Commemorative tree planting and first caravan outing

While we were in Europe last year a dear friend of ours Tas, passed away after a long illness. Unfortunately we were unable to return to Australia for his cremation or for the celebration of his life later on, so we decided to have a ceremony in January while his widow Libby was staying with us at our son (Ben) and daughter-in-law’s (Sarah) property in Queensland.

Tas was always very fond of trees so we decided to plant one of his favourites in his name on Ben and Sarah’s beautiful property. We chose a tranquil spot on top of a hill which had a lovely view and which could also be seen from the house.

A couple of days before our little planting ceremony Ben and Jonathan dug a large hole in preparation to receive Tas’s tree.

It was stinking hot day so they were very thankful to have the help of Ben’s auger to work through the earth and make a suitably large pit.

On the day of the memorial we (Libby the four of us and Jonathan’s brother and sister-in-law) all helped to plant the tree, scattering some of Tas’s ashes in with the special native potting mix that we had purchased beforehand.

Next to the tree we placed a sturdy river rock (found by Jonathan in Ben and Sarah’s creek) on which an engraved plaque was fixed.

After the little ceremony we drank a toast to Tas which I’m sure he would have appreciated more than anything as he was very fond of a drink or three.

The Christmas period was very busy as described in my last blog. We had yet another celebration post Christmas- this time our lovely daughter-in- law’s (Sarah) birthday.

After all the partying and celebrations we opted to have a lazy New Year’s Eve and enjoyed a night in front of the TV, watching the amazing fireworks from Sydney Harbour at midnight to see the New Year in.

Early in January we picked up our new caravan from the showroom and soon after embarked on our first road trip with our great friends Peter and Cathy.

As we don’t yet have a suitable vehicle to tow the van with, Ben and Sarah very kindly towed it with their truck and we followed them in our car. Peter and Cathy hired a caravan for the trip so it was a convoy of three that drive to the campsite (Bigriggen) between Mount Barney and the picturesque village of Rathdowney in the Scenic Rim.

We had a really excellent few days with camp fires (thanks to Ben and Sarah’s for the logs), delicious meals, a picnic near Mt Barney and watching Cathy and Peter’s dogs having fun.

There was plenty of birdlife, kangaroos and even a possum that visited us every evening under cover of darkness.

It was so great to sit round the campfire under a starlit sky and chat about this and that while enjoying a glass of wine or two!

Back at Ben and Sarah’s we experienced lots of extremely wet days interspersed with intense heat. To those enduring a European winter it might sound appealing but it really wasn’t, particularly as one of the dramatic thunderstorms knocked out Sarah and Ben’s air conditioner.

One good thing about all the rain was that the creeks and dams started to fill up which meant we could take the dogs for cooling swims at their favourite swimming pool.

The cooling breeze at sundown up at Ben and Sarah’s look out was our preferred method of cooling down!

One weekend we were invited to join in the birthday celebrations of Ben and Sarah’s neighbour which was held at the local lawn bowls club. It was a great afternoon with everyone joining in whether they were 17 or 72 or somewhere in between.