25.10.2010
The big oak tree that once framed the drive as one approached the house has produced some spring leaves. Most of the branches still look dead and burnt but last years feeble shoots have grown bigger and stronger. My arboreal friend is battered but still with us.
My past returns in other ways. Today we left home at 5.30 in the morning so that we could get my friends Jennie and Richard onto their flight to New Zealand. Jennie and I went to school together in a different hemisphere what seems like many eras ago. When we were 14 we had a camping holiday at Punchbowl farm and met Richard who was the farm student that year. This experience affected our whole futures in many ways. Jennie eventually married Richard and lived on a dairy farm in the Isle of Wight and I made the farm my second home and picked up ideas I have carried with me to this day.
I do not suppose that friends really know the true value of what they have given us over this difficult time. Jennie and Richard shared our life here for slightly over a week. They put up with leaking buildings and no proper bathroom but they brought with them the story of the first half of my life and left with me feeling restored in a way I could never have predicted.
Jennie remembers so much more than I do. She even brought back photos I had lost or never seen, and produced a diary we had we had written with the other two girls from our gang in our teen-age years. How innocent we really were! And how short those mini skirts were! The photo cut off the lower legs so it was not possible to check the blokes for flairs. There is no going back. Marie has passed away, Lucy lives in Hong Kong, I am in Australia and Jennie is still based in the UK.
At least for one week we talked, shared lazy lunches in my new outdoor room and introduced them to our local scenery and wild life. The week’s start was a bit crazy. Josh flew in from Perth to be best man at his friend, Scott’s wedding and Yarra Glen had the Melba festival. Bo had to rehearse and sing on Friday, which meant baby-sitting duties, but she lent us her car on Saturday to pick up our friends from the airport. We did not hear Bo sing but everyone said it went well.
On Sunday she had organised a music afternoon in her restaurant so we did that instead. Edd and Bo went to the wedding and collected Josh who we put on a plane at some ungodly hour the next morning. He is in the middle of a university assessment period and had revision and assignments to get back to. In some ways it was great that he had to come over because it meant that he could meet my friends.
At the end of the week Bo was heavily involved in a school concert and arrived at the farm with 4 sheets of cardboard she needed converting into an eye height caravan for a stage prop. All four of us combined skills and produced an acceptable offering. We stayed to watch the concert, which was a massive achievement for a small primary school. Bo had got the kids to write a musical and taught them to sing Elvis songs to go with it.
Simon and some of the kids produced musical accompaniment that carried the whole thing along. The star turn was four kids who sang “love me tender” and melted the large audience of family and friends. All the kids ended up feeling special and as if they had really done something and the families were thrilled.
This week has been dry and warm and Edd and I have worked on the farm with renewed vigour. Edd completed his fencing project and the sheep are now in the new house site clearing weeds. Well, that’s the theory. Every time I look they seem to be sleeping. I have painted three side of our donga which tones the dirty white colour down to cement grey. Today I have mowed all the grass inside our area. We had the first snake invade our space last week and it was of the aggressive tiger snake type so short grass is now a health requirement.
Edd is using the weed wacker to do the bits I could not reach and the place begins to look quite smart. This is a relief as we have some people from the “Aussie Grand Designs” TV program coming to visit soon. Al is keen for his designs to be on TV and I feel that if we are being watched it will make us keep going. The temptation is to just let things flow on.
We are actually very happy living right next to our animals and even though quite a few litres of water fell through the roof onto my bed last week I just slept with my head the other end of the bed and decided it would pass. I was less pleased when a big beam of wood fell off the ceiling onto my bed but luckily I was not in bed at the time. After nearly two years a rough life style feels totally normal. We even have a new batch of chicks in the donga with us … farm life is pretty much back to normal.
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