July 21

Not only has a year passed since I last wrote anything but it is exactly a year, and we in Victoria are in lockdown again, first for five days, now extended another week.

We got through it of course but it is hard doing it all over again. The garden has been growing weeds, the roses need pruning and I planted broccoli, leeks and swedes but the nights are too cold and they have barely survived. I even covered them with an old shade cloth blind on the frosty nights.

This year is radically different to last: we now have two Jack Russell puppies. We travelled to Mt Gambier to collect them, just a five-day border closure, after Christmas. They are adorable and have turned our life upside down. They are now nine months old, we walk much more than before and can feel the benefit. Rocket likes to dig. We put more sand in the grandchildren’s sandpit but she prefers the mulch pile, diving into it with excited yelps, paws furiously digging. Dot is prone to freezing on the end of a lead or when she is scared. She isn’t into digging much, except when we are also digging or laying pavers on a sand base. She digs and Rocket attacks the rake, the shovel, anything resembling a broom.