And now a quick Catch Up.

So…after Mum passed away on the 19th of December there was a lot to sort out, especially informing family and friends of her passing by phone and email and letter. There was the funeral to arrange too and with the proximity to Christmas that had to wait until the beginning of January.

Will and I went away for Christmas for a few days in Whitby. (I’ll post more on that later.) We returned to Mum’s and began to slowly sort through the house. One of the biggest jobs was copying family photos and slides so that my brothers and sister had copies. Will did most of that.

The funeral was on the 5th January, a cold, frosty day Mum. was buried with Dad in Wetheral.

After the funeral we continued to sort the house and arrange probate.

Will and I moved back to my house in Penrith as we started to clear Mum’s house.

We took some time off in February and had a week in Cornwall and Devon. (I’ll post more on that later).

We decided to go ahead and book flights back to Australia for the 16th March even before we knew if we could get everything with the house sorted in time but we just felt we had done enough and wanted to get back.

As it turned out we did get the house pretty much emptied before we left. We took an antique oak settle and the dining table and chairs down to Josh’s in London. Other bits and pieces were taken by my brothers and sister and quite a bit of furniture was donated to the British Heart Foundation.

As the 16th of March approached the war in Iran started and in the end our flight was delayed three times as we were flying with Emirates through Dubai. We eventually left on the Wednesday 18th but from Dubai had to fly to Brisbane via Sydney arriving in Australia on the morning of the 20th March.

I had been out of the country since December 2024 and Will had been in the UK since the end February 2025.

It was good to be back though I will miss seeing my family as much as I have been able to this last year.