I was in Melbourne again last weekend. 2 consecutive weekends of drives on the Hume sounds punishing but it didn’t feel that way. It was a scheduled trip anyway – Tress and I had drawn up a schedule of visits to Melbourne/Canberra by either of us, which goes on till October. I was saying to her on the phone somewhere on the Hume yesterday, that while physically tiring, trips home to Melbourne is always refreshing and restful for me emotionally and mentally.
Especially this past weekend when I spent the better part of Saturday tidying up the garden.
As always, winter sees the garden more neglected and when spring finally arrives, the neglect begins to show and the longer and warmer days also meant it was more inviting to be out there doing the work. So I got out the hedge trimmer, the step ladder and did those James Sterling hedges in – trimming and clipping so that they looked like freshly cropped heads of schoolboys in school on the first day of term. The lawn mower got worked too and thankfully the 3 month old petrol still fueled the machine sufficiently to keep it all looking better. Next trip should see some “feed n weed” worked in.
I miss spending Sunday arvo at home in Melbourne. Time was when I could maybe cook on Sunday arvos – doing soups for the week, or taking the little fellow on long walks. I now leave Melbourne right after lunch and spend the whole arvo on the Hume. Or if I wasn’t doing that I’d be at the flat on Turner, doing some ironing and then maybe also going for long walks through Haig Park or towards Lake Burley Griffin. But I’d be doing that alone, instead of with Tress and I guess it isn’t so much the activities as it is who they were done with. I guess that’s the single biggest factor of why I have felt so strangely “off” these past 4 months.
Ante 