Finally, we've done it! Here is our Christmas letter with a brief report of the past year. Greg has been keeping a diary for ever, but we're not big on Christmas cards, so this is the first of what will hopefully be an annual letter to our friends and relatives about the year past. There's more to be read in Greg's diary and Yvonne's diary.
We've been living in Dereel for five years now, since Greg retired in July 2007. During that time our lifestyle has changed. Greg has tried with partial success to have less to do with computers, and instead he has started learning gardening, and returned to photography, one of the passions of his youth. Yvonne has also slowed down a bit, but wild horses couldn't keep her from tame horses.
We don't have as much money as we used to, but we have enough to get by, and we're much more relaxed, especially Greg. To misquote Somerset Maugham: “Work is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it".
One of the things that changed a lot since retirement is the amount of travel we do. From May 2005 to May 2006 Greg flew over 200,000 km, and at the end of it he wrote “I never want to fly again”. And since that he hasn't! He hasn't even been out of Victoria since moving here. Yvonne has done a little travel in that time, to dog and horse events, but she's not travelling much either. Everything we want is right here.
The property has seen quite a lot of improvements since we moved in. In particular, we have greatly extended the garden to the point where it was barely recognizable. Lots and lots of plants of all kinds. From a tiny Banksia Rose to a giant Echium, all is there. And, of course, shrubs and trees as well. And a pond. Put in half a dozen goldfish, and they multiplied like mad.
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When we bought the house, the inspector told us that we'd have to have it painted in the summer. Somehow we put it off for summer after summer, but it was looking pretty tatty by a couple of months ago, so in November we finally had it painted. It makes a big difference.
The animals keep us busy, as always. Lilac, our lilac Burmese cat, is nearly 16 years old. The age is showing, but she's still going strong. Piccola, our Chocolate Siamese cat, is her best friend and our pride and joy. The prettiest cat we ever had. She's nearly 4 years old too.
Our Whippets died about 3 years ago, and after some discussion Greg reluctantly agreed to a new dog, Nemo, a black long-haired German Shepherd Dog. He was with us for 2½ years. Yvonne did a lot of things with him, went to our local club and did obedience training and tracking. And also had him enrolled at the Delta society, in which selected dogs visit nursing homes, schools and such.
Here he is with his new outfit:
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But our fairly uneventful life wasn't for him really—he needed more action. So in September, with heavy hearts, we gave him to one of our friends, with whom he can now lead a happy, busy life. He has four dogs to keep him entertained, as well as some horses to play with, and his new owners love him to bits.
That didn't mean that Greg got his way, of course. In fact, we were only without a dog for about 6 hours. We brought Nemo to the airport in the morning, then we went to a Borzoi show and picked up Zoloto Zhivago, a 7 year old brindle Borzoi. Yvonne is delighted to have a Borzoi again, over 15 years since we left our last dog behind in Germany. She's already planning a second dog.
Vago, as we call him, is the sweetest soul you can imagine and has settled into his new life very quickly. He loves the cats and horses and behaves very well around our local wildlife, which is a great relief, and quite a change from Nemo, the notorious kangaroo chaser.
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And then there are the horses... One of the reasons we moved to Dereel was because our friend Chris Yeardley, owner of Narrawin Gaited Stud, is located almost next door. Yvonne and Chris still do a lot of training and riding together, despite Chris' very busy schedule with Uni studies and work. But she always manages to fit in some horsie stuff.
We have so much fun together and are always in for a good laugh, like here:
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Apart from frequent rides out through our lovely landscape, Yvonne enjoys teaching her horses some tricks. Her little Wotan (a Saddlebred-Icelandic cross) is very talented and just loves learning new things:
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And so does her beautiful Carlotta (a Paso Fino-Andalusian cross) and her favourite riding horse:
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The only fly in the ointment is that Greg is getting lazier and lazier, and he doesn't ride for weeks on end. We're all surprised that his mare Darah, now also 20 years old, still recognizes him.
Wishing you all a beautiful, peaceful Christmas and a successful, Happy New Year.
Greg and Yvonne and their four-legged friends, Vago, Lilac, Piccola, Darah, Carlotta and Wotan.