Canberra summer

It’s hard to believe that summer has gone. We had a mild one this year with the maximum temperature no more than 33 degrees Celsius and no heatwaves. January was more wet than February. We’ve had so much rain that everywhere is still green and not the brown, dry land that we’ve had in the past. 

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We had a good New Year’s Day eating Phil’s pavlova (our family tradition) with Mum and Dad outside on our back deck on a hot day. I also caught up with my cousins from around the world on Zoom. It was heartwarming to connect with family in the Philippines and America, sharing our hopes for the future. It felt like a good start to the year. 

Unfortunately, the covid outbreak in Canberra got worse as the summer went on and a war started on the other side of the world. Despite all this, normal activities have started up again. School’s back, excursions are back, Phil’s back to the office part-time and he’s joined a choir temporarily for an upcoming concert. We’ve also booked a couple of holidays. We’re trying to move forward once again. 

Although it felt like a different summer, with so much chaos in the world, I’ve tried to think of the better days. We celebrated our 23-year wedding anniversary with a takeaway picnic dinner from Agostinis at Lennox Gardens. We saw our Melbourne family a week later and the grandchildren from Phil’s side of the family were reunited once again. We recalled that it was 25 years ago in January when Phil and John went on their first overseas trip by themselves to America. I brought out an old pic from Zuma Beach, California where we looked like we were in a band. We went on more picnics when the sun was out. Lego building was one of the main school holiday activities for the kids and we went to meet some of the Lego Masters celebrities at the Canberra Lego Store. We also made it to the Royal Canberra Show which was a fun day out.