These school holidays, towards the end of our two-week stay with Steve’s mum in Melbourne, we had a night with Jessie at her acre block just outside Warragul.
We hadn’t been to her house for more than six years – Jessie always drives to see us: either an hour across town to meet up somewhere, three hours to the beach, or a seven-hour drive to our house.
We arrived at dusk, having left at around 4pm after my short work day. Jessie was finishing her teaching day but Jolan and Tara were home, with a schoolfriend, Sienna, whose mother Andy arrived half an hour later to share dinner with us, as she and Jessie and their girls do at each others’ houses twice a week. Jessie had got up before dawn and made dough, which we all helped roll out and fill with potato and seasonings she had also prepared to make samosas. Steve, Jessie and I picked some lettuce from the garden and made a garden salad, Jessie’s friend brought a celery, cucumber and tomato salad, and there were spring rolls. Zoe also came and had dinner with us, having dropped in after her working day.
After a shy start from both of us, Andy and I realized that we both work for Government, and we had a good chat about our respective work. Tara and Sienna had been putting the finishing touches to an apple crumble when we arrived, and we ate it for dessert before saying goodbye to Andy and Sienna and settling in to the nighttime routine: Steve and I sat beside the pot belly heater and did Wordle, our girls watched a movie, and Tara and Jolan had their feet massaged before bed.
The next morning I got up fairly early to have some breakfast with Jessie before she left – she does a life drawing class on Friday mornings, and once a month Zoe is the model. The house was toasty warm: the heater still had burning coals and the morning sun was streaming through the north-facing windows. I missed Jolan, who had already taken the bus for her high school, but Tara stayed home to keep our girls company for the morning.
Jessie built her house herself from straw bales and mud about fifteen years ago. She designed it herself too. My favourite room is the bathroom: the walls are painted grass green on one wall and a deep, dark blue, like our kitchen cupboard, on the others. She created a mosaic out of river pebbles in a swirl along the middle of the length of the wall, swooping up into a wave design. The slate tiles of the shower are like our bathroom tiles at home and complement the colours beautifully. I couldn’t resist giving the bathroom a clean while Jessie was out – I wanted to leave the house looking even better than when we arrived.
Steve and I explored the garden that’s open as part of the local open garden scheme. As well as lettuce, kale and silver beet supplying all of the family’s winter greens, there was also a kumquat and eight-foot lime tree in fruit. Jessie built the red brick paths, created the flower beds, and propagated and planted everything. We also checked out the little granny flat where my uncle Malcolm lives, with its kitchen, ensuite and single bed that pulls out to be a King size. There’s a varandah all around which looks out to the green fields and cows. It’s market-garden style houses as far as the eye can see. Jessie built this all too.
Jessie came back for lunch with us – toasted sandwiches and salad – then after dropping Tara at school, the rest of us set off to some remnant rainforest a twenty minute drive away to do a loop walk. It could have been Tasmania, complete with trickling stream that plunged underwater for twenty metres. The Mountain Ash trees looked to be up to thirty metres tall and signage informed us that there were forty types of fern. We didn’t spot a lyre bird this time, but what a find, tucked away surrounded by the green paddocks of the surrounding meat and dairy country. It’s cared for by the local traditional custodians.
We returned to Melbourne for the last day of our family time before the drive home. Working when Steve was on holidays doing all the cooking and shopping, with a couple of nights out for dinner, felt like a holiday for me, even though I worked for eight of the ten days. Life is so much easier when it’s integrated with support from family and friends. We’re lucky to have it from both our families.
