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2022 From the Far South to the far north

Dear friends and family,

Here is our retrospective of 2022, in pictures more than words. It comes with our abiding love and gratitude for you all. It was wonderful to host or visit many of you this year. We hope 2023 will bring even more opportunities to spend time with you at a table somewhere.

In January Geoff turned 80 and we bought an electric Mini Cooper S in British racing green.

Taking delivery of our electric Mini.

In February we published our neighbour’s biography of her father, who was born in Ukraine (see https://agoodcossack.com). A few days later Putin invaded Ukraine.

In March we had the final launch (after Canberra, Toowoomba, Melbourne and Perth), in Hobart, of Christine's book, Who Is This Vernon Cornish?

St David’s Cathedral, Hobart, where Vernon Cornish was to be installed. His sudden death intervened.

We also caught up with friends and relatives and took the opportunity to visit Bruny Island to see the Forty-spotted Pardalote, the subject of a friend’s PhD.

A Rufous-bellied Pademelon and the Forty-spotted Pardalote bird hide on Bruny Island.

The view of Hobart as seen from our friends’ window.

In August we took a trip by train to Cairns to spend a holiday in the Atherton Tableland rainforest with all of Christine’s siblings and their spouses.

The family shared a meal with two local friends.
Victoria’s Riflebird—we had been wanting to see the male for ages—displaying just outside our cabin.
Common Striped Possum, Sugar Glider, Platypus, Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo.
The strangler fig that appeared in the ABC documentary Australia’s Favourite Tree.

In September we visited Melbourne for a special fiftieth anniversary afternoon tea for the founders of Bank First (formerly the Victoria Teachers’ Credit Union), of which Geoff is member number 1.

Founder’s morning tea

In Melbourne we stayed with Geoff’s brother Robert and wife Lesley and then travelled to find the brothers’ great-grandfather’s and grandfather’s farm near Echuca.

Robert and Geoff at the farm, and nearby historic Stewarts Bridge, with the Goulburn River flooding.
A flooding forest, the harbinger of things to come, and the silo at Rochester, which was impacted by a flood some weeks later.

Then in late October, after almost three years, we finally caught COVID-19.

In December we hosted our last houseguests for the year—our friends from Memphis, Tennessee. On Christmas Day, we left the Mini at home and travelled by bus to Sydney to celebrate with niece Giz and her extended family.

Geoff dreams of travel while a visiting cocky at our back door encourages us to stay home.

It is still the Christmas season and our Christmas tree is still up. We hope the joy and peace of Christmas remains with you all year and forever.

With our love,

Chris and Geoff