This winter seems like a blur – the third one we have experienced in our new country home. Each day a kaleidoscope of colours mingled with smells and sounds that speak of  that time suspended between autumn and spring.  My life has fallen into that trap of busyness and too little time to do all the things I want. Sounds like my old working life – there are times when anxieties try to raise their ugly heads and I have to force them back down. I like to be busy and doing useful stuff, but there are times when I long for long periods of just being. Sometimes  I manage it. Anyone would think I am talking about the winter of my discontent!

 

From a delightful autumn we have tumbled into winter with some unexpectant heavy snowfalls on the lower hills. I was quite surprised to awake to snow falling at our place which is only 400m above sea level. As an Australian, I am always fascinated and enraptured when I see snow falling. My English-born husband doesn’t have quite the same enthusiasm!

It has been a cold and wet winter here. Unlike all of NSW and huge parts of Queensland, gripped in a crippling drought, Victoria with the exception of Gippsland, has enjoyed heavy rain falls. The beginning of the year here was dry but as the year progressed we would get a little bit more each month, until this month when we received over 35ml overnight! Now we need our gumboots if we want to walk around outside because the ground is so sodden. But it was so exciting to see our dams overflowing and even our dry gullies flowing. I love paddling through the impromptu puddles and water courses because it reminds me of my childhood.

 

 

I am still beavering away at my studies; the closer I get to the end the harder it seems at times. Being a mature age student may be a challenge but the joy of learning and incorporating your lived-experiences makes it a rewarding journey. Speaking of journeys, we did a big road trip from end of June to July, covering more than 6000 kms in three weeks. There was a purpose for this trip so we tried to make it a bit of an adventure as well. The purpose was carried out but was not without its stresses.  It was a rushed trip and despite heading north, we got rain on the Sunshine Coast and managed even in drought areas to be welcomed with muddy campgrounds. We took our camper trailer which is really just a tent on wheels! But compared to the two-man dome tent we use to crawl out of, this is luxury and we still feel like we are camping, without having to haul a large caravan behind us.

Our road trip which went through outback NSW and inland Queensland, made us realise just how bad the drought was. Miles of bare, earth paddocks without stock. In all my years of country driving, I had never seen so much road kill as I did on this trip. Starving and water-deprived kangaroos and emus, ending up as dinner at the side for the hundreds of opportunistic crows, dotted every metre or so along many parts of the road. Water is the lifeblood of this country and when you venture out into the rural heartland away from safe, comfortable urban surrounds, it hits you in the face. One farmer near Lightening Ridge said they were feeling sorry for the kangaroos which are usually considered a nuisance when they are in large numbers. Faced with hand feeding whatever stock that they may still have, the kangaroos were so hungry that they were eating the bags that the grain for sheep came in. Life is not pretty in these conditions but it serves to remind us that whatever we do we are so insignificant compared to the forces of nature.

 

Got to visit some great communities and shared a bit of our money where it was needed. Enjoyed campfires and good company. Saw some parts of the country I hadn’t seen since the early ’80s and some new places. Will do a travel blog to expand a bit more on the places we visited.

 

We had to be home before the end of July because I had study commitments and the biggest thing I had to face was removal of three wisdom teeth which had been “grumbling” (as the dental surgeon described it) for more than five years. This was hanging over me like a cloud as dark as Lucifer and a piece of coal (anyone who knows Cowboy Junkies will understand this reference!). July 26 I went under the knife for the first time in my life. I survived but ended up extremely ill for two weeks. I won’t go into details but it wasn’t pleasant to say the least.

I am finally getting back up to full-strength and trying to catch up with everything that got put on hold. The sun still comes up and goes down – sometimes I am treated to the most stunning views and I count my blessings. We have a mob of 14 kangaroos including some joeys in the pouch who seem to like the green, juicy grass on our lawn – usually they turn up early in the morning and late afternoon. Our resident wombats continued to dig holes around the place to our annoyance. The daffodils are out so despite the snow on the hills, there is a glimpse of spring to come.

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