Weekend

I had all of my children home on the weekend and a few extras to celebrate my middle son David's birthday on Saturday .It was nice to have them all here as it rarely happens now they are all grown up and leading their own lives.  At the moment they are all not too far away so I get to see them a little bit more than I used to.

 Sunday while they were all sleeping, we headed out to get yet another load of wood. It was such a nice morning to be out although a couple of hours more sleep would have been nice.

 I remembered to take my camera with me and had a chance to go for a wander and have a look around. I haven't been up the back of our friends farm before and there were some amazing views from the hills on either side of the gully we were cutting the wood in
.

 It was a contrast looking through the Australian landscape to see the English trees in the background with their Autumn colours.

The fog has started early this year although Sunday morning it was only around the hills. We have already had a couple of days this week where the fog is so thick it has been nearly impossible to find our drive.

 There were signs of the past on the top of the hill with part of an old post and rail fence still standing.

And an old telephone insulator that had been used for an electric fence. Signs of the make do attitude that farmers developed in the past when money was tight.
Sunday night I went and had dinner with my Sister in law as my brother was away fishing. She whipped up  a beautiful prawn curry and  a salad from Jamie Oliver's cookbook. Steph is an amazing cook and it was an absolutely delicious meal.

While I type this post Dave is out splitting the wood we brought home and finding all manner of insects and spiders under the bark. He isn't very impressed at all. There are so many Huntsmen Spiders living under the bark that I was wary when loading the wood on Sunday and if I had of known about the massive centipede that he just found I would probably have stopped picking it up and throwing it in the trailer.
At least we are getting a full woodshed because I think we are going to need all the wood we can get.

Days until or days of?

I was getting the washing off the line yesterday afternoon when I heard something that I rarely hear at my house. Black Cockatoos.  The number of Black Cockatoos you see is how many days until it rains or how many days it will rain, I can never remember which one it is but if someone does know, please tell me.  There were 7 of them flying and squawking and as they passed over one of them turned around and landed in a gum tree at the back of the house while the others kept flying. He kept calling out and I wondered what on earth was going on until four more Cockatoos appeared. The one in the tree flew to meet them and led them in the direction the other birds had gone. I was fascinated. I have no idea if the slow ones were the young of the flock or the old ones but it was nice to see they weren't being left behind. Of course while I was standing there watching all of this I missed the opportunity to take a photo. Why do these things happen when you don't have a camera in your hand?
Today I have to make a birthday cake for middle son who turns 23 today. I know all the boys will be here and probably a few of their mates as well so it will be a busy day.
Autumn has settled in, the leaves are falling and the nights are very cold. This morning my neighbour dropped the paper off and said the fog was so thick he nearly missed my drive. Looks like a long cold Winter here this year.

My long weekend

I hitched a ride with my niece on Thursday to Bermagui where my sister (her Mum) was camping. We were supposed to have the weekend there but the weather came in rough and we decided to pack up and go back to their place at Mogo. Before we left we went for a walk, the ocean was pretty quiet for a while but came up rough later in the day. It put a stop to my ride in the boat out to Montague Island.

The Blue Pools were awash with massive waves.

When we were little we camped at Bermagui every May school holidays for two weeks. There are many happy memories of this little seaside town which hasn't really changed all that much over the years.

Yesterday we went for a long walk on the beach because as usual, the day we were leaving the weather was absolutely beautiful although the sea was still very rough. 

I had a really good weekend with my Sister and her family though. We had lots of meals out, poked around some lovely little shops in Cobargo, Bermaguii and Batemans Bay and even managed to visit a couple of Op Shops along the way.

Dinner and dancing to an excellent band until the wee hours on Saturday night was fun and apparently I am going back mid May when the band plays again. 

Bye Bye Babies

Today I said goodbye to my furry grand babies after their almost four month stay with me.

Goodbye to Munchie, who found out that she could be the bossy one and gave Dave's cat such a hard time. I will miss your sweet face, but not the grey hair that has made it's way into every nook and cranny and will take years to find and clean away. I will miss you climbing on my knee for a cuddle and your random spaz attacks when you would run around the house like a mad thing for absolutely no reason at all.

Atticus, you sweet little man, I will miss you even more. The arm of my chair will seem so empty as it was your favourite place to sit with me. I will have a cold back when I nanna nap because you won't be there to keep it warm. I will miss the constant affectionate rubs against my leg and the headbutting to remind me to give you a scratch.
But your Mum needs you even more than I do. She needs her little family back together again so she will have someone to greet her when she comes home and someone to cuddle at night when the cold of Winter arrives.
It will be a lot quieter here but I am sure that my furry babies will be glad to have me and the house back and not have to share with other furry interlopers.

Memories

After a break of a couple of weeks, I decided I needed to get back into the cupboard cleaning again. I knew that I would be pretty well finished once the cupboard in the middle room was done. Little did I know what a huge job it would be because of all the memories it held on it's shelves.
Right up on top was a bag I had forgotten about with special baby clothes folded inside. Some were my children s and there in the bottom was my baby shawl and christening dress. There were favourite toys that the kids wouldn't let me dispose of, school projects, photo albums, books and so much more. It has been such a slow journey through the shelves full of so many wonderful memories.
And right on the bottom of the last shelf was my undoing. My father passed away 23 years ago on April 27th and a few years ago Mum gave me a book full of the Sympathy cards she received. I have never been able to open that book and read the words that people had to say but today I braced myself and went through all of them. So many wonderful words from so many people. Many of them have also passed away in the last 23 years but as I read their words I remembered each and every one of them. So many wrote of what he had meant to them in their cards, workmates and bowling friends, some considered him a brother, others told of times when he had helped them, it was so overwhelming to read what they had shared with him. There have been many tears this afternoon, some are happy, some are sad as I remember Dave (never Dad) the man who was my father. If I ever wondered just for a minute if he was really as wonderful, kind, caring and everything else I thought he was then reading the words in the cards confirmed that he was everything that I remembered and more.   One card sticks in my memory and made me smile. The man who wrote it was a man of very few words, a confirmed bachelor and not one to make friends.

Dear Mrs Towers, Please accept my sympathy, Dave was a gentle and decent man. Wade

On the 25th of  April  I will wish  Dave a Happy Birthday and on the 27th I will remember his passing and be glad that he was remembered as a gentle and decent man.

Afternoon drive.

 Thirty something years ago when I was working in the bank we got a new manager who had four gorgeous kids. The youngest of them, Andrew, was barely a year old and he used to toddle off from his mum and come knocking on the back door of the bank. We taught him to jump off the counter and we would catch him, much to his mother's dismay and we won't even comment on what his father thought...........
Even though  Andy left Corryong 15 years ago we still keep in touch, and he has grown up to be a lovely man. A while ago he bought himself a car and it wasn't just any old commodore or ford. Oh no, he had to go and buy himself the one car I have always aspired to own one day......a Mazda RX8, My family all wonder what the big deal is and I'm not sure why I am so enamoured with them either but I have been ever since the first RX came out many many years ago.

So today a small part of my dream came true when Andy came to visit and I got to drive this. Now I am more determined than ever to have one.

We all have our dreams and some have no rhyme or reason but without our dreams we would have no reason to get up in the morning..........would we?

What do you keep in the bread box?

As you probably know by now, I have been doing a fairly good imitation of the mad old cat lady in recent months -  babysitting my daughters cats, having two of my own and now having my son and his cat at home.

I have never been one to let the cats wander on the benches in the kitchen, they are quickly moved if they are caught on them at anytime.

But, how cute is this? Dave's cat Bobbem found himself a nest the other night in the wooden box on the bench that is supposed to be the bread box although there is rarely bread in it.

He wasn't overly impressed with having his photo taken when he was napping but soon settled back down after I had finished taking a couple of quick shots.