Today Saturday 12 June 2021, Anna and Justin got a lot of work done in the garden at 41.

A year ago, this was happening:

Today is Friday 11 June 2021 and we’ve just had a Fire at Five at Forty-One.

Here are the records from a year ago:

Some lyrics from Nick Cave’s ‘Galleon Ship’, which Luke brought by.

On Sunday 16 May 2021, it was eleven months since Salvatore died.

Here are our notes and a couple of photos of Dad and Dan from Saturday 16 May 2020:

MaryAnne wrote (or did you ring them, mum?) to the PSA to ask them to please stop sending us Salv’s Australian Pharmacist magazines. And, bless ’em, the CEO, or the CEO’s right hand person, wrote right back. See below.

A member for 61 years, and then elevated (how religious!) to Life Member in 2018, eh Salv? You snuck in, I would suggest, and then enjoyed all those perks for almost two years.

Nice one.

Today, Tuesday 16 March 2021, it’s nine months since dad died.

I’m down at Phillip Island. Dad was a big fan of the kettle down here, according to mum.

Put it on. Let’s have a cup of tea.

Today, the third of March, is the anniversary of Frank Purcell’s death in 2013. This photo is maybe taken around 1985 (if so, Salv would be 48 years old here) and maybe is taken at Frank’s place in Blairgowrie.

How much does Anna look like Greta? Or vicea versa, I guessa.

A Father’s Day card from Luke to Salv from some years ago.

Tuesday 16 February 2021. Fours days into Lockdown #3, and eight months since Salvatore died, MaryAnne takes this picture of the busie olde foole, the sun, doing his daily getting out of bed.

And about forty-six years ago, in about 1975, in the dispensary at 75 High Street, a Herald and Weekly Times photographer takes this shot:

which accompanies an article in The Herald, as it was then known, which mum and dad got (I remember scissoring out the comics and gluing them into scrap books). Note the Sesame Street book (was that the one that accompanied the fold-out Bert and Ernie house?) and Dan’s unimpressed gaze at the photographer.

Friday 12 February 2021. Prior to the Fire at Five on Friday being fired up, Anna picks up the washing basket and what should fall out of the clothing but

dad’s bush saw, narrowly missing her foot!!! Heck!!!! Theories abound, namely the one that MaryAnne MUST have found it in the clearing out of leaves and extraneous plants next to the side gate, surely, and brought it in…

But no, in a surprise development, it turns out that Luke has had it all this time (if only I’d known, I wouldn’t -maybe- have bought the replacement bush saw – bow saw? – from Aldi six months ago) and he immediately turns it to use, taking low-lying limbs off the eucalypt by the front gate. And blow me down if that saw isn’t as sharp as a razor, Trent…