It’s been a roller coaster week, with Easter and Anzac day back to back. Half of Australia seemed to have visited Glenelg and ‘our’ beach was mobbed. The holiday atmosphere was quite infectious, and we duly bought our ice creams and hot cross buns and nearly choked at a sudden Easter message complete with icons and religious paintings that interrupted a TV ad. There was the crucified Jesus, and the message of his death on Good Friday. Then the advert for sofas continued. Hmmm.

John and I zoomed down to Victor Harbour then meandered back through Strathalbyn in the Adelaide Hills, it was all so beautiful, and we sipped at a vineyard and bought a bottle of unoaked Chardonay, and hoped that John’s colleague would be impressed…we actually paid more than $20 for it! He is such a wine snob and would deplore my liking for boxed pink!!!

The REAL red wine in this country is Grange….we were very curious and called into a smart ‘bottle’ shop in Glenelg and asked about it…there was just the slightest straightening of the spine, an almost hushed respect as we were led over to the locked display cabinets…and offered a bottle, costing $540!!!!

Such mighty price tags…the other one was an alpaca waist coat that I so lusted over in a cute German-themed village in the mountains. That too was $500 and the only way I was going to get it was photograph it! There are fields of alpacas about…such cool creatures.

Anyway after all this exposure to trees and plants and so on, I read about a lady living in the southern highlands of NSW.

Her garden has grown into the most wonderful paradise, she just planted what she loves, where ever, and it’s grown into this idyllic place where wallabies, wombats, golden bell frogs and lyre birds just live alongside her. She has 800 fruit trees, with 272 different sorts of fruit, from cherries to avocados. She has 132 varieties of apple (not just Granny Smith).Each young tree is netted until it’s above wallaby height, then the tree guard is used elsewhere. She has roses, flowers, vegetables, and bushes that grow the smaller, sourer fruit that birds prefer. I just read it and was immediately lost!

Today I went to Adelaide to meet with the ladies of the Society of Women Writers of South Australia. It was very eclectic. I had to smile, as I looked around the gathering, as I’d had an email from Ruth earlier in the morning advising me to be aware of some of the ‘womens’ groups.’ She’s had experience of gatherings that were supposed to be discussing scones or such like, and inevitably the conversation would turn to the more popular theme of funeral planning. Again hmmmmm!

I heard on the News last night, the account of a desperate woman driver who went berserk in a shopping mall car park. She wrecked about 4 cars before her own car eventually came to a stop, crunched on a big JCB digger that just happened to be parked. She is 94 (obviously had the funeral chat with her friends) and was quite lucid about what happened. ‘My foot just got stuck on the accelerator, it was just numb, and the car just flew on its own.’

When asked if she was hurt, ‘Well, a wee bit of a bruise under my bosom, because of the seat belt.’ And are you going to drive again? ‘Oh no! Haven’t you seen it? My car’s a right off and it wasn’t insured and I haven’t had a license for years!’

Had a giggle at that, as well as the story about stoned grannies in the USA. Should a granny who is stoned be allowed to carry a gun???? Now there’s a thing!

The rest of the news is gloomy, so many murders in this state. Apparently John and I drove past a body on Saturday. She was bundled up in a blue car on the side of the road.

But enough, we’ve walked for miles, enjoyed the hot spell, and now we are all geared up for tomorrow…I shall watch the great nuptials along with the rest of the planet and wish them well.

PS I am having problems with my microsoft…so pictures are not going in as I want…soooo annoying!