The Photo on the Rock

On the rock at Mt Barker Summit.   The birdies and teddies that Kate is carrying are to represent Sophie.

Grass Trees

 ANZAC Day has different meanings to different people.

On ANZAC Day, Australians and New Zealanders think about the fact that many people have gone to war to preserve the freedom that we now enjoy in our countries.  In particular, we may think about family members who fought and possibly died, not only in WWI, but in any armed conflict since that time.  I think about both my Grandfathers, who fought in WWII and survived into their 80's.

ANZAC Day is also a day that Ben and I met.  On ANZAC day in 2000, I hosted a BBQ at home, and a couple I knew asked if their friend Ben could attend.  Sure, I thought, why not.  Ben arrived at the front door, spluttering about our mutual friends running late.  I found out later that he'd waited out in the car for some time, cursing their name for not arriving to accompany him into the house. A little over 2 months later, we started dating.  On ANZAC Day the following year, we became engaged.  Every ANZAC Day since then, we climb Mt Barker Summit and pose on the same rock for a photograph to mark the passage of another year.
As we look back over the years, we marvel at the sprawl of the Mt Barker township, which can be seen in the background behind us.  The amount of rainfall over the summer preceding each photo can be seen by the state of the flora on the mountain.  This year we had good rain.  Lots of flowers.  I can also report that the millipede population is still very healthy on the mountain (beats me why they want to live somewhere so cold).
This year was also a sad year for the photo on the rock.  If Sophie had lived, this would have been her first year in the picture (technically she was in last year's photo, but quite small in my tummy).  In the photo she is represented by the birdies (which have become a symbol for her life) and the teddies we were given at her birth.  I have also recently started redistributing all the baby paraphernalia that we were given for Sophie, and while this is also tinged with sadness, it is also liberating in a way, allowing me(us) to move on to the next phase of our lives, with our other wonderful children being more independent and able to enjoy camping, cycling, and various other activities with us.

2011

2011.  Unusually warm, as you can see by our clothes.

2010

2010.  The Ned Kelly look is in this year.  The beard started at Easter time 2 months earlier out of laziness, and I liked it so much I asked Ben to keep the beard.  So he did.  What a great guy I married :)

2009

2009 was so rainy and windy that we had to huddle behind the monument and hope we didn't get blown over.  We didn't dare leave the camera alone to take a photo on the timer.

2008

I say, look at that clean-shaven face.  He hasn't aged at all since last year, has he?!?

2007

Ah yes, I remember that phase.  2 kids in nappies.  Yeeha.







And that's as far back as our electronic photo records go.  I'll have to dig deeper to find the previous years.  Stay tuned!