XMAS Part 2

I arrived at Pat's at 1200 and found Megan and Claire sitting in the courtyard. Megan is the daughter of the past manager of Brooking Springs a cattle station out of Fitzroy Crossing. They left the Kimberley when the kids were to start high school and are now in Perth. Claire is also from WA and as they were not going home for Xmas Pat invited them.

Pat has a sign hanging in her courtyard that Megan's father had made for Pat when she started doing the itinerant work in the Kimberley. She was operating just out of the back of her land rover and he built a bough shed for her with the sign he had made in Perth. A joke on Pat, who is so informal!
We had Veuve Cliquot Chamagne with prawns and almonds and cranberry while we sat in the courtyard surrounded by Pat's fabulous garden. Then lunch was served inside, the menu listed on the white board. Luke McCall was a stockman from Port Keats and now retired (listed in the stockman's hall of fame at Longreach, and known to my friend Anne Ferrie!) We had a very convivial lunch with lots of stories and reminiscences.
We lazed around in the afternoon and had some ham on toast for dinner!
The next day we watched the Boxing Day test before we went to Pat's sister Colleen's house for lunch with other family members; Pat came from Bairnsdale so the family are all still living there.
I left about 3pm to travel back to Melbourne The traffic heading out of Melbourne was VERY heavy but the trip back was fine just getting to heavier traffic as I hit Frankston. I stayed at Wendy's on Saturday night then went down to Aireys Inlet where Fran and the kids (sorry, young people!)were.