27.12.2022
It is Edd’s birthday and we are hunkering down in the house. I have closed all the double-glazed doors and it is a nice temperature indoors but outside we have a second day of extreme heat. Last night we had a storm with heavy rain but it did nothing to bring the temperature down. It was not all bad, the rain did wonders for the plants. I don’t think the many people who had hay cut and ling in the paddock will be pleased.
Organising our hay is the most urgent job next. It is affordable if we find someone to cut it and we pick it up from the paddock. The job before Xmas was the upgrade of our solar system. We now have batteries and more panels so we do not take any power from the grid at the moment. We should also have power during power cuts which is very welcome. Josh has fixed things so that we can look up on the computer and see what is happening minute by minute. I am surprised we bother to look as much as we do.
There is still a lot of covid around but luckily everyone was Ok for Xmas day and we had our family party at Bo’s house. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot and Bo put the heater on the pool on so that the little kids were warm enough to spend most of the day in the pool. The food was fantastic and a good time was had by all. Sadly, we are without Beni this year. She is having chemotherapy and is not good at all. She came out of hospital a few weeks ago because she had arranged for a cousin to put on a free comedy show in Toolangi Hall. She is such an amazing person that despite being so frail she was still doing so much for her community.
Xmas day was hot so we escaped with Bo and family up into the forest and picnicked by the river at Murrindindi. This was amazingly relaxing and once again we managed to have amazing food and cool white wine. Edd and I drove home through the forest which was sad because it is still so damaged by the 2009 fires as well as logging. There are whole areas where the canopy is missing and there is massive damage. Years ago when we rode horses there , we were engulfed in the deep shade and sweet smells of old mountain ash.
The best news is that finally I have a raspberry crop. Usually, I get so few berries that they never make it down to the house! I relocated them and this year we have been able to pick enough fruit for us to enjoy every day with our breakfast. No ripe tomatoes yet but snow peas and lettuce are going strong. The basil is thriving and we can bulk up meals with the zucchinis.
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