A week of bad memories

July 21.15

This has been a more difficult two weeks. Edd had surgery on his knees 10 days ago and is just starting to recover enough to walk. The worst bit is that his knees were too bad to do much repair work so he will need more surgery for knee replacement in the near future.  Bo and Indi have been helping with the farm work so that I could drive Edd to appointments, but this has still not left me any spare time to get much done. I have finished all the work I can do on the accounts, though, and they are now ready to hand over to the accountant.

Yesterday I had a telephone interview from the solicitors working on the class action claim from the 2009 fires. I was not really worried about this but I was asked about our life before the fires, our experience on the day, and where we are now. I was taken by surprise at how much I was upset retelling it all. I actually thought that I had put it all behind me, but I was obviously wrong. The person I spoke to be very good and just asked questions but they were the right questions if you wanted the hard answers. I have no idea if any good will come of it but at least I have tried.

Better news is that Ella is now out of hospital. She spent the weekend being tested to see why she had an infection, it was all extremely worrying. It was bitter sweet to see her looking so cute in the latest photo with her little hands bandaged up after tests and treatments. It reminded me of the dreadful time Josh was in hospital as a premature baby. It has been a bad week for memories.

winter warmth and sun

July 7. 2015

The winter sun is pouring into the house and giving us an internal temperature of 25 degrees with no heating on! I like this very much. Edd has gone down to the brewery to pick up barley and I have been working on the accounts because it is THAT time of year. I am not complaining. I have had a very enjoyable time over the last two weeks with my daughter, daughter in laws and grand kids. What a fabulous group of beings to spend time with. I am so lucky.

Yesterday Pip and I borrowed Beth’s kids and went to see “Inside Out’ at Chirnside cinema. Pip, Silky and I thought the film was great but Ollie said he preferred Jurassic world, which was the film I took them to last week. It is a great advantage having grandkids as an excuse to watch kids films. Also last week Bo, Silky and I drove down to see Wayne’s wife and the new grand daughter.  This time Ella was awake but it is still impossible to tell what colour her eyes will be. She is less purple than last week and has still got lots of straight black hair.

It was wonderful to see the new family so happy. Wayne had taken a week off work and looked very relaxed. He is a natural at baby handling which makes things easier. I had to laugh though when he used a digital device to measure the temperature of the baby bath water. The amount of gear that people use for baby care is amazing. And to think, we did not even have much in the way of car seats when my kids were young!

We are enjoying eating one of the hard cheeses that has turned out exceptionally well. I now have to work out what I did to make it. I am pretty sure that I used the same starter culture that I use for feta but I tried various temperatures to do things at. I will have to work out how to label the cheeses so that good ones are more repeatable.

The sheep are looking very pregnant. The Tour de France has started and our lambing usually coincides with the tour. There was an horrific bike pile up yesterday when lots of riders were hurt. I feel so sorry for athletes that get injured because their career depends on their health. Luckily Edd and I can hobble through most of our life style.

The tiling in the bathroom is now waiting for grout. Edd did some tricky work on the arch to complete the job. After the grouting we just have the shower to do. That does not sound too hard if you say it quickly!  I have the tiling in the mud room to finish and the tiling in the kitchen so there is still lots to do.