Taking the plunge

@outlander, oh dear, sorry to hear about your visit to the hospital regarding a burn to your hand. Are you okay now? What happened?

@utopia, so pleased do hear you are on high ground and therefore safe from flooding. Hopefully everything subsides quickly.

@Maggie, sorry to hear that your meeting with the social worker needs to wait until Monday. Hopefully it will all be worth the wait.

@Appleblossom, good to see you here.

@Former-Member We now live in the Southern part of NSW Mid North Coast region. But I dont live on the coast. I live about 20 mins drive from our nearest beach. So we dont have to put up with seasonal holidayers. We live on 3 acres of land about 11kms from our nearest town. Just couldnt bring ourselves to go from the farm to a quarter acre block in town. So we are doing it in stages I guess you could say. When we had the farm on the Southern Tablelands however, we were about half an hour from our nearest town, and yes it was very supportive and friendly as most small country towns usually are. It was hard to leave, I had friends, family and workmates I left 7 hours drive behind when we left. My Mum and Dad, brother and sister all still live back there. All farmers. Snakes yes, that was always a bit of a problem. In fact my previous little dog Abbie, was bitten by a brown snake, and we lost her not long before we sold the farm. It was kind of the straw that broke the camels back, you could say. She was a great little dog ,and a fabulous rabbiter and ratter. But unfortunately she was rabbiting under the shearing shed and a brown snake had the same thing in mind. Abbie came off worst, and we were too far from town to have any chance of saving her. Terribly sad, and I still get tears of sadness as I think about it.

Well it turns out you arent a neighbour after all. Although not all that far away in reality between the Central coast and the Southern parts of the mid north coast. I can still call you a neighbour then. And isnt that funny - you must have moved around the same time as us? As I said we dont live on the ocean, but a nice 20 mins drive to the nearest beach. We do like to take a drive out there sometimes and take Holly for a walk on the beach as well. Generally when we do that we buy fish and chips afterwards. A nice little interlude. And Holly loves it.

Yes lucky neighbours. The neighbour is actually my hubbys oldest friend. They served in the Navy together, and have been friends for about 50 years. And when we moved up here 8.5 years ago, he and his wife also decided to sell their house in Sydney and move up here about a year later. So they're only a 5 min walk across the road now. All the houses here are small acreage, a former farm subdivided. Its a good area though with good facilities nice and handy. And also not far off the Pacific Highway, which means we get plenty of visitors who are travelling up and down the highway. Which is good for extroverted hubby, but not so good for introverted me.

Anyway here's hoping hubby is feeling well enough to enjoy the lunch. Really glad that your friends are looking forward to your visit on Monday. Its important that they continue to have some normality in their life.

@Bunniekins - we have lots of bird life around here too. I will show you a pic of some parrots who had a feed of our grapes a couple of years back. We have a grape vine right along our deck. And also a pic of a hawk who was very interested in our budgies who have a large outdoor aviary in our back yard.

Sherry xx

@outlander You are neither a fool nor an idiot. Rest your hand if you can and be gentle with you.💜💜

@Former-Member I love budgies! they are an adorable bird! Once I went outside and a butcher bird was perched on our budgies cage! she was a cheeky bird though and was pecking at its feet! I think the butcher bird was very confused lol!

Wow @Former-Member that hawk, he's a big boy. Sounds lovely in your part of the country apart from snakes that is. Your chocolate slice looked very tempting. I hope your lunch goes well tomorrow, do you enjoy the company or would you rather watch the cricket???

Yes @Bunniekins budgies are lovely. I have 14 of them at present. I used to breed them, but havent put the breeding boxes in this year yet. Here are a couple of pics for you. Some of my budgies and one of the babies on my hand not long out of its nest. They make fabulous pets and are quite affectionate. Even though mine are kept in a large outdoor aviary and all in together, they are still very tame and will hop onto my hand for a treat whenever I walk in there.

Sherry xx

I can't see the hawk yet!!!!! it's my computer !!

ADORABLE!!! I would love a budgie! or two or three!! So much fun!