The kookaburra has a brown snake, it is 37 degree day, a true #Australian summer is here for Christmas.

A kookaburra sits in the gum tree near the house with a long brown snake in its mouth. He looks as surprised as we do and seems unsure what to do next. It is an interesting sight until the kookaburra drops the snake into the long dry grass. We leave the scene quickly incase it is still alive!

As the red sun sets on a 37-degree day, I can see kangaroos in the hill and all types of birds flying in the hot evening air. Howard and the men are stacking straw this week, the last big job before Christmas. The sheep are all checked, the lambs are weaned and the water troughs are all cleaned out.

I have sold most of the grain we stored at the Bribbaree silos and the bookwork is up to date, aside from our end of month accounts that I will complete on Monday. We have been working on our 2014 budget and plan to be organized well before the end of financial year this time.

This year without the stress of the hard times farming can throw at us, the Christmas music sounds just a little sweeter and the words of joy, kindness, peace and hope are lovely to listen to. We are like the kookaburra with his catch this year and we feel very grateful harvest went well and finished early but the deep inner happiness I feel is reliant on the more consistent parts of my life. A loving family, fun friends, good food and the wonderful detail nature displays every day are the things I draw happiness from. Yoga, photography, writing, teaching meditation and more recently, learning about farming are more of these things, together with listening to the girls laughing with their buddies, having everyone home for Christmas and booking a holiday. The list goes on but probably the thing that makes me happy on a whole different level is trying to make a difference in someone else's life. The older I become the more I realise that this is the true meaning of Christmas.     

I want to be a grateful and kind person, to be able to grow during challenging times and savor all the good things in life; ‘Especially the things that can slip though your fingers’…says the kookaburra.