Blog for Sunday 25th January 2026

I was up and out of our bed bright and early - no, the day was bright not me!

I tiptoed around, using my phone torch, made myself a coffee and then proceeded to creak my way up the stairs to my studio to have my Quiet Time.

Hile I was still up there I went over my talk for a “Missionary Sunday” before packing it and my Bible for church later.

As Ken was on “Welcoming on the Door” at church we left the farm early and on our way out we said,” Good-bye!” to our one set of campers on the farm who were busy having breakfast and swimming at the river crossing. They were thinking of maybe going home as today the weathermen had said was going to be about 37℃ if not higher!

It was so nice to have the Taylor family back with us in church – they – that is, Matt’, Danyelle, Nick and Holly spent the whole of last year travelling around the world together. When Holly saw me there in church, she (aged seven) – they are just such a lovely family and we missed them terribly.

I gave my “Missionary Talk” at the beginning of the service, and the congregation seemed to enjoy my talk and a couple of ladies and one guy were inspired enough to come and enquire about training to be a SRE teacher themselves!

At the end of my talk, I told the church that Ken and I would soon be leaving the farm, and therefore the area, and most of them were genuinely sad and came to say so to us. I will miss this little church tremendously as we have been so happy there and have made so many really good friends. But … as I said to them all, with Paddy on the farm here we will be visiting him often and will still be able to see them and visit the church on a Sunday when we are up here.

Yoh! By the time we got back to the farm I thought both Ken and I had melted. The air con’ in my car is not working anymore and so we had all the windows open, but the air itself was really ridiculously hot.

Once home, we saw that some of our campers had left and not that long after Ken and I got home, the campers at the back of the farm came up to say their “Good-byes!” They had said that they would be leaving early when they asked to come to the farm, as they had a way to go to get back to their respective homes.

Ah! So, all our visitors had left, which meant I could safely put my ‘jamas on to keep a little cooler.

I did promptly!  That is something that I will miss sorely when living in town as I will not be able to walk around in my ‘jamas like I can here on the farm, as it is fairly isolated here and people have to let us know when they are arriving so we can give them a lift over the river, or they do not know the combination for the Highway gate!

Sure, the odd person has caught me unawares – like the electricity bloke, but most times we are warned when someone is arriving apart from the dogs barking.

As soon as I had my ‘jamas on I sat with Tamryn who was engrossed watching something on TV. It was a series that I had already watched, but I enjoyed watching it again with her as I wanted to just vegetate, plus, I enjoyed watching it again.

Paddy was still out in that boiling-beyond-belief sunshine doing fencing. He came in for a brief refilling of water and a short lie down as he was whacked. But then, he was up and out there again to finish off the fencing he was busy doing.

Ken went to have his siesta, and I even tried to have a snooze, but I just could not. So, I continued watching TV with Tamryn instead, who was also busy doing her nails.

Tamryn is off to spend a week or so with her best friend up on the Gold Coast, as it is her – (Tamryn’s friend’s) - bachelorette party. She is getting married in March.

I decided to try a different dish for our supper tonight. The veg’ dish was made up of should have been gnocchi, but as I did not have any, I chopped up a few hash browns, added, broken florets of broccoli, cherry tomatoes, chick peas, seasonings, dribbles of olive oil, a dash of garlic,  tossed that together and slathered all of that with finely grated Parmesan cheese and baked that in the oven. I then sliced the chicken thighs I had and seasoned them and added some chilli sauce to that and fried that up. I cooked some rice and oh-yes, I made a sauce of cream cheese, a couple of squirts of lemon, garlic, and a large teaspoon of Dijon mustard and whipped that up.

Look it was nice, not raving over it, but it was just fun to try something a bit different. I love veggies so I enjoyed preparing them slightly differently.

Not long after we had eaten, we headed off to bed. Shame, Paddy had had a long, hard day out in that unforgiving sunshine and he was beyond tired.

What lesson did I learn today? How words can inspire and motivate one. They can also convey such love and care.

What am I grateful for today?  Our friends at church.

My saying for today is …