Home again....... phew!

[Robin4]

@Liv  @Stephanie  @Nick @Katie @Lizzie @Quincy  and all our regular community members.

Hi all,

We are home, having just had 7 weeks away with our family over on the East coast of Australia.

It was lovely having two months without having to strip and make beds and prepare for the next guest. We had a guest, who has stayed here before, from Helsinki in Finland stay from the 22nd December and will be leaving us to go back to Finland next Wednesday. From then on it’s back to the grind with a succession of new guests.

It was our first Christmas together for 6 years so we were determined to make the most of it and our time with our girls and boy.

As Christmas is in the middle of summer we spent a large percentage of time in younger daughter Kate’s pool…….

Christmas eve the grandies had a great time with sparklers and fireworks.......

while us older ones drank a wine or two on the balcony………

Our youngest Granddaughter Ivy has just turned 6 years old, bored with the Christmas holidays she made herself a bubblewrap plastic skirt......

She is an amazing talent for her age and she is, I am sure going to become a serious artist. Here is some of her work……….

Her colouring in and her drawing are way beyond her age, the sort of thing you would expect to see from an 11 or 12 year old and she loved showing off to us.

Our only grandson Sailah-Louie is just a delight, He is one year old, smiles at everyone and just melts our hearts. Here he is with our eldest Sarah……

Here he is with a new friend at day-care…….

I had to, as usual do a fair bit of cooking…..and showing off!

One of our major misgivings about going away was going to be the state of the garden when we returned. A garden doesn’t give you a break at this time of year you have to be in it all the time.

Here is what it looked like before we went away…..

And here is what we were faced with when we returned…..

Anyway, it's good to be home, I have about 700 emails to sift through and will gradually start putting in an appearance here again over the next few weeks.

I hope you all had a great Christmas /New Year season.

Cheers.........Rob

[Emilie]

@Robin4 Lovely to see you back around here! It looks like you had truly wonderful holidays with your family. I can't imagine how special it must have been after 6 years of spending them apart. I love how creative Ivy is - drawing, colouring, designing avant-garde couture ... I wonder what's next on her artistic journey. ☺️

Good luck going through all your emails and putting that garden back in order, now that you're home! What's your strategy going to be? 🌱

[Robin4]

@Emilie 

Hey thanks Em,  I was really afraid that having a long term booking in here for 7 weeks I would, with no activity, slip down the search pages in my area to the point where I would not be noticed and my occupancy collapse . But it's amazing the way Airbnb works......I have  picked up 9 bookings in the past three days  and......as of Wednesday, I am right back into short term renting again with an almost full February , March and April.

Emilie, our family is so precious to us, my farther drank himself to death and threw away a farming dynasty. He was a good teacher though and the lessons I learned from him  was to always be available, and make my daughters the pivotal point of my life. I was never too busy for them.....I was never too drunk for them, and we are now reaping the rewards. We spend as much time together as our commitments will allow.

As I have over the past 5 years I am looking forward to trying to help others out here on the CC, the community centre made a competent host out of me and I just want to pay it on and try to help others just like @Sarah977  @Laura2592  @Helen427  @Colleen253  @Ann72  @Huma0 @Helen3  @Linda108  and so many more wonderful contributors here do.

Keep up the good work Emilie!

Cheers........Rob

[Colleen253]

Nice to have you back @Robin4! You have a lovely family, glad you got some quality time in with them 😊

With a particular fondness for Bernese Mountain dogs, I must compliment you on your fashion choice with the Berner shorts 🤣 And that garden! Unbelievable. Be careful not to let it swallow you whole, as you get it under control. Big job!

[Robin4]

@Colleen253 

Hi Colleen, it's nice to be back on familiar turf again.

That was rather astute of you picking up the dog shorts, in the humid heat it was required dressing to put on something loose and thin so that is why I resorted to those.

The depicted dogs though are Aussie Shepherds, and being the proud owners of an Aussie Shepherd (Betts) it was an obvious choice for matching attire.....

As lovely and gentle as Burnese Mountain dogs are, their shear size makes it impossible to contemplate one here. We did have a woman stay here once with two Berners and I am afraid they completely destroyed the garden so we had to institute a 'No Pets' policy after that. 

Apart from the size there is a great similarity between the two and I can understand how you came to that conclusion.

Hope all is good with you Colleen.

Cheers.......Rob

[Colleen253]

@Robin4 Ah, yes of course, dear Betts, that makes sense!

I had to work hard to train my Berner not to dig in the garden. She could go anywhere else on the property to dig! She was a good girl. Here is a pic of her lying gracefully in the garden 🤣

 

[Ann72]

Happy to see you back @Robin4 and thanks for the amazing pictures!  What a wonderful time you all had.  As a fan of Project Runway, I'm looking forward to seeing Ivy on the show one day!

[J-Renato0]

You are back again with great pictures @Robin4 ! Nice to know you had a great time!

Funny that picture with the black tie t-shirt! 🙂

[Robin4]

@J-Renato0 

If you are going to serve quality food Jose-Renato you have to dress to suit the role!!!

Every time I bring that out it gets a laugh.

I don't know that the 'dulaps' hanging down under the arm is a good look though. I might be due for a bit of nip and tuck!

All the best to you and Anna mate.

Cheers........Rob 

[Christine615]

Welcome back @Robin4 ❤️❤️❤️

[Liv]

Welcome back, @Robin4! It's always great reading about the time you spend with your family. They seem lovely and the pictures are always great (nice shorts!)
It does sound like your granddaughter is a born artist. I love her bubble wrap gown ✨