Sunday...22 December 2013

It's raining! A nice quiet gentle rain.
Yesterday, with help from the daughter, I finished all the shopping I needed to do.
I am not a fan of Christmas, it has just not been the same since I left home all those years ago. Through the years I tried to keep the traditions going but like all the old ways things are changing and I must change with them so this year for the first time I have not even sent out cards. That sure feels funny.
We will be having the traditional dinner but I am not required to cook it. And as the daughter has a dishwasher I will not even have to do the washing up. Wonderful!
Whilst I do enjoy eating it, one of the 'traditions' I will not miss is sweltering in a hot kitchen to cook a hot dinner in the middle of the Australian summer. There is a lot to be said for cold meat and salad........
While I have been shopping up a storm, the men have been doing all sorts of jobs. They have cleaned the header and put it away now that harvest is over. They got the down pipes onto the gutters of the new shed so this little bit of rain can begin to fill the tank beside the shed. They have pumped water out of another smaller tank that is going to be the rain water supply for relatives who have moved from a farm into town and they have realigned one of the underground water pipes to bring water to the new shed.
This new shed is beautiful and we have parked our caravan partly into it. The front end hangs out into the yard but we have shade over most of the caravan. The dogs here love the shade under the caravan and we know to look under it if we cannot see them.
As we travel to the different parts of Australia we notice the altering wildlife.
This morning I heard a Kookaburra singing his song into the rain and of course we have plenty of the ever present pink and grey Galahs and Corellas. In the tree out the front of the house is a family of owls and somewhere nearby is at least one fox. The rabbit is making a comeback right across Australia as we are seeing more and more of them. There were a couple hopping around my sisters yard in the early morning most days while we were there.