noosa national park

walking shoes on

Johanna’s request for the weekend was to do something active! A walk through Noosa National Park ticked a few boxes – it was something active (about 12km) and there was both bushland and coastland; something for everyone.

a spot of videoing

Grey skies and occasional drizzle were fellow companions, but so were tree lined paths, a swath of greens and browns, wooden bridges, birds calling, the wet and green smell of damp earth and foliage. 

tanglewood path

tanglewood path

graffiti on the scribbly bark

Bush gave way to coast, dirt to sand, enclosed spaces to exposed. The wind was fierce at Hells Gate and we sought shelter under a tree as a band of rain swept by.

almost at Hell's Gate

a windy Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate

heading back along the coastal track

rain is on the way

grey

Two and a half hours later, with tired legs but restful souls, Johanna and I opted for lunch, Colin couldn’t pass up the opportunity to catch a few waves. We ate, he surfed and the heavens opened dumping their watery load. Hot baths at days end were more than welcome…

melbourne

My days in Melbourne tend to be frenetic, every hour of each day filled with family, friends and things to be done. This time there are two and a half days.

Within an hour of stepping off the plane Johanna and I were in the supermarket buying ingredients to make Zac lasagna for his birthday. 3 hours later the wooden table is laden with food and we scrounge 8 mismatched chairs to come together to eat and celebrate – food and family.

There is morning tea with friends, lunch with Heidi, taking Queenie to the vet, making a big pot of minestrone (I like to know my children have containers of healthy soup in their freezers for days when they are too tired or busy to cook), shopping with Rachel for a rug, bookshelf and bedside table, putting together the finishing touches in her apartment, dinner with long time friends, breakfast with Zac and Jan at the café where Rachel works…. Well that is some of what I did!

I fall into bed each night exhausted but satisfied. Melbourne days are ‘mothering days’ and ‘friend days’, they remind me of what really matters and what I look forward to when spending more time South next year. However experiencing some of the coldest Melbourne days this year was not helping; 5.5 degrees at midday, how crazy is that….

seeing

Perspective is a strange thing, what you see depends on where you are looking from.

We all feel a bit flat at the moment. Holidays feel long gone replaced by the usual work and school rhythms. Colin begins a particularly busy couple of months, a full schedule of work commitments, perhaps a tad too many! Johanna begins again the task of juggling school and work and the interruption of travelling to and from Melbourne (we head South again on Wednesday to get our family fix and also to celebrate Zac’s birthday). The realisation that our time of living on the Sunshine Coast is finite and that each day brings us closer to the end of the year. These things sit heavy at times.

And then we look up and out and around and we remind ourselves of what we have here and now, how lucky we are to have today and that most likely tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day offers us the opportunity to see; to see something new or to see something in a different way. A different seeing can help us to have a different feeling. A different seeing can bring greater understanding and compassion. A different seeing can be the beginning of change.

And a different seeing can be as simple as taking a shell and looking, really looking, all the way around…

along the way

Johanna has decided to make use of my old camera – to practise taking video along with the odd photo or two. Our late afternoon walks have been infrequent of late – cold weather (for Caloundra), wind and the early setting sun all contributing to our tendency to stay indoors. But there are still times when we are drawn out; a coloured sky, stillness and calmness, warmth in the late afternoon sun and the ever present urge to be near the sea – to stretch our legs, walk the familiar paths and be filled with the sounds, sights and smells of the coast.

This week there have been two of us, camera in hand (I am still having fun with my little point and shoot), stopping along the way, each attempting to capture something of the moment that is. We walk, we sit, we talk, we listen, we look; we breathe deeply and allow the beauty of this place to fill us up. Johanna’s comment as we walked one afternoon last week, “How can we give this up next year?”

a first

Johanna decided to have a go at capturing some video from Byron Bay. Here is a look at one of her first attempts. It feels like so long ago and we have been back all of three days.

byron bay

the well worn path from Clarke's Beach Caravan Park to 'the point'

A few days before we came to Byron Bay I bought a little point and shoot camera, one that will fit in my pocket. I have decided to experiment with trading some quality for convenience and embracing the freedom of quick snap shots over considered and purposeful photographs. It is a work in progress.

This time around Byron Bay is a mixture of sameness and difference.

Things that are the same – our usual caravan spot, regular and familiar friends and faces, walking to the lighthouse, spotting whales and dolphins, sunset drinks on the deck, the Sunday Market, surfing, ice cream from ‘In The Pink’, a visit to Brunswick heads…

the lighthouse

one of the lighthouse observation decks

looking over Tallows and Suffolk beaches

Brunswick Heads

Brunswick Heads

Brunswick Heads

Brunswick River

Things that are different – the sand that had disappeared from the beach last year creating steep faces has returned and with it a gentle sloping beach, lots of sun and hardly a drop of rain and as a result very cold nights and no spectacular sunsets and for the first time at Byron Bay Colin and I are on our own for a week.

This last one feels a bit strange. Byron Bay has always been a family event, our kids coming and going along with their partners and friends, our caravan overflowing, booking an extra site and setting up tents, cooking for a hungry hoard, junk food and 500 in the evenings…. This time Johanna was with us for 5 days and now we are on our own. It is taking me some time to adjust and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t shed a tear or two. It is not the same, but it is still good, just different and we are slowly setting new rhythms and patterns for two….

on the top of Mount Warning

A quick power nap. I do believe that within two minutes of lying down
snores could be heard from beneath the hat!

the long week

It’s strange how a few extra days can make a difference. Colin’s usual Melbourne stint each week is rude o’clock Monday morning til late Thursday night. This last week he left midday Sunday and returned midday Saturday. No big deal really but it felt like a long week. Anticipating two weeks holiday when he returned made it feel longer still. Funny how sometimes time seems to slow right down and of course when you are on holidays it speeds right up, maybe catching up from going so slow beforehand.

Tomorrow we will hitch up the caravan and along with some other regulars head to Clarkes Beach at Byron Bay for our annual winter sojourn. It has been a whole year since we have made the caravan home. We even considered selling it, wondering if it was worth holding onto and paying for storage when we used it so infrequently once we moved North. We couldn’t bear the heart wrenching thought of that though and lucky it turned out to be because next year we will be living in the caravan during the times we are on the Sunshine Coast.

The caravan has been our second home, one that has been neglected of late. We have so many happy memories and fun adventures associated with that box on wheels. (duthie.net.au) We are ready to add some more…