Here’s one of the best things to happen in 2025. Hazel is now 4 months old, is almost twice the size of Scout and she’s a joy and a delight. Such an easy puppy, with a delightful meld of Poppy’s intelligence (well… for a Cavalier…) and Jeff’s sweetness.

A few weeks ago, I found a smelly ‘present’ on the back room rug, right near the doggy door. I told her off in a very stern voice and put her outside. When I went back to the front of the house, she came back through the doggy door, went into Georgia’s room and whimpered, telling her all about it. She’s such a confident, outgoing little puppy that it’s hard to remember how soft her temperament is.

She was a big hit at Christmas, which was at my place this year.

I looked at the forecast for Christmas Day, saw that it would be in the mid twenties, which is perfect weather for eating outside under the verandah. I went to the nursery and bought these VERY expensive paper daisies for a festive theme. A few days later, the weather bureau changed its mind and said that it would be a chilly 16°C/61F, so we ended up eating indoors.

Damn.

It was a strange Christmas, the first in my whole life without Mum and Dad being there. Mum is still more or less bedridden after her fall a few weeks ago, so she stayed at Bonbeach, and we all popped in throughout the day to visit her. Kate had organised bottles of Chandon for her to give everyone, all wrapped up in red bows, and she ended up having a good day.

Action shot of Evan29 and Hazel. They’re both hairy beasts.

Evan29 has moved back with me, but in the new year, he and Georgia will be moving into Mum’s house to keep it occupied and for Georgia to gain some much-needed independence. Georgia is beginning work in myotherapy in Hampton in a couple of weeks, which is less than 10 minutes from the house, so it’s perfect.

This will be the first time IN MY LIFE that I will be living alone.

I’ve been the only adult in the house since 1997, when I left my then-husband, but since then I’ve always had at least one of the kids living with me. I look at Mum, who has always shared a room with someone for her entire life, until Dad died in May. My sister too, has never lived totally alone. When you think about it, few people have. Most people move from childhood with their family, to share houses/uni dorms, to marriage.

My friend Cathy from high school has lived alone since her husband died in 2018. “Once you get used to it, it’s fantastic!” she said to me. “There are NO RULES. If you feel like a grilled cheese sandwich at 10 PM, you can do it. Sleep in? Absolutely.”

Who knows? It could be quite nice.

I didn’t plant all that much in the veggie garden this spring, as I’m travelling again in March onwards. The zucchini have already started to produce, and this is the first haul I’ve packaged for the freezer. Now that I’ll be living alone, this may supply me for most of the year – and this is only the beginning of the growing season! The beans have started, while the tomatoes are more leaf than fruit so far, although I’ll get some.

The garlic I planted before I went to Iceland has all died. I think thrips or something may have sucked the life out of them. This is the 3rd year I’ve tried growing garlic, and I don’t think I’ll bother again. Melbourne’s climate doesn’t seem to like it.

However, it DOES seem to like potatoes.

When I first put in the wicking beds, I planted some seed potatoes from Aldi as a first crop in one of the beds. Since then, I have dug for the occasional spud, but they’ve pretty much overtaken the entire bed. I decided to let this particular wicking bed lie fallow this summer, so I pulled out what was growing there – mainly self-seeded silver beet and celery – and I unintentionally harvested all of these! Who knows how many more are lurking just beneath the surface.

This fed us for a few meals, and of course it’s my favourite flavour. Free.

Whenever I harvest some of my potatoes, I always think of the meal in Warrnambool I shared at Loretta’s house. Her husband grows potatoes, and the home-grown spuds were part of the meal. 🙂

In order to use up some zucchini, I made a zucchini slice and had the bright idea to pull up one of the beetroot I’m growing and grate it up to add to it. This is the mixture before I put it into the oven. It looked disgusting, but oh well. I thought we could always eat it with our eyes closed!

But look what happened when I pulled it from the oven an hour later:

I have no idea what happened, but it was a Christmas miracle. All of the colour went back into the beetroot pieces and dinner was saved. The added beetroot was delicious.

In the background of this photo, you can see the new project I’m working on. Cotton washcloths for the kids’ new place. There’s no way any child of mine is going to move away without having some washcloths with them! I’m knitting one a day, with cotton bought from Spotlight at a measly $7 a ball. I tried using bamboo a couple of years ago, but I think that cotton is better, so I’ve switched back.

I surpassed myself this year.

I kept my goal the same as 2024, thinking that I probably wouldn’t reach it due to all the travel and the extra time blogging every day. However, I didn’t factor in all the time spent hanging around at airports, or the time on planes when there wasn’t a movie I wanted to watch. I’ve read some cracking books this year.

When James flew in to join us in Iceland, he brought some Irish gin with him. We had gin and tonics on Diamond Beach in Iceland, which is a wonderful memory. I tracked down the gin in Australia and bought 3 bottles of the stuff, as a celebration of wonderful friendships and amazing memories.

WHAT a year I’ve had!

It’s been a weird mix of absolutely outstanding fun, mixed in with the most challenging times I’ve had since the kids were small. I’m so very glad I booked all the travel I did this year before Dad had his fall. I was able to see the most stunning things and see so much, which was absolutely needed. Looking after a little old lady takes up SO MUCH TIME and mental bandwidth. I had no idea until Mum and Dad’s world fell apart.

Mum’s actually very lucky to have 2 such different daughters who are both active in her care. Kate and I balance each other out. She’s very good at the day-to-day stuff, whereas I’m better at the more long-term decisions and the financial admin stuff. Together, Mum has pretty good ‘staff.’

Next year Kate and I both have travel booked, so there’ll be a bit of juggling going on. Mum’s overall mobility is becoming an issue, as she may end up being bedridden for life after this fall, if she can’t get her legs working properly. Anyway, that’s an issue for Future Frogdancer to deal with, if it comes to that.

Anyway, that’s a round-up of what I’ve been doing since returning from all the travel. I haven’t even touched my very expensive new sewing machine, but in the new year I’ll hop on and learn how to drive it. I owe a few people some baby quilts. And yes, Scott – I haven’t forgotten your quilt.

I hope 2026 is a year for us all to remember- for all the right reasons.

Happy New Year!

Dad joke of the day: