Author Archives: sophie

Missing Mischa

by . Posted on
11 Aug

We are very sad here at Avalon today.

We have been away.  We left on Thursday just after lunch having filled up all Mischa’s bowls with mountains of her favourite dried food and left a light on for the stay-at-home child and then Ged, Phee and myself drove away, leaving her leaping around the garden and stalking the ducks.  I dropped Ged in Sydney at the motel near the airport at around 7ish and got down to the Grippers in Kangaroo Valley about 9.30.  Ged flew to Perth on Friday morning for his Reiki course with my old teacher, and employer, Barbara McGregor (sounds like she hasn’t changed in the intervening years!) while I caught up with some much loved and much missed Valley friends over coffee, tea and a lovely dinner at Cafe Bella as well as having lots of snuggles in bed with the gripper children in the mornings.  Angus made me tea and then we all snuggled up to feel the baby move and listen to him swimming in his watery environment.  Good times.
I left the Valley at 10.30 yesterday morning and drove straight up to the airport to pick up my husband with the newly acquired Reiki hands (Benjamin is very happy!) and then I had a meeting at Girraween with CRT to get this year’s orders for Think Fly and Feed Bowls (luvverly jubbly!) and we went to check out pre-fab Cedar sheds and guest accommodation before heading home via Steve and Cherie’s so they could also check out the bump and make plans for a visit after it has landed.  Then it was the long road home in the dark.
We got home about 11.30 and were surprised to see no Miaowing Mischa leaping off the verandah and celebrating our return.  But then she loves curling up on top of the mattress or sofa in the shed surveying the mice population so we figured she was there.  We called and called but no sign and her bowls looked untouched, the house tidy and no little muddy paw prints leaving a trail to where she was hiding or where she had been.  I climbed in the bath to elevate my swollen legs and then Ged came in in tears.  ‘She’s dead’.  He found the little angel long gone in a crawling position near the shed she loved to lord it in so much.  She must have left us that first night but we have no clues as to what or why.  She was in fine feline fettle when we left, full of bounce and curiousity.  The only  odd thing was that Pheonix had been trying to shag her for three days so I wonder if there was something going on with her that we didn’t know about.  But she was eating and drinking and acting totally normally.  And for her to have gone so quickly surely it can only have been a snake bite or poison?  It’s just a complete mystery.
She was only with us for such a short time.  She was so lovely and full of character and mischief and Phee loved her as did all the animals and she was such an integral part of our life here.  Raiding the pantry to get her claws into her bag of adored cat biscuits (even though her bowl was full!), stretched out, belly up, on the sofa next to the fire; making herself at home on each and every chair and sofa and claiming them all as her own; climbing up on the rim of the bath to play with the bubbles and then drink the water; treating Phee like her Mummy, suckling and kneading his chest for her morning cuddles; climbing under the covers between Ged and I to stay warm on the coldest of nights; clawing my furniture til we all yelled out ‘MISCHA!’; curling up on the baby belly for a cuddle; supervising activities in the shed from the top of a stored on its end mattress; playing with the feathers around Tinkerbell’s feet; chasing macadamia nuts around the wooden floor; sitting watching ‘The West Wing’ with us with as much avid attention as we give it; generally getting the best of Phee in their mock fights;  and always, always, curling up on her beloved Daddy who rescued her from a life of poverty and neglect in Comboyne and brought her home to where she revelled in the warmth and comfort and always knew that she had died and gone to heaven when she came here.  Well, now she has.  And I only hope she is as loved and looked after there as she was here.  We miss her very much.  She was here for so little time, but she brought us so much joy and laughter.  And she was definitely ‘Daddy’s little Princess’ so say a prayer for him because he is so sad.  Rest In Peace, little Mischa, we loved you so very much.

Travelling saleswoman

by . Posted on
04 Aug

It seemed like an ideal time for me to do a long overdue road trip to show the major equine retailers in NSW Think Fly (if they hadn’t been ordering it) and also the new products that we have been wanting to bring in to the country for a while, but needed their approbation and willingness to sell, to do so.  It gets me out of the house while Bill the Painter is polluting the atmosphere with toxic paints.  So I set off on Tuesday and drove over the windy, windy mountain to Walcha, and then to Tamworth where I stayed the night with the Fensbo tribe who all marvelled at a ‘fat’ Sophie.  We had a good catch up and in the morning I transformed myself back into ‘Sales Sophie’ and hit the road . . . I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that face to face selling thing.  Getting a bit out of breath though now, at the end of my spiel . . .

The response was excellent which was inspiring and affirming – that this grand Global Horse Products plan of mine does have legs and will run and run . . .
I did Tamworth, Scone, Moonbi  and Quirindi on Wednesday, then bunkered down in Denman for the night (trying to escape the roar of the trucks on the New England Highway).  Thursday was a busy day, covering Denman, Cessnock, Singleton, Maitland and Muswellbrook and then the long drive home.  Enough of sleeping in strange beds – need my home comforts and my human hot water bottle . . .
It is always such bliss to be home . . . .
Ged flew down to Sydney last week to get his new car.  It is a Japanese import called a Mitsubishi Delica.  A people mover on a Pajero chassis and engine.  So it’s a 4WD van basically, which is exactly what he needs for work.  He has ripped out the back seats and put the roof racks on for his ladders and seems to be very happy with his decision.  Now we just have to sell his Toyota – shouldn’t be hard.  I think my new car will be next year now, but my little red Pajero is still doing well and Benjamin won’t notice for a while yet . . .   Actually, the Delica is super comfortable and since it still has two back seats, is probably going to be used as the family car for long trips as long as it is clean!!
Came back from my trip to find the painting finished.  Very good on the outside but he seems to have just done a quick fix on the inside which I am not happy about.  I spent the weekend filling the nail holes in the skirting boards and putting on two coats of gloss.  I will work my way slowly round the windows to get them up to MY standard (which actually isn’t that high!!)  Honestly, if you need a job doing properly, you have to do it yourself . . . !
Also, a miracle has happened!  Those ducks have finally become normal!  They swim on the river during the day, they fly, they camp out under the house, and who knows where they sleep at night.  The ugly ducklings have become, if not swans, then at least responsible members of the duck family, and lovely to see paddling gently across the river from my kitchen window . . .

Queen Bee & the Workers

by . Posted on
28 Jul

The boys are back in town!  Scottie bought a mate up with him for a couple of days this week as Gary couldn’t make it and Bill the painter has been here stripping the external windows right back and priming etc.  So Avalon is a hive of activity and the Queen Bee is happy!!

Talking of bees, we have ordered a hive for the Spring from a local Bee Farm as we have both always wanted to have our own bees and honey.  Have also ordered a ‘Starting with Bees’ book from our friends at River Cottage, and have asked the local apiarists who are setting us up to teach us everything they know – should be fun!
We are ever more like the Ark – two crazy cows, two hefty horses, two delinquent ducks, two house animals (Phee and Mischa) and ok, ok, FIVE hens.  But there’s not much you can do with only two eggs a day.  The ducks really have been a special needs case since the drowning of their two brethren (they had climbed into the chook’s water bowl and then drowned in too much water when they were little).  They spent weeks and weeks refusing to come out of their little shed and we had to tempt them into water with ever bigger troughs equipped with standing stones and log and plank ramps etc, and when we threw them in the river they ran back home as fast as their little waddling legs could carry them!
We were slightly despairing that they might every become normal and then the other night we had a lot of rain and decided to take the cars out to be on the safe side and Ged wheeled me across on the flying fox first (and let me tell you, you know you’re very pregnant when manouevring yourself in THAT confined space!).  I had the torch and played the beam out over the river to guage the rising tide and what did I see but two white ducks paddling around in the pitch black . . . I told you they were special!!
Scottie makes the missus happy!

Ante natal or anti natal?

by . Posted on
14 Jul

It’s all pretty quiet on the western front here at Avalon this week.  No Willing Workers, husband gone from dawn til dusk, and just the sound of silence and my ligaments and muscles stretching to encompass the growing boy.  He literally grows overnight!  I had another visit to Antenatal (where they do seem to be very Anti-Natal!!) to go through the registration process.  Actually, I had a very nice midwife who checked us out (all fine) and had a good chat to.  My blood pressure raises 20 points every time I go near that place – you have never seen so many scary people in your life.  It’s like one of those 1980 horror movies – the day of the living dead.  Ugh!

We went to the dentist as we both had a feeling that fillings were required and it had been a long time between inspections.  Just picked one out of the phone book.  Oh my God – what a mistake!  The registrar, when taking my medical history asked if I had any medical issues.  ‘No’ I said, ‘but I am pregnant’.  ‘When are you due?’ he asked.  ‘September the 20th,’ I replied.  ‘This year or next year’ he asked????
Do I look like an elephant????
Then the dentist was a sort of modern day Frankenstein, more concerned with yelling at his assistant that the CD cover wasn’t showing on the computer screen to indicate which song was playing.  Eventually he asked me why I was there and I explained that because I was pregnant my gums were receding rather more than normal and I had a couple of sore spots so just wanted to check they weren’t cavities.  ‘What rubbish’ he exclaimed.  I should have walked out there and then, after all every pregnancy book on the market verifies the scientific research that pregnancy softens gums as well as everything else.  Good thing it has slightly softened my idiot tolerance ratio or he would be in the dentist’s chair and I would have been the one with the drill!  Needless to say, we won’t be going back, and the hunt is still on for a nice, friendly, normal, preferably human, family dentist for the three of us . . . .
We have been asking everyone we know who they use and each time get a grimace and a graphic horror story of that person’s last Port Macquarie dental experience.  Apparently there AREN’T any nice dentists up here.  Maybe it is the place that bad dentists come when they’ve been thrown out of every capital city in Australia . . . .
Good thing there are such nice Complementary Therapists up here.  We have been having some Bowen treatments which have been lovely.  Incredibly relaxing and long-lasting.  Both Ged’s and mine posture has definitely improved since we started and what with the acupuncture and the Bowen, I have been pretty good through the pregnancy.  My varicose veins have been fine, the reflux is annoying but it’s not critical, and I have kept very well and active throughout.  I am very lucky to have access to these wonderful resources and to have the emotional and physical support through this amazing time of transition from single and selfish to married, sharing and Mum!
The potential painter came today with his wife and kids to assess the work needed on the windows and eaves and the kids had a ball catching the chooks, chasing the ducks and petting Daisy and Paddy (still no sign – phantom pregnancy, maybe?).  He seems nice so he starts next week and hopefully we can get all those annoying little finishing touches jobs done so that the house is really a family home at last . . . . (is this the longest renovation in living history, I wonder?!)

Handyman husbands and tall buildings

by . Posted on
14 Jul

Scottie has been here this week and we almost have an office!

I had a small cow last week when I realised just how high the piers were and had to explain to my husband that that was not how it was meant to be!  I was then given a lecture on the ergonomics, aerodynamics and engineering of buildings on hills (I tell you what – it’s a good thing we both have a sense of humour!!) but then when I finally walked out onto the floor of the office I decided it  was perfect after all (well, it could be a LITTLE bit closer to the ground, but don’t tell my husband I said so!!)
It looks great, and it’s a really good space so all is very good.  Next week work stops as we have no willing workers on site and Ged has to get back to work and service his screaming clients, but then we are hoping to have both Scottie and Gary back the following week so they can get stuck in and bring about some miracles so the pregnant lady stops fretting about the tick tock countdown to the birth . . . (10 weeks to go!)
Talking of cows, we are STILL waiting for Paddy to bring forth . . . at this rate, we’ll both be doing it together . . . .

SOPHIE LOVE

Ged the Builder

by . Posted on
08 Jul

Gary arrived on Monday but unfortunately doubled over with some sort of bug so after I’d cleaned the caravan for him, we just put him to bed in the hope that work proper on the office might start in the morning.  I dosed him up with homeopathics and they seem to have done the trick as he and Ged have been out there digging out the holes, mixing cement and embedding the piers in the hill.  Ged mixed and barrowed 82 loads of cement downhill from mixer to hole – Gary did two!!  And I got to see my husband the builder in all his glory – lordy those boys can eat!

Luckily the good weather has remained with us although the nights are getting really cold now and the fire is burning day and night to keep the house warm.  It feels so good to finally have progress being made on the office.  The little nesting mother is getting quite antsy about getting the office all finished and the clutter out of the house so she can prepare a sacred space for the baby . . .
We drove down to Sydney on Friday to stay with Shirley and Marcel.  We went out for great Indian food near them which was lovely and good to catch up.  They are full of excitement about their impending six week sojourn in Italy so it was good of them to have the love tribe invade for a night.  We were all up and gone early on Saturday morning, they to work and us to brave the hordes at IKEA (which seems to be mecca for mums to be, judging by the bumps traversing the aisles!)  We got the last little bits for the kitchen, a gorgeous mosquito/fly net for the baby which has given me the ‘theme’ for his room, and various other bits and pieces for the house.  And then it was off car hunting for Ged.  He has decided to change his car completely.  When he bought his ‘ute’ it was for him alone as he was still working for his brother’s firm and thus had a work truck.  And even though we fitted the ute out with metal boxes for all his tools they cannot weather the dirt roads.  Since we also need a nice family car with rear doors for easy access to bub, Ged can swap his car for a pure work wagon that really suits his business.  He has done heaps of research and has come up with a plan!  So we were scoping out the possibilities in Sydney.  Then we were late for our hair appointment in Newport (sorry, Ilia!) but it was bliss for both of us to be rid of the weight on our heads and to catch up with Ilia and Rosa.  A quick walk on the beach with Phee – it is so long since I went to the beach at Newport, I remember how much I loved my daily walks and runs there – I do miss the beach no matter how blessed I am with river and nature, there is something so primal and elemental about the ever-changing vista of the waves and their roaring and shushing on the sand.
Next stop was Ilia and Rosa’s new home that they are building to pick up a wood burning stove they have donated to us out of the old house they demolished.  It was great to walk through the frame and see the scope of the new house – huge!  Nice big block and building proceeding to schedule so hopefully they will be in by Christmas.  And then we were off again – this time to the Central Coast for a quick shower and change at our Motel and then dinner with Steve, Cherie, Aaron, Leisa and Gary – our first catch up with them since the wedding.  We went to some appalling pizza place but had a good time nonetheless – next time Ged and I will choose the venue!!  Sunday we bought jocks and socks for the lady who keeps outgrowing her clothes (me!) and then spent the day with them all and the kids which was nice.  Finally home just before the witching hour and my god it was good to breathe the crisp, fresh, peaceful air of home, looking up at the star-filled sky and revelling in the space surrounding us.  How anyone lives in cities is beyond us!!

That’s the nicest thing about going away – it’s so, so good to be home again!

Tree change Anniversary

by . Posted on
01 Jul

A whole year has now passed since I moved lock, stock, and two smoking barrels up here from KV.  What a lot has happened – to me, to the farm, to my life.  Who would have thought that this move that we all deemed the craziest and biggest risk of my daredevil life to date, would make so many dreams come true?

Here I am, one year on, belly distended with child, rings on my fingers, wed at last, in a sweet little cottage that is finally a home (just the finishing touches to go), an office on the way, surrounded by ducks, dog, chooks galore and STILL awaiting the birth of the first Avalon calf.  Truly all my forty odd years of restless searching have finally led me to Ged and this beautiful place that I can wholeheartedly call home . . .
The good news is that a literary agent I have worked with before in the UK is interested in seeing this ‘Mad Cow’ that you all keep saying is a book, written as such.  That actually doesn’t mean very much – it means that if I can knuckle down to writing the first three chapters, she would like to see them to see if they have potential in the publishing world . . . while the baby is sleeping  . . .??
We went out for dinner with friends in Port Macquarie on Friday night and had a dismally disappointing meal with appalling service.  We are slowly working our way through the eating establishments up here and it seems that the bad far outweigh the good.  We treated ourselves to the local Indian a week or so ago as we are both firm fans of the genre and it was awful!  Microwaved mess style food – ugh!!  And  I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a bad Indian restaurant – Port Macquarie really does take poor palatability to new depths!!  Nonetheless we will soldier on with our campaign to try them all so when you come to stay we know where we can safely send you and where not!  The things we do . . . .
The winter thus far has been so mild that all the plants are confused.  I have daffodils in flower, blossom on the trees, lavendar in bud – bizarre.

It’s a BOY!

by . Posted on
23 Jun

Time is winging its way forward and the bump is growing daily.  We had our final ultrasound and apparently IT’S A BOY!!

The baby was obviously determined that there be no more confusion about his sexual identity – He had both his feet and hands in front of his face (yoga baby?) so there was an uninterrupted view of his genitalia.  I made her go back and check three times and each time she said ‘that’s a scrotum, there’s the penis’.  I have been in shock ever since!
I wandered around Port Macquarie in a daze all day muttering ‘this changes EVERYTHING’.  Ged was sympathetic, knowing I had my heart set on little Harmony.  But finally the boy in him broke through the sensitive, caring, husband – ‘he’s well built, anyway’ – TYPICAL!!
Ged is happy too because he knows that he is now more likely to get his two.  I am still going to want my precious little angel girl so whereas, before, I was happy to stop at one, now I will pull out all the stops to land my Harmony . . . more acupuncture methinks!
(oh my god, you mean I have to go through this again??!!)  Being pregnant is quite the most bizarre experience.  I’m sure it’s not natural!  First the overwhelming tiredness, then the nausea, then the constant stretching pain as the previously taught muscles of your abdomen are lengthened and loosened, the endless weeing on the hour, every hour all night, the heartburn, the hunger, the water retention, the emotional rollercoaster . . . Someone tell me, please, why do your bum and legs have to get bigger too?
There seems to have been an extraordinary level of interest in the burgeoning size of my bust as people who pitied my petite appendages imagined that Ged and I must be revelling in my new found frontal regalia.  Actually, I have always loved my little fried eggs no matter what anyone else said or thought, and luckily so has Ged.  I got another huge shock when I finally went to be fitted for a new bra – from 32A to 12C in less than ten minutes and $100 – that’s a pretty cheap boob job!!

The Oven Saga

by . Posted on
16 Jun

Well, the never-ending saga here seems to be the oven.  I was so excited when we finally installed my new oven in my sparkling new kitchen a week or so before the wedding.  But everyone involved in the baking of the blueberry tarts for the wedding feast (Jane, Marcel, Shirley and me) soon discovered that the bugger didn’t work!  Whether it was a faulty item or whether it was the solar system that it didn’t like, the truth is that we have had endless toing and froing with the manufacturer and reseller since we got back from honeymoon.  The thing is that gas ovens aren’t just  gas – no, no, they have electric fans, electronic ignition, electronic thermostats and every other bell and whistle you can possibly imagine which consume megawatts of electricity – presumably all designed hand in hand with the fossil fuel companies to keep us raping the planet, guzzling mindlessly and pouring megatons of carbon into the atmosphere . . . (really, don’t get me started!!)

Anyway, I had to go into full battle mode but FINALLY the people who sold us the stove – ‘The Good Guys’ agreed to give us a full refund plus $500 for my pains!!  And then I went online searching, searching, searching for a replacement.  I thought I found the answer to my prayers in Queensland so bought it and had it shipped down here.  Picked it up from TNT in Port Macquarie with great excitement (baked potatoes at last!) but when we got it home and unpacked the pathetic wrappings it had clearly been dropped and the front glass was shattered into smithereens.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.  As it turned out the bloody thing had an element which lit the gas – which drained even more power from the system so I am stymied once more.
We have been wracking our brains and the closest we have come to some sort of solution is a camping oven – all gas, piezo ignition, but the trouble is, they only have a 30L capacity (tiny) and we want 80L.  Any ideas, my brilliant friends, as we now have a gaping hole in the kitchen and my baked potato craving gets stronger by the day . . .

The Roaring River and Whales

by . Posted on
09 Jun

We’ve been marooned again!

My neighbour, local weather guru, and early warning system, Pat Henry, rang at the weekend to warn of us of a major rain belt heading south from Tropical Queensland so we were on the alert (Pat is spot on with her predictions!).  So when I did my 3am wee on Monday night and it was raining I poked my better half awake to remind him that he had his car this side and not to blame me if he was flood bound in the morning.  He wasn’t, but by the end of that day after relentless rain all day, it was obvious that the river was on the up.  I left my car in Wauchope because it didn’t feel safe aquaplaning on my barely there tyres and got a lift home with George and we just made it in across the creeks.  Needless to say, Ged left his car out on Tuesday night and we woke to the roaring of the river on Wednesday morning – 12 feet below the last one but still a very sizeable flood.  So we played ‘marooned’ all day, cutting a swathe through our respective paperwork in the office and when it came time to feed Ged’s horses on ‘the other side’ the pregnant lady set off, with faithful hound at heel, to walk with two full feed buckets the 2.5kms to find the horses.   Went for a brisk trot around the track (pregnant lady on foot!) and then walked back with four empty feed buckets.  Long, long way!!
It was Ged’s birthday on Thursday so I gave him the day off work (!!) and booked us on a Whale Watching Tour  at 8am out of Port Macquarie, so we had an early start.  There was lots of hanging around scanning the sea for signs of life, and several sightings of pods blowing and breaching, but still not close enough for a real sense of the magnificence of the beasts, so I adopted my positive thinking and stood at the bow thinking ‘I see whales close to the boat’ for well over an hour.  Sure enough, just as we were about to turn for shore, we had a ‘close encounter’ with 3 humpback whales right under our noses at the bow and I had my first real whale sighting.  Wow!  Imagine if we had all been practising positive thinking . . . .
Ged has had amazing up close and personal whale experiences at Hervey Bay so he wasn’t as excited as me, but we had a lovely day with a warm-up breakfast in Port and then lots of clothes shopping to update his wardrobe (and a few things for me, too, since nothing seems to fit me anymore!)  On Friday I was able to pick up my car with its all new wheels (lovely!) and drive across the bridge again so we have spent the weekend in the garden planting bluebells and snowdrops, drastically pruning the roses over the septic, and relocating trees (again!)
We have had the list of suitable species from the Catchment Management Authority and have a visual plan of what to plant along the river banks to protect the banks and create a haven for birds and even koalas – it turns out that those bloody She Oaks (Casuarinas) are not even meant to be in this part of the Hastings valley Catchment Area – so we are completely justified in our plan to chop them down!  It’s very nice when our vision actually coincides with that of the Government and the Greenies (Melissa will be proud of us!)
Still waiting for Paddy to pop  . . . !