Blog for Saturday 10th January 2026

The first thing when I woke up this morning, I thought about my friend and her husband down in Victoria – as they still had no idea whether they have lost everything in the fires that swept through Victoria and possibly their showpiece of a farm, animals and magnificent garden and home. Terribly stressful time for them both and my heart goes out to them.

Gail – my friend – and I grew up as little girls in Monzi, - a farming community which is in Zululand, South Africa. We, in later years, attended the same private girls boarding school. She was my chief bridesmaid at our wedding, yet life has separated us over the years, but she has remained my best childhood friend and I am so sad for the stress that she and her husband are under at the moment.

I got out of bed at about twenty past a four this morning – yes-yes, I know, lazy wench and blah blah fish paste!

I tiptoed up the stairs, but I think Paddy was already semi-awake, if not completely awake by then, as not long afterwards he was up, dressed and made himself a coffee. He was off to Peter’s place at about seven this morning to help do pregnancy tests on Peter’s cattle for him.

Matt’ was up and out of the shed at about nine and he went off at a lickety-spit speed to repair the irrigation pods that were faulty or broken.

I did some tacking – attaching the piping I had made onto the collars for Zara’ s smocked dress Then a little a little later, after loading the dishwasher, I went up to my studio to do some machine sewing on said dress. I am slowly-slowly making good progress on finishing this dress. I cannot wait to send it to Tayla and Malcolm for their little girl.

Paddy and Matt’ have to return home this evening as Paddy has to give some training lectures on Tuesday and needs to work on his presentation and notes for that.

Paddy and Matt’ have worked hard all day and why they have not melted completely out in that heat is simply a miracle!

Oh no! My friend and her husband have lost absolutely everything in the fires in Victoria – their beautiful home, model farm, hundreds of livestock and their pride-of-place gardens too. I cannot even begin to imagine the heartache of eighty years of memories, hard work, sweat and tears gone in minutes! I pray this unites them more as a couple so that they can weather this stressful time in their lives together.

Paddy had one of those eyebrows-above-the-hairline experiences today! He was walking in the bush when suddenly a red belly black snake shot through, from behind him, between his legs and as Paddy was about to take another step! He thought he was going to get bitten as he was mid-stride when this happened and it was like he was in a slow-motion movie, as he could not stop his foot from coming down on the snake, but the snake slithered through and was gone! Paddy is not scared of snakes like me, but he said his adrenaline was pumping! I think I would have been singing “Hallelujah!” way above the clouds simply from shock had that happened to me!

At about half past four Ken took Paddy and Matt’ across the river to Paddy’s vehicle and we waved them a fond farewell as they set off for Terrigal – their home.

Yahoo! Ken, at last, brought our new microwave that had been sitting in my car for several days waiting to be fetched. Remember, I had brought it there but both Ken and I had to walk across the river to get back home the other day, and it was far too heavy for us to carry all the way across the river and then up that long, long hill back home.

Tonight, Ken and I had some sliced and diced chicken, with my Chick-fil-A sauce (brought back from the USA) on Brioche rolls with lettuce. I had made them for Paddy and Matt’ for their lunch, but in this heat, they were not hungry, so we ate them instead.

In the evening, I read my book for a little while and then it was time to head for bed.

What lesson did I learn today? Life can change in minutes. Gail and Brian’s beautiful home, model farm, hundreds of livestock and their magnificent gardens all gone – their lifetimes work taken by fire in minutes. It is hard to imagine their heartache and bewilderment

What am I grateful for today? That the red belly black snake decided to wiggle on and not to bite Paddy today!

My saying for today is …