Dear People,

Poss and I hope your life is filled with good health, good fortune, and happiness. May the year ahead see your wishes fulfilled.

It is tempting to say “read the last few years' letters – more of the same” which is superficially true, but 2013 has its highlights. We celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary in April with a trip to Mudgee with Barb and Gordon (Poss's sister and her husband) who were our witnesses at our wedding, and friends from Newcastle. We all booked into cabins in a caravan park for the weekend. Fortuitously the anniversary day was a Saturday and Lowe wine had a Vintage Lunch that started at midday and finished some time after 5pm, with 9 courses and 18 matching wines. It sounds more challenging than it was, the servings were small and well spaced and we left satisfied and almost sober. Mudgee is a pleasant place to spend a few days and we had no trouble occupying ourselves doing the tourist things for the rest of our stay.

I arranged for a spray paint artist to paint a possum mural on our garage door, as a gift to Poss, while we were in Mudgee. The garage opens onto a lane way and had several graffiti attacks over the years. It is rumoured that there is some honour in the graffiti fraternity and they do not paint over a recognised artist's work. The mural is (in our opinion) very good and it is a pity it's not in a more visible area to show it off. Several of the local businesses have also commissioned similar works so our area has quite a lot of street art (but still too much graffiti). So far it is working, there is no more graffiti over commissioned works.

Construction of the front veranda is finally under way! It is unfortunate that one of the things that allowed progress was the death of our next door neighbour. Our houses are joined and one condition of building the veranda was that a similar veranda be built next door to provide a consistent streetscape. Our neighbour was in favour and a Development Application for his side was submitted several years ago but rejected on engineering grounds. As his health declined so did his interest, so the engineering changes were not addressed. His daughter inherited and was keen for the work to go ahead so both DAs were resubmitted with new engineering plans. Luckily we asked council to waive the 'at the same time' provision, which they did. The daughter signed papers to say she approved the construction of the veranda on my side, and we signed similar papers for them, so either could proceed without the other. Then the daughter found she didn't have the finances to keep the house so she put it on the market. When both DAs were approved, we were able to start regardless of the subsequent fate of next door. At the time of writing, construction is at first floor level with a watertight balcony floor in place. The next step is to put a roof over the balcony, which involves working 6 meters above ground. I am not good with heights so this may involve a builder, yet to decide.

Next door was sold to a couple who are into 'fix up and flog' rather than moving in. The house was very run down, they did all the trendy things – remove junk, clean, landscape, rectify glaring problems, paint, new plumbing fittings – then put it on the market again. For their 3 months' weekend work, they grossed an extra $130K on resale. I'm guessing over half that will be profit, not a bad return on investment. The new owner moved in 2 days ago, she is a young psychologist with two small dogs. It is too early to say if she is an asset to the neighbourhood but first impressions are good. We were dreading the thought it would become a rental.

The other progress on the renovation front is we have the metal panel for the stairs. We commissioned it in August 2012 and finally it was ready to be picked up a couple of weekends ago. The artist blacksmith makes my progress on a project look good. We like the final product, although it isn't much like what we had envisioned. But that's artists – you get what they want to give you. It doesn't fit the mounting points so is not yet installed – not sure if the sculpture can be modified to fit, or modify the stairs to fit the sculpture. Something to keep us occupied in the next few weeks. With the stairs almost finished and the veranda well under way there is a light at the end of the renovation tunnel, these were the last major projects.

The progeny are providing plenty of interest in our life. I don't think they can be called 'children' any longer - Nicole, the youngest, turned 30 this year. Sandra is progressing her Bachelor of Biotechnology with her usual academic flair – 'I'm not sure how I went' – 'oh, I got a High Distinction'. She has occasional conveyancing work to supplement her meagre income, but is predominantly a student. She is still resident at the end of the street which is convenient but not intrusive. Michael seems happy with his lot, two 'homes' and independent parents. He is starting school in 2014 in Valentine – we think a strange choice as it isn't near either parent but we'll see how it works out.

Joanne is back at work three days a week after taking maternity leave most of the year with Lucy. Poss and the paternal grandparents are taking turns looking after the children for those days. Lucy is 15 months old and at the 'just about to walk', 'just about to say something', stage. Emily is now nearly 4 and quite a delightful child. She has retained the slight strawberry tinge to her blonde curls and gets plenty of cute points. Anna has taken to her first year of school with gusto, and it seems to have smoothed the bumps of her rambunctiousness.

Beth and Steve moved to Canberra early in the year. There are more opportunities for chefs there than in Newcastle, and both quickly found jobs. Steve in particular wanted something challenging and is working for The Boat House by the Lake, a high end restaurant. We had the pleasure of experiencing their degustation menu, 7 courses with matching wines – a memorable evening. Beth has settled for the mainstream, working at The Pavilion on Northbourne – an upmarket hotel on Canberra's major road. They are living in Palmerston, an outer suburb. By pure luck, they have ended up sharing a palatial house with a charming middle age gentleman. Beth was looking for accommodation expecting to settle for a small high priced apartment, but not liking the idea. At one inspection the real estate agent didn't turn up. Beth and the only other person struck up a conversation. It turned out he was looking to downsize because he was renting a huge house and had kicked out his co-tenants, and didn't want to pay all the rent himself. But he didn't really want to move and suggested Beth might considering sharing instead. She at first thought it sounded dodgy but reluctantly agreed to look, and the rest is history. They all get along really well, which in a share situation is uncommon. We've stayed there twice, once to see where they ended up, and the excuse for the second was to go to Floriade. We assume things are going well as both have upgraded their cars. Beth sold her ageing Daewoo Matiz and bought a new Fiat Punto. Steve has a later model Alfa Romeo.

Nicole and Andrew have moved once more, this time to a unit in Northcote. It isn't spacious but they squeeze in and there's room for a mattress when we visit. Andrew spent the year teaching at a primary school, and loves teaching. But he finds the administrative chores hard to take and is considering other options for next year. Nicole resigned from her job to have some time off, then after some months tried to get back into the work force. She has been unable to find anything she wants, but is continuing to look. We are wondering where all this is going, it will be hard for them if neither have a stable income. We visited early in the year, and Poss had a flying visit to go to the Melbourne flower show.

Poss's father Norm has finally moved into the nursing home. He has completely lost his sense of balance and is unable to stand unaided. If he overbalanced, he was unable to get up and he is too heavy for Dawn to handle by herself. It is sad because his mind is as good as ever, and he doesn't have any other life threatening conditions. Dawn is still in the unit and visits Norm all the time. The units and home are adjacent so it is a short walk, Norm's room and the unit are only meters apart but there's a bit of sideways walking to get to the entrance to the home. Barb and Gordon do a wonderful job of keeping an eye out for them, visiting frequently.

I am of the opinion that you can consider yourself old if your main topic of conversation is health issues. But there's no avoiding it. Poss complains of joint pains but it hasn't yet stopped her from working too hard. She has a remedial massage regime which she says makes her feel good but maybe doesn't have any long term beneficial effect. I am going deaf but the bad news is that I'm not deaf enough for a government funded hearing aid. I'm about to have tests to determine why I'm going deaf, it seems both ears are deteriorating in different ways which is unusual. And I find the renovation work is a little harder, things seem heavier and endurance isn't what it used to be. All things considered, we are doing OK. The worst thing is I'll be 70 next year, and Poss isn't keen on the idea of being married to a 70 year old.

I visited my old home town Moe (Victoria) in sad circumstances. My eldest cousin in Australia, Pat Dixon, died of cancer. I went to say my goodbyes and stayed on for a week for the funeral. But every cloud … I stayed with my almost cousin Jill (it's complex … don't ask). She was a wonderful hostess in trying times, she and Pat were very close. I had time to really meet the family, we had not spent significant time together before. Also I met up with a schoolfellow for the first time in 50 years. We got on really well. It is a pity we are so far apart, as we are unlikely to do more than keep in touch. But who knows what the future brings. Thank you to all the Valley people, your hospitality was much, much appreciated. Pat's husband Bert died 5 weeks later, another cruel blow but was always expected.

We don't have any different plans for the future. Poss is intending to be on the grandchild roster for a few years yet, and I still look forward to spending time on 'the block'. Now some of the progeny are scattered around, we find ourselves travelling quite a bit for short stays, and we spent a week in the timeshare at Coolangatta. It's not travelling down the Rhine on a luxury cruiser but it's still fun.

Building on 'the block' is still a dream of mine, but I'm wondering if reality will spoil it. I believe I'm still able to do it but yet to put myself to the test. Even if it ends up being sold it has been a good investment, we have had some very good offers for it. But for the moment, I dream on. The track in, that was repaired before last year's letter, washed out again in February. So on one of our stays nearby I dug a trench and put in a drainpipe, then had the fairly substantial washout filled by a contractor. So far it hasn't shown any impact from subsequent rains. And recently I was able to drive our street car all the way into the block and out again for the first time, without incident. Until now we have relied on other peoples' 4WD or walked in.

Our day to day routine is little changed from the last few years. Except KWRP didn't run a trivia night so I wasn't roped into that again. We've done such a good job of rehabilitating the Kooragang wetlands from a giant tip to thriving habitat that it is now managed by National Parks and Wildlife. They are spending money on better signage, maintaining and extending the walking trails, and putting in more recreational facilities. We attended a party on Ash Island a few weeks ago to celebrate 20 years since the project was started. We've been volunteers for most of that time and it is satisfying to see what's been accomplished.

And that was the year. As always we welcome your call, email, visit, letter, SMS or any other way we stay in contact. Hopefully we'll be seeing most of you and have a chat. Better than a letter any day. Have a wonderful Christmas and an exciting year ahead.

Alan and Poss xx