Everything always seems better in summer

It's been a very long time since I blogged, and right now we are in the middle of winter , so it's hard to remember warmer days.  As I was going through my phone to clear off old photos, I found lots of photos from summer and it reminded me of how great it was. 

Life can be really hard, but everything always seems better in summer. I dread Christmas, but once Christmas is over I really start enjoying summer.  It was nice having everyone home for a little while as Jay came home from Uni for a few weeks, I'm a lot less stressed as I'm not at work every day, and the sun and warm weather always just makes me feel better.  

Since my cousin Jarom passed away  the one great thing that has come out of it is that we've spent more time with my cousins. During the summer we caught up quite a few times either picking cherries at Levi and Louise's house with other cousins, and caught up at the beach and Pop's river. 

Kobe lived in his Tassie boys hoodie for months :) 

Fun on Uncle Kim and Auntie Deidre's buggy. 

Now that the boys are older they don't want to spend as much time at home, so it's always extra special when we are all somewhere together.  Thanks to Covid there was no Falls Festival this year, so Jay was home for New Years Eve.  

A heap of people camped on my brother Eden's block over the summer holidays, and for New Years Eve we had a traditional maori hangi.  My sister in law Becky's family knew what they were doing and  had a very professional set up. 

The food was incredible and some of us went night swimming afterwards and we we all sat around the bonfire till midnight. 

Mum and I always go and have a platter at the Conservatory during the summer. 

One day I dragged the boys to Narawntapu National Park to check  out the gulch and also Badgers Beach lookout. 

Kobe and I were the only ones brave enough to go in the water (and it  was very fresh!). 

Even though my Nan and Pop have passed away and none of the family own the river flats that they used to have, it's still a really special place to me.  We don't have access to the swimming hole anymore, but we went to swim at the bridge a few times over the summer.  

The warm weather held out into March which meant we still went swimming there on the weekends, once school went back. Chrish came down for a week in March, and joined us at the river one day, as well as my cousin Emily and Louise and the boys. 

We didn't risk going away to the mainland this summer because of Covid so the holidays seemed extra long. If  I wasn't at the beach or the river, I was at the Gorge.  Kobe and I practically lived there all summer.  Some days we would pick up his friends and other days it would just be the two of us. 

The water is always pretty fresh, but I love it. It makes me feel alive and my reward at the end is to sit in the sun (usually with a book). One day my cousin Emily messaged me to ask if I was at the Gorge (and of course I was!) so they came up and joined us.  

Another time my cousin Toni and her family met us up there.  

We had the best beach day at Bicheno the day before Australia Day. Harri was down there with Josie and her family, so we drove to pick him up so he would be home for Australia Day (the anniversary of when Aaron passed away). It just happened to be the same day that my Uncle Kim, Auntie Deidre and cousins were down there, so we had an awesome day with them. It was so hot (like 32 degrees which is unheard of at the beach in Tassie) and there was no wind. The waves were incredible, and we just spend the whole day going in and out of the water. 

We spent Australia Day at Hawley with some of my cousins and Mum.  It was actually a harder day than I thought it would be this year, and I was glad when it was over. 

One of the best things about summer was catching up with old friends who I only see every few years (and some more regularly). My friend Naomi and I grew up together, but she lives in Adelaide now but she's one of the kindest human beings you would ever meet.  Every few months since Aaron died she has sent me a card in the mail, just to say hi and let me know she's thinking of me.  I told her I'm a terrible friend as I'm nowhere near as thoughtful as she is, but I'm grateful to have a friend who is so thoughtful.   

Rachelle and I also grew up together, but she lives in Melbourne now. It's always lovely to catch up with her.  She's a psychologist so she's always great to chat to. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy ;) 

I catch up with these girls a lot more regularly, and we are all so busy which makes it hard to work out a night to get together. It's a lot easier to find a time during the summer.  It's very special having such good friends who I have been friends with since Kinder (and Year 11).  

The boys talked me into taking them to a Big Bash cricket game over the summer holidays, and it was actually really fun.  Harri almost took a catch in the crowd.  It freaked me out for a second, because I have a thing with the boys that if they ever catch a ball, I said I would give them $100, just for a bit of fun.  I knew my money was pretty safe, but the ball actually touched Harri's fingers so I thought my money was gone for a second! 

Harri was sad to leave high school because he had a lot of friends who are still there this year, while he's in Year 11 and another one of his best mates got an apprenticeship, so they aren't going to school with each other anymore. He had lots of fun fishing with him one day and was sending me pics of his catches. 

Before school went back we had heaps of fun at the Ulverstone Waterslide with some of my cousins and Uncle and Auntie. We had some crazy trains going and there were lots of laughs. 

One of the most exciting (and stressful!) things over the summer was getting our bathroom renovated.  It was very old when we bought the house and it started leaking, which meant we couldn't put it off any longer.  I was so lucky to find some lovely builders who were awesome and they did a great job. Now the rest of the house seems so old and run down.  I need to save up to get the rest of the house done now. 

We love our new bathroom. 

When Chrish came down in March we headed back to our favourite place (the Gorge) for a walk one night.  He snapped this photo of Kobe, which was a re-enactment of one that he took of Jay years ago (and I can't for the life of me find the photo to link it to).  

While Chrish was down he got our butts into gear, to finally help Mum clear our her storage container from when she moved 6 years ago. 

Unfortunately a lot of the stuff was ruined from moisture and a lot had to be thrown away, but we found lots of old treasures.

We found the old dress up box and all decided to try something on.  It was such an emotional day (especially for Mum) but it was such a fun way to end the day off and we had lots of laughs. 

We had a game of tennis with Chrish before he left. We will just say that we were all pretty bad!

I wish summer didn't have to end as it's always the easiest time of the year for me. I'm sure just the warm weather helps my mood, and I often wonder why I live in Tassie but could never leave our awesome state.