First day of autumn

Well up here in the tropics there is little difference between summer and autumn. We usually just have the two seasons - The Wet and The Dry.  I'm not sure but I think there was thunder over night, I woke about 2.00 and i could hear a massive rumble but my dog didn't seemed fazed by it so it could just have been possums playing five-a-side on the roof.
On the 8th of this month it will be 18 years since we left England. It was a cold, icy day and we were rugged up nice and warm.  We arrived in Australia late at night on the 9th, we walked out of the airport into an oven. The heat knocked us for six and within minutes we were soaked in sweat.  Driving through the dark city was strange - wooden houses on stumps, palm trees, wide open spaces.  We couldn't see a thing driving up the heavily treed mountain road. The sounds and smells were so different.  It was the early hours when we finally got to my brother in laws house, after meeting all the family we finally crashed.  When we woke in the early hours for our taxi to London on that last day the sounds we heard were sirens, traffic. a busy day starting. On this first day in Australia we lay there, the silence was deafening - then slowly we heard the sounds - Kookaburras, Currowongs, the insects buzzing, sounds of water flowing and trees blowing in the breeze. We were in the middle of the rainforest in a half renovated old house, no windows, no doors, floors missing, no electricity or town water, no phones.  We were surrounded by talls trees and the sky went on forever, a creek flowed past one side of the house and I would sit on the bank with my hot aching body to get relief from the excessive heat.  The sandflies, mozzies and march flies all loved my blood, I blew up with all the infections I got from them, we all had boils and tick fever.  The shower water was pumped from the creek and was three sheets of iron tacked together under the trees - this was always shared with green tree frogs and the occassional toad.  Food tasted funny - then we realised. our tastes buds had been purified. We were breathing clean unpolluted air, we were eating 'real' food. There was no tele, only a small radio which occassionally worked.  The wildlife was amazing, even the snakes (of which there was plenty).  For nine weeks we lived there with my husbands family - altogether 4 adults and 7 kids ranging from 1 to 12, at times tempers were frayed and there were squabbles, I did have days where I missed just walking down the road to have coffee with friends but mostly each day there was something new to discover.   It was the most wonderful start to our new life.  Our eldest started at the school in the small town we would eventually move to and everyday would catch the bus with his step-cousins. They never wore shoes. My husband worked everyday with his brother to fix up the house. I think I went into town maybe half a dozen times (to stock up on craft supplies), we took turns looking after the kids, doing the cooking (on an old wood burning stove), making bricks from scratch, rainforest walks, swimming naked in a secluded lagoon.   It wasn't easy but it was a huge adventure, one of the best times in our lives. I used to watch A Country Practice back in the UK, I'd listen to all the sounds - the birds and the insects and to me thats what Australia would sound like. Those were the first sounds I heard here and even now they are the first sounds I hear on waking, sometimes I just sit on the back verandah, close my eyes and just listen. This is home.
After nine weeks the house we were moving into was available, half way up a hill just over the road from the school, a short stroll to the shops and pub.  All the houses were either low or high sets on 1/4 acre blocks.

We had to get used to living in town again - hot water when we wanted, electricty at the touch of a switch, not having to check under beds for snakes or spiders before bed.  It was strange, we had to adapt yet again - but thats another story for another day.

This is Hanging Rock near Melbourne. I was down there this time three years ago staying with a friend for a month.  Its an amazing place and is where the famous australian movie - Picnic at Hanging Rock was based.  There is a lot of mystery surrounding the Rock - people just walking into the rock and disappearring leaving no trace, never to be seen again. It was the big Harvest Picnic at the Rock - a celebration of food wine and music, we set our blanket up in a cool shady spot under the shadow of the rock and chilled out, full of good food and wine.