As Holidays End

Its a little sad that holidays come to an end.  I'm back to work this morning, but realised I didn't end up doing the wrap up from Maryborough. More work got done on the house with Pete sanding down the back stairs which had partially lost the lacquer from them.  We decided to just use oil to coat them as it can be walked on almost straight away and is easy to reapply. I managed to unblock the drain on the dishwasher and we got a few bits of furniture into place, and Pete patched the hole from the old air con.......  and I did a little bit of crochet work .  We did manage to get to one of the Sunday Markets in Harvey Bay where we picked up this lovely old lamp and coffee grinder. 

We also found a lady who was selling little Desert Roses and purchased 3 of them for Dad who was to arrive on the train from Brisbane that afternoon. We had invited him to come up for a short visit if he wanted to see us while we were closer, and also give him a chance to see our home. While it seemed he enjoyed the visit while he was there, apparently he was not at all happy that I didn't agree to going around all the real estate agents to start looking for something for him. 
 After having gone through 5 processes of organising places to move to for him at his requests (2 of which ended up as actual moves and the other 3 falling through due to him changing his mind once it was time to sign things )- all within the past 2 and a bit years ...... and him not being happy with any

once there, I have to say I'm not going through that process again when I know he is in a safe environment and in an area he lived in for most of his life, and was always wanting to go back to.  After having adult children living with us until a couple of years ago, around the time that Dad moved down to Yarrawonga - we feel it's time for us as a married couple to actually be able to do something for us and make plans for our future. 
After taking him to the train station on Tuesday morning for his return journey, I have to say I felt quite washed out!  The following day both Pete and I came down with something - I'd say the flu as it was very "flu like", but I'm not entirely sold on that.

Pete also put up my swing chair on the veranda where I had

imagined it would go, and finally I was able to add the crochet blanket that I had made just for this spot.  I love how it looks in this spot on the veranda, and I was very happy to get a chance to try it out ......... the perfect spot for the winter afternoon sunshine!
 Scruffy agreed with me and was happy enough to get his photo taken on it.  I might also add that he decided to try out the Vet while we were up there - one of his toes came up quite swollen and with a ulcerative type wound on it which needed attention.  Of course it only happened the day before we were ready to leave - antibiotics, cream etc etc!!!!  The vet even phoned us 2 days later while we were travelling back to check on how he was doing!

Oh, and we were able to get rid of the piano that had been left here! You can see it going down the stairs in the top photo! After Pete getting a builder to come to have a look at something, it turned out he had been the owner prior to the ones we purchased from and he had actually been the one to do many repairs to the house bringing it back from being in a state needing repairs!  He told his wife about the piano and  we were more than happy to give it to them!  They organised a removalist to come and collect it and they left us with some old photos of what the house had looked like back in 2003 when they first purchased it and over the next years to 2009 as they made restorations to it.

We left Maryborough on Thursday after the electricians finished putting in some more lighting under the house.  So long little fella, look after the place till we get back here again!

 After spending the night with our friends in Curra it was time to make the long trek back home to Bundalong - 12 hours driving on Friday with an overnight stop at Parkes in a pet friendly cabin,

and then another 6 hours on Saturday and back to a temp of -5!   I'm pleased I ended up with an extra couple of days off at the start of this week.  The house echoed when we got home with all the furniture that was moved, and so I've moved a few things around (again!!), to make it a little more "home like and lived in".  Now today it's back to work .................

Cows along the Newell Hwy