Merry Christmas 2009.....

Today is Boxing Day. Yesterday we had a lovely day celebrating Christmas Day. There hasn't been a lot of time to enjoy Christmas this year however, the quality of the time celebrated has been wonderful. Last week Meryn, Alex, John and I went off to Carols at the Domain. It was festive and enjyable. Then Christmas Eve we had our traditional family dinner together, made even nicer with young Anthony joining us. John cooked up a superb dinner of roast pork and ham. To this he added roast potatoes sour cream and salad. Alex cracked open the beers and cold drinks and Christmas music. We all laughed a lot and shared stories of Christm's past and toasted our beautiful Ben. At the end of the evening the tree was aglow and presents were stacked under it, lovingly wrapped and decorated.

John and I woke rather late on Christmas morning, I think it was about 10am. I wipped up a batch of croissants, coffee and bacon. John stuffed the ducks with a stuffing that he discovered in one of my cook books. By the time he was finished the BBQ oven was hot enough for them to be baked in. We settled in the lounge room and exchanged gifts to a lot of laughing and oooos and arrrrs. In all it was a wonderful morning.

We spent the remainder of the day at Grandy's house, enjoying roasted duck and pork and of course, Grandy's famous fruit salad. In between cooking we played cards and talked about the extended family. It was relaxing and the atmosphere was one of sharing and caring. Grandad is elderly and showing his age these days, frailty like his constant shadow. We all enjoyed the day and the children heard stories of Gandad's youthful days and the farming home that he grew up in. We loved it all and I often wonder how many more Xhristmas' we have left with him and cherish each one even more.

My wish this Christymas season, for you who are reading this, is peace in your hearts. I often think about peace in our hearts and I believe that one cannot wish anything greater for another humand being than true abiding peace. A peace that cannot be vanished by stress, overwork or tragic events. A peace that will radiate love to those around you. Merry Christmas!

The vibrance of Summer

This afternoon while taking a walk around our area I photographed some visitors who were equally curious about me as I was about them.

A hot day here.......

Goodness it was hot here today. 36.6 degrees c. In our business it is the little things that count which come to mean so much to people. For example, one of our customers named Ben, buys a coffee to have with his lunch each day. Today was soooo hot that he asked for an iced coffee. I suggested a Dare Double Espresso coffee to which I added a coffee cup filled with ice cubes from the ice machine. He stood and looked at the coffee and a beaming smile broke out across his face as he said "Thanl you Heather, you are a very thoughtful person". The boys on the site, in general, are very conscious of saying thankyou and it is nice to be appreciated by them.

Tomorrow is the biggest day of the year on the site. We put on the site Chrsitmas BBQ. J and I have hired three massive spit ovens to roast a suckling pig, 2 goats and several butts of beef. I have decied to be lazy this year and purchse the salads already made, we are having coleslaw, tabouleh and potato egg and bacon salad. To this we will add some whole baby beets, some chunky tomatoes and lettuce and a bread role. Fortunately the weather is forecasted to be much cooler.

Today it was so hot that even the spiders sitting under the tin roofs were dropping down on their webs because it was obviously to hot to sit on the metal. At one stage there were so many that I sprayed all around the eatting area. It was amazing just how many were about.

I hope that everyone has a good evening and that you can stay cool. Summer in Australia can be cruel.

I was sitting working on my blog when through the front livingroom windows I could see a small tawnycrowned honey eater bird on the electricity wires.

He sat very still as if "sussing out" the area.

He then lifted his head and opened his beak to emit the most amazing sound.

Fortunately my camera was handy and I was able to photograph the incident.

I can remember when not all that long ago I thought of bird chirping and whistling as nothing more than meaningless background noises The more I listen to the nature environment down here the more multifaceted and intricate it is. Every different type of bird has it's pwn distinctive sounds, and it is extraordinary that another bird can pickup on those very sounds to understand what is going on.

I wondered if h=the little bird were calling to it's mate or perhaps it's mother. Who knows?......perhaps it was playing it's part in Mother Nasture's Orchestra.

Whatever it was doing....I found it fascinating and beautiful and unique all at the same time.

It turned in several different directions, singing as loudly as possible.

Until eventually it quitened down to take flight.

Secret Santa

I thought that I might talk about a Christmas party which took place last Saturday evening. Mr J and I met with a group of friends to celebrate Christmas and as usual the group decided to share in a Secret Santa. For the first time ever the group decided to do this a little differently indeed, we had to "make it bake it grow it or sew it"..."it" being the pressie. What fun I thought and to my surprize everyone else thought the same thing. Marilyn went to a great deal of trouble and made boxes of homemade chocolates, which tasted beautiful. Meryn made a gorgeous chocolate ball christmas tree, Vj was very crafty and made a lovely Christmas wreath. There were several Poinsettias and other home grown plants as well as some wonderful christmas cakes that set everyone in the festive mood. The evening went well with some very excellent food and wine followed by lots of laughs and Merry Christmas cheers. But my fondest memory will be the trouble that everyone went to in making their pressies. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to next Christmas to see what we can do differently with our Secret Santa ideas.

Thanks everyone for a great evening, it is always lovely to catch up with you all and I look forward to January 16th. Merry Christmas gang!

For this past several weeks we have been visiting areas around Jervis Bay because our little beach here has had a deposit of seaweed on it. It is actually a mixture of seaweed, micro-algae and detritus. The micro-algae is a strong red colour and when mixed with the seaweed creates a high nutrient load on the beach. The algae apparently is part of the natural ecology of the Bay and when washed onto the beach (where it gets buried over the following weeks) it provides the bulk of the nutrient imput into the beach system. It actually supports beach life such as pippies and beach worms. So what you may ask…well these beach dwellers are important links in the food chain that includes flathead and bream fish. So I guess you could say that our dirty looking beach is going to prop up the recreational fishing around here.
Now the problem here is that normally the mess is cleared in a few weeks by high tides washing in and clearing away the debre however, this time the tides have not done their job and washed it out to a small continental shelf where it decomposes. So I am not sure how long it is going to take to disappear. I am glad though, that it occurred otherwise Mr J and would never have found places such as Honeymoon Bay or Silcus Cove or Cabbage Tree Beach. So the glass is still half full.

The Joy of Christmas......

When my children were very little I decided to buy a Christmas CD each year until we built a collection of Christmas songs to play in the lead up to Christmas. I will never forget playing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” over and over again for Alex who would stand and dance and try to sing this song. I think he was about three years old at the time. His excitement levels would rise to a point where he would jump off the arm of the lounge chir telling everyone that he was pretending to be Santa Claus flying through the air and that it was the most wonderful time of the year lol.



















Nowadays so much has changed. One only has to watch the evening news to realize that Christmas is more a survival time of year. A time seeped in stress, depression, grief, mounting debts and unemployment. For many people this special time of year is a period so congested with social obligations that there is little time to enjoy one’s self. Indeed, many even talk about “getting through the Christmas frenzy” or the “silly season”. I sat at the hairdressers last Saturday and listened as many of the other patrons complained about not knowing what to buy their families who already had everything; they were “over” Christmas before it had even started. How sad I thought to myself afterall, it is the most wonderful time of the year.












Whatever happened to those Christmas’ of old where the wonder and awe of the festive season existed? Whatever happened to the days when singing Christmas songs and setting the Christmas table together brought smiles to everyone’s faces regardless of age? J and I have always tried to make Christmas at home here a stress free event and I have always found that the simplest of Christmas’ have been the most enjoyable. As little children grew older we made time for a special meal for our little family; usually it was Christmas Eve, the rest of the time was left for visiting or entertaining extended family. That special meal was a time to relax and enjoy quality time together. I guess we sat together seeped in sharing and caring. As the years passed by and little people became adults we moved the special meal to Boxing Day brunch so that any pressure to be at the boyfriend’s place or the girlfriend’s place…was removed. No matter when our time together is…we try to engage a true celebration of Christmas joy, for if we get caught up in the exhaustion of consumerism and outdoing each other, we eventually miss the true meaning of Christmas.

This year we are going to Grandy’s house to share lunch on Christmas Day. Some of the extended family will also come. After lunch we plan to play cards and drink a toast to Grandma who is no longer with us. It will be very relaxing and I look forward to it very much.

Christmas presents, although important, have never been the priority of our Christmas’ and this year J and I have talked to the children about how we can “do” the present tradition a little differently yet again. We are thinking of perhaps a short holiday later in the year together. Immediately at Christmas our favourite pressie is our special Christmas meal together and after all these years we still sing out aloud while setting the table together, we share in the memories of Christmas' past and we make a point to hold on to the joy of Christmas. We tell of the little boy who danced over and over again to the "most wonderful time of the year" and the little girl who dressed her dollies in red and white and another little boy who sat in a toy trolly pusghed by his older sister and brother delivering toys to the teddies and dolls lined up against the wall. Everyone smiles and joins in with yet another story. I do love Christmas time!