Now with Christmas and New Year celebrations behind us it’s time to wish everyone a happy, healthy 2020 and recap on what’s been happening since my last entry which saw us leaving Coolah.
After leaving The Coolah Jones we headed back to Banora Point where we had a few lazy days of catching up and preparing for Christmas before we picked up the removal truck and return back to Jo and Phil. We had agreed to help them with their permanent move from Coolah back to Banora. We took 2 days with the truck to get back to Coolah, stopping overnight at Glen Innes on the way and arriving at Coolah around lunch time. We then helped with packing, truck loading etc. and were ready to leave again by Thursday lunchtime. We had arranged to do the return trip with the girls in Jo and Phil’s car, again stopping overnight at The Clansman motel in Glen Innes. Jo and Phil were to leave with the full truck early on Friday morning after their final house cleaning and goodbyes on Thursday afternoon/evening. They did the long trip in the one day and as we arrived back at Banora at lunch time they arrived in time for dinner. A very busy time and of the four days and 750kms each way trip, we were driving through smoke from bush fires for a good 80 percent of the trip! It was heartbreaking to see where the bush fires had swept through the country but little did we know then how much worse the fires would become and make news all around the world. Luckily we, nor any of our family and friends were effected by the fires. I must mention here though, all the new growth we noticed on the trees from fires a few weeks earlier. The regeneration is wonderful to see! Mother Nature is pretty incredible and will always do her own thing.
Once back at Banora, Jo and Phil hit the road running with their unpacking, we helped where we could and entertained Olivia and Ruby. They had pretty much everything unpacked just in time for Christmas!
The 25th December was a bit different for us this year as it was Mum’s 90th birthday and all her family were getting together for a birthday party. Everyone made it for the celebration and 35 of us enjoyed a lovely lunch at my brother Chris’s place. Mum coped with her special day very well, enjoying having everyone together and especially the fresh prawns and her birthday cake.
Our next celebration was Olivia’s birthday on New Year’s Eve. We were all together with Jo and Phil’s friends Clare, Matt, Lily and Liam. Also Emma, Graham, Josh and Ellie had arrived from their stay at Alstonville with Jenny, Graham and Phil’s mum. They parked their caravan in the front yard and were staying for a few days. We had a good few days and I really enjoyed having all our little family around me.
When Emma and Graham left they headed to Tullabudgera Caravan Park for the next stage of their holiday, not too far away so we were all still able to get together again for family time.
Now we are at Tullabudgera as well. We’re housesitting for Clare and Matt who have gone down to Coffs Harbour for their own holidays. We managed to spend some great times with Josh, Ellie, Olivia and Ruby at the beach, movies, sleep overs and here in the back yard pool.
Now things have calmed down a bit, the Boorowa Jones are back home after a two long days (19 hours driving in the car) trip and the Banora Point Jones are enjoying their own space in their new home.
Chris and I are keeping company with Patches the dog and Pretzel the cat while enjoying our own peace again. We are thinking and planning where we might go next. (We only have a few weeks before we return back here to Housesit again.) We don’t yet know how much the fires and their aftermath may dictate our direction.
And now it’s raining! Yay!
As poms you wouldn’t think we could get so excited about rain but when we have seen so much drought and what it has done to this country, it’s a great sight to see. And on the plus side, the rain has put out a lot of the ongoing bush fires. Where we are here on the coastal Qld/NSW border we have had about 200mms in less than 24 hours and that’s some rain! It’s still badly needed inland though.