Danielle's Difference.

Earlier this year Mark and I was blessed with another grandchild. Mark's youngest daughter, Jenny gave birth to her first child in February.  Jenny and her partner Reece were over the moon about the arrival of their little girl Danielle. To say that Reece was a doting dad would be an understatement. He couldn't take his eyes off this amazing little miracle that was his daughter. And for a first time mum, Jenny amazed me with her quiet, confident way with her little girl. They were so completely happy! And then the unthinkable happened and baby Danielle became sick, She was rushed to hospital and after many tests and a move to a major Children's Hospital, Jenny and Reece heard the most dreadful news that their darling girl had an inoperable brain tumour. They were told that she would live for only one more day but she hung on for 9 more days.
As you can imagine it has been a difficult time for us all but none more so than for Jenny and Reece. They have surprised us by their strength. Danielle's strength has inspired Jenny to ensure that her very brief life will make a difference and so she has set up an appeal in Danielle's name.
http://www.facebook.com/DaniellesDifference

What's on in Transition Towns

Tomorrow night we will hear Heather talk to us about cooking using a solar oven. Heather is very passionate about this subject and it shows in her presentation. The solar oven can be used as an oven to bake bread, cakes, pastries, etc ;as a slow cooker; a kettle,a dehydrator, a thermal cooker and a hot house for making yoghurt, raising bread or roasting nuts and much more. With the rise in energy costs to be able to cook food using energy free from the sun is very appealing.

Growing some of our own food  is an important part of food security.

Following Heather's presentation we will hear from Jamie who is a part of a couple of food initiatives in partnership with TT Newcastle. Jamie is very passionate about food security, and so we will hear about what Newcastle is doing to secure it's food supply. One aspect is the Neighbourhood Supported Agriculture. If you are local come along and learn more. Mark and I have a particular interest in our city's resilience, especially in the area of food. During the Transport strikes a few years ago in Britain it was ascertained that supermarkets had only 3 days supply of food on their shelves. How can we be prepared for such an occurrence. These are the things Jamie is interested in.

Working together to build a food producing backyard garden with a permablitz.

We would also like it if people would bring along any excess garden produce or seedlings to swap with other people on the night. John from Cornerstone Cafe will be making soup and everyone is asked to bring something to share for supper which adds a social aspect to the meeting.

I would like to welcome everyone who has now signed in to follow along on my garden ramblings!

What's in the garden today

It's great weather here for brassicas at the moment. Our CSA subscribers get at least half a cabbage in their box each week. The bigger the box the more cabbage, and so the larger box often gets a red cabbage as well. Now Mark and I don't have any trouble going through a cabbage a week. We have it in stews, soups, stirfries, fried rice, satayed and come spring we will eat it in coleslaw. We tried last year to make Kimchi , but really we need to find the time to put more effort into it, and we will this year. Some of our customers find the volume of cabbage a little challenging. And I can sympathize. Before we started the market garden, I didn't eat much cabbage at all, but now that we try to eat mainly from the garden I've had to adapt, and now I really enjoy it even just sauted in a little butter and pepper.  How do you eat your cabbage?

Other brassicas we grow are broccoli, bokchoy, kale (3 varieties), rocket, kohlrabi and tatsoi. I've been asked a few times about tatsoi. It is a very versatile vegie, and very fast growing. It is an asian green along the lines of bokchoy, but with littler leaves which can be added to a salad mix. You can pluck the leaves and leave the plant in the ground and it will keep producing. We use it raw or cooked in stir fries or in place of spinach, and it grows here all year round.

Here you can see a few of our brassicas - Tatsoi, kohlrabi, green and red cabbage

On My Mind- An Early Start to Summer Vegies

Joining in with Rhonda.This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. It opens the door to us sharing our lives through these photos and gives us all a new way to discover each other, and maybe form new friendships. Your photo should show something at home that you're thinking about TODAY.  

We start our summer seedlings early using this underheater that Mark made out of an old waterbed heater. It has a thermostat so that we can keep it at a constant 30c temperature. This way we can germinate tomatoes, basil, capsicum, and eggplant and have them up and ready to plant out as soon as the earth warms up and the threat of frosts is over.

Here you can see tomato seedlings, brandywine have germinated. They will be taken down to the potting shed to be potted up in a few days time. They will be potted up maybe 2 more times before they are actually ready to plant out.

Wednesday's meat free recipe

Today Rhonnie and I cooked stew and dumplings. I make a stew using whatever vegies I have available. Today it was onion, garlic, carrot, potato, celery, pumpkin, broccoli,tomatoes and cabbage. All fried up and vegie stock added. Bring it to the boil for 5mins. add cooked red kidney beans ( can substitute a can of kidney beans if you like) and 1/2 cup split red lentils.Simmer until all vegies and lentils are cooked. Meanwhile make the dumplings. Sift 1 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt,2tsp baking powder and 1tsp paprika in a bowl. Rub in 2 tblsp. butter. Bind together with water to form a soft dough. Divide into 8 portions and roll gently to form balls.Uncover the stew, stir,and then add the dumplings, pushing them slightly into the stew. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15mins. until dumplings have risen and are cooked through.

While that was cooking we made up a batch of  laundry liquid al la Rhonda over at Down to Earth. This is the 2nd time I have made it, and I am just so happy with it I thought I'd share it with Rhonnie.

Baby Leah

I've been promising photos of the newest little one, and today Bec and Dave bought the children out for a farm visit. It being oh so cold I offered to stay indoors with the baby while Elizabeth and Jeffery  ran around the farm with their mum and dad. They visited the pony and had a little ride, talked to the geese and expended a little of their energy by just plain running, While I ,on the other hand,  got to change a nappy, sing lullabies and rock the tiny one in my arms for a half hour or so.

Then, after a good play outside, Elizabeth and Jeffery were back inside with time for kisses and cuddles with me, before it was time to go home. Oh I love being a grandma.

Hidden Treasures

Look what I found during our harvest this morning.

I found quite a lot. The others went into the meal before I thought to take a photo

 Capsicums in the middle of winter! I managed to find quite a few tucked away. I really thought that they were finished.

I decide to make one of my favourite meals, usually reserved for summer due to the ingredients being summer vegies. But I had the other ingredients in the pantry so decided to indulge ourselves.The recipe comes from Kathryn Hawkin's "Vegetarian Main Meals". Mexican Chilli Corn Pie

Ingredients;

Garlic and onion chopped

1 red and 1 green Pepper (Capsicum)

hot chilli powder

Can tomatoes }

Can sweetcorn } I always use these fresh if I have them

Can kidney beans ( or 1/2 cup dried beans soaked overnight and cooked)

2 tblspn fresh coriander

Topping;

2/3cup cornmeal (polenta)

1 tblspn flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 egg beaten

6 Tblspn milk

1 tblspn oil 

1 cup grated cheese

Method

1. Fry garlic, onion and capsicum until soft

2. Stir in chilli powder, tomatoes,corn, beans and seasonings. Bring to boil and simmer 10 mins. Stir in coriander and spoon into ovenproof dish.

3. to make topping, mix together polenta ,flour, salt and baking powder. Make a well in the centre, add the egg, milk, and oil, and beat until smooth batter is formed.

4. Spoon over the capsicum and corn mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Bake in oven at 220c/425F for 25-30 mins until golden and firm.

There's enough left for lunch tomorrow.

Finished

Well I don't know about you, but I can sometimes find myself surrounded by quite a few unfinished craft objects. I will start something with great gusto and enthusiasm and before I know it my thoughts are being distracted by the next project. I blame it on all the incredibly clever people out there who design new things. My thoughts (and fingers) are drawn to the next item waiting to be started.  Anyway I just had to complete one or two things and what better opportunity than a two way 14hour train trip and a week away from the hustle bustle of the farm. So here is some of the things I was able to finish over the last couple of weeks.

Pants and a cardigan for our newest grand daughter, Leah. All I needed to do with the cardigan was sew on the buttons.

A little vest for "twinkles" (more about that later!) This was made from wool I got from an Op Shop find.

From the same wool , a hat for Mark

You may just be able to read the card which says that the wool is reclaimed and recycled, and hand dyed with eucalyptus leaves.

These pants ( also for twinkles) made from wool that my daughter Meghann  gave me for Christmas.

Meghann bought a jumper from an Op Shop (Thrift Store) unravelled it and then dyed it. The wool made beautiful little pants didn't it?

And lastly here's Meghann's gift which I started way back here. I still had the binding to hand sew once I got to Melbourne, just in time to give it to her for her birthday. Meghann loves to drink tea brewed in a teapot and drunk from china cups and the home- made biscuits, well, doesn't everyone love them?

Slow Food

Today we were host to  Slow Food Hunter Valley _:
SLOW Food Hunter Valley is a convivium of Slow Food, an international not-for-profit organisation founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions, people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world – people, communities, animals, plants and the environment.

We talked about our CSA and that we now have 20 subscribers, who receive a box of fresh organic food every week.We told them we grow seasonal produce and stick to everyday sort of food ie. the basic sort of food that families design their meals around. The group could see that the housing development was getting closer and closer. We were able to explain how important it was to have places like ours growing food so close to the city, and that we need many more Gardens similar to ours.
We took the group on a tour of the garden.

Here we're looking at the garlic beds and how the guinea pigs in cages keep the grass down between the rows

The group were amazed at the work the chickens do in preparing our garden beds, the number of fruit trees within the area, the amount of food growing in each bed, the central beds which we set aside to attract beneficials to the garden, and the interactions of the various elements and much more.They really enjoyed looking around , nearly as much as we like showing them around.
Over a cuppa we talked some more on other things we are involved in such as our courses in sustainable living which are coming up such as ;composting, wormfarms, propagation and pruning, and our Permaculture Design courses.

We were able to talk about Transition Towns and the citrus drive and share some of the citrus we picked on Thursday from the backyard of an elderly lady. She was grateful that we were able to make use of the fruit of 5 trees she has growing. Some of the fruit went to our local community centre to be distributed to those less fortunate than us.There is so much more fruit out there to be collected. I hate to see it go to waste!
It was a lovely morning spent with lovely people who have a similar philosophy to our own Care for the Earth, Care for people and Fair Share.

Meatless meals

Over 15 years ago I decided to stop eating meat. My decision to do so started a few years before this when the literature I was reading suggested that it was healthier. And then I read that it's better for the environment to eat less meat,but it wasn't until I moved to the farm and heard the neighbours cattle bellowing for their calves who had been sent to the market, that I actually stopped. Now there's a point to me telling you all this. For me it wasn't an easy decision. I had 3 small children at the time and I knew that I couldn't just continue to cook the same meals and just leave the meat off. I actually had to replace the meat, and I wasn't sure how to do that. I was brought up on the meat and 3 veg type of meal and my repertoire was pretty limited.My readings had shown me the importance of pulses and legumes, but what to do with them? I then came across a handy hint, well a couple actually, which I have expanded on over the years. But the original hints made it easy.
First of all I read, that most people have just a few recipes that they serve up to their family each week. I thought ,Yeh that's true for me. Meat and 3 veg, a couple of pasta dishes, a roast, soup, Shepherds pie, as I remember. Now all that I needed to do was replace those with a healthy vegetarian alternative, and so I came up with about 6 easy family style dishes. Lentil roast, spaghetti bols with kidney beans instead of meat,Spinach and ricotta canneloni, Kitchari, rissotto and Gardeners pie. The 2nd hint was to have canned legumes and pulses on hand because it takes a certain amount of pre planning to use them dried .I now use them dried nearly all the time.

This all happened when my girls ages ranged from 10 to 15. I didn't enjoy cooking, I worked full time and I was still struggling with the whole meat replacement thing. Needless to say I wasn't very welcoming of the girls in the kitchen at this time. And they have all moved away without really getting any cooking hints from me apart from the one where I said cooking wasn't fun, an idea which I got from my mum! Since they have flown the coop I have grown, not to love cooking but certainly appreciate it  much more and have ventured out into different areas with my cooking to the point that we make most things from scratch including sourdough bread, pasta, pizza dough, yoghurt, cheese and all our biscuits,cakes and desserts.

Meghann and her partner are vegetarian and can throw together some pretty good meals. Her partner has quite a love of cooking and they manage quite well. Sarah and her partner are also vegos and are aquiring a love of cooking and I was able to give Sarah a few hints while I was down in Melbourne last week. Rhonwyn lives here in the Hunter with her new husband who is not a vego.and she is struggling a little with what to cook that will please them both, so we have started a weekly cooking day, today being the first. I went to her place and we discussed menu options and worked out what groceries we needed, and then went shopping keeping in mind not to buy one off ingredients but basic all round ones that can be used in various recipes.
 Back home again to start on a Lentil roast from "Vegetarian Main Meals" by Kathryn Hawkins. This book was given to me by a friend when I first decided to stop eating meat and has been very useful providing me with at least 4 of my mainstay meals.We made 2 of the roasts. One for Rhonnie and Scott and one for me to take home for our dinner.

Ingredients;
1 cup red lentils
2cups stock
1 bay leaf
2 cups grated cheese 1 leek or onion chopped
handful mushrooms, chopped
11/2 cups breadcrumbs
2 tblspns fresh parsley
2 eggs beaten lightly
1. Boil lentils, stock and bay leaf gently until liquid is absorbed
2. Grease loaf tin with butter and sprinkle with some breadcrumbs
3.Stir cheese, leek(or Onion) mushrooms, breadcrumbs and parsley into the lentils.
4.Bind together with lemon juice and eggs. Spoon into tin and bake at 190C for 1 hour.
Loosen loaf and turn onto a serving plate. Serve with roast vegies.

Rhonwyn is only cooking for 2 so there should be enough left for tomorrow night and maybe a few slices for sandwiches as well. When we have this we slice the leftovers, and shallow fry them and eat them with steamed vegies the next night. I calculate the cost of the loaf at about $5. This would be less if you made your own breadcrumbs.For dessert we made apple crumble which is a variation of Rhonda's rhubarb crumble using just apples instead of rhubarb and berries at this time of year .Next week we'll try something different.

Principle Two - Catch and Store Energy

Bees are very efficient at converting the sun's energy, which , through photosynthesis can be found in plants, into a nutritious food i.e honey. They store it in wax within their hives as a food source for themselves, they have in effect caught and stored energy.We have 4 beehives here on the farm. The bees do a great job of pollinating our plants and twice a year we are able to rob the hives of the excess honey and store it throughout the year as food for ourselves and our CSA members.
Mark is the bee keeper and he goes onto to talk a little more on the value of honey.

Steiner stated in lecture five on bees that “basically, it is truly a wonderful thing that such small creatures exist that are capable of extracting from blossoms, flowers and plants that substance that they transform into this extraordinarily healthy honey, a substance that could play a more important role in human nutrition than it does today.”

It was fascinating to learn that the time a bee spends as lava differs with the type of bee that is produced. A worker bee develops for 21 days which is the time the sun revolves on its axis so “the worker bee has experienced every different effect the Sun can have on it, and all of these effects are now within the bee.”
The queen takes only 16 days to mature.
“it doesn’t even finish the sun cycle of 21 days. It lags behind and remains forever a Sun child.”
The drone spends 28 days and moves beyond the Sun to be influenced by the earth. “it is definitely an Earth animal, while the worker is a sun child, complete within itself.”

He spoke of “social medicine” and the role honey could play in the development of a child if couples ate honey as part of preparing to have children “because there is in honey a force that can affect the reproductive power in human beings, who then in turn transform this honey power further so as to give the offspring a proper bodily form”

Steiner talks about the importance of honey as a food – especially as we grow older. For children it is milk. “Honey contains the power to maintain the shape and form of the human body, to give it solidarity”

He says that we need to be most careful when we interfere with Nature and that the intrusion is often detrimental. “Despite these constraints, Nature operates in the best way it can. We can remove certain limitations and thereby make things easier for Nature. We have, for instance, seemingly really helped Nature very much in regard to bee keeping by using, instead of the older beehives, the newer type of bee hive boxes that are arranged with comfort in mind for both bees and humans.”

But as for artificial breeding – the strong bonding of a bee generation, a bee family, will be detrimentally effected over the longer period. “we will have to wait and see how things look after fifty to eighty years” …… NOW!!

For me honey is a little like compost in that it is hard to put a value on it. There is really no price that would represent the value of either honey or compost and as such they are both best given as gifts to valuable friends. Having said that we are happy to distribute our excess honey but we should never lose sight of the intrinsic value in the “nectar of the Sun.”

A Model of Sustainability

We have set ourselves the weighty task of establishing a model here at Purple Pear, of sustainability.We join many many others with the view that the only way out of a very dark and gloomy place, ie global warmimg, peakoil, soil degradation, economic instability etc,etc, all of which are challenging our survival on this planet is to reduce our negative impact and increase our positive impact on the planet.
One way in which we impact positively here is by growing food organically, (Biodynamically actually). Over the past 5 years we have built up our soils by adding organic matter (and using BD preps). In an article from The Organic Gardener magazine, Dr Paul Hepperly, soil expert, says the way to feed the world and conquer climate change is to concentrate on soils. Farming organically compared to conventional farming reduces greenhouse gas emissions, he says, because organic farmers do not use nitrogen fertilisers or herbicides like conventional systems.But the biggest impact on the health of the planet could come about if all the world's farmland converted to organic farming because of the amount of carbon taken from the air and put into the soil in the form of organic matter.

People gathered for lunch before the tour started

Now of course most of you know all this, but it is a nice reminder and a great lead in to what we did yesterday. Many years ago Mark and I joined the Hunter Organic Growers Society. They have been operating now for over 25yrs and have been instrumental in changing how many people farm and garden here in the Hunter, and certainly gave us a very good start along our journey into organic farming. We have hosted Field Days in the past and were honoured to be asked to host another one yesterday. Over 60 adults and children turned up, on a very windy and cold day. Mark and I broke them into 2 groups and took them on a tour of the farm.The theme for the day was the Farm as an Organism. We looked at the interactions of the various elements that make up the farm, and how that helps us reduce the use of external inputs, and how this and other things such as solar energy production, water collection and waste management ,and soil building mean that we have a greater potential for a positive impact rather than a negative one, i.e. one that is more sustainable.
We feel that it was a very successful day and that people left feeling inspired and enthused. And Mark and I were enthused by how many people turned up and were hearted to think that they would go back and do sustainable things on their own piece of Earth.
It was also nice to meet Kim from The Little Black Cow who came along for the day with her family

Permaculture Ethics and Principles

Permaculture Ethics and Principles are important to us ,it's what our lifestyle is all about. They are put very nicely in this little video, taken from here   Sit back and enjoy.

On My Mind

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. It opens the door to us sharing our lives through these photos and gives us all a new way to discover each other, and maybe form new friendships. Your photo should show something at home that you're thinking about TODAY. If you're in another country you should join in when you read this, even if it's still Thursday.Joining in with Rhonda with what's on my mind.

Home sweet home

After spending a wonderful week in Melbourne with 2 of my beautiful daughters and their partners, coming home was on my mind today. It has been a great week getting to know a bit about their lives down there, we even managed to get in a bit of gardening. And it's always good to get home!

Inner city visits

I was able to spend the morning with both Meghann and Sarah. It's Meg's last day at her job at a Steiner pre-school and we had been invited to have a little look around. I just love Steiner pre-schools. The soft colours, the toys made from natural fibres and wood, the little dolls tucked up warmly in their beds in home corner, and the home-like quality of the indoor space, the smell of wholesome foods cooking in the kitchen, the warmth and the rhythm of the days. A truly lovely atmosphere in which to nurture young children and one I'm sure Meg will treasure as she moves onto her next journey into the publishing world.

From there Sarah and I visited The Convent where we had lunch at Lentil as Anything , starting with coffee and then a lovely vegetarian buffet. Around the corner from the cafe was a Contempory Art space which, I have to admit, left me rather cold, apart from one exhibit. This was an arrangement of crafted household objects such as knitted coathangers, teapot cosies and doilies arranged by colour. It was a tribute to an era of homemaking and I really appreciated the thinking behind it.

Just down the road, but part of the convent is the Children's Farm .This is a working farm where city children are able to go to experience on farm activities, such as milking cows, feeding lambs and chickens, collecting eggs and nursing guinea pigs. It is in a lovely setting and provides ample opportunity for children to see where their food comes from. Once a week they hold a market, selling produce grown in their market garden. A great model of an urban farm.  

Urban Permaculture

My daughter Meghann and her partner Dom are a part of an environmentally aware group of people, esentially as  part of their local Transition Town. On the weekend at Meg's party I was able to meet a number of these young people. They were all very interesting, all doing amazing things in their own ways, and it was quite heartening to meet them and to know that Meg has such wonderful friends down here.
One of these people is Kat and today I got to go to her house and spend some time with her. Kat lives in a small house on a small block in a suburb of Melbourne. She is in the process of transforming this space along Permaculture design principles with the intention of  establishing it as a model of urban sustainability. She is not  ready to share it with the public just yet but was kind enough to give me a tour.
At the front gate visitors will be greeted by a food forest. There are various berries, an avocado,and currants to name just a few of the fruit trees she has already planted. It is surprising the number of trees she has in such a small space and she plans to plant more! Hanging under the verandah, using the available vertical space is an assortment or bikes. From the front yard we walked around the side of the house to find a large custom built water tank to take full advantage of the available space. Behind the tank is a sun trap open to the north and enclosed by the white walls of her house and the neighbours. Kat says that even on the darkest of winter days this area is quite light due to the reflection of these white walls. There are more fruit trees here and it is heavily mulched. There are plans a foot for chickens to be housed here in the not too distant future.

One of 2 water tanks.This area faces north and is shaded by grapes in summer. Kat plans to build a worm farm seat here.

Next we come to the greenhouse area to be completed within the next few weeks. It has been sited to take advantage of the northerly aspect.

Light is reflected off the white walls.
Kiwi in pots down the side. They will be trained up over a structure. The  photo is taken from where the new greenhouse is to be built. 

In the back yard we find more fruit trees, and the vegetable gardens. Kat hopes to be self sufficint in vegies and most of her fruit.She has 2 big water tanks for the house and garden and has diverted water runoff from the back fence to a pipe that supliments the garden.

Vegies in the backyard covered by netting to protect them from possums

Nestled in behind a clump of arrowroot  is a bath tub,heated from beneath by a small fire.Kat plans to add a shower in the future.An old tool shed is being renovated and repurpoed as a studio or bedroom. It will be finished with a mud and straw slurry mix giving the building a straw bale look.
From there we took a look at zone zero- the house. Kat is in the middle of retrofitting the house, but I was impressed with what she has achieved so far and loved hearing of her future plans. In the lounge room she has replced the gas heater with a slowcombustion heater which she uses for as many functions as possible. So not only does it heat the living area but she also uses it to boil water, and for drying clothes and herbs etc. She is able to close this area off so that she is only heating or cooling a small area. She has stuck bubble wrap to windows to insulate them and covered others with thick curtains and built concealed pelmets for those people who may not like the look of pelmets. Most of the materials used in these projects are repurposed from the renovations going on around the house.

Fireplace with brick surround. Even when the fire goes out the bricks continue to radiate heat. the bricks were sourced from the backyard and the mosaic made from broken china.

Bubble wrap on windows for insulation

In the bathroom Kat has built a composting toilet at very little cost. The waste is taken outside to finish it's decomposition in big barrels. There was suprisingly no smell at all.
There are many many projects she has on the drawing board,inside and outside. Her energy usage is a very low 1.3Kw per day and she is self sufficent in water. I was inspired by her enthusiasm, her ingenuity, her integrity and her vast knowledge covering many areas on sustainability issues.Eventually the house and garden will be opened up to the public as a model of urban sustainability.

 We also dicussed her involvement in a local CSA ( community Supported Agriculture ) which I will post on later.

Turning 30

Thirty years ago today my first daughter Meghann was born. She was a tiny 4lb 14oz. having arrived 4 weeks early. She was perfectly healthy just very eager to be here, and this eagerness has continued right up to today. As a baby she hardly ever slept and was always looking around. As she grew her curiosity also grew and she was into everything. She walked at 10 months, talked early, read early always wanting more. She loved knowledge and was to spend quite a few years at uni, actually she's back there now doing another degree. Her first is in Arts with a major  in theatre, and now she is studying publishing.

Tonight har partner, Dom is holding a party for her and everyone is dressing up in caberet/burlesque clothes. Meg has always liked to dress up which she is able to do often when she is performing, and caberet is her favourite.

Gypsy Kate

Rhonwyn, Scott and Travis

Meghann  Ma Mambo

I am so pleased to be able to make it down here to Melbourne and to  have the opportunity to see my girls, as my youngest, Sarah is also down here and my middle daughter Rhonwyn has come down with her husband and stepson.And grateful to Mark for holding the fort back at home. It's lovely to see Meg and Sarah in their space so I can picture them here when I go home. And I am so happy to be able to celebrate Meg's birth day here with them.I am so very proud of who she is and the wonderful things she is doing in her life.

Rhonwyn, Meghann,Sarah and me dressed and ready to party