Heavenly Beverley : Another 11 September

We have just enjoyed a glorious spring day here in Heavenly Beverley. We are still experiencing quite a cool start to the new season, however lower temperatures made for pleasant outdoor working conditions.

The Divine Ms George and her faithful sidekick Macca were our companions. Jan has a number of sterling qualities that seemed to have bypassed yours truly. For example, Jan is tall. She is not accident prone. She can follow instructions. She offers logical suggestions. As Michael claims frequently, "Jan thinks like a bloke".

She and Michael toiled with clearing the last of the concrete filled metal posts from the Residence's courtyard. This is the parking area we have chosen for Digger to get him off the street. And unlike most of the other additions applied at the Forbes building, somebody had decided that these posts were never to be removed. There seemed to be more concrete surrounding them than was poured for our slab. A combination of digging, drilling and eventually pulling the posts out by the ever-reliable Lily was required for this job.

Following the excavation came the restoration. Some of the rubble was chucked back into the gaping chasms and then topped up with the dirt that had also been dug up. This was a heavy and tiring task that tested the Dynamic Duo.

Meanwhile, I had been watering, applying Seasol (great stuff) and placing the new plants Jan and I had picked up from our Girls' Day Out on Monday. Then I joined the others out in front of the Residence. Suddenly, I had the advantage of being short. Our lemon tree was undergoing a severe trim. It had become so heavy that a number of branches had split or broken. I likened the shape of the tree to a very messy Sara Lee danish pastry - layer upon layer upon layer...And I was able to crouch down, get in under the branches and begin sawing off dead wood, tangled twigs and thinning out a crazily overgrown centre.

And collect lemons. I took six boxes of lemon to our local Lions Club shelter for people to take home. With any luck, lemon chicken, lemon butter and lemon meringue pie will be some of the delicious products made from our incredible oversupply from our slightly ADHD lemon tree.

There is still more tidying up of our tree. That can wait until tomorrow. Digger, our caravan is now safely parked off the road, straddling the spot that once housed our underground water storage tank. Now, the bricks from the tank have become our courtyard wall at Station House and the enormous empty space filled, becoming a solid base for Digger.

At times during the day. my thoughts drifted to the significance of the date. Americans will remember and mourn the victims of 9/11, which has led to an ongoing humanitarian disaster throughout the Middle East. Others will remember the violent takeover of Salvador Allende's democratically elected government in Chile as well as the horror of those who died in the aftermath of that dreadful day. For years afterwards. Pakistani clothing workers died in a devastating fire within a garment factory. Two ghettos within Poland were "liquidated", which began on this day in 1943.

There have been far happier 11 Septembers as well. In 1989, East German refugees who had sought protection in Hungary were allowed to leave for West Germany. In 1997, NASA's Global Surveyor landed on Mars. Scotland voted in a referendum to create their own parliament. And today, here in Beverley, we were privileged to share love, laughter, hard work and great food. With a glass of vino of course.

I do not try to lessen the gravity of these events, whether horrific or joyful, I just hope that the world can embrace the positive, find the middle ground, use talk instead of weapons and work collaboratively towards a fairer, compassionate and cleaner world. For the sake of our children and their descendants.

I have renewed hope. Last night, the ABC's Q&A featured four absolutely brilliant and articulate fifteen-year-olds with two pollies from opposite sides of the fence thrown in for good measure onto the panel. These young people, who were developing different political views, showed more maturity, knowledge and wisdom than most of the elected members of the current Australian parliament. If they are the shape of those who are coming, maybe, just maybe, we will have a better world after all.