A thought about community and volunteering and stuff

I was so delighted to come across this scene on my way back from Penola last week.

The community spirit around these parts makes me so proud, it's a warm and fuzzy feeling, a sense of belonging to something bigger.

Yesterday I attended a BBQ with clients and staff of the organisation I volunteer with. It was a great feeling turning up for some salad and snags and being welcomed and recognised. It's wonderful to be involved and included in celebrations at this time of year, in my local community.

I enjoy my volunteering role and benefit from the weekly interaction in a social sense, just as much as the exercise session ladies do. One of the old dears asked me yesterday what exactly it is that I DO as a volunteer. I was a bit lost for words. I am just a volunteer.

I guess that I am there to support the paid carers and the work of the organisation basically. 

I do enjoy the exercise sessions, and the chats over morning tea after. I think this social aspect is the most important thing for older people. Getting out of the house and in the community. The feeling that they are part of society still, part of something bigger.

They have great stories to tell and I feel privileged to be able to listen to them. So to add to my volunteering role, I am not only a support, but a listener. A willing ear.

In other news, with all the end of year concerts out the way, I am overjoyed that it is the last dayof school for the girls for 2019. I am ready for sleep ins and lazy days.

There is no rest for the wicked though, with our holiday shack fully booked until the middle of January at the moment. I will be wearing a track, with cleaning duties. 

I am also becoming reflective on the past year, what I have achieved and realising how I want to move into the next year. This one has been a doozy, not unlike a roller coaster, with so many knocks and scrapes. I am hopeful.

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Birdlife at Casa Pelicano

I spent the weekend at the holiday shack all by myself last weekend. It was a much needed break away from my usual mum and wife duties, which if you ask me were causing some grief for me. 

I sat on the front veranda, wine perched next to me, camera in hand and took in the sounds and sights of all the life around me. 

It was a delight to find a blue wren family has bred three babies in the horrible Portuguese laurel tree in the front yard. There is an upside to being too lazy to chop it down!

I came out of the weekend with a new affirmation after feeling a bit woe is me about feeling not cared for, which is bullshit. We all have two sides to our brain, the emotional side and the thinking side.  My emotional side has been getting a bit carried away. 

"I am cared for and appreciated in all I do"

I can now add this to the other affirmations I have written down in my journal, which I don't refer to enough!

"I am loved and supported"

"I am my own person. I am individual and unique. I am good enough"

"I am worthy of love and respect. I love myself enough not to give myself away to other people"

It is not uncommon to see kangaroos bouncing around this paddock in the mornings.

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Catching up with life

A simple thing like noticing my favourite rose in the garden blooming yesterday, has reminded me to appreciate the little things. This is Harry, the Harry Wheatcroft rose. It's the only plant I talk to in the garden, saying "Hello Harry", when I see it flowering for the first time in the season.

Both the girls out at the diving board at the lake. I was apprehensive to let Summer go out there, it's her first time. She was fine!

The last couple of years we've cut a real Christmas tree. We have a new, fake, white tree this year and for as many years as it lasts. Oh and there's my reclined feet in the lounge room. Isabel has sticky taped paper to the wall spelling out "Merry Xmas".

The local show was on earlier this month, with the girls turning 8 and 10 the same weekend.

Life waits for no one.

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Cockling at Canunda

November 1st saw the opening of the cockle season in South Australia. As usual we were off to dig and twist in the sands of Geltwood beach in the Canunda National Park for oiur shellfish prize. It has become somewhat of a tradition. 

The drive to the beach is absolutely amazing with the sweeping dunes and spring wildflowers out in bloom. A four wheel drive is a must and it is quite an adventure for adults and kids alike. 

I was excited to see the white flowers of the native muntries out, they are one of my most favourite native flowers.

The ocean here is so powerful, I always feel like I leave something here when I go. I do believe with every pounding of the waves a care is swept from the depths of my mind.  It never lets me leave without taking some of my worries.

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Trick or treat, smell my feet...

Trick or treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat

I do recall not so long ago my Mum having a good whinge on Facebook about Halloween not being an Australian thing to do. Lo and behold a few years later, here she is hosting her home as a drop in for kids this year.

It was a hot 35 degrees yesterday as we drove around town dropping in to generous hosts who had put their homes forward in a local group for Halloween.

As usual I donned the face paint too (doh, no photo), with a jokeresque twist.

After our Halloween trick or treating was over, I went straight to doing two bank cleans. God help them if they have recorded CCTV, because they will be quite amused with the face of the cleaner!

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Millicent Museum Heritage Day

Earlier this month, the Millicent National Trust Museum wanted to celebrate our wonderful community and history with a free day out for families and visitors, with free entry to the museum.

The museum came to life, with horse and carts, working vintage machinery, volunteers in period costume and a blacksmiths display. The blacksmith was the place to be as the weather wasn't exactly warm and that fire was putting out a lot of heat.

There were old fashioned games which were popular with the kids, along with the train with working parts and the old school bell and the water wheel.

The museum has a shipwreck room, with many artefacts from the wrecks along our rugged coast. It also boasts the finest collection of horse drawn vehicles in the country, many of them being restored onsite by talented locals. There is also a room dedicated to the fashions of yesteryear with the Helen Hughes costume collection.

The Lions Club provided a sausage sizzle and were giving away free cinnamon doughnuts!

The local Country Fire Service were there also, letting the kids have a go at the fire hose and sitting inside the fire truck.

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A loveable little fellow

Look at this little fellow I found by the side of the road recently. He was quite friendly and not camera shy at all!

He did recoil into a ball a couple of times early in our encounter, but soon realised I wasn't a threat, continuing on his merry way of foraging for ants with his tough snout and long protruding tongue.

Thankyou little echidna for entertaining me with your charms, before you plodded away, back into the bush.

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