Megan Left Today

Just for a few days but still long enough to make me cry. She drove away in her little red car about 6.30am; after breakfast I lay down in the walk-in-robe where Drew has been sleeping and read my book, waiting to hear from her as she made her journey.

She is spending the next few days on the northern NSW coast with some Uni friends. She made a batch of home made spaghetti last night to take with her and also took some 1824 beef as well.

She drove all the way on her own, through sunshine and rain and arrived at her destination at 1.30pm. Her friends came across the channel in a boat to pick her up.

I can't wait to see her again :)

I went to the office for a few hours to see what cattle had arrived and to collect myself. Four more visitors arrived today.

It Rained and Rained

and we hid the baby under the food cover to keep the flies off her.

Boxing Day and Beyond

It's Day 3 of our 6 day family hosting holiday; everything has run smoothly; everyone has been fed and watered. Activities include numerous card games, croquet, swimming, tennis and volleyball. We've had extra visitors, some came for a meal, some just came to say hello. I haven't really seen Gibbo except at meal-times!

I've been to Andrew's each day to let his dogs out for a run. Yesterday I took Megan's rubiks cube with me and amused myself with that while the dogs unwound. After five minutes they all came and sat with me and proceeded to lick my shoes, arms and hands.

I've been reading too. I finally started Sahara, the book by Paula Constant, about her walking journey across the Sahara with camels; I'm continuing to read Permaculture in the Home Garden by Linda Woodrow and I'm flicking through the Lonely Planet's Tramping in New Zealand that Megan gave me.

Finding time to blog discreetly has been a challenge with 20 extra people in the house.

This is Jazz, one of Tilly's daughters from her first litter.

Camp Aronui

My Two Favourite People.......and Friends

Nobbys Beach Holiday

Here's a few photos from our holiday at Nobby's (I wrote about it a few weeks ago). There's a rather embarrassing one of the four of us at a crazy hair party that was held for one of the little guys who turned 8.

It was a great holiday, just a bit short. It was Thursday before I felt like we were on a break, then we only had a couple of days left. We ended staying one extra night and came home on the Sunday.

Gibbo and Nev set up a great race/challenge for all the kids to complete at the huge shopping centre. Megan took three of the younger kids with her; there ended up being four teams. It lasted for a couple of hours and all the kids really enjoyed it.

Graduation No 2

There she is - front and centre, second row. She's so special they even left the chair in front of her empty so that everyone could see her!! As soon as I walked into the theatre I picked her out. I sat on my own; Gibbo and Mum sat a row back on the other side. I sat there and marvelled at how far she has come and thought back over the last 21 years and had a little cry. I am so very proud of her.

We left home at lunchtime and got to where we were going in time to pick up some meat and get to our designated car park. We three girls had something to eat while Gibbo caught a cab to head office. Meg went and registered and picked up her headwear and sash; then we took heaps of photos with the city in the background.

I enjoyed the ceremony; immediately afterwards we had some official photos taken. Luckily Meg had gone straight there when she left the stage and we were number three in a very long line.

We left the city about 9pm; Meg had a headache, vomitted a couple of times in a makeshift bucket, then fell asleep. We got home around 11.30pm. Drew went to Mum's to babysit the dog:)

After the Rain

 

After the rain one afternoon last week, the setting sun threw magical shadows and colours into the lounge room, settling on my chook collection.

The light outside was quite eerie; the kids and I went out (with friends) and savoured it. We only got a few minutes in before the sun disappeared but it was one of those occasions that made you stop what you were doing to take time to enjoy the beauty in the simple things; to savour the moment.

Cinnamon Snowflakes

Meg likes to cook; she found these cinnamon snowflakes in a free magazine from the supermarket. They're very tasty; four or five go down very nicely with a hot cup of tea.

Christmas Day 2009

As usual, we had a wonderful Christmas Day. This year it was Mum who woke us up at 6.15am (she is 72 and really loves the whole gift giving deal). As is tradition, the five of us sat on our bed while the kids went through their Santa Sacks. They don't look in them; they just put their hand in and pull out whatever they can find. It's a happy way to start the day.

In other years, after the sack openings we have gone and done our outside jobs and done any last minute cooking that needs doing. This year we came straight out to the tree and exchanged gifts. There's plenty of laughs to be had here as well and as Gibbo says every year, we all did very well. Megan gave Gibbo a "small boys" protector for his cricket matches; he was a bit stunned when he opened it. I got some lovely gifts as I always do.

I put the chicken wings on to cook while I went and fed my chooks. Drew and I peeled the eggs for MaMa's very tasty Stuffed Eggs and I made the "stuffing" with a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a taste and a bit more of this and that. Next it was the caramel sauce for the sticky date puddings and then that was the end of the cooking.

Peter arrived about 10am, in true Brewer style - with a book under his arm. Only he (and I) would take a book to such an occasion. Mate arrived around 11am and we prepared lunch. Megan set the table using the decorations she had chosen a couple of weeks ago.

We had roast pork, roast chicken, ham, mini quiches, honey soy chicken wings, prawn salad, pasta salad, beetroot and onion, Mum's special salad dressing and stuffed eggs followed by individual sticky date puddings with caramel sauce sprinkled with pecan nuts, ice-cream and custard. Everyone ate too much.

I wore the new earrings and scarf that Drew gave me.

After lunch we sat down to watch a movie except Mate, who went for a walk around the garden. I went out to him and we sat talking at the table for a while; then I took him around to see the chooks and then we sat talking at the computer while I looked something up for him. He left not long after that, back home.

Peter left about 4 o'clock; Gibbo went for a run around the feedlot then did some work on his chook pen, Mum watched tv, the kids worked on their rubiks cubes as the three of us also watched Ice Age 3.

Later, Drew and I went out and marked out the framework for my permaculture garden. Mum came and helped. We marked out the perimeter plus the 6 chook station sites and the pond site in the middle too. I'm slowly progressing with it. There'll be lots of scraps for the chook station over the next six days.

Gibbo loaded songs onto his new ipod; the rest of us watched a Greenday concert/cleaned up/read/watched the other tv. I fell asleep on the couch, reading the Tramping in New Zealand book that Meg gave me. It's very motivating. Milford Sound, here I come.

Goodnight from here; it's 11.57pm so Christmas is almost gone for another year; Merry Christmas if you're just waking up to it.