Blog for Monday 24th March 2025

Last night I woke up at half past twelve and then could not fall asleep again. I tossed and turned but sleep evaded me. Raafie brought a large bone (great, but thankfully it was an old and very clean one!) onto our bed and was gnawing at it rather loudly, but I did not have the energy to shoosh him off, but he did stop eventually as there really was nothing to gnaw on!

Because of that interruption last night, I woke up late this morning.

Och! The first morning without Shamara demanding her first bowl of food. I was just met with silence. She was not around and I was faced with the stark reality of her absence.

That will happen time and time again until the ache and pain of separation from a loved pet softens with time.

This life without her is going to take me a while to accept but I console myself with knowing that she is no longer crippled with pain which is wonderful.

Paddy left the farm at about half past nine this morning and I miss him already – Ken took him over the river to his car on the tractor. I cannot thank Paddy enough for what he did for Shamara and me. It was not an easy task for him, but he did it even so.

I did a lot of washing this morning and then went out into the main area of the shed. But try as I might I could not get those heavy leather Lazy Boy armchairs onto the trolley to move them out of the way. I will have to wait until Ken can help me.

At about lunch time Ken got up and had something to eat before planning to go out to the Pteridium Camp to slash there, but he was not feeling that great so went back to bed. So, that put paid to helping me with the armchairs. Another time.

I worked then on my SRE lessons for this coming Thursday, sorted the fridges again, then cut up the cauliflower and butternut to freeze them, and unloaded and loaded the dishwasher again. In between that I walked backwards and forwards hanging out washing on the line, as you do!

I had thought of going into town today, but as we have to go into Wauchope on Wednesday for our Bible Study Group I cancelled that plan. We will go into Port Macquarie after Bible Study Group that rather. It will save us a trip, as we both have appointments on the Friday in Port’ too. Plus, I teach on the Thursday so there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing this week!

This morning, I also typed out and emailed seven recipes to the lady who is compiling a book to raise funds for the Long Flat Primary School. Lovely idea and it is always popular.

Mid-afternoon I had a shower – I did not shower this morning as normal because I thought I would get dirty and sweaty moving stuff around in the shed – but, when that did not happen, I had a nice hot shower later instead.

At about three-ish it looked as if we may get rain, but apart from a few sprinkles plus nothing, because the rain skirted around us, we got very little. Again, thank goodness we were grateful, as we want to get off the farm this week if possible. I think next week will be a different story as it looks as if there will be consistent rain for the whole week!

The day slowly leaked away and it was time to call it a day and curl up in bed. I listened to my audio book. I am thrilled, because you know how I kept nodding off while listening to my audio books at night, and had to re-wind the chapters in the morning to where I remembered the story? Well, Paddy showed me how to set a timer ont he audio app while listening which is wonderful. I set it for ten minutes and am almost asleep by the end of that time!

No more re-winding needed! Hurrah for technology!

What lesson did I learn today? Grief is a heavy weight on one’s heart.

What am I grateful for today? Learning to set a timer for listening to my audio books. Works like a charm!

My saying for today is …