Dear all,  I've been busy.  There is nothing better than going for a drive with your choice of music.  I love that, think it's why I don't mind driving.  Can't really understand why Norman wasn't allowing to sit inside with a pint.  Here we can't go anywhere just for a pint or alcoholic drink.  You can get oneor more with a meal but not without, and everywhere has limits on the amount of people.  Here it is only 20 people per area.  So with our Rotary meetings we can have up to 20 (we are in a room upstairs) and downstairs they can serve upto 20 with meals.  But that could change here shortly.  Melbourne is looking like it will go to stage 4 restrictions and if they do that they will probably tighten up restrictions for the rest of Victoria.  My knitting has been growing steadily, it's at the stage where I will have to measure it as I don't think there is too much more in length needed.  Then it will sit until I get something to block it on.  It's great to hear Harry is doing well and well-liked at his new school.  Depending on your phone Carol you might have been able to make it bigger.  I would be lovely having hedgehogs in the garden.  
Shirley Valentine is a great movie.  How sad for the lady you were waiting in the queue with.  So quick.  We have been busy here, Have shelves up outside for herbs in pots, and there are now 4 hanging fuschias around the outdoor patio out back.  It really is starting to look pretty.  Lucky you having a manicure/pedicure.  Although my nail lady did send me a text just the other day saying she is going to start doing a few clients.  I think she may change her mind though now.  We have officially got our first case of someone with the virus in Colac.  They work at alc here (1 of 3 major employers), so expecting to hear there are more cases in the comings days/weeks.  And Melbourne of course case numbers are doubling daily, with more deaths.  We have been advised to wear masks if out and you can't keep your distance.  May not be long before our Rotary meetings are put on hold again.  So nice for you with the family coming for a while.  Can't see any of mine, except Deana,Nick and Eli.  We aren't allow to go to Melbourne, and they aren't allowed out of their area of Melbourne.  I've been watching Eli quite a bit, had him last Saturday as Deana and Nick went to Geelong and picked up their new care, which is really nice.  Deana had her usual day off Monday, but Eli had caught a cold so I watched him Tuesday and Wednesday, then for a couple of hours this afternoon.  He really is sweet most of the time.  We keep saying he's going to turn into a monkey soon, he eats so many bananas.  If the weather isn't too bad tomorrow I'm going to go for a walk.  Need the exercise I think.

Hope you're all doing well, and things are getting back to normal for you all.

Take care, love to all.  Sue xx

Dear all and especially Sue, what a busy time we are having despite the world having gone mad!  Sue, I Envy you having family around but then realise that it only happened because you lost Neil, so I apologise.  I really am not sure what I will do when the time comes,. Lots of offers of moving South but at what cost to me?  Your plants sound gorgeous, I love the garden more than the house, the lawn is mowed again, the hedgehog is now being friendly and knows my voice so I can now get within one foot, feed him, give him water and he looks at me intently whilst lapping up the meal worms with his little pink tongue.  I went to buy some food and took the back road, the traffic was down to five miles an hour and then I realised why!  A man with an old fashioned leather helmet, goggles and leather jacket was bumbling along on a black motabiliy scooter with a back pack, I said to hubby it looked like he was living his motor bike hay days on it, so dangerous and I'm sure illegal.  So I've just had a phone call from Lisa, they all have a rash from swimming in a private pool on Monday and are on antibiotics, so they are not coming today, Harry says he has forgotten what my face lloks like, Lisa said that as there were pictures of me in the house that was highly unlikely.  Hopefully they will come tomorrow, but now hubby is saying he doesn't know if we should go out Sunday for lunch, I am trying to keep everyone  calm but can feel my blood pressure rising.  Faye has just face timed and said they should have known better when they were coming here but we can't live our lives on hold for one person, she didn't look like she agreed..  So talk about the best laid plans and all that, why is life so hard at times?  I have tried to sit and read the paper in the conservatory but the people behind our house have a massive cherry tree, last year they put a net on it to stop birds pecking them, hubby and I thought that was awful, but today it has been like being in Beirut, the net has disintegrated so the birds are getting them, flying over our house and dropping the cherry stones on the roof, the racket they make is unbelievable, now we know the reason for the net.  So hopefully tomorrow they will arrive, we won't catch anything and that we get out for lunch.  See you soon, love Carol x 

The family have made it at last, at the moment they are at their cottage unpacking.  Hubby still doesn't want to go out for lunch, it's getting to the point where I really don't fancy it myself, I hate all the drama it spoils the sponteniety of things.  The weather is atrocious again and we will be lucky if we can have a walk to stretch our legs, I'm not quite sure where this heatwave is but it's not in the North East!  So if I don't post then you know I haven't gone missing, just busy with real life.  Carol x

Dear Carol,

Enjoy the visit from your family.  The heatwave definitely isn't here, we had 1 degree this morning not sure we got to double digits all day.

Love to all.  Sue xx

Harry, Lisa and Tugs arrived and we had the biggest hugs ever.  Harry said he could remember my two blue eyes, my smile and blonde hair but he had forgotten the shape of my face, his smile was like a Cheshire cat, I could have cried and laughed at the same time.  Tugs had a hug saying it was the first person apart from Mrs T, Lisa, he had hugged in four months.  Harry and I went for a walk and he told me all about the cavapoo puppy they are getting, he is black with a white stripe down his tummy and is named Zio but mummy is going to call it Zippy, I told Harry about the children's program Zippy and Bungle that mummy loved and he laughed when I said the bear had a zip on his mouth that could be shut to stop him talking.  So we came back and by then the sun had come out so we sat in the garden, him on my knee, Lisa and I drinking blueberry gin with ice cubes in which I had embedded edible flowers, so wonderful to have a normal life.  We are all going for Sunday lunch, but as usual my tooth is playing up again, but who cares?  A few drinks, painkillers and lots of laughter will help.  Apparently the cottage is a barn conversion but as Tugs is so tall he keeps banging his head off all the doors and beams, we suggested he wear his bike helmet in the house, Harry thought that was hilarious.  So Sue I hope it gets warmer soon, it is sunny but not at all warm here.  Take care all, love Carol x 

Dear Carol,

Sounds like a perfect day.  No sun for me here, we've had bitter cold, wet, and windy all day.
Deana and Nick put solar lights in the back garden yesterday afternoon, I checked tonight to see if they were on.  No, it's dark out there, just gives an idea how cloudy it's been here today.  I'm going to Geelong tomorrow, to a fabric ship, going to buy some fabric and hopefully make some masks for us.. it's compulsory in Melbourne but will be the same here before long I suspect.  We have 10 cases in Colac now.

Have some wonderful family time.. enjoy each minute.

Take care, love Sue xx

Lunch was so good and Sam the lady owner gave us a virtual hug, she was so pleased to see us, Lisa was late so hubby and I sat down, she looks like me I tell Sam as we can't go back out to get them, when she arrived Sam said "she's stunning".  Today I booked us into Tan Hill, the highest pub in the country, its up over the stang and a fabulous drive, you get there and you can practically touch the clouds.  They didn't have a good system going and we had to stand in the cold to be allowed in, we sat for ages then realised there was a buzzer on the table to push!!  So we sat for over an hour before we got the food and it was horrible, my chicken ceaser salad had three pieces of chicken in it, hubby's burger was as dry as sticks and the chips raw, they need to up their game before we go back, £80 for four adults and a child, but we took it on the chin because they treated us.  We went back to the barn conversion which is superb and beautiful, the countryside around them was glorious.  Hubby is suffering with rampant indigestion and looks tired but he's happy.  Tomorrow I'm going to Lindisfarne with them, Harry is worried that we will get stuck there as you have to leave before the tide turns to get across the causeway, I said there were sharks there, he looked worried but Daddy said they would chuck me in first to check!!  See you tomorrow, love Carol x 

Another fabulous day on Lindisfarne, Holy Island, the weather was glorious and we walked the whole island, the sands were so white and the boats bopped  on a blue sea, very rare for the North Sea.  We had limited time as the causeway would be flooded by 2pm, Harry was getting edgy as he thought we would get stuck there! But we had lunch in the Crown and Anchor, crab sandwiches and a sea food platter, a chilled glass of saivingon blanc and a view across the headland.  It is so nice to be out and about instead of stuck in one place.  We called in at Alnwick on the way home, coffee and cake, then some shopping.  So we are all tired but happy.  Another full day tomorrow but I love it!!  Take care, Carol x 

I'm back again, hubby has struggled to cope with everything, they've gone and he's just said that he loves them a lot but it's easier just us two, I'll second that as its like having an older child who hates not being number one!  Harry has been gorgeous but Lisa has not been too well, the antibiotics have upset her.  So Anthony's Mum has had a fall, social services got involved and she was deemed unable to be on her own, she had just been diagnosed, this week, with border line personality disorder, that was being discussed from Bristol but the phone service in Bolam was so bad they couldn't discuss it properly.  But by Wednesday she had been admitted to hospital with fluid on her lung, some sort of neurological problem which they can't investigate due to her needing 24 hour oxygen.  They told him he needed to get there sooner rather than later, don't leave it till next week.  He made the decision to finish the break and returned home today so he can visit tomorrow.  She's my age but Anthony says I could guve her decades compared to my life and hers, she has been a constant worry for him, yet never been a "Mum", so I respect his decision.  And of course today the sun is shining, yesterday was a monsoon and we were stuck in the house again, they managed Barnard Castle and bought me a hedgehog pillow, it's lovely with rows of hedgehogs on it, it now has pride of place on the wicker sofa.  Talking of hogs, he's just come out, drank his water, eaten his mealworms and shuffled back home. I've just finished the ironing, caught up on the washing, packed the lego away, a cup of tea, the last piece of cake and later a blueberry gin and tonic.  Take care, love Carol x