Monday, April 29, 2013

Oarsome!!!

Best buy at this weeks garage sale adventures...


Yep...we bought a canoe!  The garage sale was just across the creek from us so AJ and I paddled it home.  We've had beautiful weather the last couple of days so it's been getting a lot of use.  I think the wet season might be behind us now.  Yay!  Lots more paddling ahead for us!

AJ (aka the bird whisperer) has some new fans in the black swans...




A little Love in our garden...



Sweet Sam...



Hanging at the park with some friends recently, watching the moon rising as the children played...



The view from my bedroom balcony...



Cary enjoying the sunset out the front of our place...

Sunday, April 21, 2013

"We were tired of living in a house...

...so we packed a bag with sweaters and socks and scarves", ....like the children in the 1969 book by Liesel Moak Skorpen.  The children left home in search of adventure and a new place to live...a tree, a raft on a pond, a cave, the seaside, until they discovered that each place had something wonderful, yet also not-so-great, about it.  Eventually, armed with a few treasures they had collected along the way, they returned home, to a house.

As have we.

I can honestly say that we are grateful to be living in a house!  We are definitely tired of living as though we are camping!

We had been searching for at least a month before we found this place.  We were looking for a house, preferable on a bit of acreage.  Back and forth, long drives, hours on the internet, questioning what we really want.  Again questioning if we really want to stay in Australia.  We decided that we just needed at least a smallish house (anything would be bigger than the caravan after all!), so that we could get out things out of storage, sort through everything, sell the big caravan, and see where we were at then.

There was deeper work being processed within me as I needed to consider what I actually wanted and what were the most important things to me.  I had always felt such a strong connection to the beach and the way that I felt when I was there.  Free, connected to myself and Spirit, not needing any "thing", expansive, wild, deep, light.  I decided that the beach has been a huge trigger in helping me feel those things deeply, but it was time to let go of my "need" for the beach, my attachment.  I could feel those things any where, any time.  I surrendered....and I felt even free-er!!  Life started moving in a new direction, quickly. 

I opened myself up to other possibilities of where we might live.  A lovely townhouse 5 minutes away came up...we viewed it at 11am and were signing the lease by 1pm and moving in by 3pm.  The place is more than we had imagined it could be...it's very modern, it's in a lovely secure complex with 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, 2 tennis courts, friendly staff, excellent maintenance.  It still has the community atmosphere that we had at the caravan park, but oh so much more comfortably!!  And the other bonus?


We are right on the water!  Our own little beach on the creek.  I have got to get another kayak!  We have ducks and black swans that come up to our door and talk to us.  At night we see the reflection of the moon and stars in the glistening water and we can hear the jumping fish playing.  It is soothing.  I came to a place where I didn't need it, but I am oh so grateful for it! 
 

It rained almost every day in the first two weeks we were here....and it was oh so nice to not be cramped in the caravan!  We are an easy walking distance to shops, a large library and the youth center that Sam and AJ attend.   We found ourselves sighing quite a lot in the first week or so as we adjusted to and appreciated the place.
 
It's a good place, for now.  I don't know how long we'll be here...6 months, 6 years...whatever...we'll just enjoy each day as it comes.