Sandra reporting in after a hectic January.

This is my 23^rd Fruit Season and as usual I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

Ruby is my right hand man in the Fruit Stall whilst Sam is in charge of the day to day running of the Orchard so everything is running smoothly.
It can be very hectic at times but all is going well.

There has been no spare time to get back onto my laptop as we all dive out of bed at 4am to greet the day.

I am so pooped by the end of the day; I am the first one to bed and often sneak away as early as 7pm.
In my defence I’m old!!!!!!!
I can’t believe I used to do such long days!! Ah ah ah.

And can you believe the summer we’ve had so far???….I feel so guilty whining as the poor folk in England, America and Australia, to name a few countries, have had appalling weather conditions during January.
Homes lost, livelihoods lost, lives lost……
All too sad.

For us February will probably bring us warmer weather, which will be a welcome relief.
Ruby has taken over bottling again this season.
She is a ‘little mini me’ as I used to have that enthusiasm.
Not these days though.
I marvel at having such a wonderful daughter.

We are once again hosting Wwoofers and so far this season we have hosted Jasna, Derrick and Vivienne
Such wonderful young people.
They are all from the Northern Hemisphere so I haven’t had to apologize too much for the weather as their home countries are in the throes of winter and our cold summer is still much warmer than what they would be enduring if they were at home.

This Fruit Season has brought much sadness once again; many customers have not returned as they departed from this Earth during the year.
We have met hundreds and hundreds of wonderful folk throughout the years and each passing is just so sad.
The other day a dear customer/friend, Avis, passed away suddenly.
We looked forward to her visits when she came for her Moorparks and Peaches faithfully each and every year and assumed we would see her again this season.
How wrong we were.
We shed many tears when she lost her Jim a few years ago, and now we shed the same amount of tears this time round.

I have been replying personally to my ‘Aunty S’ column and will post some of them as time permits.

A big thank you for all the emails during my absence during January and as an added bonus, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover how many customers read my blog.
Thanks ever so much for all the positive feedback.

I have found getting back into writing has been so therapeutic which is of course why Sam and Ruby talked me into writing a blog.

To be honest I didn’t even know what a blog was until they sat me down and described it blow by blow.
Ruby is my ‘moderator’ so she checks for spam and indecent comments daily.
Can you believe it; I an old lady of nearly 60, receives the odd vulgar comment!!   Strange world.
Ruby protects me from all this!!!
Isn’t she wonderful?

Sam made the blog for me. I described it and he built it to perfection!
My wonderful son.

As Aunty Belle always says to me, “Our kids Mum” with such a proud look on her face , as she cuddles me ever so tightly.   She may have very limited speech but can always convey her pride in Sam and Ruby whom she loves to bits.

Alex would have loved my blog as I used to write under a pseudonym in my younger days when I was a teeny tiny bit of a controversial writer.
He was always proud of my writings and insisted I put my name to each piece but of course being the coward I was, I didn’t.
But hey I did generate a lot of conversation though!!
That was enough for me.
He was so supportive.
How I miss him!!!