A new family member makes a dramatic entrance

 Tuesday April 10th 

After a massive labour, an emergency hospital visit, and some moments of life-threatening worry (Pip lost four litres of blood in total after the birth), we would like to introduce you to Pelé Ray Williams, born 6th April 2018 at home in Ocean Grove.   Thanks so much to the Birth House midwives,  Pip’s totally amazing support team  and all the wonderful team at Geelong hospital, we are so grateful for you keeping Pip with us.  Pip would like to especially thank all those people who donated their blood for lifesaving purposes, she owes her life to their generosity.  Thanks to our friends for milk to keep Pelé going while Pip was so unwell... Thanks too, to family and friends who have dropped everything to bring us food, wash nappies and everything else we need and make sure our lives don’t fall in the cracks while we have been away. We are looking forwards to going home some time in the next few days, and bit by bit catching up again with the people we love. Pip is not planning on looking at her phone or email in the near future as she recovers, so please send any messages through me. Lots of love a&p

Well, that's the short version.  It has been a pretty dramatic time for all of us and the week was complicated by my mother having liver failure.  She is 97, so we have all accepted that this means we will now loose her.  It is all very sad but she is the last family member of her generation and she has not liked feeling so left behind.  My sister and her children in the UK are spending as much time with her as possible and they say that so far she is not in pain or distress.   I still try to talk to her on the phone every day, but she has not been able to talk much for three days now.  I have talked to her every day for years but it has only been this year that she has felt really ready for death and wanted it to come.  

We are just so lucky that we have not lost Pip too!  Bo, Indi, Ti and I drove down to Geelong hospital on Sunday and Bo , Sylkie and I went down again yesterday because we had to pick up Amy the Great Dane and bring him home with us.  Al and Pip's house is right down by the coast to it takes at least 6 hours driving to do this.  It was much easier the first time because everyone shared the driving. Al's kids were wonderful and did everything that was needed and more.  We were lucky that Ti was with us when we got to ocean grove because we had been instructed to take Amy for a run on the beach.  It was dark and with out Ti to drive us and find the beach we would have been lost.

Indi drove home and we dropped off Ti at his mum's house.  He now has a job doing an electrician's apprentice ship so he had to be ready for work on Monday morning .  Going home via Melbourne added a lot of extra time to the journey so we were very glad that Indi is such a good driver.  We all went in her large comfortable car too, that helped

Friday April 6^th

The big news today is that Al has a new son.  We have not got much information yet but Pip, Al and the baby are in hospital and hopefully recovering.   We got back from visiting them yesterday.  Al came out with us for a meal at the restaurant on the beach at Barwen heads but Pip was too close to giving birth to feel like having visitors or going anywhere.

We stayed in a motel over night and caught the ferry across the heads in the morning.  I had found a place on the internet that would process small amounts of wool and decided to check them out.  The place was unlabeled and well hidden but we found it and met the most amazing couple who ran the business.  We all got talking and it was like meeting old friends you have not seen for ages!   They had a work shop with wool carders and spinners and were interested in alternative house design. The guy had worked for ICI and came from Scotland.

Our next stop was at garden world and by strange co-incidence we met a couple we new who used to be neighbours so more socializing.  Then I finally found a Sydney Rock Orchid and also brought a dwarf avocado.  I always find something I can’t resist at garden world but turning 70 is a good excuse for a little indulgence.

Actually, I have done rather well for my birthday.  Bo cooked me a fabulous Indian food feast at the weekend and we went with Wayne and family to the Warren glen garden shop and enjoyed a long, lazy,  family lunch there. Silkie and Ella were happily occupied feeding ducks and looking for Easter eggs.  Ollie stuck with the adults for most of the time.

I am now trying to get back into the normal routine.  The hour has changed so it gets dark much earlier and our working days are shorter.  It is still very dry and warm so we continue to get straw berries, tomatoes and other summer vegetables.  Bo looked after the farm when we were away and all the seedlings survived, much to my relief.  Watering takes a lot of time in these conditions.

Camp 2

Friday 28 March

We are waiting for Al and Pip’s baby to arrive.  It is only two days over due so we may be on tender hooks for some time yet.   Today we have time to think about things for the first time in about three weeks.  The latest camp left on Thursday because everyone is off for Good Friday.  The farm seems very quiet with out the energy of young people and I am missing them already.

The camp this week was back to the normal level of difficulty. There was some rain on Monday when they arrived and some of the kids did not want to be here even before they started.  Once everyone had settled down and mothers had picked up a couple things went better.  The sun shone, kids could swim in the pool and a surprising amount of work was done really well.

This camp we had some very competent chefs.  The students had decided on a large amount of fresh vegetables in their meals and one young lady managed to cook a cake in the pizza oven.  Some of our pumpkins were harvested for soup and we contributed the ice cream from the freezer. This was not a great sacrifice as Edd and I seldom have deserts.

Our young gardeners were very industrious and we now have the bamboo plants that were started in pots planted out on the bank by the ruins. Next they refilled one  of the raised beds by the pool and put in brocholi, swede  and turnip seedlings.  I am running out of garden space because the summer crops of tomatos , Zuchinni , cucumber and capsicums are still yielding.  Even the straw berries are still producing fruit.  The students have also eaten some pomagranates.  The quinces have turned yellow but are still very hard.  I am unsure when we should pick them.

The small amount of rain, and the watering efforts have recovered the olives a bit . They are starting to ripen and have lost most of the wrinkles.  The chestnut trees look very stressed but there are still some chestnuts on them.  Everything around the sheds is looking smart after this weeks work.  Loads of waste has been taken down to the burning pile and we have begun the fence for the new chook run.   Lots of rubbish and tree branches had to be moved before we could even begin this fence  so getting two posts into the rock hard clay was a good achievment.

A small group of students worked around the old waterfall area.  The ponds here were destroyed by the bush fires nine years ago and have since been lost under regrowth of weeds.  The weeds are now gone and we have filled in holes in the ground so that a fence can be put up that will enclose all the garden area.  I am worried that one night the deer will come and destroy everything so I am very keen to get this done.  Then we can work on the waterfall area and see how much we can mend and restore.