156/365

The thrill of seeing my banana-passionfruit seeds sprouting - who would have thought those tiny green shoots could produce such a reaction? I hope I get to eat the fruit from one of these babies, one day in the not-too-distant future.

155/365

Wandering around Ceres "Community Environment Park" day-dreaming about having my own garden.

154/365

Having a Keanu Reeves "whoa" moment at a hippy party, while chatting with a bloke who had had plastic surgery on his ears to make them pointed (as well as an enormous tatt over half of his face/head/body), as he told me about his past living on the streets of Sydney and his dreams to run his own fashion label.

Everybody is people, even those outside the norm.

153/365

Making it to the other side of the lake, tugging little Arwen by one hand.

152/365

Making spicy broadbean felafels and salad with minty yoghurt, using all fresh produce from the garden (except for the yoghurt, which was locally sourced).

151/365

Helping the Fryer's Forest community clear their flooded main access bridge. Just me in my bare feet (no wellies!) and a bunch of hippies, chucking sticks downstream and hauling logs to the sides as the golden-brown water gushed on.

It's rare for me to feel that I'm actually doing something important and useful. It's a good feeling.

149/365

Swimming in a vast, peaceful sun-warmed dam, black with natural tanins, the sun beaming gently down on my lightly tanned flesh.

144/365

That strangely sad/good melancholy feeling you get when on a long journey back to the city after spending a week in a lush green place.

143/365

Trying not to laugh while telling the boys off for not turning out their lights and going to sleep. They were that cute..."But I thought it was only 8.45, not 9.45!", "But he pretended he was in pain, he MADE me go over there!"

142/365

Planting a plumtree. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, let me tell you, it involved digging a metre square hole (dropping the spade in fright when a small snake slipped out of the grass), wheel-barrowing two barrows of mulch through the tall grass, and fetching several buckets full of dam water to water it with.

Damn those plums better be good!

141/365

Basking in a waterfall of compliments as everyone devoured my Apple Clafoutis.

140/365

Lopping artichokes from the tip-top of plants one and a half times bigger than me, while Sean (age 8) and Riley (age 10) scramble to find them in the underbrush.

139/365

Introducing Riley (age 10) to the strategic mathematical mind-boggling goodness that is Paddocks.

For those of you who don't remember - draw a square as big as your patience on graph paper, mark all the corner 'dots', take it in turns to draw a line between adjoining dots, and when your line closes a square, mark it with your initial. Most initials wins. Suitable for ages 6 and up.

138/365

Koo Wee Rup: what a great name for a town. I am loving rural Victoria more and more.

134/365

Sitting on the top deck of the ferry back to the mainland in the brilliant sunshine and thinking: I haven't been this happy since New York.

133/365

Learning to make "poor man's cheese" from fresh milk and apple cider vinegar with Alison of French Island Olive Oil.

132/365

The koala who tolerated me and my camera with a great expression of "harrumph" on his fuzzy little features. Boop!

131/365

Walking along a lonely stretch of the rugged beach and stepping onto grey "rocks" that gave way under my feet like puffy cushions.

130/365

Walking up from the caravan to the farmhouse to be greeted with the most lovely breakfast spread - fresh coffee on the stove, homemade bread and jam for toast, muesli with strawberries and stewed rhubarb, and fresh milk and yoghurt courtesy of the jersey cow up the road. These ladies know how to live.

129/365

The quizzical little boy on the jetty who told me that the ferry had just left, but reassured me that it would be back in about an hour, and was I going to French? And who was I staying with? And had I been there before?

Thank you little dude, you made me glad to miss my ferry.