Today I Am Grateful For...

 Baby Birds There's a Welcome Swallow nest above our back door with 2 (I think - I've only seen 2) babies in it. We sat watching the nest for ages today, the parent birds flying back and forth with food, every time they land on the side of the nest two little black heads with enormous yellow beaks pop up asking for the food. I could sit there all day and watch them - and we have a huge number of other birds in our yard at the moment, it's fascinating and mesmerising to watch them all.

 Reflections There's lots of puddles around the vineyard at the moment (we had 30mm of rain over the past couple of days) and especially in the late afternoon they provide beautiful reflections of the vines and posts and the blue sky - little moments of happiness on my walk around the property

 Early Mornings I woke early this morning (5.30) and figured I wouldn't get back to sleep so I got out of bed. I love being up as the day slowly lightens, and then the sun rises and the birds become more and more chatty. I get so much more done and am so much more satisfied with my day when I get up early.

 Hope Restrictions eased in regional Victoria today. To hear from my friends who are able to go out for food and move around a bit more freely, gives me hope that this lockdown will end soon enough and we'll once again be able to see people, eat out, go shopping where we like etc. It will happen.

 Yoga Caitlin has recently discovered the joy and peace of doing yoga, and she's found a 30 day at home yoga practice that we've decided to do together. We watch the video on her phone, Luna sits next to our mats, usually outside on the grass, Amelie joins in when she feels like it, and I'm loving doing yoga regularly again, feeling grounded and rejuvenated, and I really enjoy sharing it with Caitlin and Amelie.

 Helicopters I really love helicopters, and with a frost forecast tomorrow morning and the vines budding, we have a helicopter here tonight in case it needs to fly up and down over the vines in the early hours of the morning, keeping the air moving so frost can't form on the leaves and damage them. We saw it fly in tonight and I'm looking forward to seeing it fly out in the morning.

 Snakes I love snakes, I love watching them move and admiring their gracefulness. Today we saw a juvenile tiger snake near the dam - the first snake I've seen on the property since we moved here 9 years ago. He was gorgeous - no wider than my finger, although quite a bit longer!

 Purple Hair I've had my hair in braids all week since Caitlin dyed it, today I took the braids out and I'm so happy with the colour, it's a rich, dark purple and it looks amazing!

 Wombats I love knowing that there are wombats on our property - I see their poo each day when I walk, and sometimes their burrows, and often the trails they make through the grass. I've only actually seen 2 (Luna and I came across one a couple of months ago) before today - this afternoon Caitlin found a baby one alone without it's mother. We watched it for a while and ring Wildlife Victoria - they were coming to get it but it ran off into the field across the road. For a little, sleepy wombat it could move incredibly fast!!! And it was amazingly cute.

 Animals I've had a few encounters this week with wild animals (masked lapwings, swallows, kangaroos) and I love seeing them and observing what they are doing. Closer to home, spending time with Winky and Luna and the chickens and Yondu (the fish) is enjoyable and (although sometimes frustrating) usually soothing.

 Soup. I've been making soup on Tuesdays to use up a lot of our remaining vegetables before we get our new box each week, and it's such a comforting and tasty soup. I was making it in the Thermomix which is easy but it limits the quantity to 2L - now I'm making it in a pot on the stove and we have heaps of leftovers for lunch for the next few days too.