Well this is the final post of the year and I have been too busy prepping some food for a small party tonight. Covid restrictions are in place again, so we are having a in and outdoor party with the doors open on a cool 21 degree summers evening. Hey it is better than nothing, at least we can eat and have a glass of champagne to say farewell to 2020… Here is our year in a nutshell!

What a year it has been for the world! Here is what the Peaches got up to on this year of craziness and cancellations 😀 Liquid paper was my friend this year in my diary!!

We have had quite a busy year even though we were in lockdown from March until November. I remember waking up one morning and thinking – is it December already? What happened to the year?

The year began with lots of kindness towards each other and the animals and I organised a craft workshop to make pouches for injured animals. Australia was having a nightmare time with bushfires, and it seemed the whole country was on fire! It was like being in California when there were massive fires in the North, and the smoke came and sat in the valley, the same happened here and Melbourne was in a haze of smoke for days. We even got out the face masks so we could breathe outside. Hopefully, our stupid government will wake up one day and realise these fires were unprecedented and call upon our indigenous peoples’ knowledge to manage the land. But this is highly debatable, boo to them.

The disconnect with the land had me volunteering for a local farm to find some like-minded people to connect with and realise that others care about the environment. It was beautiful, but time is a tricky thing when studying and connecting with the community. We have been to lots of art exhibits in the first half of the year, and it has been so good to be back in Melbourne with easy access to so many cultural events. But then came the final event for 2020 – the New Order concert at an outdoor space in the city, my friend and I went, and we danced the night away as it was our last outing for a very long time!

Then came the most significant event a daughter could ever deal with, and that is losing my Dad. It was a shock that it happened so soon with the lung cancer diagnosis in January and then Dad was taken away from us in April. I realised the importance of family and being present for the special time on earth we have with them. My heart still hurts, and the grief is a process that will go for a while, I think. 

So I had to forgo my volunteering when I got a job at a local kindergarten, it is perfect to have the practical element for all the papers that I write. I have switched to an early childhood and primary school qualification to give me options in the future. Still, the community connections made me realise that we have found a wonderful place to live surrounded by people who care about the world around us, especially with our local Good Karma Network to share the goodness of news, free things, kombucha scoby and the like.

Then came the shutdown of our state and the mandatory face masks with many other rules in place to keep our community safe. Funnily enough, everyone complied and kept within the boundaries; of course, there were a few outliers. Still, the police put them in their place with fines – COVID is not a government conspiracy! Anyway, my crafting kept me sane and keeping on top of study plus work my daily exercise was super important. Then it was time to make lots and lots of facemasks – we knew we would need a stash for the future and I feel that is what has helped our state get to 0 community transmission in November.

But come September, Lockdown 2.0 was driving us a bit batty. Then some good news came, and we had finalised the move-in date for our house. It ended up being a 13-month build and thanks to our builder ordering the supplies early it was go, go, go! It was such a relief to finish packing the boxes and get ready to move into our house at long last! It was wonderful to finally focus on getting the house organised after the move and dig around in the boxes that were stashed away from our time in America. After we moved we were allowed to move freely again (with restrictions) and in November we were allowed to have people come over and it was so good to see friends again and eat together.  

So that was life for the Peaches in 2020, good riddance 2020 – here’s to 2021 and to bring in some new light from the dark places we have been in this year!

Love, peace and (virtual) hugs

Trish and the Peaches x