I’ve been given my “discharge papers” from rehab for Thursday this week. The doc said I’d made excellent progress. I’m elated about going home.
What is so attractive about being there over being here? The grass is always greener, you say? Well, barring any droughts, that probably is true on Mitchells Island (home).
Mitchells Island is a very pretty slice of the midnorth coast comprised of about 50 square miles of rich river delta land. Our little piece of it consists of one cleared acre with a stunning new house on it, and three scruffy acres sloping down into wetland.
We’ve owned the property for several years, and in the beginning, Mitchells Island and the wider Manning Valley seemed quite alien to us city slickers.
Our monthly or bi-monthly visits where the Shed was our only accommodation felt like travelling to a foreign land.
Little by little the land started to lay claim to us. It was calling out to be returned to a more natural and inviting habitat. So we 60 year olds have been wielding mattocks, spades, Round-Up wands, and learning how to operate chain saws and brush cutters. The estival once-a-week lawnmowing takes Rick six hours when the ride-on is broken and it’s been a hot, humid grass-growing summer, let me tell you.
There are other claims on us that the island has made – the wildlife which I’ve catalogued in other posts, for instance. I like to think we’ve begun to look for each other. If I don’t hear from the pheasant coucals in the eary morning, something’s not quite right.
When we have a cuppa at the Manning Point Water Bird Cafe, we keep one eye out for river dolphins and one eye on the hot scones we’re sharing. I was envious when Heather said they saw three pods of dolphins on the weekend.
What’s the big deal about homecoming? I’m a sunflower turning
my face towards the sun or maybe a pliant bamboo with a southerly blowing me up to the north coast.
After my long period of hip arthritis, and now being free of it, I can’t wait to surrender to the pull of the island and see what we’re going to get up to.