happy Christmas

          Happy Christmas 2013

It will soon be two years since I moved to Point Cook. It’s taking time to get used to the weather change although I have to admit I have enjoyed the summers because it’s not humid. I do miss the hills as it’s very flat where I live now .

Thankfully I am still in touch with very nice people who bought our place out at Fernbank Creek near Port Macquarie. I’m grateful for the many photos they have sent of them and the kids on their horses in the house and looking very happy to be living there as we were. Thankfully also I am still in touch with Winifred the lady that Don and I bought the place at Fernbank Creek off and have just received her Christmas card. It’s nice to be able to let her know that the place she loved and lived with her husband so long, is being now enjoyed by one of the nicest families I have met.

Earlier this year our father’s sister Aunty Ruth passed away. I have to thank our Aunty Betty for her care for her in the last years. Up to this point all of our family appear to have had a reasonable year health wise and am looking forward hopefully to the same in the next year.

Not a lot of events to record this year really. I did get taken to the Cirque d Soleil by Alison and Andrew for my birthday and that was something special. If you can get to it I wouldn’t miss it.

In March my sister Veronica and I went to the Port Fairy Folk Festival three or four days and we had the best time ever just about. There were so many singers and bands from here and overseas that we were able to soak in the atmosphere there was something special. Average age about 60 so we fitted in pretty well. We are going again next March and looking forward to it I urge anyone who is able to get to the Festival just to do it once in a life you won’t be disappointed. I got down to  see Melissa and Chris a couple of times this year and always have a wonderful time when I do.  I am fortunate in living close to Alison and Andrew and we all keep in touch - it may be a small family but ours is a very close family.

I am so much looking forward to having Christmas with Melissa and Alison and family. Christmas time is always very special for our family as for others. Christmases past were always made very special by Don’s being who he was and making things very special for all of us. We try to remember his sense of fun and of the importance of the family when we all came together and this is what Christmas means to the girls and I.

I hope you will have had a good year family wise, health wise and in every other way. I’d like to wish you a happy Christmas and happy New Year and the best wishes for the future.

some photos

It’s a really beautiful day to day. About 22° and a light breeze. It’s like a spring day and we are nearly at the beginning of summer. We’re going to be together this Christmas the girls and myself. And in some way I know Don will be there too. It’s hard to believe that there’s been six years no seven since I had Christmas with Don and the girls altogether. We had the best Christmas time; we took the best photos. It’s been a year since I’ve been back to where Don’s buried but even though it’s a cemetery it’s in a beautiful spot  - lovely and peaceful with lovely gum trees all around and wallabies lots of birds (Don would be pleased). Get there one day. Find

My sister and I at Altona

Mucking up at Altona

a good day

Campbells Cove

Campbells Cove

Me at home

 s Drinkies (she is a baaad influence - she's the eldest)

At Geelong - more drinkie (only one I was the driver)

being naughty at Geelong

My sister lost her glass of wine - I knew where it was
 but had fun at her expense and let her find it herself.

Right where she left it

the weekends hard especially on beautiful days like today.

My sister was down recently we took lots of photos... She does love those shops. I think the shopping gene missed me. I like to look for about an hour and finished. We went out to Altona on the pier which was really nice and had a glass of wine in a restaurant there looking over the street. And we went out to a  place called Campbell’s Cove which was really interesting -  there are all these little houses there like cabins all along the foreshore, different colours and designs -  in the middle of nowhere 0  I’ve put some photos of them.

It’s funny when I went to the end driving past this Campbells Cove there is a car park there and I just noticed that people were really friendly  - a lot of single older men sitting in their cars about ready to leave. I commented to my sister who wasn’t in the car at the time (she was taking photos). When we got home we did a bit of research on Campbells Cove and apparently round the corner there is a nudie bathing area. Might account for the mixture of people we saw  - was quite amused that we noticed a friendly they were.

Life goes on. I don’t seem to post much these days it’s sort of as if I have a brain fog since I moved to Melbourne. Hopefully the old brain will spark up again soon. I love living here but I do miss the hills. I do miss the birdsong and the lizards and insects and things that grow is to listen to crickets if required here.

But am close to one of my girls I wish to be close to both of them. I’m very grateful for what I do have  - and grateful for the life that I will have - and it sure beats being on the wrong side of the grass.

All my photos from my whole blog back to 2005 have disappeared...has anyone else had this happen? If so how do you get them back?

Steve Hughes on the Homeless

The Bee Gees - Morning Of My Life

Happy birthday Melissa...

Here is to my father...I am ten years older than he was when he was killed...but sometimes it feels he has just left the room. Its amazing how much he was to us all - he grew up in a time when it wasn't all about him... a good thing to remember.

My girls today are no doubt thinking about their dad and what he was to them - doesn't hurt to reflect and appreciate. Not everyone has a good man as a dad but those who do or did are blessed.

I haven't been posting in here a lot lately - which is something I wonder at as I enjoyed doing this. Since moving from my old home I don't think I have written one original thought . I guess it takes time to settle and all that and I am happy enough where I am - but I so much miss being able to see into the distance. 

Miss the sunrise over the frost

Don't see any of these birds here

I guess it takes time to settle and all that and I am happy enough where I am - but I so much miss being able to see into the distance. I love it that I am able to see our  youngest often during the week. She is a lovely little soul. I wish I was able to be live closer to our eldest - Australia is such a big country.

Its a funny street that I live in now. The paling fences are higher than me all around so that once in your yard you can only see the roof tops of the houses next door. When i first moved here I thought that this privacy was a great thing, but am not so sure now. I think it would be a good thing if just in one small section of the fence (about 3 ft) the palings could be slightly lower so that we might just call "hello" to each other from time to time. It is so odd to be in my yard  hanging out the washing or mowing, and to hear neighbours on the others side only inches away doing something, but because you can't see them you just don't call our "hello" as you would if you could see therm. I don't think long term it is a good thing - as they are all pretty nice people but I can go weeks without seeing any of them. Sometimes if I look up and down the street there is not one single person walking or out the front doing something. With all these houses and kids etc - you wonder is everyone inside watching tele or using the computer? or are they always out...? Its a weird feeling almost like in the Walking Dead - its too quiet and one could imagine a band of Zombies coming out of one of the houses or from around the corner.

Health hasn't been so good of late but am working on it... Just my thyroid and Cortisol levels went really low I guess after all the stress from the past 6 years or so and I seem to lack energy and I feel I need something to give me drive again - am not unhappy, but am not anything much - this too shall pass. I don't recommend anyone living alone for too long - in winter the nights are just too dark and too  long.

But hey I am here and have the life so many don't have. I am going to see our eldest soon and that will be wonderful - 

WDHB - Fluoride re-visited