Family,Blessings and Bucket Lists

This Easter was spent away from home but still with family. We went to Grafton 8 hours away to see Bobs Mum who is 90 and his sister Jan who is the same age as me and facing the fight of her life,she will have her breast removed next Tuesday and some Lymh nodes with breast cancer so our aim was to fulfil her bucket list or at least some of it.

Jans first ask was a trip to Nimbin! This is the place that held the Age of Aquarius festival in the 1970's and is the dope capital of Australia lol,full of hippies,dreadlocks and alternate lifestyle people, where hairy legs and armpits are a must and thats for the women!! We were out of the car only 5 mins when jan was offered some cookies that "look just like Anzac" bickies lol the seller was an Aboriginal lady in her 60's.

Bob hand I have been there before and I must say it was a lot cleaner and less "in your face" than last time, Jan and Joan loved it and we did so enjoy seeing all the hemp products and some of the lovely artwork,however there are "no photos please" signs all over I guess they are protecting their goods so i just took this couple.

The old Kombi vans are everywhere and sone have fabulous paint work others have written on them things ladies do not say lol however we did have a wonderful few hours wandering around,last time we were there the school children were crossing the road and some unruley, we heard the teacher call out, Arrow, Cloud,Summer the names say it all.

On the way back we stopped off at a fascinating place,it is an Aboriginal sacred place,once stones would have made the circle but of course people take things and the stones disappeared over the time and so posts and rails have replaced them,women were not allowed in the circle and the young boys would be taken here to be initiated into manhood,I have to say you can feel all the spirits here and no...we ladies did not go into the circle i feel that would have been just the wrong thing to do,I imagine many have just because they could!

The circle of posts where once rocks marked the area.

Although very hard to read this is the explanation of the site, there are many of these around our country and we must preserve then, the Aboriginal culture is amazing and so important,we seem to be realising this over here now more than ever,Jan has worked with the Aboriginal community for may years and so this spot held sigficance for her and now us also.

Next we went on to have afternoon tea in a lovey tea house that overlooked the Clarence River, just a couple of months ago with all the rain this was all under water,we sat on the balcony and took in the wonderful view and had lovely chats.

                                                                  Bob and his Mum Joan

Jan and myself,Jan had hair down to her waist and decided to have it cut short ready for her treatment,she is a good person,we gwet on very well,I am just sad that we did not have that relationship when we were younger,don't know why it just never happened but with the last few years it has been lovely and there is nothing I would not do to help her.

Jan is the keeper of all things precious in the family,paperwork photos etc, and she is the keeper of their Great Grandmothers paintings,we do however have one lol don't know how we managed that but with Bob being the eldest he does not mind at all that Jan has these,she gets great pleasure form looking at them and when we visit the children all want to look.Adye Hamilton illustrated many books in the late 1800's and she also passed this talent onto Bobs uncle Doug who is a Tree Doctor and wrote and illustrated some books on Eucalypts,however I digress as usual...ere are 3 of Adye's paintings,flora being her forte.

 Everyone's favourite and the moth had been flicked away by everyone who has ever seen it.

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter,with us it will be remembered for a long time to come,we were so busy we did not eat any chocolate! however we did remeber to praise God and also remember Bobs Dad and my Grandfather on Anzac day and be grateful for their fighting to make our great country free and the place it is.