Gembrook Orchard in Spring

This surprisingly stark scene is the chestnut orchard just before the buds begin to burst forth. Peter thought this was an opportune time to take this panorama combo, to attempt to show the scale of the much talked about orchard. And this might only be a quarter of it. Soon the leafy canopy will return for another summer, and in Autumn we will celebrate another chestnut harvest with family and friends.

These goats are the natural means of keeping down the blackberries. Three of them are confined on long chains and are moved to new locations every second day.

Tropical Garden

In this last northern visit, whenever Peter passed through Kuranda on the way to Cairns, he pass this beautiful tropical garden. It grew up a slope across a gully from the road's edge. Eventually he had to stop to take a picture of it. The shear scale of the growth and the variety of greens were so attractive. Tropical things still tug at Peter's heart even after nearly thirty years in Melbourne.

Ten Pin Win

Peter has to brag about this event. This was the first time he has ever won in ten pin bowling. It was due to two factors. One was that he found ways to relax and not worry about his score. The other was the his brothers lost their earlier form just enough to let him sneak into the lead at the final roll of the ball. The scoring at the Atherton Tenpin Bowling was semiautomatic, so it was like we were back in the 70's.

Max and Sons

It was Barb's idea to have three pictures of Dad with his sons, and to have them framed. The photo shoots were done with great cooperation from everyone. But an appropriate frame to contain them could not be found. After a long search, the plan fell back to an earlier idea of framing the sons in heart shaped frames Barb had already found. A second copy of the sons with their dad became part of an attractive album. The album appropriately had Barb and Dad on the front cover. The heart frames were given to Mum and the album to Dad, with our love.

Morning Tea at a Dairy

Peter's Mum continued to improve and it was not before long till we ventured out with her to a nearby dairy come tea-house for morning tea. We (in the group pic) arrived in time to see the cows coming up for the milking. The impressively long line wound its way from a distant field through a tunnel under the road and up the hill to the adjacent milking sheds. It seems that their body clocks told them it was time to come up. It was a nice way to celebrate Mum's surprising recovery after having her life swing in the balance just ten days prior.

Midwifery and Long Playing Records

Here is a beautiful and true story, told by a retired midwife remembering the time when her family lived on an outback station. Her roles were wife, mother of young ones and the station nurse.

One evening, one of the girl workers on the station went into labour. It was a week before she was sheduled to travel to the hospital. The nurse found herself in a crisis of commitment. Her children were fed, but there was no one about to watch them while she attended the birth.

Her creative resourcefulness won out and she placed a stack of six LP's on their record player. Each record was of songs and stories for children. The children loved these times when the records played and they were delighted to see their mother prepare a stack of six. They all sat quietly and listened while their mother hurried off to the sick-bay building.

At a certain time during the labour, the nurse was able to dash back to her children and turn the records over to play the other sides of them. The labour went well and the baby was born safely. Everything went remarkably well with the children too. They did not realise what their mother had been up to. They had thought she had wanted to lavish them more than usual that night before bed.

The Touch

While Peter was standing outside room N of the Atherton Hospital where his Mum was, he noticed a painting just by the door of the room, in the hall. There are areas in the picture that are pure painting brilliance and other areas that have been overworked a little. The composition is not that sound either, but when Peter stepped back to review it in totality he discovered that he knew the story. It was a story from the Bible where a woman with a debilitating illness reached forward unnoticed and touched the edge of Jesus' garment as he passed by. As the story goes, he felt the power of God's Spirit leave him and he stopped to investigate why. She eventually owned up. Jesus confirmed that her faith had made her well and she discovered that the illness had indeed left her.

There was something about that story happening in that room (N) of the Atherton Hospital. This was the room the hospital has designed for those departing this world. A touching of Jesus' garment has taken place. Peter's Mum recovered to being allowed to come home. This was the second time this year this has happened to her and both times from the same room. There is power in that painting. A story with meaning.

Just for the record, the artist is Yvonne I. Wozniah, as painted fairly clearly in the corner. We don't know the title of it, but it is bound to be something like "The Touch". Bless you Yvonne for adding story to image and reminding us of the power of hope and faith.