After a challenging couple of months (and a 2nd bout of the infamous C Diff) things are on the improve. The MOTH is walking really well after his knee replacement and even managed to kneel down the other day to fix something in the pool – a task I thought would be impossible – so he is feeling pretty good and is finally starting to resume normal life. He has lost 10kgs (and discovered a whole new wardrobe) but finally has his appetite back so who knows how long that new wardrobe will actually fit him! I now feel that I can happily get on the plane to the UK on Tuesday knowing he is in good hands here with his team of doctor, pharmacy and friends all there for him if things go off the rails again. He would have to be really unlucky to get a 3rd bout of C Diff but he knows what he is dealing with now at least and can recognise the early signs and get straight on to it.

I took the Choccy Drop along the beach today for a last walk before I leave. It is her very favourite place to be (apart from in front of the fire on a cold night) and we had a lovely time watching the big seas and checking out all the driftwood, sea plants and shells that they have brought onto the beach, it was especially nice walking in the sunshine after a couple of weeks of rain and wind. 21 degrees here today which isn’t bad for the start of winter and probably warmer than it is going to be in the UK next week in their summer! It’s always lovely to go back home though, no matter what the weather, but this time we are incorporating a side trip to Jersey in the Channel Islands into our itinerary and it would be fantastic if we had good weather there – eating outdoors is an essential part of a summer holiday if at all possible!

Driving to the beach this morning I felt like I was in a painting. The cows were shrouded in a light mist that hung over the fields, some baby calves lying at their Mums feet in the morning sunshine. The Shoalhaven River was like a huge silk ribbon with not a breath of wind to send ripples across it – just a perfect reflection of the trees and a few boats bobbing on it’s surface. The trees are still showing the last of the Autumn leaves, copper, orange and red, and they line either side of the road as I drive through them – an arched tunnel of vibrant colour that made me feel especially happy to be alive! Autumn is a beautiful season around here.

We had a lovely few nights away last week with 3 other couples in beautiful Bowral. This is a town in the Southern Highlands about an hour inland from here and it is as close to being in England as you can get especially at this time of year. The cold climate means dressing up in all our warm clothes and having a wood fire going 24/7 whilst eating yummy food and enjoying some big reds. We had a great few days with lots of laughs and quizzes and card games. We had a lunch in one of my favourite little places – Harrys on The Green where you feel as if you are in someone’s home. The walls are lined with books and plants and the room has chandeliers and an open fire, a perfect spot to enjoy a lovely little menu and a wine or two before braving the outdoors (it poured that day!) It is attached to Dirty Janes with all its treasures and perfect for a snoop about and perhaps a purchase of that one thing you didn’t know you needed??

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at The Briars on our last day, it’s a bit of an institution and I remember coming down from Sydney in the old days for lunch here in winter and it’s still great!

Old friends are certainly a perfect tonic and was just what the doctor ordered for our patient. We did remark that the recycling bin was far less full than when we normally go away, not sure if that is a sign we are all getting older and more sensible or that the MOTH and his reduced drinking has perhaps influenced the rest of us?

I spent one of the mornings with an old friend from Sydney that I haven’t seen in about 25 years. It was a miracle that we ever reconnected, but a couple of years ago I was enjoying reading an article in Home Beautiful featuring a gorgeous home in Bowral and there she was – my friend Judy and husband Mike – looking exactly the same and sharing their new home with us all! Luckily I was connected with her son via Instagram and he gave me her phone number and so finally as we were in the same town at the same time we managed to catch up! It was seriously as if we had seen each other just last week – we picked straight up where we left off all those years ago and it was lovely.

Yesterday saw 16 of us venture up the mountain to enjoy a wonderful lunch at Mount Ashby Estate – a winery with a lovely restaurant in a beautiful setting. The day couldn’t have been more perfect with bright blue skies, sunshine and just a nice little crispness in the air to mark the first day of winter. We feel so lucky to have been recent inclusions in this group of fun people – met through golf – that are mostly all in a similar phase and stage of life. We have kids roughly the same age, properties roughly the same size and have nearly all come from Sydney in the past 10 years! This means we have a commonality and shared experiences which cannot be underestimated. A few of the group are particularly gifted with organisation which means there is a rare week that there isn’t something on – trivia or happy hour at the pub, a gathering to watch a footy game at someone’s house or an all in lunch or dinner like yesterday. It makes all the difference to life in the country where it’s easy to become isolated if you live out of town. It’s also good for me to know they are here keeping an eye on the MOTH while I’m away. So as you can see, after 2 months of being on the medical treadmill we have come out the other side and are enjoying life again – hallelujah!!

As I write I am surrounded by the detritus associated with recovering from a knee replacement. Crutches are propped within grasping distance, a table is wedged against the lounge with tv controls, water, mobile phone and tissues. The lounge has warm rugs and pillows of varying sizes for maximum comfort whilst watching TV, reading or snoozing. A large icepack is on constant rotation on the knee or in the freezer and the packets of various drugs are ready to portion out at the allotted time. The knee itself is doing great – very early days the MOTH was walking without help, off all painkillers and able to bend past 90 degrees and also press it flat to the floor. He was ahead in rehab and felt pleasantly smug at his quick recovery – something he had actively aimed for prior to the op by cycling and doing strength exercises for his legs. All in all we were very happy with his recovery. Until last week when things went downhill.

The culprit was not his knee but his colon! Whilst in the hospital getting his knee done he was put onto antibiotics which have triggered a rather aggressive case of C Diff (C. Difficile Colitis) which made him extremely unwell with pancolitis. Things deteriorated necessitating a trip to the Emergency Department which lasted 36 hours. The staff were amazing. The fact it was a holiday weekend made things somewhat tricky with a full waiting room and an overload of ambulances offloading people and therefore a very full ED. It was the most enlightening 36 hours I’ve had in recent history and I have a newfound appreciation for our medical staff and all that they have to put up with. They approached everything with calmness and kindness and, where possible, some humour. Our boy was severely dehydrated so the IV drip helped restore his body somewhat and once diagnosed he could finally start on the ONE antibiotic that is left to treat this condition. We couldn’t wait to get him home to his own bed once he could tolerate a tiny bit of food and all his obs had improved and boy oh boy did they need that hospital bed!

The human body is truly amazing – when it’s not happy it most certainly lets us know and also once conditions change for the better the body starts to respond pretty quickly too and we’re hoping that in 10 days he will be feeling a whole lot better. We are grateful for modern medicine and for the wonderful local doctors and nurses who work in such hard circumstances for very little compensation. It was an eye opener for both of us – seeing what they have to deal with and that somehow they can still show compassion for everyone – even those with self inflicted issues. It also made us acutely aware of the societal issues that people are experiencing and we are profoundly grateful that neither ourselves or our immediate family are going through these types of things that can so negatively impact the lives of both the individual and their partners and families.

We also felt rather aware of our mortality and how quickly things can go wrong. Despite us not feeling “old” we are supremely aware that time is not our friend and we really need to make the days and months count and to respect our body and all the amazing things it does by looking after it as much as possible. Good times with family and friends and experiencing things you’ve always dreamed of all contribute to “good health” and help us feel happy. Life is short – make it count!

Before things went to hell in a handbag, we had Easter! Sam and the boys came down and we had a nice couple of days with them despite the MOTH being couch bound a lot of the time. Sam mowed for us and the weather was beautiful so we could make full use of the pool and our neighbours trampoline and toy digger while they were away! Coops embraced painting ‘au plein air’ and made Papa a lovely birthday card. We visited a little pony “Sam” at the local farm, had a lovely walk on the beach collecting shells and Ollie had his first drive down the lane.

Easter Sunday coincided this year with the MOTH’s birthday so after the Easter Hunt in the garden we went to an afternoon shindig at one of our friend’s house with about 10 other people which made for a lovely celebratory day. Funnily enough 2 of the other people there had also had knee replacements at the same hospital in the same week so they were all hobbling around on crutches swapping stories! Their house is in the most beautiful location and we had a great afternoon with some delicious food and interesting conversations and it was a lovely reprieve from our recent incarceration at home!

The previous weekend we had celebrated his advanced knee recovery by venturing to Milton for the night to stay with our lovely friends at The Altar Bar. An hours’ drive was about the maximum he could tolerate but once we were there it was lovely to be able to chat and have a laugh with old friends all whilst enjoying the beautiful food, wine and music at the Bar and it was as good as any medicine! Even Bailey was invited and she had lots of fun with the other dogs although she was a little confused as to why she had to stay outside!! (She also found a bag of dogfood unattended in one of the sheds which she hoofed into and then paid the price) Thanks for the invite guys xx

We wanted to thank the ED for all their care over the weekend and so I popped in with two boxes of our local delicious Espresso Boy Doughnuts for them to share and they were SO chuffed. Obviously it’s their job but they go above and beyond and it was nice to have that acknowledged I think…they were quite shocked!

So a month of ups and downs and a timely reminder to make the most of every day as much as you can and plan fun things to do, to look forward to and STAY HEALTHY. So treat this as a public service announcement – if you go into hospital and start having these symptoms after taking antibiotics hopefully you will remember this little story, as despite being quite common we’d never even heard of it! Sadly you often leave hospital with something you didn’t enter it with! The upside is that as he lost 6kgs with the colitis he can now have whatever he fancies to eat as he recovers! Always a silver lining somewhere folks……….

It’s at times like this that I absolutely LOVE living here! Coming home to my beautiful veranda draped in my Pierre de Ronsard rose gets me every time. They are really starting to fill in now and are unashamedly exuberant with tightly furled buds that change into huge blousy blooms before wilting and scattering petals like confetti all around the garden! The boys of my household were not fans of me planting them here and winding their thorny stems around the posts so close to where we sit, but now they are starting to appreciate my original vision of a rose clad country cottage…

As part of a long term bookclub in Sydney it is one of the things that I ALWAYS make time for if I am available. The best group of gals that I have shared my life with now for nearly 30 years and it’s always wonderful to see them and catch up. We all take it in turns to host an evening but obviously since I’ve moved 2 hours away it has been impossible to host in my own home so some of the girls have generously offered their houses for me to “borrow” over the years. Some of the other girls have also moved further away so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and share a bookclub and combine it with a sleepover in the northern beaches. It was like a mini holiday as we arrived at Carolyns beautiful home in Avalon and we set up outside on a balmy evening to enjoy a meal, some wine and some laughs. The next morning we gathered at the old boathouse in Palm Beach for a delicious breakfast in the most magnificent setting – all in all it was a big success that may just become an annual event!

A few days later we headed to Tassie for our 3 monthly catch up with our girls and my heart nearly burst when they came running towards us at the airport and leapt into our arms for a big cuddle. It’s always so lovely to be back in Hobart and to spend some time with them. Loz whisked us out on the 2nd night for some grown up time in central Hobart. Our favourite ramen at Bar Wa Izakaya followed by drinks at Pablos cocktails, a great little underground bar with live jazz and a suitably interesting group of patrons and to top the evening off she had got her hands on some tickets to see The Whitlams at The Odeon. A fun night all round and typical of the wonderful diversity that Hobart and indeed Tassie in general offers.

The girls are growing up fast and have two very different personalities although they overlap on their love of the outdoors, playing Mummies and Daddies for hours with their dolls and are both always up for a treat of some sort! We enjoyed taking them to the Hobart Show for the day where they were allowed 2 rides, 2 alley games and 1 show bag each. A lot of thought went into their choices and although Indi was fascinated by the dodgem cars they both plumped for the much more sedate ride on the elephants. Glad they are still little enough to get so much enjoyment from something so simple! They rode a mechanical horse and sat on a police motor bike, ate icecream and won shiny glittery prizes as well as patting baby goats and watching piglets clad in sequin vests race! A good day was had by all and a special shout out to Papa who queued up for 45 minutes for their show bags in the rain (something he never would have done for our own kids back in the day!!)

We finally got to take Myla to school and see her classroom. She LOVES her uniform and the whole ritual of her school bag, library bag and sport bag on various days and was proud as punch to show us her classroom which was gorgeous, a huge converted weatherboard house full of character and nothing like the classrooms we had growing up. This day they were cooking dumplings and she recounted in great detail how to make them when she got home! Learning the very best way there is – very hands on – and they use ingredients from their own veggie patch to boot! They are lucky to live a mere 10 minutes walk from the school and it was one of our favourite parts of the day walking with the girls who picked flowers and skipped the whole way!

They also absolutely LOVE getting dressed up. Their costume basket is overflowing with outfits from mermaids to princess outfits to geisha/maori and Heidi dresses. They benefit from having older girl cousins that pass things on down and their current favourite was this beautiful ballet inspired dress that they both took turns in wearing and twirling around in! Gorgeous!

They have an outdoor mud kitchen that they play in a lot and when things get heated indoors (as it does with little kids) we would bundle them up and go for a walk/ride on their bike and scooter and collect various bits of nature to play with in the kitchen. Flowers, twigs, leaves, bark and petals all found their way back to the mud kitchen and they then spent hours cooking them into cupcakes, pizzas and pies and presenting them to us!

After a wonderful 10 days we headed home to The Meadow and a garden that was exploding with Spring blossoms. The jacarandas, hydrangeas and gardenias were all flowering and the first of my tomatoes were gracing the plants with plenty more to follow. Cucumber, green beans, eggplant and capsicum are all planted and the spinach and rhubarb are doubling in size every couple of weeks. I tried to be more sensible this summer with my plantings so that I don’t waste too much food and I resisted the temptation to plant the entire punnet of zucchini as they are like triffids and take over the entire patch. There are baby apples, plums and apricots on the trees too so I will be making some jam if the parrots decide to leave me any fruit this year! I was also ecstatic to see my very first dahlia blooming – she’s a real beauty I think you’ll agree!

The boys movie club and partners met in Huskisson for a few nights, staying in the local caravan park in a mixture of cabins, caravans and a safari tent. It is located right opposite a beautiful little beach and is just a ten minute walk into town and the famous Husky Pub and a few great little eateries. There was a fabulous coastal path you could walk all the way to Hyams beach if you felt like it and that crystal clear water was a magnet on a sunny warm day with nothing to do but read and chat and swim – a perfect getaway. On our last day we ventured out to Milton and The Altar Bar which our friends own and run. It is a beautiful and unique location situated in the grounds of an old church and amidst the old graveyard which sounds macabre but isn’t! They have delicious food and some awesome wines as well as cocktails on offer which we enjoyed whilst listening to some live music and I can thoroughly recommend popping in for an hour or two if you are in the area – they even offer a pickup and drop off service locally, what more could you ask for?

Time to go home to our little white house and our chocky dog but not before calling in to our neighbours to meet Harvey, their new labrador puppy who was 8 weeks old and absolutely delicious. His little round tummy and softest ears nearly had me wanting another one but I’m just going to ‘borrow’ him from time to time to fill my puppy needs as this stage goes so quickly and then they become a little bit naughty! Is there anything cuter than a labrador puppy though??

This year I purposely chose to go overseas a bit earlier as I have missed the start of Spring in the last few years and it is one of my very favourite times of the year. It lifts my spirits to see the wisteria in full bloom and all the flowers doing their thing while the birds are in overdrive – finding mates and making nests and flitting here, there and everywhere on their quest! They have been particularly fascinated with my outside mirror which is attached to a little window box and they have been perching on the box and making sweet talk to their reflections – everything from magpies to tiny little wrens have been duped into thinking there is a fine looking bird taking interest in them! The wrens have taken it up a notch by targeting the side mirrors of our cars and also the shiny handles of our French doors! We’ve been forced to park our cars in the garage all day by a creature the size of a 50 cent piece!!! I do however love hearing their whittering in the hedges and their swift flitting around the veranda as they carry on their busy little lives…

Unfortunately the August winds decided to come in September this year meaning no sooner had the wisteria bloomed the wind arrived to blow them all away. A few more sheltered racemes (the name for the long flowers) have survived to tell the tale but the rest have been blown like purple confetti all around the property coming to rest in purple puddles in the corners. Blink and you may have missed the entire spectacle!

I had a quick 2 week trip back to the UK to celebrate my Mum’s 88th birthday and it was wonderful. We all converged on my sister’s house in Wales and enjoyed the perfect mix of family home time and getting out and about and exploring some of the beautiful Welsh countryside. Poor Mum had no chance with both daughters united in our desire for exploration and lunches in lovely locations and she was corralled into the car on most days and did thousands more steps than she was both used to or comfortable with but the sun was shining and we had places to see so she did it! It’s amazing what a girl can do with the promise of a nice lunch in the sunshine! We had a lovely day trip to the wonderfully named Mumbles where the sunny blue skies and clear sparkly water were more reminiscent of Europe than the UK and I LOVE how despite the not always reliable weather there are so many outdoor and rooftop eateries and bars here.

With over 600 miles of coastline we were spoilt for choice about where to visit and where to eat overlooking the water. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Penarth marina before walking across the barrage to Cardiff Bay for a coffee and a trip back on the ferry. Cardiff Bay is a lovely redeveloped dockland area which now houses the Welsh parliament, the Wales millennium Centre (their National Arts Centre) and Mermaid Quay housing lots of restaurants, bars and cafés and it was good to see so many people out and about enjoying all it has to offer.

We had booked a little B&B in Tenby for the weekend of Mum’s birthday and we set off on another gloriously sunny day for this quaint seaside town famous for its long sandy beaches and pastel coloured Victorian houses perched on the cliffs above the most charming harbour. We were staying in The Old Town (which literally dated back to Norman times) and within the 13th century parapet walk complete with arrow slits which made us just a hop, skip and jump from everything. The tiny alleys bisected streets crammed with gorgeous old houses, small unique shops and cafés, sometimes only 3 or 4 tables big, plying tourists with local seafood and cream teas. The church bells pealed as buskers entertained the passersby as they ate their ice-creams and enjoyed the late summer sunshine. It was delightful.

The next day we decided to visit Caldey Island, a peaceful haven about a 20 minute boat ride from Tenby which houses an Abbey of Cistercian monks known as Trappists. They live happily on the island and make an income from making chocolate and perfume. They have been here in some form or another for a thousand years and the whole island really does feel serene. Another big walking day for Mum but after an afternoon rest she was ready to head out again for her birthday dinner down on the beach. We hadn’t realised there were 4 beaches however, so of course it was a much longer walk than anticipated!! A cab home was very welcome. Brekky overlooking the transparent water of Camarthen Bay and a delicious lunch in Saundersfoot had us feeling very holidayish as we made our way back home to an evening of boardgames, cheese and wine!

My sister cooked up a fabulous roast beef and yorkshire pud Sunday dinner which we had with my Niece and Great Niece. Four generations of verbose women in one room so you can just imagine the volume and shriek factor! It was so lovely to be able to catch up with them especially as Amelia is no longer a child – she was definitely part of our girl gang this year!

Our last day took us back to Cardiff Bay for a delicious lunch at Côte Brasserie followed by a trip to the movies. One of those fancy arty farty ones with vintage couches and cocktails to watch the movie “It ends with Us” which was a good rendition of a book I loved. A stroll around the wharf in the sunshine and then home for the LAST SUPPER which I always dread, but we were determined not to be sad with many promises of returning within the year and gratefulness for modern technology keeping us in touch in real time etc. A teary farewell at the train station and then the 36 hour door to door journey home began….!!

It was a rather strange arrival home as I landed BACK at 6am and Tom was leaving at 3pm to fly TO London! We passed like ships in the night but managed a phone call from the airport after he booked himself and 72kgs of his life onto the plane to start his new chapter. We had managed to organise a family night together before I left to farewell him and I had even successfully fulfilled his request for Beef Wellington for his last supper! We will really miss Tommy as he has spent a fair bit of time with us this year but we are very excited for the opportunity that he has in London and I will happily add on some extra time to my UK annual visit to show him some of my favourite spots in England and explore the bits of Europe that the MOTH isn’t keen on doing!

Somehow we never seem to be the kind of family that requests tacos or a roast dinner for a special occasion and I ended up doing the Wellington on the Thursday night and backing it up with 100 layer lasagna on the Friday night for Sam’s birthday with 8 of his friends staying over in The Meadow! I’d never heard of this NY ‘cult’ dish but gave it a good crack and I must say it was delicious, all creamy softness inside and crusty yumminess on the outside as you slice and pan fry each serving of lasagna and serve it on a nice sauce loaded with parmesan. A do ahead dish with a bit of pizazz that was well received.

I had no sooner unpacked and thrown the washing on when I had to go and represent the family at the local elections where our friend Peter Wilkins had thrown his hat into the ring with some other like-minded Independent candidates. We had the T shirts and made a strong showing on the day and as people were very keen for a change we found our job relatively easy with everything from Green Bins to Wind Turbines to Potholes and Politics being discussed. Peter was the sports commentator for the ABC for many years and has a natural gift for public speaking and combined with his passion for the area I think he will do very well as they WON by quite a margin. Now the hard work begins, although not before a celebratory drink at the pub!

It’s time now to get stuck into the garden, there are new veggies to be planted, everything needs to be fed and pruned and tied up and cut back and dead headed so that is where you will find me over the next few weeks as we whip things in to shape after the winter! My holiday nails are already a thing of the past and as the mulberries are in full throttle I have permanently stained fingers as I pick bowl after bowl of them for the freezer to make fruit galettes later in the season. Happy Days!

While half our friends were basking in brilliant sunshine in Europe we were freezing in uncharacteristically chilly conditions in Australia. Warnings of arctic blasts affecting our East Coast came rather too regularly for our liking and firewood was used and re-ordered much more than usual. The August winds came to add to the wind chill and discomfort and we became inside dwellers, just waiting for conditions to return to our usual crisp blue sky winter days. The wind managed to dry out the squelchy-ness at least and we finally don’t sink into the grass with every step we take although one serious downpour and we’d be back to square one. Trees have been pruned, roses, salvias and hydrangeas have been cut back and the early jonquils and snowdrops are already nodding their heads, a little splash of colour in the garden together with the camellias but it wont be long before the buds start appearing on the wisteria and the trees as we continue on the cycle of life. The Olympics have been keeping us entertained while we hibernate indoors and despite the time difference we have been able to keep abreast of most things almost in live time! An early wake up time is rewarded with the finals in many instances…

We did have a lovely break mid July when we drove north to The Sunshine Coast and beautiful Noosa to spend a week with our Tassie crew, who were also escaping the cold. We enjoyed the journey, stopping overnight in Forster and then Sovereign Island where we caught up with my sister in law and her partner and had a lovely evening catching up on the past year since we last saw them. It was a perfect location for us to pick the girls up the next day from Brisbane airport where two very excited little girls (and one big girl) were happy to see us and eager to see their holiday house and enjoy a break from their school routine as much as us. Our rental was perfectly situated a flat 10 minute walk into Hastings street and the beach and as we had the car with us it was easy to get out and about to the river and further afield to Eumundi Markets and Sunshine Beach to explore. Both girls were VERY enamoured with our little heated spa pool at the holiday house, which served to both delight them and tire them out meaning they dropped into bed and slept like logs every night!

We hired a boat and took them fishing where Indi snagged a lovely flathead before we released it back to the river. They weren’t too sure what to make of its bloodied mouth and it flapping around on the deck but have since talked about little else other than them catching a fish! A trip to the markets with both girls firmly clasping their wallets containing their saved coins to spend on something of their choosing was BIG! Crystals were high on the shopping list, handbags and jewellery followed and the piece de resistance was queuing to have their faces painted – a happier mermaid and fairy you have NEVER seen! It was quite the economics lesson for the girls with them having to ask how much things were, see if they had enough coins and then either negotiate a price or sadly have to realise they couldn’t afford their longed for treasures. Reality sucks but they both left happy after churros dipped in chocolate sauce!

Their cousins live nearby at Peregian Beach so in an unlikely but well timed reunion the Tassie side of the family came together a long way from home. The big girls bought over some toys and lots of patience and the little girls loved every minute of their time together. Nanny and Poppy also met up with us at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club for a lovely lunch in the sun. The girls were so good, dining out in restaurants every night (albeit early and with lots of colouring in and promises of icecreams afterwards to ensure compliance!!) and Loz and I even managed to sneak in a couple of cocktails on Hastings street one night when the MOTH was glued to the State of Origin at home on the TV happily “babysitting”…

A Xmas prezzy from our lovely daughter prompted us to book a lunch at the gorgeous Rickys on the Noosa River and have a couple of hours of grown-up time and it was fantastic. The location is second to none, looking out over the sparkly water with the odd boat puttering past and water birds diving for fish which made for a very relaxing lunch. The food was excellent and the wine delicious so we were happy campers and it reiterates that Noosa can be anything from a simple camping trip and a hired fishing boat to eating at a top notch eatery and everything in-between.

A walk through the national park and the pandanus trees that are synonymous with Noosa was a hit for the girls as they kept a look out for koalas and whales. We were rewarded with a whale spout quite close to shore and a slight breach which made for gasps of excitement all around! Sadly, the koalas have really become a rare sighting around Noosa nowadays, gone are the days you’d be returning home up the hill and spot a little lump or two in a tree – whether or not they are just hiding themselves better off the beaten track or have moved away it’s hard to know. Hopefully they are still out there somewhere.

After a very early start to the airport to farewell the girls we drove back to The Meadow and after a recovery day we were straight into a lovely weekend with the little boys! Despite the chilly weather they both played outside most of the time – as fed up as we were of being inside so much no doubt. Some vigorous scootering at the park warmed them up and they discovered the pump track which made for lots of fun, Ollie is nearly always the smallest person on these things but never hesitates to push off at the rate of knots! A visit to the cows, sandpit fun with Papa and swinging in the garden with Dad and they were asleep on their feet!

Fast forward a few days and I’m writing this while Bailey lies on the floor in front of me crying and trembling after her operation this morning to remove a cyst from her cheek. It had recently become quite large and although it wasn’t overly bothering her she kept knocking it on things making it bleed and there was a small question mark over whether it was nothing to worry about or could be something more sinister, so the decision was made to remove it. She is 9.5 now and apart from being de-sexed at 4 months she has never had an anaesthetic so it was all a bit scary for our girl I think. She is such a calm dog and took it all in her stride but when I collected her from the vet she waddled out looking very unimpressed with her eyes all droopy and her back legs hardly working from the drugs. Thank goodness she wasn’t any heavier as I had to heave her into the car and then she refused point blank to get out the other end and I spent an hour with her resting on my lap in the back of the car until she felt a bit less weird! The next 24 hours were reminiscent of having a newborn as she didn’t sleep for more than 2 hours at a time and was constantly crying and whining and trembling. Poor little darling really didn’t understand what the hell was happening to her of course. Lots of cuddles helped but the night was LONG. Thankfully 48 hours later she is back to her old self and the wound is healing well. Now we wait for the pathology results…….

On the same day we received the sad news that one of our oldest and dearest friends was gravely ill in hospital and unlikely to make it through. The MOTH arrived at the hospital first thing in the morning to discover he’d missed him by just 10 minutes and we were both in shock. While he waited to say his goodbyes so many memories came flooding back of their shared times together as they had lived in Paris, Rome and Sydney as young men sharing houses together and I had met him a year before I met the MOTH making him one of my oldest friends in Oz. He had no children of his own but was Godfather to our Sam and took a huge interest in all our children’s lives growing up. He was a photographer and documented all of our important life experiences. He was our wedding photographer, took some gorgeous pregnancy shots and then featured at all the kids birthdays. For every first day of a new school he would be on our doorstep at 7am to capture the big moment – each child has pictures of their first day at junior and high school and the group family shots that went with these days have become the time markers of our child rearing years. George remained very Italian to his last day – loving family, friends, food and wine. The most generous and kind hearted guy with a big personality and it’s hard to believe he has gone although the many many stories of him will live on. A good fella who we all loved…arrivederci Georgie xoxo

Wet, wet, wet pretty much sums up our Autumn so far. So very tedious as we really needed a good 2 months to dry out after the LAST big wet! Also very annoying as a majority of the rain has fallen on the coast where we’re drowning and not inland where they need it – a typical Australian story. In the couple of weeks that we didn’t have any rain it was beautiful, the leaves turning all shades of yellow, orange and crimson and leaving puddles of colour all around the garden. The sun shone, we managed some tidying and weeding in the garden and sat on the veranda basking in the warmth until the sun went behind the escarpment and we moved indoors to the delights of the first wood fires of the season…..the best of both worlds! It’s usually one of my favourite times of the year but it has been very patchy this year and we are just about to order our 2nd truck of firewood and it’s only the first week of Winter!

I went up to Sydney to look after the little boys for a weekend and as I am very unused to being indoors with them (they are VERY active) I decided to take them on a day out to Darling Harbour and The Maritime Museum. We packed up their bodyweight in snacks and started the adventure by catching the bus! They LOVE this and the novelty of it more than outweighed the slight inconvenience of having to wait around for one to arrive. The simple things are always the best and they would have been happy even if we’d just caught a bus into the city, had a walk around and come home but I thought they would love to go on the various boats and have a new experience so off we went! The submarine HMAS Onslow and the HMAS Vampire, the last of the country’s big gun ships were a big hit and they loved climbing down the ladders into the tiny corridors and seeing where the men slept, ate and worked and Cooper could hardly believe he could see Centrepoint tower through the periscope when he was actually under the water!! The day could have imploded when (after walking them about 6kms) my phone battery died and we had to guess where to catch the bus home and the weather took a turn for the worse while we waited but they were little troopers and I was very proud of them as standing still and walking instead of running is not their usual modus operandi! They were rewarded by a trip to the bakery for a giant cookie and we were all exhausted but happy after our Big Day Out!

The next weekend was for us big kids and four couples made their way to Orange for 3 nights. Our fearless team leaders Dave and Anne had booked a great little Airbnb just a walk away from the centre of town and planned a terrific itinerary. The weather however interfered with a planned day of golf and we had to revert to Plan B which suited me much more as it was a day of retail therapy and wine tasting! I was very pleased with my purchase of an akubra style hat (for which I’d been searching for ages and had never found the right fit) until I came home to find the others had bought a lovely jacket, a horse saddle, a new lounge and a Ute!! No holding this crew back that’s for sure! As we are all food and wine lovers we thoroughly enjoyed our few days in Orange which has an increasingly good food scene and we particularly loved our long lunch at The Union Bank with its delicious set menu, terrific wines and great company. Our dear friend Mike joined us which was wonderful as I haven’t seen him in about 10 years. He now lives close to Orange in a little town called Milthorpe and it was a lovely bonus to be able to catch up with him this weekend. I always call him Dad as he gave me away at my wedding 40 years ago this year and was our business partner for many years too. We picked straight back up where we’d left off and we hope we’ve managed to talk him into coming South for a visit in the not too distant future…

It was a great weekend right up until the last morning when we woke up to a discarded For Sale sign tossed in our front garden and our Ute tarp open and the tray empty. A set of the MOTH’s custom fitted golf clubs and a slab of beer were gone and most probably sold down at the pub for a couple of hundred bucks. Sadly our car insurance only covers lost property to a total of $1000 and our excess was $1100 so that made for a rather expensive weekend.

We have loved having Tom at The Meadow for a couple of months, it has meant he could look after Bailey and the chickens while we were away in Tassie and Orange etc and he was a good help around the property. Cammo finally had a fellow footy lover to hang out with and we benefitted from his above average cooking skills on a weekly basis. The chess set came out and Bailey was taken on some great bushwalks. He has now moved to Wagga Wagga for a while to help a friend out who is involved in pubs and he is enjoying living out in the country. Bailey still keeps an eye out for him every evening, her ears pricked up hopeful that his car will come down the driveway…. it’s so sweet but also a bit sad!

So we’ve come to the time of year where we’re inside with the curtains drawn and the fire on by 5pm. The Cockies are devouring what few nuts and seeds they can on the trees before they are completely bare. They even had a bit of a chew of our chook shed roof the other day just in case it tasted good! The chooks have stopped laying which is bad timing as Australia is having an influx of bird flu which has already shut down some big egg farms and is likely to affect many more before it’s under control so eggs are more precious than ever right now. We only have four girls left now, having lost three in recent months – one was killed by the dog from a neighbouring property while we were overseas (my beautiful Peaches who would have been trying to protect the others and paid the ultimate price) one was taken by a hawk while we were in Tassie (our poor blind Frieda never stood a chance) and a perfectly plump and fluffy one we found a couple of weeks ago just lying in a patch of sunshine and still warm and we have no idea why she may have died. Its the absolute worst part about having animals and one I will never get used to. I can only imagine how farmers must feel when they have to kill their livestock because of disease, flood or famine, it must absolutely crush them…

I hate to end on a negative note but country living isn’t all about bonfires and homemade jam even though the good definitely outweighs the bad – at least for us most of the time. what I DO love about it is seeing the little kids next door create a dirt track with jumps for their little motor bikes and seeing them hand in hand coming down the lane after being dropped by the school bus every afternoon, their school bags bigger than them or cycling home on the days they tie their three bikes together to the bus stop at the top of our lane. Little Charlie aged 5 is always out on the ride on mower with his Dad and already knows how to drive a tractor and a motorbike. This sort of childhood is almost impossible in the city where there is less space and parents invariably pick them up from school. Not better or worse – just different!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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