The rainbow never sets

fatherly concern did cause a few tears occasionally.

In 1988 we celebrated Margaret's 21st birthday at a large hall near Lake Burley Griffin, with the Stringy Bark bushband from our church providing the entertainment. It turned out to be a lovely family affair, with plenty of her friends in attendance.

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Canberra was a good place for gardening. As in Albion Park Rail, I tried to keep the Mondays free and went working in the garden, to avoid the telephone. In winter of 1981 Mark and James helped me digging large holes in our back-yard, filled them with compost and manure, and planted five triple grafted trees, an apple, plum, pear, peach-nectarine and almond tree.

The vegetable patch had to be started from scratch, requiring quite heavy physical work, which was good for me. The soil was very poor, but with lots of sheep manure from our Wattle Park farmers and our own compost, I gradually improved the soil and had some success with vegetables. The boisonberries were also doing well. I had learnt from Albion Park that they needed regular pruning, which made them much more accessible for picking. Canberra was also much drier than the coast, so the garden needed quite a lot of watering.

Occasionally, Alison and I would go for bike rides, either around Lake Ginninderra, or sometimes we took the bikes on our car and went around Lake Burley Griffin. Especially in autumn these rides were most memorable.

Our family continued spending the summer holidays at Lake Conjola. When Mother Chandler came to visit us in the summer of 1981/82, we didn't think that she could cope for four weeks in a tent. We had met a widow at Milton Uniting Church who was letting a unit in her back yard to holiday makers. This seemed an ideal situation, as it was not far from our camping ground at Lake Conjola and it worked out very well. Someone would go to pick her up by car, and in the evenings we would usually walk her home. She visited us again in the summer of 1984 where we made the same arrangements.

After Lake Conjola, Mother wanted to see New Zealand. She invited our Margaret to join her for company, which she enjoyed very much.

When Mother came again in December 1988, we gave her a special treat for her ninetieth birthday, on 20 March 1989. We had booked her on a hot air balloon. She was as thrilled as a teenager, climbing into the basket at the crack of dawn, and enjoying every minute of it, including the champaign at the end.

My Mother came to visit us for the summer of 1982/3. She arrived with a severe salt deficiency, owing to some tablets she was taking. She had

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