So now we are back at home and trying to settle into a routine. It is proving more difficult than we expected but for all sorts of positive reasons. Yve and John, who had been house sitting, dog minding and replacing me at the farm while we were away, made it all so easy. Ali, our dog, was glad to see us back but she now has two more friends who love her, the house and garden were in terrific shape and the farm was ship-shape. John's expertise in irrigation was much appreciated and is still ongoing at the school while Yve became a regular classroom volunteer. There was another occasional visitor to the garden while we were absent and a good thing it made a slithery departed before we returned. We landed home one day after our first lot of visitors from Singapore had arrived in town. While I still had one more week of term to complete at the farm, Kim and Syd Pink were on their mid-year break already. Unlike us, they didn't have a 4 week break, only 2 weeks and it was mo