Well, a days worth of flying. It finds me on the opposite end of our very vast country. And in an entirely different world. Mild weather. Lush green. Flowers. Civilisation. Home.
Nothing quite compares to your family home. Regardless of where you move to. Nothing changes. You return to the same bed that you always slept in. This time with a sleeping toddler in a portacot beside you. And a second daughter in your sisters room next door. Not much different at all really.
My daughters, are experiencing a bout of sickness. Norovirus. There has been plenty of vomiting going on here. Mum has caught the bug, and is also unwell. I'm still waiting for it to catch me. I think it's only a matter of time. I've been quite in the thick of things.
In the meantime, while my daughters sleep off all of their exhaustion. A chance to take a quick walk through Mum's garden. A house, and a garden, that is truly worthy of it's own blog. Inside and out. Certainly more than my company home that is our current residence.
Not just our family home. But our family house. Built by my Great Great Grandparents when they first arrived to Tasmania from Australia. It is a home, special to us in many ways. One we are privileged to still be able to call our own. Even if it is, as all federation homes can be, bigger than you need them to be, with more garden than you necessarily have time to care for, in need of constant maintenance, and impossible to keep warm inside.
But the charm, and history of this house still outweighs everything for now. I love coming home to here. It is a slice of our family history that we are lucky to have back in the family. That I was privileged to have grown up in. I love looking at trees, and bushes, and knowing that my ancestors first planted that. This place holds so many memories, not just for myself and my siblings. But also for my Grandfather, who spent his childhood here, visiting his Grandparents. Not many people, get the chance to revisit whenever they please, pieces of their past like that.
So a tour of Mum's garden. It is the kind of garden, full of all sorts of different nooks and crannies. Where visiting grand-daughters, and their imaginations, can quite easily turn it into a fairy garden in their own little minds.
Mum asked me to not take photos of the weeds, but in a garden like this, weeds are aplenty. Even if you're in the garden most weekends. So excuse the weeds please!!
The arbour where my husband and I were married.
My Great Great Grandmother standing in front of the house circa 1925.
The house was built in 1908.
