A TOUGH FATHER'S DAY 2020....

This Father’s Day is a bittersweet day for me. Not only is it Father''s Day but it would have been Dad's 89th Birthday also. I miss my Dad dreadfully… I miss being able to wish him a Happy Father’s Day and also a Happy Birthday. 

 

 I wasn’t ready to loose him this year but I have been so blessed to have had this wonderful man as my Dad. A man who has loved and supported me throughout my whole life….

Dad, you were the most generous person I know. Your generosity did not only come from a place where you had plenty, but even at the end of your life where you had little, you would go without in order to help others that had a need. You were such an appreciative person and never failed to let us know how much you appreciated not only us but all that we did for you as well…

You were so positive…. You went through some incredible hardships in your life, but you always managed to put your circumstances in a bigger picture. You were able to see and appreciate the richness of your life particularly in regards to the relationships you had around you and this positivity has had a huge impact of my life and the way I see life…

You had such a great faith and you genuinely loved people. You had an amazing ability to connect with and serve people and I witnessed this throughout my entire life. You may not have left us a material inheritance but faith and values you lived out daily is the richest inheritance you could have left us and it is worth way more than any rubies or gold. Your inheritance to us is eternal. We are rich beyond measure. You have left a huge gaping hole in our lives but oh have blessed I have been to be one of your daughters.

The thing I miss most is your fierce love for us all. You loved us all fiercely and were never afraid to let us know just how much you loved us. You always ended every parting with me whether it be when we visited you or the constant phone calls I had with you with the words “I love you” because you always wanted the last words you spoke to us to be words of love…. I feel so blessed that I can still listen to your words of love, in the messages of love for me you left on my phone in the week before you passed away. They have become so very precious to me…

Dad I love you so much and miss you dreadfully. This Father’s Day and your Birthday is just not the same without you here with us….

I found it hard not having a Dad to ring on Father's Day.  Our kids all called their Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day and Steve rang his Dad.  Just leaves a huge gapping hole when you have no one to ring so I was a little teary and down early in the morning...

In saying this though, I still wanted to celebrate the other wonderful men in my life.  My amazing husband who is a wonderful Dad to our children, and both my son and son-in-law, who are amazing Dad's to their own kids.  I want to also celebrate my son-in-law who is yet to become a Dad, because I see in him the potential to be an awesome father as well.  You only have to see him with his nieces and nephews, so I feel incredibly blessed to have these amazing men in my life and I am so thankful and grateful for them...

Our day in the end turned out quite enjoyable.  Steve was very happy with his Father's Day present.  WE all put in to get him a battery operated chainsaw.  He has a really good petrol chainsaw but it is fair to big to travel with when we are away.  When we did our big lap around Australia, Steve took with him a reciprocating saw to cut some fire wood and it was a pain in the butt.  It took ages to cut and didn't cut it well, so when I saw the DeWalt Battery operated chainsaw on special for Father's Day, I knew that he would love it for future travel.  And since he has retired, we plan to do a lot more of that... 

Very happy his Father's Day present this year...

Being Sunday we headed to church and then were invited to a Father's Day lunch with a friend of Steve's.  We had a lovely time with them.  They also had their daughter and son-in-law for lunch along with another young couple who were friends of  theirs...

It was a lovely relaxed time, and it didn't allow me to dwell on my lose that day which was nice... We left their place mid afternoon to take a drive up towards Byfield to have afternoon tea at Upper Stoney Creek.  It must be a good 10 years since we had been up here so we were looking forward to going on a little adventure together and checking it out...

Somehow we missed the turn off to Upper Stoney Creek heading up but we did drive into the Red Rocks Camping area.  My goodness hasn't this area changed since we were last here.  I did not recognize it at all.  Still didn't manage to find the swimming hole, but there is a lovely camping area there now with flushing toilets.  

The Grevilea's  were all out in flower

We went for a bit of a walk to see if we could find the creek...

There were quite a few flowering bush hibiscus out as well.  Beautiful shades of pink..

Lovely shaded grassed areas..

An unusual camping vehicle

You can see that it is Spring time with all the beautiful flowering bottlebrushes

The designated camp areas all seemed to have picnic tables around them and there was plenty of room between each site.  It was so nice that we reckon it would be good to take the van up there for a few days in the new year...

Picnic tables around each camp site..

From here we drove a further 5 or more kilometres up the road until we came to the turn off for Waterpark Creek.  Here was still plenty of water running in the creek up here.  We didn't get out of the car here as there were quite a few travellers coming back from their trips up to Five Rocks.  They were all pumping up their tyres after coming in off the sand...

Still plenty of water coming over the course way...

Good flow of water

Lovely grassed picnic area...

Waterpark Creek Picnic Area.....

Somehow we had missed the turn into Upper Stoney Creek, so we headed back to see if we could find it.  It wasn't signed too well, but we had seen a sign which said that both Upper Stoney Creek and Waterpark Creek were 11kms and Red Rock was 6kms. We saw the kilometers but not the arrow that show have told us to turn...

We eventually found the Stoney Creek Road and had a good 5-6kms of dirt road to get to Upper Stoney Creek.  By now it was going on for 5pm so we knew that we didn't have a lot of time to have our cuppa in there as we wanted to be back to the main bitumen road before dark..

Course way across Stoney Creek...

Still plenty of water in the creek..

Very tranquil

Natural rock steps down into the water...

Lovely reflections in the water

Close to sunset

Whilst Steve got our picnic gear out of the car I went for a walk down to the creek to photograph the swimming area.  It is a lovely area with a swing rope out into the creek.  The water was very clean and clear and you could see down onto the floor of the creek...

There were an abundance of flowering plants around the creek, with several bush hibiscus plants in full flower...

Beautiful swimming area

Boarded landing platform as you step into the creek...

Upper Stoney Creek also caters for the campers with camping grounds one one side of the creek and then on the other side of the creek there are amenities and lovely grassed areas for picinics for the day users...  This is where we decide to have our picnic afternoon tea...

Lovely grassed picnic areas...

Preparing afternoon tea...

Beautiful afternoon out together.....

The mosquitoes were pretty bad this late in the afternoon so we didn't linger too long over our afternoon tea but chose instead to keep moving and have a bit of an explore around the area...

Sun setting

Lots of BBQs available...

By now the sun was down so it was time for us to head home....

On our way home we saw this little dude sitting on the side of the road... Just had to stop and take a photo of it...

It was after 7pm by the time we got back into town so we stopped off at Red Rooster to pick up a Flavour Meal for dinner as neither of us felt like cooking when we got home...

Just as we got home, our Grandchildren rang to say goodnight...

They also wanted to show us what they had got their Dad for Father's Day.  A pair of matching PJ's for them and their Dad.  They were so excited to give them to him, but Max wasn't so sure about wearing them yet.... He wants to wait for summer...

Matching PJ's for the family....

So what started as a sad day was turned around and it became a beautiful day.  I had a chance to think about my Dad and to be thankful for his wonderful life and how blessed I have been to be his daughter... I've also had  a lovely day with my wonderful husband and feel so blessed that we have had a wonderful 40 years together...