33, Slattery Street
Rye Park
New South Wales 2586
Australia
Christmas 2005
The year started with us saying good-bye to Peter and his family to America for two or three years, but Western Mining was taken over by BHP and the American office was no longer required, so they came back again after eight months. While there the two elder children learned how to ski, and according to Peter were doing very well.
We have seen Andrew and family from time to time during the year, they live just over an hour away. Samuel and Danielle are doing well on the piano, so we are entertained with a recital each time we visit. Simon plays on my keyboard when they visit here.
David is still working in the Ministry of Defence in London and Clare with Rolls Royce. They are very keen members of the Diving Club and came out to the Pacific to do some dives on WWII wrecks, but did not manage to get to Australia.
All the family seems to enjoy good health, so there is nothing to report on that topic.
Our efforts have been in the garden, trying to make it ours, rather than the previous owner's, if you know what I mean. There has been quite a difference from last year, mainly because this year we have had a good amount of rain. The berries, raspberries and blackberries, have recovered well, the rhubarb is very popular with our friends in Boorowa, and the fruit trees have mainly done well, but we have had a couple of trees that didn't like the frost very much and are showing it. The vegetable garden is also producing. The roses we planted last year are blooming magnificently, and we planted another bed in the area to the west of the house, together with some bird attracting trees. In view of the lack of water for the past two years, another water tank (5000 gals) was added to collect the water from the garage roof, which I
extended by another 6 meters, to make an effective water collector. It seems to be working well as the tank filled quickly and it has been used for watering plants, and will be an extra supply if we go into drought again.
These two photos show the before and after of the western side of the house. It is not yet finished, but there has been a bit of an improvement!! The house in the photo is our next door neighbour - the house is currently on the market!
We have continued to have our four legged lawnmower in the paddock. Lucy, the pony, is quite talkative and does a good job of controlling the grass. She did have a little help from a few lambs when the grass was really growing, but is now on her own again. She doesn't belong to us, we just feed her!
One of the things that Julian and I have been doing during the latter part of the year is to put The Holt Newsletters written by my father onto the website. It is a long and time consuming job, but hopefully will be of interest to those who are mentioned and their families. I think we have done about three years of letters out of the 28 years that he wrote them. Both Julian and I are getting more out of them now than we did when we got them in the first place. Should you want to keep an eye on the development of this task go to www.bewick.org/thnl/ .
We have managed to get the computer linked by satellite to the Internet. Because we live in a "remote" country area, the government is very generous and provides a high speed modem and dish at no cost. We have been able to use the "Skype" program to talk with Julian, David, Peter, Des and Biddy and Sara. I don't think I have spent so much time chatting with Julian before. We have had many chats in my mornings, mainly to do with the Newsletter progress.
For those interested in flora, these two flowers on the next page are just about the pride of the garden. The rose is a "Double Delight", and the Cactus (don't know the name) on the right has a beautiful scent, but unfortunately the blooms only last about 48 hours.
I have played golf regularly, even during the colder months, and have reduced my handicap from 19 to 15. I still only play once a week and thoroughly enjoy it. Julian asked us when we were visiting UK a little while ago, "But what do you do?". So to answer that question I will give a thumb nail account of our activities. Pat does Hospital Auxiliary, Meals on wheels (I drive, she delivers), Family Support visits (She is still in the process of her training, but should be active next year). I am Secretary of the local Hall Committee, and write, record and produce a weekly 20 minute Baha'i radio programme for the Young Community Radio (Young is a neighbouring town, not the age of the listeners!). Other than that we are both involved in the garden which is coming along nicely.
Smokey, the poodle, has quietened down since losing his brother and is never very far away from one or other of us. He is a constant source of amusement and a good companion.
During the year we lost one of our oldest friends in Australia, Pat Thornton. The Thorntons were neighbours when we lived in Padbury, and our children were of similar ages, and the two families migrated at about the same time, so we shared a lot of the difficulties of the early years as "New Australians". Natasha arranged to have the funeral broadcast on the web, so we were able to share that time together. Peter and his family represented us on that occasion.
We have had a couple of visitors from Queensland during the year - Miles and Nancy Berkeley visited for a two week holiday. We managed to keep Miles from doing anything for the first week, but it became a losing battle, and he was a great help in the garden during the second week, when he re-arranged the watering system for the raspberries.
Reg Priestley also dropped in for a short visit on his way back from Melbourne.
One section of business. Our little Post Office in the village is closing at the end of December, and we have now been issued with street numbers for our houses. Please note our new address if you have not had it before. We might even get our mail delivered next year!!