The river is clear. calm and rather noisy as the water flows over the rapids near the bridge. We can hear the sound from up at our house. I like it! I didn’t go to work today, so I decided to take a different walk with the dogs this morning. We went down the front of our property, towards the river. We have a good parcel of land in the front and over time Laurie is developing it into paddocks and pasture.

When we first bought our land, we had a young family and we’d come over to The Coast for holidays. There was no access to the top of our hill so we had to park on the roadside and walk up. I still have visions of our boys trudging up the slip carrying their suitcases for a week or two camping! We carried everything up that we needed. At first we stayed in tents but over time built a small shelter that was named Hope Hut. The hut has fallen down now and it is slowly rotting back into the bush. Laurie wants to tidy it up and that will mean a total demolition. We have lots of memories tied to that hut so I went down and took some last photos before it is gone for good. It’s a bit iconic and I will miss it being there! The gum trees in the photos were planted by our boys and us in that first year or two with the idea they would be good for fire wood one day. Some of them are getting pretty big now.

I walked to a point where I overlooked the river and road. It’s quite a drop in altitude – maybe 70 – 80 meters. The views from there are quite different than those up the top of the hill,

Walking back to the house I skirted the side of the bush and then cut through it for the final last climb. The bush on the side of our hill that goes down towards the river is largely untouched in places. I really like it, although the kiekie and supple jack make walking through it very difficult in places!

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Laurie goes back to work tomorrow, so I’m at home on domestic duties. No complaints from me – it’s my happy place. I still have heaps of jobs here to keep me busy and there is so much to see and enjoy. The weather forecast is for heavy rain. I think Kayden and I might have a movie and popcorn time!