Ups, Downs and In betweens

I suppose the world brings good and bad and many greys in between. This week has been certainly a mix of both.
I had a great day at the Lavandula harvest Fiesta on Sunday, beautiful weather and a huge crowd combined with our lovely Lark/Doily stall in the shade of the trees made it pretty special.


However, to take the good with the bad I found out that my friend Domm passed away just after Christmas. He had been battling cancer for a long time and I know he would be really mad that it finally won! Adding to that a close friend losing her aunt in a similar fashion, the events of yesterday make three and I hope that is all for a while.

A neighbour rushed over yesterday morning to tell me to call my close friend as his mothers house was on fire. She lives in the bush behind my house in an idyllic spot, a real hub for the family and infamous for their vagabonds Christmas on the deck. The whole community rushed down there but it was too late to do anything but prevent a bushfire starting.
We all watched in horror as the clearing smoke revealed a shell of charred timber and steel. A horrible, horrible day for everyone. Thank goodness nobody was hurt, everyone was out at the time and that is what really counts.

I am very close to this family, they are really the closest I have to a family of my own over here and to see them suffer such a loss is heart wrenching. Already a working bee has been arranged for Saturday to begin the job of cleaning up and clearing the block.

This has been the third fire of this nature in just a few months and the only positive to come from these losses is the enormous amount to which the community has rallied around these families to get them back on their feet. I am constantly amazed by the resilience of people and proud of how this community cares for each other.