using up a dry autumn

April 14, 2019

The hour has changed, and it is now dark at 6.30pm.  Most of the goats we planned to get pregnant have now been mated and we are preparing for winter.  We still have one more school camp at the end of April, but we have now done most of the events we agreed to do. This weekend a lovely lady volunteered her time to give a talk on her environmental studies for our local Landcare and permaculture groups. We hosted the event in the ruins and for once I was glad it was dry.  The weather was actually perfect. One of those clear blue days in that start off misty and end up in the mid- twenties.

The talk was about the intricate relations ships between species of plants and animals in our bushland and how development has interrupted complicated life cycles.  She was advocating that land owners should consider the environment when they make changes on their properties and try not to break wildlife corridors.  Mostly it was a philosophical discussion on the ethics of land owning post colonisation. People brought food for a shared lunch and we provided tea and coffee with a plate of goats’ cheese and homemade biscuits. All the people who came were lovely and contributed their experiences and ideas so that it was a very special day.

We had another lovely day the previous weekend when we went into the community garden at Ceres in Melbourne to meet up with family for grandson P’s first birthday.   Al and Pip rented a room and private garden and cooked lots of finger food so all we had to do was get there in time.  We managed this by milking the goats the evening before and leaving Dan to feed everything in the morning.

Once again it was a sunny dry day and a peaceful friendly occasion. Wayne was there with Ella and his partner who is due in early May and Indi and Ben came too. Indi is due at the end of April but her younger brother came with his partner who is also expecting, but later in the year.  It was a great time for them to all meet up. We also got to meet Pip’s nephew who is only a few weeks old. He was there with his parents who have just collected him from his surrogate mother in America!

We will have to get used to our new position as great grandparents. We were the only ones of our generation who were able to come to the party but with Bo and all her kids there it felt as if we belonged. It was amazing to think that in a few months, time the family will be increased by so many new members.  I have totally lost count of birthdays and ages and will have to update my family data base urgently.

Today I took Dan to the station so that he could move on to his next host.  He has been with us a long time and has done a great deal to help us. One of the last thing we did was plant out  the fern garden in the old sand pit.  I have included food plants like water cress and native pepper and of course the fern trees were a food for Aboriginal people too. It will be an interesting new feature.