So, here I sit on the front steps of my childhood home, looking out over the farm and the lands beyond. It's a cool Autumn day, the sun breaks through through the obscuring cloud, native Australian birds chitter in the near distance. From down in the valley the faint hum of traffic can be heard and closer, ants scurry over my toes on their way to perform some obscure chore. The roses are pushing out the last of their blooms, the grass is green as winter approaches but the day is still warm.
It's been just six months since I was here last, and yet here things change slowly if at all, as if the often crushing wave of time was somehow stilled in the pure mountain air. The trip home encompassed some of the best and worst aspects of travelling, the interminal waiting in airport lounges and the tedious sleepless boredom during flight, and yet meeting new friends and inevitably the joy of familiiarity and homecoming.