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A big birthday month

/ susiecameron / 1 Comment

It’s never hard coming back to The Meadow after a trip away. Sitting on the veranda watching the chooks meander around the property and listening to the birds squabble over territory grounds me in a way very few places can and we are soon back into the everyday routines. It has been a busy month with a couple of decade birthdays and a quick trip to Tassie to help out with the girls while Loz was away at a conference so the time has flown by.

We have had a habit over the years of buying the girls some winter boots but as we were away last year we never got around to it. We decided to buy them some Blundstones this year to make up for it. They were so excited to go into the city and be measured up. Apparently they have been asking for these for months as the cool kids at school have them and in Tassie you can literally wear them with anything including a skirt or shorts! They were equally fascinated with the polish that we bought to keep them looking nice – luckily one brown and one black pair kept things easy – and I keep meaning to ask if they have actually used any polish yet!!!! Funnily enough we saw Blunnies in all the shops when we were in Canada – they certainly have a fabulous reputation and are strong enough to withstand the playground antics of a couple of very active girls!

There was much excitement about the “silent disco” that was being held at their school one evening. Sequins and sparkly makeup were the order of the day and after the sausage sizzle in the playground we all moved to the gym where the kids were given headphones with 3 different channels of music that they could swap between to dance to. Despite being silent there was much laughing and chatting and they had a wonderful couple of hours with their friends. Walking home in the dark with a chocolate brownie was the icing on the cake! Oh how I love these simple days…..

On my return we booked a dinner at the newest venue in Berry – Sara Dining – to celebrate Sam getting engaged to the lovely Stacy while we were in Canada. We were excited to try this addition to the Berry culinary scene and had an enjoyable meal despite eating outside in the cold! They had braziers and blankets but I think lunch in the sunshine is a better option until the temps warm up! They cook a lot of the food over charcoal so it was nice to see them in action and I’m sure as they settle in the few wrinkles we experienced in their first week will be ironed out! I will certainly give it another go….

One of the joys of this time of year with all the blossom and fruit starting to appear on the trees is that the birds are everywhere and that includes the King Parrots. They are so cheeky and inquisitive and visit in pairs. The other day we had 8 birds here all flitting from our back deck to the garage roof and nearby trees before lining up in a row on our servery, heads cocked to one side trying to decide if we had anything worth hanging around for! The MOTH who is a lifelong birdlover has now invested in some parrot food and has enticed them to our back deck where they gather around the feeder making a dreadful mess which he immediately forgives them for (something us family members would never get away with) They look so beautiful in the garden with their bright colours drawing the eye – no blending in or attempt at any camouflage for these beauties!

We then enjoyed a fun weekend celebrating Sam’s 40th birthday in Sydney. How can I possibly have a 40 year old child?? Where have the years gone? It feels as if they go faster all the time! The birthday theme was Peaky Blinders and we all had fun getting into costume, madly borrowing things and buying op shop bargains to fulfill the brief. Our lovely long time friends John and Lyn joined us and Sam’s uni and school friends on a pub crawl of Balmain to celebrate. After living there for many years and Balmain being such a pub culture suburb with one on every corner, we were very surprised on the day that there was a distinct aversion to “pub crawls” by pub management which seems counterproductive to me! Every pub said the same – that they didn’t allow pub crawls which wouldn’t even have been apparent except for our outfits! Also we were all aged between 38 and 74 so not exactly the demographic for causing trouble – more one of spending good money I would have thought! In the end though we got away with it and it was lovely to see so many of the boys again, lots of them now Dads yet seemingly the same boys that we used to spend so much time with 20 years ago!

A lovely afternoon celebrating Phil in Milton was the next birthday outing. Held at The Altar Bar on their property it was a gorgeous afternoon with the most beautiful seafood and the best bubbles! It really is a marvellous location for a get together with great live music, fabulous food and gorgeous views all in the most unique setting. Lots of locals gathered, some of whom I haven’t seen in yonks and Bailey was given grace to join us as long as she was tied up. Those soulful eyes of hers soon attracted the softies of the group and she scored a few treats for being so good. We found out later that she had sidled off earlier to Phil and Karens feed shed where she overindulged and paid the price on the way home! The trials and tribulations of having a labrador!

We have come home to some maintenance issues around the property. Some of the original weatherboards on the west of the house were rotting from exposure to the weather and needed replacing. The builders were amazed when they removed them to find we had absolutely no insulation or sarking yet we had never had any leaks and everything was pretty warm and dry. They were bemused but it just goes to show that they knew how to build homes to last back in the day. We are now the proud owners of insulation in that wall which may help us stay cool or warm depending on the season! The pizza oven also got a new layer of paint render and we sealed a few hairline cracks that may have been leaking some heat as we have had issues getting our oven hot enough! My big project was to install some raised planter beds in the veggie patch. This meant I could control the soil a lot better, finally getting away from the onion weed and also not having to bend down constantly to weed and tend to the crops. I have loaded them up with seedlings – lots of heritage tomatoes, lettuce, beans, chillies, herbs and spinach – we should have homegrown veggies in another 6-8 weeks…I live in hope!

The other BIG birthday this month has been Mum turning 90! She is celebrating in two continents as she should for such a momentous occasion. The British side of the family gave her an amazing week around her actual birthday on September 2nd with 3 separate meals being held in her honour. My sister did a sterling job organising food, celebration cakes, gorgeous wines and a lovely lunch in a restaurant in Swansea with all the family members she could muster. Tom came up for the weekend from London and finally met his cousins and they had a grand old knees up with some emotional speeches and lots of laughs over a few days. She sure doesn’t look or act like a 90 year old and is about to hop on a plane to come to Australia to celebrate all over again with the Aussie contingent! Via Japan as it is one of the few places she hasn’t visited. My sister is coming too and I know they will have an awesome adventure checking out the uniqueness that Japan offers before continuing on to recover in The Meadow. I am so looking forward to seeing them and to our family get together in Tasmania where Party #2 is planned…watch this space folks 🙂

A galloping start to 2026

/ susiecameron / Leave a comment

After the craziness of Christmas it was nice to draw breath and relax into some easy summer days spent at the beach, the pool and catching up with friends. Lauren and family left for their planned holiday at Callala Bay for 5 nights and the house became eerily quiet. The dog slept. We read and pottered in the garden. The MOTH golfed. And suddenly it was time for their return. Little India had become ill on their last day of the holiday with a fever and vomiting and had basically slept the previous 36 hours. Now anyone that knows Indi knows that is NOT her normal but as with most 4 year olds we presumed she would improve quickly and be back to her old self imminently. She did seem to pick up a bit and even managed some food but the next day she became worse again and when we noticed blood in her poo it was time to get her to the hospital. Back to our favourite Emergency Room and as per usual we had wonderful care. They are so good with the kids and know all the tricks to try and get them to take medicine or make it easier for them to accept needles etc. Indi needed to go onto an IV drip and they cleverly prepped her with 4 “magic” spots with numbing cream for an hour or so before inserting what she called a “straw” into her vein. They needed 2 of those spots in the end so it was worth doubling up! Indi has a VERY strong stubborn streak and as she had vomited up the panadol meds 2 days earlier she refused to take any more as she was completely convinced it would happen again. Lots of cajoling ensued with promises of apple juice and custard but ultimately I managed to get her to take some fluids with a syringe on the proviso she self administered it! I find that most kids prefer to have a bit of control over it rather than being forced and she was quite chuffed with herself when everyone praised her. HOWEVER it was too little too late and we had to go with the big guns in the end with a 24 hour drip and an overnight stay with Mum in hospital. She took it all in her stride despite looking very small and lost in that big hospital bed. The next day she gradually improved until she was well enough for a visit from her sister and they had great fun playing with some gifts that were leftover from Santa. I think she thought hospital was a pretty cool place after all and the nurses loved having a happy patient. She was released literally 15 hours before we left to take them to the airport and the flight home to Hobart where she continued to improve over the next few days and is now100% back to normal. A bacterial gastroenteritis was the culprit (and is pretty much the ONLY thing that has ever made India quiet and sleepy!!)

While Indi and Mum were stuck in the hospital I followed up on my promise to Myla to take her into the Berry Tea Shop for a special morning tea. She dressed up in her new “lemons” dress and was excited to look around the shop which is full of “beautiful things” according to Myla. A chocolate milk came in a bottle oozing with real chocolate and the scones were big enough to share! When I catch up with the granddaughters it’s lovely to indulge our girly side and to enjoy a trip into town dressed for the occasion, this time with a side trip to the wonderful toyshop where she thought long and hard before falling in love with a 3D printed lizard which she wore casually draped over her shoulder! I love seeing the world through their eyes and was so happy to have our special time together.

No sooner had they all gone back to Tassie when Cooper arrived! It has become an annual tradition for us to have him for a week in his big summer school holidays and I love it! Having the kids one on one is SO different from having them together and at the ripe old age of almost 7 he is easy to have around. He does however love to be kept busy which meant full days for us all. Luckily he loves Lego, games, puzzles, scootering, walking Bailey, the movies, cooking and EATING so he wasn’t hard to entertain and we all fell into bed early every night pleasantly exhausted from our day’s adventures!

The 138th Berry show took place the last weekend in January and it’s famous for either happening in pouring rain or in boiling temperatures – this year we scored the heat! Luckily The Pavilion where we exhibited the produce and the art was air conditioned so everybody was taking a very detailed and considered look at every plant, tomato and painting on display!! My friend Anne won 1st for her perfect eggs and her rainbow cake! Nothing this year for my rainbow rooster painting but I think he made a few people smile….We watched the ever entertaining woodchop whilst sipping on Aperol spritzes and really enjoyed watching the cattle judging where another friend had 5 cows under consideration. Listening to the judge explaining how they award points was really interesting and seeing these (sometimes) huge animals up close and personal was fantastic. A little girl of about 5 or 6 all dressed up in her checked shirt, diamante jeans with huge belt buckle and her cowboy hat lead a huge bull out onto the arena and it made me realise what a wonderful bond the farmers have with their animals and how gentle the cattle are despite their heft!

My sister-in-law Sue-Ellen and her husband Michel who are visiting from Switzerland came and stayed for a few days which was lovely. We took them down to Greenwell Point to Jim Wilds Oysters for some freshly shucked creamy oysters and some delicious prawns all washed down with a couple of bottles of Chablis which made for a very pleasant afternoon (and a wee nap for our jetlagged guests when we got home). It was The Australia Day long weekend and we enjoyed the hospitality of our friends in Tapitallee with some delicious food and wine and a swim on a very hot 39 degree afternoon. The Swiss certainly knew they were in Australia! Sam and the boys came down too so we had a full house, enjoying a fondue with cheese and kirsch that Michel had brought all the way from home and a very Aussie Australia Day brekky BBQ at The Showground complete with gumboot tossing, quoits, horse shoe throwing and other quaint country pursuits for the kids! A wonderful few days and we will see them again in May in Switzerland which we look forward to

One little hiccup we had was a water leak which necessitated digging up our driveway and our lawn to find the culprit. We still have the old metal pipes running throughout the property so it’s just a matter of time before they all start to crack I guess. Our local plumber Mick fixed it all up but sadly not before we got a water bill roughly 600% larger than normal! I’ve filled in a form with the water board but goodness knows if and when I’ll hear back from them! One thing about owning a house from 1896 is that you are constantly maintaining and upgrading things sometimes at considerable cost and the frustrating thing is you can’t even see where the money has been spent, I’d love a new lounge and a rug but instead the budget has gone on underground pipes and replacing rotten weatherboards!

Amazingly we are already half way through February and I just know the time is going to race now. We have a few trips planned for the first half of this year and I am spending hours researching places on the computer and madly booking airfares, train tickets and accommodation but it will all be worth it once we’re on that plane and off to adventure once more and in the meantime, armchair travelling really is quite wonderful…I sometimes go down the rabbit hole for hours!!!

UK with the gals

/ susiecameron / Leave a comment

We all know it’s a long flight to London, even longer when you have a 2 hour train journey prior to even arriving at the airport, so it’s very annoying when you start taxiing (finally leaving five hours since you left home) and everything comes to a grinding halt. Apparently one of the brakes failed and we had to return to the gate but as we had already cleared customs we had to stay in the plane. They jacked up the plane and busied about, only to discover something else was wrong that they had to replace. They gave out water and cheese and biscuits (but unfortunately couldn’t serve any alcohol) and I felt for all the poor parents of little babies who had all their best laid plans of feeding times etc thrown out of the window! 3.5 hours later we took off – a great start to what was already a long journey! Once I got to London I had to whizz across town to Paddington to catch a train to Wales (another 2.5 hours) until I finally collapsed into the arms of my Mum and Sister waiting for me on the platform. Of course it was all worth it once I was with them but I always forget what a mammoth journey it is for me door to door until I actually do it again!

I had a few days to adjust before we headed off on our little side holiday to Jersey. I caught up with my lovely Niece, had some great food, walked every day with my sister and watched on rather horrified at an unexpected escalation of things in the Middle East. You feel a lot closer to everything in the northern hemisphere – our usual life “at the other end of the earth” seemingly elusive and very far away. Needless to say we adopted a very British attitude to the whole thing and decided the only way was to carry on as usual and enjoy our holiday together!

A quick 45 minute flight (on a rather scary small prop plane) took us from Bristol to Jersey in the Channel Islands – a small 9 x5 mile island located between Cornwall and France and sharing traits of both. Within an hour of landing we were settled into our beautiful Somerville Hotel and had made it onto the terrace for a late lunch of prawn sandwiches and French rosé in the sunshine – all overlooking the turquoise water of St Aubin harbour. Any thoughts of war and danger immediately disappeared as we soaked up the atmosphere and congratulated ourselves on making such a good decision to visit Jersey!

The hotel had an air of faded grandeur, from a gentler age and was positioned to capture the view mid way up a steep hill. Mum was a real trouper, stoically attacking the hill several times a day despite being nearly 89 and we thanked the powers that be every day for the little sandstone wall that we could perch on half way up until we got our breath back! The staff were so lovely – mostly from South Africa – and so smiley and friendly. Nothing was too hard and they somehow magically appeared just when you fancied a drink or needed some advice! Some guests just bunkered down with a book by the pool but we wanted to explore the island. This was made very easy by an amazing bus service. There were just 4 routes and they seemed to stop every 10 minutes or so to whisk you off to all the local sites. ‘Le petit train’ pootled along the pavement from St Aubin to the capital, St Hellier, with an accompanying audio telling us the history and folklore as we passed by. A plethora of restaurants, cafes and wine bars made eating out a dream and our days passed in a whirlwind of loveliness!

What had attracted me to Jersey was the fact one of Laurens very best friends from Hong Kong days came from Jersey and she had always talked so passionately about her upbringing there and she planted a seed with me to go there one day as it was so close to the UK. The Somerville Hotel was her suggestion and her delightful parents came and picked us up and drove us on a guided tour around the entire island. They were 4th generation Islanders and their stories were so interesting. Jersey was occupied during WW2 – the only part of Britain that was – so this is a big part of Jersey’s history and a fascinating visit to the war tunnels proved a great day out.

Nicky and Gerry showed us lots of the various structures used in the war and after our circumnavigation of the island we had a delicious seafood lunch under the watchful eye of Gorey Castle before returning to their beautiful home in La Rocque for a tour and some bubbles! They were very generous with their time and we very much appreciated their local input. I’m hoping they come out to Australia sometime so I can return the favour!

After visits to St Brelades Bay, La Corbiere with its lighthouse, shopping in St Hellier (Mum found her special emerald ring that she had been searching for) and walking Mum up hill and down dale our time in Jersey came to an end. Jersey definitely punches above it’s weight with beautiful sandy beaches, great food and warm weather all contributing to our wonderful time there. Happy chappies all round!

The second part of our time together was special in a different way. My Grandmother was killed in a car accident in 1940 when my Mum was just 4 and as you can imagine it caused a lot of sadness, chaos and upheaval for her (especially as it was in the war with all its additional unknowns) and she never remembers anyone really explaining it all to her. She was sent off to her Grandparents in Cornwall for a year or two and when she came back her Dad had met and married again so the subject was never really raised again. Over the years it niggled at Mum’s mind – wondering who she was and what had really happened that fateful night. Fast forward 84 years, my sister met a friend of a friend who was one of the investigators on the program ‘Who do you think you are’ – a program where genealogists investigate stories just like Mums. She agreed to privately look into Mum’s story and as a result at Christmas Sandy was able to present Mum with a beautifully curated history of her family tree and the story behind the accident all accompanied by the original various certificates authenticating the story. After 84 years she finally knew what had happened. As a result we decided to go on a trip down memory lane when I visited this year. A trip to London, where we followed the story from my Grandma’s Christening, to where Mum grew up and joined her Church Youth Group (who she is still in touch with today) to the pub where Dad had a drink of courage before marrying Mum and the church where they tied the knot and finally to the cemetery where Grandma’s ashes had been scattered all those years ago. SUCH an emotional day and a real sense of closure finally as we laid flowers accompanied by notes to our Mum/Grandma in the Garden of Remembrance. Needless to say there were tears and hugs all round, our Grandma is no longer forgotten and Mum finally has some answers and some peace in the wake of her loss. Best present ever Sandy xx

So our girls trip came to an end and so much fun had been had. From experiencing new horizons in Jersey to walking the local beach to playing games after dinner EVERYWHERE to catching up with family and FINDING family, we had the best couple of weeks together and I am so very grateful that I get to see them despite living so very far away…

Next year sees Mum celebrating her 90th in Australia! Cannot wait for the next adventure girls xxxx