with not a care in the world!

We managed to sneak away for a weekend in between weather systems and we headed to Canberra to visit the kids in their new place and see their local area. We were like kids at Xmas as we packed the car up….a roadtrip whooopee! They had only been gone 2 weeks but it felt like ages since we’d heard the incessant chatter of our little granddaughter and it was so lovely to see her all full of beans and enjoying her new life in our nation’s capital. Her Dad takes her out every day rain, hail or shine and she is Queen of the playground as she waddles determindly up the equipment, all sass and nappy, to stop and reverse onto the slides and zoom down with absolutely no regard for anyone that happens to be below her!!! Occasionally she will spy a puddle out of the corner of her eye and over she goes for a good old splash (her cute white sneakers are a thing of the past) and then when she tires of that she will occasionally get down on her tummy and drink from it!!! Our little pocket rocket is definitely “at one” with the outdoors that’s for sure! She started daycare today and I am sure her Dad will love finally having more than 2 minutes to himself and can now apply for some casual teaching as well. Loz loves her new job, working in a hospital environment isn’t for everyone but just like her Mum she LOVES it and her day flies by in a whirl of busy-ness before returning home to her two loves.

Our journey to Canberra took us through the Morton National Park which had been badly affected by the bushfires earlier this year. Even though I had seen the footage in the news I was still surprised to see the extent of the devastation, still to this day as far as the eye could see in all directions was a lunar landscape, dead as a dodo and very sobering. Shoots were on some of the trees but from a distance it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off…

As Canberra has no covid cases we were able to enjoy as close to a normal weekend as we have in months. We visited the fabulous Fyshwick Markets and enjoyed the cosmopolitan breakfast options on offer before buying some seafood for dinner and then heading out on a little tour of the city. There are so many amazing parks and each suburb has it’s own shops, schools and daycare so it is all very convenient for people, nothing seems to be more than 15 minutes away from anywhere and there is no stress getting from A to B.

So as plans for travelling overseas and even interstate are non existent whilst the borders remain shut, people seem to be turning to home and to a list of “projects to be done”. All those old platitudes of being ‘too busy’ or ‘having no money as we’re saving for a holiday’ are also non existent so finally things are being built, decorated, renovated and landscaped. So now instead of our trip to Italy we are getting a new driveway!! Not quite as exciting as my epic birthday trip but excited I am nonetheless! The boys started ripping all the old broken bitumen out and widening it today ahead of edging it tomorrow and it already looks a whole lot neater. Our neighbours are constructing a pergola (dreams of a nice spritz on their back deck are not too far away now…) and my friends in the Valley are excitedly digging a gigantic hole to house a new rainwater tank. The projected plans for the landscaping around it would put many city gardens to shame and what is fundamentally a functional thing will now also become a place of beauty. The plant nurseries are overstocked with flowers and shrubs as people flock to make their own backyard somewhere special that they want to spend time in and to entertain their friends and families. A bit like the 1950s on steroids really. It’s taken a global pandemic to make us appreciate our own backyard again…!!

These diggers are amazing, if we had to dig this all out by hand it would take weeks and our backs wouldn’t be too happy either but in the space of 2 days it will all be dug and edged ready for the new bitumen! Brilliant stuff!

As parents around the globe have had to take up the mantle of their children’s class work they have come to realise just how wonderful teachers are. Teaching the little darlings is NOT EASY. Add into the equation the kids are at home (with all the distractions that brings) together with Mum and Dad not really knowing what they are doing and kids are getting away with all sorts. They are genuinely missing school because school is so much more than just lessons and the social interaction part of it is huge so we are seeing a huge leap in childhood depression and suicide which is heart breaking so for the physical and emotional health of the kids and the sanity of all parents lets hope we can get everyone back to school asap. In the meantime this made me laugh….

And they’re gone…. After 4.5 months of wondering what their new life was going to look like and with all their worldy belongings still in Vietnam they start their next chapter in Canberra this week. Lauren got a government contract with ACT health and within a week they found an apartment, bought a car and some work appropriate clothes and are now tucked up in their new home ready for the next adventure. Berry will be a stay at home Dad and will hopefully get some casual teaching once Myla gets a daycare spot. She has an interview on Wednesday so I hope she’s on her best behaviour!!! The very best part of it all is that they will only be a 2.5 hour drive away which is much easier than visiting them in either Vietnam or Tassie and we will also all still be able to meet up in The Meadow. So we say a fond farewell to our little Myla Moo who we will miss A LOT. I will also miss having my lovely daughter around who always makes life sunnier for everyone and the MOTH will miss his weekly golfing buddy too…

Luckily we had already organised a weekend with the whole family the week before they left as we had imagined they would be off to Tassie when the borders were predicted to open on July 24. So with a chaotic crew of 7 adults, 2 toddlers and a labrador we celebrated this next stage and the fact that our entire family has been able to be together for much of this Covid phase, so many other families haven’t been as lucky and I am very grateful to have had all my family safe and well and together. The lack of overseas holidays and restaurant meals means nothing in comparison. Family is everything.

We enjoyed a final pizza night together, the boys played golf, we had a rather fiery game of monopoly and some lovely grub and the babies were very cute alternately hugging and trying to feed each other and occasionally pushing or snatching a toy from each other, they were really getting used to it all by the time Coops went home so I hope they remember each other and start where they left off next time they meet! Also after talking about it for months we finally got around to having a nutella, banana and hazelnut dessert pizza – thanks Loz and Berry for making it for us – delish!!

In the middle of what has been a very mild winter Mother Nature had a bit of a laugh and an East Coast Low swept through the South Coast leaving many areas flooded. What else can 2020 throw at us I wonder? We got off fairly lightly here with a few large puddles in the usual low lying places, taking a few days to dissipate and still remaining squelchy underfoot a week later! The upside is the weeds are coming out easily and we don’t have to worry about watering for a while. Result.

Luckily we had good weather when my Swiss nephew and his fiance popped in for an overnight visit. He is an avid lover of slacklining and made the most of our trees to whip up a line and encourage our expats to have a go. I was amazed to see they could do it albeit for only half a dozen steps at a time. It takes a lot of core strength and balance to master it and they all had a lot of fun taking turns to the appreciative audience of the dairy cows in the back paddock!!

It was the first time they have met Myla and it was cuddles all around for our littlest family member. Thanks for coming down guys, it was lovely to see you both again.

Our little Cooper started day care a few weeks ago and seems to love it, especially the gorgeous rabbits they have there and all the different toys and activities. He is such a curious little fella I am sure he is relishing the new environment and Mum gets to do some work in peace! Here he is looking uber cute and ready for action!!

One Friday a few weeks ago my ever inventive daughter told me to be available for an activity in the garden from 3.30 until 5pm. I dutifully presented myself at the appointed hour and with eyes shut was led outside to the strains of French jazz music. When I opened my eyes this is what I saw….

Some comfy chairs, a bottle of red, our watercolours and painting smocks were all ready and waiting for us to attempt a pre sunset capture of the garden and surrounding escarpment. She really is the most thoughtful and fun person to have around and we had a grand old time getting lost in the moment until it was too dark and cold to enjoy any longer. I am determined to get the paints out weekly now I am no longer on Grandma duty…

So here I am once again, home alone with my trusty Choccy Drop and with all the time in the world to do “stuff” I am relieved to have the time to get on top of my neglected veggie patch, actually read the paper with a cup of tea in one sitting and have my laundry reduced to a few loads a week instead of a day but I really miss the calls of Papa and Ra-ra (somehow this is who I have become????) and her little hand in mine as she shows me something of utmost importance, the way her face lights up as she hears the birds in the morning or spies my handbag with its VERY enticing contents on the bed. Seeing the nibbled potatoes in the veg basket, the half eaten chalk and crayons in the cubby house and the little piles of pebbles that she loved to leave around the driveway brings tears to my eyes but life goes on and we will always remember this very special time we spent together during the weirdest of times in the world. As things are going backwards here at the moment it is a time to reflect and accept the new restrictions being placed on us as the alternatives are not good and I for one want to be here to enjoy a few more special times with my family and friends. Mask up and stay home if possible people and let’s crush this bloody virus on the head. ‘Bunnings Karen’ and her ilk can go and stick their heads where the sun don’t shine….

Just as things were all heading back towards normality with restrictions easing further and very few new cases of Covid in our State we have a resurgence of cases in Melbourne which is so disappointing for everyone, particularly them, as it seems even worse shutting back down after reopening so recently. The effort taken to get your business back up and runnning and getting all the staff back etc only to have it all whisked away from you must be heart breaking. Not as heart breaking as losing loved ones though so it just has to be done.

It is easy for us to become complacent as Covid hasn’t impacted us as much as other countries, although try saying that to a local hospitality business or retail shop. I guess it’s a bit like cancer, it is something to be respected and feared but not dreaded until it affects you personally. Somehow this spike in Melbourne has made me feel more anxious and disappointed than the original outbreak as we were feeling quite chuffed that our initial isolation tactics seemed to work and life could once again include dining out, going to the gym and the pub and booking weekends away within our State at least. This sharp reminder from Melbourne as well as the current estimation of overseas travel not to begin until July 2021 has made me realise that this is definitely not over and things can go backwards very quickly. I am grateful that all three of my children are currently within a 2 hour drive of me, a very different story from 2019 when 2/3 of them lived overseas. We just have to be patient and careful and hopefully we will be able to resume life as we know it in another 6 months or so. Fingers crossed…

In the meantime life continues here in The Meadow, I still love getting up in the morning as the sun rises over the paddocks and the cows amble into sight eating a line of grass from east to west and then back again, so silent and calm, just the sound of grass tearing as they chew their way through life. The chickens are all happy and laying their hearts out. We get a huge double yolker at least once a week, the creases at the end of the egg showing what an effort it was to lay it – poor little darling! The eggs are so yellow anything I make with them looks as if it’s been dipped in saffron and the 5 eggs a day are a good excuse to whip up a cake or a fluffy omelette.The trees are mostly bare, just the jacarandas are holding onto their lacey leaves as they don’t lose them until their huge purple flowers spike in October. I hope that this year we get some and they are not blown away in the dastardly westerlies, the trees have really grown this year but have a definite 30 degree lean to the East despite my attempts to stake them. The landscape is always a dead giveaway as to the prevalent winds of the area that’s for sure!

So after 6 months of teaching online, 3 of which were from here in The Meadow, the axe has finally fallen for our favourite expats. My son in law got out on one of the last few planes leaving Vietnam and kept his job, teaching online as all students in Vietnam have been home since Xmas, on the proviso he would be back on the ground within a month of students returning to face to face teaching at his International School. Sadly no planes are flying into Vietnam for non Vietnamese citizens thus rendering him unemployed as of June 18th. This means all of their belongings which are still in their apartment have to be sorted and packed up by friends and will take 3 months to get here at least. As Loz packed for a 2 week trip here back in March for the about to be cancelled wedding she doesn’t have many winter clothes for herself or Myla but at least they now have clarity and can start planning the next stage of their lives (and go shopping for some winter woollies too!) Myla seems to have an early love of shopping as seen here in the fabulous surf shop in Gerringong – Natural Necessity, well worth a visit if you are in the area.

They decided to make the most of their current suituation and go on a little road trip down the South Coast. As it is winter and wasn’t school holidys for another week or so they had no problems booking themselves a family cabin at various picturesque beachside parks. Wallabies at their door, firepits and the ocean a few metres further away and miles of sand for Myla Moo to explore. She does love eating the stuff which makes for some very gritty nappies but mostly she just loves to run around and seems to have inherited her parents love of the great outdoors.

What happens next for them is in the hands of the Gods as they have 6 months to fill in before a job offer in Hobart in the New Year sends them back to Tassie. We will make the most of the next few weeks before a job for one or both of them no doubt takes them away from The Meadow. They will leave a big hole when they leave.

It was lovely to have Sam, Liv and Cooper to stay while the others were away. One baby at a time is alot more manageable and it is always so nice to have some one on one time with them. Cooper is such a gorgeous little chap, always trying to see how things work – looking underneath lamps and behind machines to try and understand the how and why! He is a real thinker and Pa loved hanging out with him for a while.

We had a lovely visit to the local Shoalhaven Zoo, a family run affair located on The beautiful Shoalhaven River and perfect for a few hours wandering around with the grandkids. Sometimes the small places are so much more hands on and up close and I absolutely LOVED being within a metre of the most magnificent lion, looking straight into his surprisingly blue (and crossed) eyes! I’m pretty sure you can’t get that close at Taronga Zoo?? The other surprise was the maned wolf who looked like a fox on stilts, as if someone put the wrong head on it’s body! Meerkats and monkeys are always good value and the range of beautifully coloured tropical parrots and the fabulous macaws were a bonus. The café is perfectly situated above the banks of the river and we will go back to enjoy it again soon.

As the days are short and the log fire is raging by 4.30pm we seem to be eating dinner a bit earlier and by 7.30pm the MOTH is glued to the TV sport – rugby league, rugby union, soccer, AFL, golf, even the F1 God help me and I am therefore banished by mere boredom to the other end of the house, the one WITHOUT the wood burner but luckily with a gas log fire which does feel cosy after a while and in the absence of anything interesting to watch on TV I have turned to Foxtel catchups of series I missed earlier. I am sorry/not sorry to say I have become completely obsessed with Escape to the chateau DIY, a series about Brits buying chateaux both large and small and in various states of disrepair in France and turning them into jewels, mostly for B&Bs or wedding venues. It ticks all the boxes for me 1. Its in France 2. Its about renovating amazing old buildings into beautifully current homes 3. It’s about following dreams and perservering even when everything looks dismal and 4. They visit local markets and brocantes and eat outside under sprawling oak or plane trees which is SO appealing and I absolutely LOVE it! Since I know I cannot travel anywhere for ages it is making me feel almost as if I am in the French countryside and I can hear the beautiful birdsong of my youth and the country lanes are filled with meadow flowers and big fat bumblebees. Heaven. I may have googled chateaux for sale in France. I most definitely have googled country houses for sale in France….whoops!! Anyway dreams are free until you act on them and a bit of armchair travelling never did anyone any harm eh?

What a busy few weeks we have had!! I have literally had no free time to sit down and write as life with a toddler is non stop. When she does sleep (which she does VERY well) it is a toss up between 1. getting things on the extensive ‘to do list’ done or 2. making the most of it and sitting down with a cuppa while you can! She is walking everywhere now and has turned into a proper human. I’m still taken by surprise when I’m getting dressed or drying my hair and she is suddenly there getting into mischief in my cupboards or pulling out clothes from my wardrobe! She is so much happier now she can do things, that pre walking frustration has disappeared and she is now 100% into LIFE!! It is exhausting for both her and us and we often wish that we could also have a nice nap around 2pm when she does! This new found love of everything means that sometimes things go missing, sometimes for quite a long time, we eventually found the TV remote in the potato and onion basket in the kitchen after losing it for several hours!!

We have had some nice little trips into Berry as the weather has been mild and sunny and she loves taking hold of Bailey’s lead and “walking” her. They wait patiently outside the shops while we take turns to pop inside and our cute duo always attract lots of positive attention from passers by – who doesn’t love babies and dogs???

The restrictions eased just in time for Tom to celebrate his 30th birthday. We managed to rent a house up the road for 6 of his closest mates and Sam and Liv also joined us for the weekend making us a party of 13. It was a small group but a perfect one and after a game of golf on a rather chilly day we all gathered together at our place to celebrate. The Birthday Boy had requested a dinner of Beef Wellington which for some reason or another has become his favourite dish (I blame his time in London ) and gave this little home cook a decent challenge. Somehow rather miraculously I managed to pull it off but due to being rather frazzled I have no pictures of the end result. Luckily Liv took a few photos of us all just before we tucked in and that my friends is the only evidence we have of the evening! Suffice to say it was lovely with everyone recounting stories about Tom and his various antics over the years. It was quite emotional and he really did have the best weekend despite or perhaps because of the small intimate group. He was also very chuffed with his gifts as you can see here from his reaction!

My lovely daughter decided to plan a little surprise for us girls to escape the house for a couple of hours and last Friday she whisked me off to Silos Estate for a wine and cheese tasting which was delightful. Due to Covid we had a one hour booking and numbers were kept low so no one felt either rushed or overly anxious because of crowding. We continued outside with a glass of sparkling shiraz and enjoyed the gorgeous view at Golden Hour.

John and Lyn, long time friends and Tom’s godparents joined us for a couple of nights for the June long weekend which was lovely as I haven’t seen them for nearly 2 years since we all enjoyed a week together in The Barossa. An afternoon of golf prior to a slow cooked lamb dinner and a log fire with far too many glasses of red wine followed as we caught up on all the important stuff in life before tumbling into bed. Miss Myla decided to sleep for 13 hours giving us a nice lie in to recover and later that afternoon we stoked up the woodfired oven, lit the brazier and popped the music on for our fave night of the week …PIZZA NIGHT!! It is a lovely relaxed evening where everyone creates their own masterpiece and then we share everything. Myla comes too, all snuggled up in her snowsuit and has a baby pizza so as not to feel left out! Warm as toast in our coats and with a full tummy we enjoy the stars and each other’s company. Life is good.

It was nice that Tom saw them as it turned out to be his last weekend in The Meadow. He found a lovely little studio in the heart of Paddington and decided now was the right time to return to the city as the job market is starting to open up again as restrictions ease and people return to work. He has always lived in share houses before so he had to buy quite a few things to set himself up for sole living but he enjoyed collecting things and as a result his flat is looking really cosy and homely already. I was sad when he first told me as it has really been a wonderful 6 months having him here and he leaves a rather large hole but I knew the day had to come sooner or later and I am happy for him. Thank goodness we still have the others and Myla here as it would be too much of a shock and WAY too quiet with no one but us here. Bailey is really quite unsure as to what has happened as she lost her special mate and her favourite lounge in one hit! She is not generally allowed on the furniture but has always been permitted to sleep on the leather lounge which just happened to belong to Tom so for her it was a double whammy when he left…!!

So on top of a world already cracking under the onslaught of a pandemic we have seen mass protests throughout the world as a result of a police killing of a black man which appalled all who saw it. Racial issues have come to the fore and people have had enough. It seems crazy that on one hand we are all in this together Covid wise but the void between white and coloured people is so vast. It sucked timing wise though as hundreds of thousands of people have protested with no social distancing and there is bound to be repercussions because of that. I just wish we all had equal rights and opportunities once and for all and that all life was deemed equally precious.

So as Covid 19 continues to decimate the rest of the world with the biggest number of new cases in one day hitting over the weekend, we in geographically isolated Australia are enjoying some of our old freedoms again with the pubs and restaurants slowly opening and today I returned to Pilates for the 1st time in 4 months as the gyms and studios have also re-opened albeit with new rules and LOTS of sanitizer. One of our local industries has been entrepreneurial and have added sanitiser to their usual manufacture of glucose and ethanol and a local winery is bottling it for them! The only way now is forward, the old ways not to return in quite the same fashion and it is only the flexible and far sighted people in business that will succeed. As the pandemic emerged from China we noticed how all of humanity was equally susceptible and interconnected. The virus shone a spotlight on weaknesses within our society and has highlighted the interdependencies that exist between the multiple elements of our lives. We saw how our constant search for the cheapest prices in commodities has created supply chains that are unreliable in a crisis and pinpointed that we need once again to be happy to pay a fair price for something made in your own country and employing your fellow countrymen.

Despite the discomfort, anxiety and uncertainty that the virus brought, the resulting slowdown showed us the value once again of family and friends, a simpler life bringing us more family time and less dashing about and stressful commutes, the value of a home cooked meal and the time to make it from scratch (hello to the sourdough and home made pasta revolution) and a new found appreciation for the sort of life we have here in The Meadow. Growing our own veggies, raising happy chickens and being surrounded by countryside and the nearby ocean certainly winning out over the city apartments near shops, restaurants and theatres that were forced to close. The other important thing that we all realised is that kindness is key. Neighbours checked on each other and older people were acknowledged as vulnerable and important. The realisation we are all interconnected and that our social system is a fragile web so easily broken if just a few threads come loose. It took a virus for us to notice the interconnections between social justice, the economy and the environment. If we want a different , better future we need to identify and challenge those old assumptions and work out how we can take action to make the post Covid world a better place.

On a lighter note our litle Cooper got his first haircut and was a star client, sitting quietly and quite mesmerised by the whole procedure. The resulting ‘do’ makes him look so grown up and the handsomest little boy I’m sure you’ll agree 🙂

For the past 3 months we have woken each day to a new world where we have been forced to stay home and be aware of the people around us when we do venture out to get groceries or go for a walk. It felt strange at first and we were wary of everything and everyone, frantically washing our hands and sanitising the car as soon as we got back in it from the shops. We have been lucky to have a house of 5 adults and a baby and have thus avoided any feelings of boredom or loneliness that others may have experienced. Instead a feeling of contentment settled on us, devoid of having to plan outings, catch ups, dinners and travel we literally woke up every day and just lived! If the weather was nice we walked, in the country lanes or on the beach or coastal paths in neighbouring towns. If it was bad we snuggled at home, reading, playing board games, watching the odd movie or playing with Myla and Bailey. Our biggest activity was deciding what to cook for dinner and that was a joy in itself. We have all taken it in turns to cook and each person has brought their own taste and style to the table so we have enjoyed experimenting a lot and come up with some great new recipes. As no one has been sick we have been able to enjoy the best of lockdown and now it is all coming to an end is it weird that I’m kind of sad?

As Australia has been able for the most part to keep the dreaded virus at bay we are now enjoying an early easing of restrictions and normal life is resuming. You would think that would make me dance a jig but strangely I am almost sad at the prospect. If we could flick a switch and have things as they were maybe it would be good? Maybe not. We have all come out of this having learnt new things about ourselves and about what is important to us and most people would say that is not eating in high end restaurants and wearing fancy clothes (although some people would definitely have missed this) but seeing our family and friends, the simple pleasure of meeting someone for a coffee, in a china cup, in a café in the sunshine or for me planning a trip overseas to experience the way of life in a different country. The whole family had a lot of international travel planned for this year, a trip to Italy for my birthday to see the wonderful Andrea Bocelli in concert in the piazza of the charming town of Marostica is now off the cards. A longed for visit to Morocco with my intrepid daughter – a dream since she left school and finally planned for this year is now also off. Sam and Liv had booked to go to Vietnam but now even Loz and Berry cannot get back to their house and job there due to the borders being shut. All now cancelled.

The weird thing is that even when I did finally manage to get to the hairdresser and visit a shopping centre it felt vaguely hollow. The anticipation was huge but the reality not so good. That carefree feeling was gone. I’m sure it will come back eventually, gradually. The to do list will once again be long as we begin to plan this and that and I am just praying we hold on to that “live in the moment” feeling a bit longer.

One of the loveliest bits about easing restrictions is that we have been able to see the family again and as it turned out just in time for Mothers Day! As 2 people plus their children were allowed to visit Sam and Liv came down for the weekend and we all had a grand reunion with some yummy meals and wine and lots of cuddles with the two baby cousins. We snuck in a bush walk, the boys played golf and we had a picnic in a park in Berry so it all felt almost normal! The weather was good so pizza night meant music and drinks under the stars while the MOTH fired up the oven – he has it down pat now and the pizzas were restaurant quality!!

After sharing a lovely weekend with all three of my kids and my 2 grandkids I didn’t think I could be any happier but a little note on my pillow saying “meet me in the cabana at 4.45pm” from my daughter was the icing on the cake. She had set up some sunset drinks in the cabana and as we snuggled up under a cosy throw, listening to Edith Piaf on the record player and sipping wine as the sun slipped over the horizon and the candles glowed in the inky blackness it was a perfect end to a lovely weekend.

Autumn has now well and truly arrived with most of our trees nearly bare, gorgeous multi coloured leaves patterning the ground and scrunching underfoot. The birds are having a field day, there must be something delicious in the area as large flocks of Corellas swoop in every afternoon like a rushing river of wings as they manoeuvre like mini spitfires in between our house and the trees, blithely following their leader to the day’s final destination. The fields are a sea of white as they land for lunch and our trees are full of them, like Xmas decorations balanced on the branches. The noise is amazing, you can hear them coming from a few kilometres away and they twist and turn like a shoal of fish in a seamless act of synchronisation.

So life carries on in The Meadow, oblivious to the outside factors in the world, the cows quiet except for the tearing of the grass as they eat their way across the paddocks and the trees shed their leaves as a new season begins in the next cycle of life. With or without us nature continues on….

Just as we were getting used to the new normal of staying home, shopping quickly and effectively once a week and standing 1.5 metres away from other people it’s all about to change… The Government has announced the easing of restrictions with two people from outside your house allowed to visit. This is a welcome change for those of us separated from our families and allows a small glimmer of hope for things to get back on track. Apparently we are losing 4 billion dollars a week here in Australia due to the downturn in business and if things continue along these lines we will have more than a virus to contend with, we will have a recession as well. So to alleviate this we are slowly opening up again. Not opening travel into other states or overseas, nor restaurants, cafes or pubs but shops and schools and offices. They will open to a model with new safety precautions and reduced staff and students to keep numbers small and we will watch the outcome carefully before extending them. The new COVID Safe app has been downloaded by more than 5 million Aussies which will help to trace an outbreak quickly and inform anyone who has been in contact with the infected person faster to stop the spread. Of course there are the usual suspects who are worried about privacy and suspicious of the governments ulterior motives but I think we have to trust that this has been rolled out to help us all and we divulge no more information to sign up to this app (in fact probably less) than we do when placing an online shopping order to Amazon or Woollies!!! So I think we can be proud of how our country has handled the virus crisis so far and with only 97 deaths we are doing a whole lot better than many other western countries. Our relative isolation is finally a bonus and a spread out population has helped us too.

In the meantime everyone’s experience has been different. To say we are all in the same boat is a mis-truth. We are in the same storm but not in the same boat. To paraphrase an unknown author: For some this has been a time of quiet contemplation and the respite from the rat race that they have craved. For others this is a desperate financial crisis or a time of endless loneliness. We are all on different boats during this storm and we will all make our own journey, hopefully we won’t be shipwrecked along the way…

Apparently even the animals in the zoo are depressed. They are already in a life of lock up but the liveliness of visitors and the engagement they get with them keeps them from total loneliness. Maybe we finally have an inkling of what their life is like interred in cages, pens and enclosures…

Meanwhile Nature is the winner with animals all over the world seen exploring cities now empty of people and traffic. The sky is the cleanest we have seen it in decades, wildflowers are invading parks and gardens as mowing and gardening of public spaces has been temporarily abandoned. The stars seem to shine more brightly now and we have more time for star gazing. Our local South Coast beaches put on a performance last week showing off bioluminescent plankton en masse in the sheltered beaches of Jervis Bay. It is an amazing sight if you are ever lucky enough to witness it. These photos from Jordan Roberts Photography show it beautifully.

On April 20th we celebrated not one but two special birthdays here in The Meadow. Miss Myla turned one and her proud Grandpa a few years more!! Loz made a lovely cake, decorated with flowers from the garden and with a few balloons tied to a tree we celebrated another year around the sun and congratulated the parents on getting through their first year with a child! She loved her prezzies and her first taste of sugar and we had a lovely simple day with all of Pa’s favourite food and raised a toast to life, family and cake! The MOTH was surprised with a brand new toy to play with….a smoker!! Ribs anyone??

Five days later we celebrated Anzac Day. It is one of the most beloved days on the Australian calendar and has been slowly growing in popularity every year as more children are educated about our past and learn that we all now understand that what happened all those years ago allows us to live the life we (usually) lead today. This year was obviously very different. No marches. No dawn services. No pubs open to celebrate all that is Australian or buy a Digger a beer. No getting together for the returned service folk to reminisce about old times together or to honour mates no longer here. As always however, ingenuity came along in the form of a wonderful idea to hold an Anzac Driveway Tribute. People would get up at dawn and stand at the end of their driveways holding a candle to honour the Anzacs and if you knew how to play it and you had an instrument you could perform The Last Post. A simple idea that was taken up by thousands of people, the sounds of the last post floating through the air of suburb after suburb in a rather haunting way, maybe not the usual standard of professionalism that we usually hear but all the more endearing for the odd wrong note. People did their best and that is all we can ever ask.

Our local memorial in Berry was also visited over the course of the day with people bringing simple posies and homemade heartfelt messages which seemed all the more poignant somehow.

We spent the morning at Gerroa, our favourite local beach and the cutest little village beautifully situated at the mouth of The Crooked River where it meets the ocean. This means there is some flat water as well as the surf and makes it a perfect place for the littlies. A walk around the headland provides a perfect view of surfers and the amazing sweep of Seven Mile Beach. As close to perfect as you can get in these parts I reckon….

We have been making the most of the local area as we get our daily exercise. We are lucky enough to be able to walk from our house into the countryside but variety is the spice of life and we have loads of local bushwalks that mix things up a bit so we pop Myla into the carrier and explore a different one once a week. I think so many people around Australia have rediscovered the beauty in their local area during this lockdown and we are fortunate to have some wonderful walks along the river within a 10 minute drive to enjoy.

Life on the farm carries on and keeps us busy. The last of the tomatoes, capsicums and zucchini are being enjoyed before we bed down the veggie patch for winter crops. We had a very early windy patch last week when a cold front roared through Eastern Australia, snapping my beautiful 5 foot high camellia plants off clean at the base and tossing them through the air as if to say up yours. During this tempest I noticed a cow had been lying down in the same spot for a day without moving so I called the farmer to let him know. She had what is commonly known as Three Day sickness, usually contracted through mozzies or midges apparently. Goodness knows how such a minute tiny thing can make a huge cow so sick but nature is a bit like that sometimes. They put a big bucket of water there for her as cows drink a huge amount of water every day but it got blown away in the wind. I felt so sorry for her having to just lie there in the awful weather but she basically ate a circle of grass all around her until on the 4th day they managed to move her and she was seen standing later in the day with the rest of the herd. A happy ending thank goodness. Our new chickens are now laying and giving us about 4 eggs a day and Atticus has come into his own, crowing over his girls and running at us if he deems we are too close. He is quite an unusual and magnificent looking animal and will still tolerate a cuddle from the MOTH in between his shows of manliness in the chookyard.

Well it’s time for me to sign off and go and prepare the guest room for Sam, Liv and Coops who are on their way here now we are finally allowed to see them again, woohoo! It is going to be a madhouse with two one year olds, 7 adults (and a labrador who has just been put on a diet God help us all) but a madhouse of the best possible kind and what more can a Mum ask for on Mothers Day but to be surrounded by all three of her kids and two delicious little grandchildren. I’m a very lucky woman!