Easter -
Easter we spent in the cool breeze of our beach hut up North near a town called Ingham. I spent most of my childhood at the beach hunt. My grandparents have owned the hut for 45 years. It is a home to many memories, it is a home to all of us as a family. A shack with no electricity, residing right on the beach filled with trinkets and natural collections from over the years, oil paintings by my great grandmother cover the walls aged by the salt air and showing how the hut looked many years ago. The beds are draped with mosquito nets and filled with thick covers for the chilly nights. The front verandah pavers handmade by grandad and holding the tiny hand and footprints of my mother and her sisters from when they were young children.
For years I was bathed as an infant on the kitchen table in a blue bucket overlooking the whole ocean. We had formal dress up nights where we scoured Op shops to find the most humorous 'formal attires' and cooked fancy roasts in the gas oven. We would fill our tummies with warmth on the front patio watching the sun set and the moon rise. We collected shells and turned them into wind chimes, bracelets necklaces using fishing line, to then sell them at the local markets with my dad. We collected fire wood and built bonfires, roasting marshmallows, my sister would make the damper, she was better than all of us. Everyone would be chanting goodnights to each other from their warm beds, laying beneath their nets as the generator was turned off by grandad with his torch. We would fall to sleep to the smell of a settling fire, the rid on your skin to keep the mosquitos at bay and the faint smell of the salt off the waves crashing along the beach.
Easter has always been a special time of year as the whole family come together. We collect flowers and leaves and shells to create an egg nest for easter bunny, usually in old ice cream buckets, grandmas old saucepans, anything you can find. The Easter Bunny would come while you slept. He still comes while I sleep even to this day. As my parents would say, "If you do not believe you do not receive", I think this theory is also very special when thinking of life in general.
This year Easter was no exception. We had our tent next to the hut out looking over the whole ocean, the breeze flowing through our tent, so alive. We spent the time exploring the beach, eating amazing foods and reading. We went on a small trip to the waterhole nearby, underneath Paluma. We swam as the sunset. Our skin grew goosebumps as the sun disappeared behind the trees. It is beautiful up there as the rainforest meets the bush. There is an abundance or dragonflies who dance through the air, occasionally landing on your bare skin.
We played Bobs the last night, Grandad was very excited we were all enthusiastic to play. We had the fire lit and the Moon was possibly the biggest I had ever seen it. We turned the front verandah into a dance floor and danced for hours. The kitchen is usually where all the dancing happens. I remember when I was younger I would always dance in there with my brother, or waltz with my lovely grandma. The floorboards would creak with our faint weight prancing upon it.
This was my last easter I will spend in Australia for a few years and it was just as beautiful as every other easter I have spent there. It is a beautiful thing to feel as wild and free as you did when you were a child, the beach hut allows me to feel that way.
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| sky |
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| behind the hut amongst spider webs |
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| Steph setting up her net with great grandmas painting on the wall |
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| Grandad dressed up as Easter Bunny for the children |
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| Kissing Grandma |
