The mellowness of early autumn

Friday 16.2.18

We had a sad day today with everyone gathering at our community centre for Dave’s funeral.  Dave has been a neighbour for many years and has often helped us in the same way he always helped everyone he knew.  He had a terrible time after the fires when he lost his home, his beloved guitars and many friends.  For years he and his wife have been managing in a shed whilst he built them a new house. They moved in last year but by then he was already sick.

There was a huge turn out for the funeral with lots of food alcohol and music.  We were all given guitar plectrums to put on his coffin as we said our personal farewells, which was a nice idea.   The weather was perfect and everyone was happy to stand around after the service to talk.  Our small community seems very united these days.

Last week, at our little swap market, only a very few regulars came, so instead of having community announcements we all sat around a round table to sort out the necessary business.  It felt as if we were a council of elders exchanging news of upcoming events, and who was sick or needed help.  It all felt very grounding.

Sunday 4.2.2018

This week we have had an unusual moon event when there was a blood moon eclipse and blue moon combined with a super moon.  Luckily we had crystal clear skies here and could watch it all.  Since then the weather has changed and is now just about perfect.

It feels like autumn.  We are now having cool nights, crisp mornings and warm sunny days.  We are still enjoying the glut of delicious summer vegetables, but it is now cool enough for us to work on the farm.  I have been sticking down the mosaic section of tiles on the dairy floor, (a job that I have been putting off for ages), and Edd is working in the donga putting up blinds and new fly screens.   We have a few weeks grace before school camps start again and it almost seems too quiet.  After years of regular contact with our kids and grandkids their absence leaves a bit of a gap.

Bo still lives close but she has no chef for her restaurant and is doing all the work herself.   This means she works all day and half the night even through week ends.   I am totally impressed with how she has learnt to make chef style food for huge, unplanned influxes of people but we just hope she finds someone else to take over before her uni work starts again.     Her kids have now gone back to school and Indi is also away a lot of the week with her job, so we are not seeing much of the younger generation.  I am not sure what Ti is doing this year.  We were all hoping he would be offered an electrical apprenticeship but we have not had any news yet.