I am sitting on the verandah and I thought I would let you see what I am seeing and hearing.

The grass is green and growing well almost covering all the sand in site, further down the drive the tracks are not fully covered as there has been much traffic over the past six months. Two plovers are strolling across the lawn; one has a peculiar habit of patting the grass with one foot before picking at anything that moves. Coming from the bush over in Anthony’s block our butcher birds have babies so a continuous annoying baby bird squawk interrupts the wonderful silence we are all so used to.

The red tractor is sitting in the shed waiting for its occasional trip to the beach. It looks very grand, even proud to be given a new job taking the boat to the beach, instead of languishing almost forgotten in its overgrown farm yard. Our Landy is parked beside it, very tired and sandy looking after its trip here last night. It needs a nice new canopy and perhaps a paint job but it never asks anything of us and just keeps on keeping on.

The coconut palms are growing well (we now have 11!), they are our private sweet revenge hopefully taking the place, to some degree, of the desecration by National Parks of the magnificent trees my family planted at Waddy Point many years ago.

I can see the ‘Muller’ tree, a stately gnarled Sugar Gum so named as Glen carved our name in its bleeding trunk in 2001. When I feel a bit down I put my hand on its trunk and my words are always the same (for some unknown reason) “for you Glen”.

I have two Kookaburras looking at me – not more than 5 meters away. They have just enjoyed a dip in our bird bath. Whoops, hang on, just as I say this they have spotted a goanna crossing the lawn, they have let out their ‘danger’ call and have dived at it, snapping at its head. It has shot into the scrub looking for safety.

Dad is in the shed waving his hand at me indicating he wants a drink (after all it is lunch time), so I will leave this wonderful spot for you and your imagination to enjoy.