A Happy New Year (or eighth day of Christmas if you prefer) from Yvonne and Greg.
There are a number of photos in this message. Click on them, maybe several times, to enlarge them. That's why the message is a web page, not a PDF document.
This is now the fourteenth year that we have written this message. Times are changing, and we're getting (much) older. One day in the not-too-distant future we'll be gone, and there will be no more New Year's messages.
We've been living in our current house in Stones Road, Dereel, for over ten years, and we've decided to repeat the views of ten years ago in our header photo. Here ten years ago and now:
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In Greg's office, there are even at least three items that haven't moved in ten years: the old Tandem maintenance panel on top of the cupboard on the left, a file on top of the cupboard on the right and an old TV under the table in front of the right window. And he has given up trying to keep the room tidy.
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We have each now lived here for longer than anywhere else, and Greg, once the world traveler, hasn't spent a single night in the last ten years away from the house. And somehow not much has changed.
The year finished with a bang, not a whimper. Our daughter Yana came to visit for a few days, and we had guests over the whole last week, with lots of cooking. Probably more socialization happened then during the whole of the rest of the year—a good justification for our change of date for this newsletter from Christmas to New Year.
Yvonne
Yvonne's heart problems haven't gone away, of course, but after adjusting the medication, things have improved a lot and the side effects are bearable, so she can lead a “normal” life of an oldie who is still active.
She has, very reluctantly, accepted that she shouldn't train and ride green horses anymore, which meant to find her beloved Dana a new home. That happened, and Dana is now on the East Coast with Shelley, her new owner who loves her, rides her and interacts with her in a very harmonious way. As a bonus, Jane's Carlotta also went to live there, which has the advantage that Jane has her nearby and can see her every week. So, everybody is happy.
Greg
Greg is feeling his age. While he hasn't had any serious health issues, he's feeling old. And looking back, he doesn't seem to have done anything this year that he didn't do last year, when he at least had a cataract operation to report. He started on some minor things, but they're pretty much what he wrote last year: less work on computers, a little more on photography and cooking, and staying at home most of the time. He was going to write “the furthest he went was Melbourne, and that was for medical reasons”. But that's what he wrote last year too. About the only highlights were two excursions to the Western Treatment Plant near Lara for photo shoots of wild birds: despite the name, it's one of the most important sites for wild birds in the southern hemisphere:
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Domestic animals
When we got Bruno, we decided for the first time ever we decided not to let him outside. We're too close to the road, and we were concerned for his safety. But it became clearer and clearer that Bruno didn't agree. He really wanted to go outside, and at the end of last year we allowed him, but only during the daytime.
He's still alive. Sometimes he goes closer to the road than we would like, and Greg is continually worrying when he stays away for longer than usual. But it's his life, and if he does have an accident, we'll have to put up with it.
Our other cat is Mona, whom we have had for nearly two years. She gets on well enough with Bruno:
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But though she doesn't get too upset when a dog comes near, she's far from making friends with them.
The dogs are coming on five years old. Elena is doing well, but Larissa has increasing problems with her hip and tendons, so she might not be here much longer, as we fear.
Horses
Yvonne works with her Paso Fino mare Samba almost every day, which means mostly riding. Starting with some dressage, then off to the race track (paddock paradise) for some happy spins around in gait. Samba's gait has become a lot more regular and even, so very enjoyable. She loves the dressage work and is very keen to discover and master new tasks.
Greg isn't overly happy that Yvonne “still rides”, but you can't stop a horsewoman, as everybody knows! And she has made sure to have a suitable, well educated horse so the risk is fairly moderate in reality!
After Dana's departure, up came the necessity of a new companion horse for Samba, so Morena, a Paso mare, joined the family. She turned out, after a few months of work, to be not really ideal for the tasks, so Yvonne found her a new home which was perfect for Morena and where she is loved and appreciated.
Back to square one. This time, it was a young Standardbred mare, Josy, who also had her issues, mostly going through each and every fence, which involved a lot of repair work. But when she started to boss Samba around (out of jealousy, as she wanted Yvonne for herself), this wasn't forgivable. Nobody is allowed to hurt Samba! Chris generously agreed to buy Josy. One of Chris' mares, Chica, will keep Samba company for the coming months, until Esperanza, Samba's half sister, can take her place.
Finding hay for the horses is quite a problem, especially with the recent weather. So Yvonne is very happy to be a regular customer with Ian Miller who delivers hay of perfect quality and is very reliable. A big thorn out of a horse owner's foot! Always good to have the hay shed full up to the top at the beginning of the season!
House and garden
When we moved in to Stones Road, we had all sorts of ideas about improving the house and garden. But after our gardening successes in Kleins Road, our previous house, we had almost nothing but failure. We're considering mowing everything down and painting it green.
One example is the verandah in the photo above. We had planned to tile it, but it still hasn't been done: we can't decide what it should look like. Winter garden? That was the idea. But how? Somehow it's becoming less pleasant to be outside. We can't make up our minds whether that's because we're getting old, because of climate change, or because of the ambience.
As always, if this letter isn't long enough, you can read about our 2025 in excruciating detail in Greg's diary. A Happy New Year to you all from Greg, Yvonne, Samba, Larissa, Lena, Bruno and Mona!
Housekeeping
Maintaining the email list for this newsletter is a non-trivial task. Email addresses keep changing, and we get up to a third of all messages rejected. In addition, some large mail services, notably outlook.com and bigpond.com, have broken spam recognition software and reject our mail. If you use one of these “services” and got the cover message anyway, it's a result of much work on our part. Other messages may also be lost: you should consider changing to a reliable email provider.
Did we miss you this year? Or did you get this message via a different source? Please let me know your email address and I'll update the distribution list for next year.