Now rumour that we have totally gone into isolation is false, well almost. Since we have been home we have been totally taken up with getting the garden (all 2 acres) back into shape. Unfortunately we are suffereing a chronic lack of rain and this means we are hand watering 600 plus plants which tends to take all day.

That said, the weather has been fantastic and every day we are in the pool either here at home or at one of the beach clubs. The water temperature is rising and at home I think it must be about 30 on the surface but a wee bit cooler lower down.

Now the other day we were walking along China Beach when he spotted this great tree stump that had been washed up on the beach and was obviously a hazard to turtles coming ashore to nest.

Wouldn't it look great in the garden ? he said, Oh well it was his birthday so off we set about planning on how to get it back home. Firstly we can't lift it at all, we struggle to roll it and being about 3 foot in diameter it is bloody awkward. Now I can't give you a blow by blow on the swearing, cursing etc etc that ensued as we struggled with this monster along the beach and then the half kilometre trip up hill to the car park. Needless to say by the time we had reached the ute, we were not talking. Anyway, with the assistance of a friend, a 4 wheel bike, trailor and lots of painful straining it arrived home.

Set back in its natural habitat you would never know it had been on a weeeeeee trip out to sea. Our guess is it is an old bloodwood that has been through a fire and was sawn down in the clean up. Now as far as we know there has not been a fire for many many years and it is very very weathered by the sea so it may have been washed down a river and floating around since the last floods 12 months ago.