Mum

Just got off the phone with my mum (here seen, anachronistically, in a 2009 Christmas photo) in Holland. She says hi to everybody, and hopes each and all are well. She was very interested to hear how Anjes, Tess and Yarrow were doing, so I brought her up to speed with the latest news and developments. Congratulations to Ton and Ellen on their 50th!

After the loss of my dad last year, mum´s had a rough time of it, feeling insecure and lost, but she is slowly finding her way back and getting more and more used to life by herself. She increasingly enjoys visiting friends and relatives; still crafts her statues and goes for cycle rides with her friend Lizette, and regularly has Mazzel, Marielle´s dog, ´to tea´. We´re all looking forward to her 75th birthday on 5 March next year! Niki and I will be in Portugal around that time, and will nip up to Holland to join in the celebrations.

Contrasts

At circus school, surrounded by circus gear, nimble kids and teens who balance, tumble, bend and generally fly through the air at impossible angles ... An interesting contrast offers itself. A motivational ALLPower life coaching weekend seminar (´Unleash your dreams´) is being built up at the same time - well, they have to rent space somewhere - where the power to determine your happiness, poverty, success and failure is ´taught´... it seems such a luxury - ´master your life in one weekend´... and such a superfluous commodity in the light of the happiness the kids exude as they go about their business... Unleash your dreams, Tess, Yarrow and Anjes: ´optimise your physical beauty´by being You; ´develop a dynamic spiritual life´, by talking to your friends and loved ones about what goes on inside you; ´make effective and good decisions´ by weighing up the pros and cons of your actions, by listening to your own ´elders´ and seeking out your own compass; ´consistently enjoy positive emotions´ by, well, just laughing a lot and practising Carpe Diem as much as you can! (There, I just saved you a lot of money you´d otherwise fork out for seminars, DVDs, books etc.)

Byron

At the end of the anniversary celebrations, Niki, Tess, Yarrow, Peter, Ann and myself, went off for a day out, to Byron Bay, the Byron Lighthouse, Tayagarah beach (Peter wanted to see a deserted beach, which it was, well, with the exception of a few nudist sun lovers ...) and the Teven golf course where Niki´s dad will go and play a bracing game of golf on Monday morning.

50th

This weekend is all about Ton and Ellen´s 50th wedding anniversary. Friday night there was a social gathering and dinner for local friends and relatives; tonight, Saturday, there is another dinner, in the old Clunes school building, for close friends and family. Ann and Peter will also be joining us there.

Saturday morning saw a spontaneous gathering at the Myth - where various people converged on our home as they were collecting, bringing, moving other people from A to B to C and back again.

Oceane and her partner Sarah came for breakfast. I hadn´t seen Oce and Sarah for quite a long time, and Niki hadn´t met them before, so it was lovely to see them! Anna, Mieke´s sister, who arrived yesterday after long delays on her flight from Melbourne, stayed in our cottage, The Dairy Bails and rejoined us after her breakfast with Ton and Ellen. Ellen and her friend Sybille also joined us and, later on, so did Ton. Mieke and John added themselves to the impromptu morning party, after they had picked up Ton and Ellen´s friend Mary from the airport.

As you can imagine, it was a merry gathering which will be continued later on at the anniversary dinner.

Tonitis

Imagine my surprise (was I really that surprised though?) when all of a sudden, after visiting Ton and Ellen´s place twice over the past few days, I noticed that ´certain people I know´ had been infected with a strange affliction. I have found out since that it´s called Tonitis. Symptoms of this rare condition are a sudden urge and unstoppable desire to dig rocks up from the ground and leave big holes in the lawn. It´s a specific and endemic condition that I´ve so far only observed in Eltham, NSW, Australia... Some people , like the tall bloke in the third picture, are quite puzzled by the whole thing.... More research is required. Any takers?

Baking

I am absolutely loving having my Mum and Dad around, helping around and teaching. Today whilst Hans and the girls were at their 2 hour circus routine, Mum and I did baking - a strawberry Victorian sponge - the first that I've really been able get to rise, some cookies and pumpkin soup! Meanwhile, my Dad was throwing salt in the pool, and cutting the grass! Fabulous! Thank you!

Holiday makers

Peter and Ann, Niki´s parents, have been here for a few days now. I think I can safely say that they are having a wonderful time, enjoying the space, the colours, the birds, the flowers, the sounds, nature, our company (and we theirs!), the people they have met, and the places they have been to so far.

Today we went to the Channon Market, a local /regional growers / producers /artisan market, and enjoyed a pleasant stroll in what proved to be quite hot weather; in the afternoon, we spent time pottering in the garden, planting a mandarin tree, a lime tree, 4 banana trees (courtesy of Ton and Ellen), salinating the pool and swimming in it. Peter fixed the swing on the Moreton Bay fig, much to Yarrow and Tess´delight. Ann went for a leisurely swim and sunbathe, while our friend Maxine dropped round (with her horse, Jack) and stood around chatting with her and Niki. Jack was more interested in Samson and Promise who were alertly curious nearby. Peter made this lovely photo, which we agree could win a competition, of Chicco on the side of the pool.

What Peter and Ann don´t know is that they have captured Chicco and The Three Sisters - our little rock tableau symbolizing Anjes, Tess and Yarrow...

The key to it all

Yesterday I gave Niki the keys to my house. Over lunch. Out of the blue. The sun was shining, after spring rain. And it seemed an appropriate time, a fitting moment. They had been sitting in my trouser pocket for a few days, waiting for the right point in time ... It´s because I want her to know I love her very much and would like her to feel she doesn´t need keys to enter into my home and my heart. They´re open...

Today we had photos made for the visa application... Isn´t it awful that you´re not allowed to wear glasses, or smile, raise your eyebrows, tell a joke, or look happy, or do anything else on these photos but look like a convict ...?

Alive...!

The latest news on the baby Flying Fox (see post below) is that it made it through the night and is now being cared for, in ´intensive care´, by one of the WIRES volunteers. Niki was right chuffed and wants to go and visit...

It was a crazy day today .... When I snagged the snippet to the left it was 11:11 AM on the 11th of the 11th. This day (well, for the Dutch anyway) is the start of the Carnival season ... and brother in-law Arthur is, between now and the end of Carnival, the one and only Baron Arthure Le Grand Savoureur des Poissons Oranges et des Bieres Aqueuses le Derniere du Moment of the city of Breda, where he lives with my sister, Marielle.

Other than that, today is also the day before Peter and Anne, my love´s parents, will be visiting us - tomorrow they will, literally, descend on us when they arrive from Europe, via Hongkong, Melbourne and Sydney, in Ballina. We´re looking forward to spending some time with them and showing them the area and the ´dirt´ that we call home...

Passed!

Anjes has passed for her driver´s license! Congratulations! Well-done!

Flying Fox

Yesterday, Niki and I noticed the dog sniffing something in the garden, and wandered over to find a Flying Fox or Fruitbat lying on its back in the late afternoon grass. It was obviously dead, and had been for a while. It started to rain, so we ignored it and decided to deal with it today. This morning, we were going to pick it up and bury it when we noticed something moving on it. Imagine our amazement when, on closer inspection, we realized that it was actually a baby Flying Fox, and it was alive - barely, but alive, trying to move away, or onto the mother´s body! The photos were taken yesterday but, in hindsight, we think that the baby´s body can actually be seen on the left photo, to the right of the mother, under the wing.

Now, in Australia there is an organisation called WIRES, a group of volunteer wildlife rescuers - we called them and in about an hour somebody came round to rescue the baby from its dead mother, whom we had put on a newspaper in the horse float. According to the WIRES man the baby was less than a week old; they can´t fly yet and during that time, we later read, the young Flying Foxes hold on to their mothers with their claws while holding one of her nipples in their mouth. (Ouch!) During the night, the mother flies out to hunt and feed and the young, for the first two or three weeks, are carried along.

Anyway, the baby got taken away, under some squealing protest; and the mother buried under the fig tree. We´ll find out later whether the baby survived...

Polishing

Yarrow, Tess, Niki and myself spent a pleasant Sunday morning (while rain bucketed down outside the back deck) cleaning and oiling the furniture Denise gave us last year, and putting together and oiling a new table and a bench we bought yesterday. The table (with benches) will be very useful when Niki´s parents arrive, and later, too, it will allow us to work and eat outside . It´s very satisfying to oil furniture - it gives you the feeling you´re doing something worthwhile, preserving something beautiful and durable. It´s like oiling leather, almost alive.

Frog

Hello. It´s me. Frog. Green Tree Frog. I just happen to be sitting here in this electricity box, waiting for, erm, oh I dunno. Nothing much. And then Niki found me here. My partner, who was here yesterday seems to have gone. Hans saw the both of us sitting here, and ran to fetch Niki who had never seen the likes of us before. Anyway. No idea how he got out. Or in. Or how I got in, in the first place, because this is a closed box. Hmm. Anyway. Well. OK. Wanna close the door?

Melbourne cup

On 2 November we drove to the Eltham pub for the afternoon to watch the Melbourne Cup, the annual horse race, and join in the sweepstakes. Ellen en Ton joined us there for a spot of lunch and a drink. It was quite exciting to experience the race like that, sharing the joy of the equine effort with others. Niki and Ellen agreed that next year they would definitely need to wear a hat... Oh, our horses, needless to say, did NOT win...

Floating by

Time just seems to float by ... it has been a few weeks since I´ve written on this blog. This doesn´t mean that nothing has happened. Indeed, we´ve been living life to the full, with each other and Tess and Yarrow. We´ve been enjoying sunny and rainy spring days, occasionally playing with the horse, growing zucchini, watching Red finish paths and patios, and repairing and setting up the Hill´s Hoist, we found in the sheds down the hill. We´re also filling in the visa application forms arranging for Niki´s temporary partner visa, cooking, reading, going for morning and evening swims, cob webbing, writing... and getting the room downstairs ready for Niki´s parents. The gardens are beautiful right now - colourful flowers springing up everywhere. The weather is rather wet for the time of year, but at least that makes everything lushly verdant. We´ll walk around the gardens tomorrow and take some photos of the flowers.