First day of school

 The power of thought; when living in Castlemaine, my thoughts often went to the idea of living walking distance to school, I would drive around and around looking at houses, wishing I could find an old farmhouse with an orchard, but I never did.............not there.

The Steiner school is up in the mountains( worthy of it own post), and our track joins the school.

Loving the idea of the whole family walking to school.

Our first pineapple from the farm, it was the most delicious pineapple I have ever eaten, and we planted the top again, did you know they take three years to grow another one??
I can hardly wait.

Landing

Once we had arrived I got a phone call from the removalist to say that he could only get in the truck, half of the original furniture.

The thing was, we had already decided to leave Ballarat fully furnished, to help with selling, and were only taking what we had in Guildford. Already regretting the decision to leave before the truck.

So I said "Clothes and beds are all we really need"

Some toy's and a table came too, and three fold up chairs, don't know why all six couldn't come. So we'll be taking in turns to eat/sit. 

The next saga (joy's of moving) was the transport couldn't get up the track to our house.

"Alrighty then" I said, trying to smile. So they unloaded at the bridge and we carted it up the drive.

I was sorta glad that all the furniture hadn't arrived, every cloud has a silver lining.

Went to offer the guy's a cuppa, but alas, nowhere to be found.

One dog, one cat and three chooks

Alice giving big roosty a drink. I know you can buy chooks anywhere but our beloved Roosty has been part of our family for 5years. He has survived various chook attacks(dogs and foxes and eagles). When we were living in Guildford, we would only see him on the weekends, he was struggling, and even once I hugged him and told the kids to say goodbye to him, as I thought it would be his last day. But he hung on, and improved when we moved back to Ballarat.

The chooks travelled in the trailer, we stopped every 2 hours, got them out of their boxes, made an human(child) fence and gave them water and food.
They survived their 15 hour ordeal:)
Scruffy our dog layed at our feet and puss puss took turns sleeping in all the children's laps.

Finally we arrived in Thora.

The long trip

The first stop was to say farewell to Ron, Sarah, Brodie and Luey. Ron had made us a  beautiful Didgeridoo, made from Mallee timber from his country, Ron had engraved six turtles, to represent each of us. Ron is from the Wamba Wamba tribe, he is the best at storytelling.

We miss them already.

It's a 15 hour  trip to Thora, Alice and Jim filling in time.

Can you see the rainbow:)

Dan driving the first leg.

We left at 4am from Corowa, to get some hours under our belt before the children wake. Unfortunately  two b-doubles collided with a ute, near Yass, the fog  was bad, and this part of the Pacific is notorious for accidents. So we waited for four hours, and the kids had breakfast along the freeway edge.
The car behind knew a short cut around so we followed him. The road was closed for most of the day.

The line up. The accident happened only 300meters in front of us. Lordy.

good friends

Jim and his best friend Sven. I think the hardest thing to come to terms with when leaving are friends. I know we can skype, write letters and call. But for my children, they connect through playing, not talking.

The children's friends, my friends, people whom we have shared most of our lives with.

For a while (too long) I couldn't tell my friends or children that we were leaving, I didn't want to see that look of shock on their faces, I felt in some way that I was rejecting our friends, moving on.

Why to people live where they live? is it because of the climate?, community? family? work?
There are a hundred and one reasons to stay in Ballarat.



Good friends had a farewell for us, it's was a beautiful warm Autumn day.

If I'm honest, i would rather leave without goodbyes, it's the flight or fight reflex, I choose flight every time:).  But I've learn't that for the people left behind, goodbyes are necessary.
Teary, hard and confronting though.....

The first step taken

So, my children were happy, loving being home, loving being back out at the school, with their friends. I was happy back in my home, enjoying the quiet,

But Dan, Dan wasn't, the seed was sown back in September, of another life, a life that he/we only had dreamed of, and once you step on that different path, it's hard to step off.

Dan went to work for his father age the age of 15, only 3 years older than my Jim, He did his apprenticeship, as a printer, like his Dad, and took over the family business 'Kings the printer"when his father retired, 16 years later.

When I was engaged to Dan I knew our life would be in Ballarat, He loved his work and it was his family's business. Of all the places I dreamed to live, Ballarat was never one of them. But I was in love, and so it never matters then.

We built a home on family land, whilst dreaming of having children, and made some dear friends, and so life continues, in this place I never though I would ever live, getting on with life.

And I was happy.

For Dan, the pace of print had changed, and he decided to step out and look up, after 33years, all his working life in one place. It's time for Dan to find his own way, without the security of the family business, and so we put our beloved house up for sale and I started to pack for Thora.

Part three

If I keep posting at this random rate, you guys will be "in the loop" by Christmas:)

Well, whilst I was thinking about what to do, do I stay in Castlemaine and commit to buying a property, or do I make a huge move to Thora?

A friend of a friend wanted to know if I was interested in selling my home in Guildford, which means I had to really think hard. It's so hard selling houses this depressed market, was this a sign?. In the end, Dan and I both decided that it's not ideal living in two houses, back and forth, and if we committed to Castlemaine, well this house we were in was more of a weekender, not really big enough for permanent living for a family of six. So we said yes, and it was so easy.... no open days, no big clean up, know real estate carry on, just sold.

So we packed up everything and headed back to Ballarat for the 6 week holidays, to get some perspective. I'll admit, that packing up and setting up houses is exhausting. I wondered how I could do it all again in a month. Just crazy.

And then I enjoyed the rest of my holiday's to see what unfolds.

The time away from Castlemaine, made me see that wasn't our future. I so love the engaging community there, but I could see clearly that the school, wasn't suited to my children, And the scrubby thirsty ground makes me shudder. Joseph was doing so much better, happy, engaged, singing again. I couldn't send him back. Castlemaine was out, I was enjoying being back home, and wanted to stay.

So I enrolled the children back in the Ballarat Steiner school. The children were grinning from ear to ear to be back at their school, I do feel at home there, part of the walls.


I loved seeing everyone again, the new teachers brought such a new 'Steiner' energy with them.

It was so wonderful to see Flynn so happy to be at school, His teacher Stuart is wonderful, more Grandfatherly, with a wonderful knowledge that the children will unfold in their own time. Joseph had Gareth, which is just what he needed, Gareth swung Joseph over his shoulder on the first day, Joseph needed fun in his day, and Gareth is always smiling and telling jokes. Jim had Svantje, a young teacher, she has just come back from teaching five years in Ireland. She was perfect for Jim. Svantje 'got' Jim, saw his gifts. Jim was singing again and playing the recorder everywhere! He was bursting with life. This had always being Jim, but over the last two years it had stopped. Jim was happy enough to go to school, so I thought that maybe he had outgrow this phase and was in the pre teen phase. Jim couldn't express himself at the Castlemaine school, and Svantje was able to bring these qualities out again, I had my boy back.

p.s . there is a part four.....