 Another summer has come and gone and with it the changes of the seasons. As I sit here editing this vlog, it's another very wet, very rainy day here on the coast. Autumn has definitely begun and this has meant much cooler days and nights. It's been another very rainy season with lots of storms and winds and rain, particularly as we went from February into March at the beginning of the season. As I live further up the coast of Australia on the Gold Coast, we don't really get the beautiful changes in the trees when they change colour from green to orange to yellow to red. This is one of my absolute favourite things about autumn, so I really missed this change happening up here on the coast. And that's one of the things I missed most about Sydney is being able to see the changes in the trees, watching them go from summer to autumn and the changing colour. I flew back home to Sydney during the month of April and stayed for about 5 weeks. As I was leaving the Gold Coast to fly to Sydney, I looked out my window and I could see patches of flood waters over areas like Byron and Ballinau where they'd experienced tremendous flooding just weeks before. It was really devastating to see these areas underneath metres of dirty water. This is the second major flood event we've experienced in just 5 years in Australia as back in 2017 we had another major flooding event happen as well. It was so wonderful to be home again and I find that's one of the hardest things about living so far away is I don't get to see my family as often anymore. But when I do, I try and make the most of each moment with them and cherish the time I have before I head back home again. The flight is only 1 hour and 20 minutes but to drive it takes around 8-9 hours so I much prefer to fly. One of my favourite places we visited while I was home were the Mayfield Gardens past the Blue Mountains. It was a 2.5 hour drive to get there along windy roads and through mountain ranges. But when we arrived it was truly one of the most beautiful gardens I had ever seen. We picked to go this time of year as the autumn trees were changing their leaves so there was so much colour. They had what they called the Valley of the Five Pools which were five waterfalls that ran along the length of the garden and a little stream that connected them. I went with my twin sister Meg and younger sister Emma and we just spent the afternoon wandering through the gardens soaking up the beauty and tranquility there. And we also took a heap of photos. I also house-sitted for my cousins while they were away on a camping trip so I got to look after these beautiful water collies which one was six and the other was only eight weeks old and she was so cute. She'll be happy with a stick for a while. Come on. There they go. See? This is what happens. Stop biting my shoe. Come on. Let's try and intervene. You can't keep biting onto my shoe. Ella! Everything, the time they come back, I am not doing very good at house-sitting. They'd only got her recently so the older one could train the younger one. On their first night with the puppy she did cry all the way home but as soon as she met Archie, the older dog, she immediately stopped and has been really content ever since. She doesn't cry at night and has even been toilet trained by him so in the morning she will just follow him out the back and they'll do their business on the grass. It was really wonderful being around dogs again as it was only just under a year ago since we lost our dog Ari. I made sure to soak up every minute with them and just bask in the presence. I miss having a dog so much. So I am house-sitting for my cousins. They're away camping and while I'm in Sydney I was like, oh my gosh, I get to house-sit. It's like a huge house. It's so cool. So I get to house-sit this huge house with my sister while they're away for this week. So five days. I'm so excited and I get to take care of the gorgeous little puppies which you guys saw. Both, one's a dog, one's a puppy. One is, they've only had her for a week. Her name is Bello. That's the one that kept biting my foot and has an obsession now with my sock. So I'm going to have to come here more prepared in joggers next time because these shoes aren't going to last. These are my socks. I could hear it tearing and I was like, ah! It's not going to end well. So I've bought my laptop to do some assignments for my uni. Got it all here. I'm going to probably be doing that this afternoon and then when my sister gets here, she's coming a bit later because she's coming from her boyfriend's. We're going to take them for a walk, or actually take Archie for a walk because he's older. Bello hasn't had all her vaccines yet. So my sister will probably stay here with her and I'll take the older dog for a walk, taking for a walk and that'll be nice. Since our dog passed away, I miss her so much. It'd be nice to sort of go out walking with another dog again. That's something I'm looking forward to, just to have those walks and have that company again. On my second night home, I went to a paint and sip night with my friends. We bought our own drinks and snacks and just chatted the evening away while we painted a picture of a boat floating on this crystal clear lake at sunset. My best friend Sarah had actually just recently come up to stay with me in Queensland for a week just before I flew back down to Sydney. So I got to spend a lot of time with her and I showed her all my favorite places and cafes before she had to fly back home again. And it was really nice because I hadn't actually got to show her my new place since moving. As a surprise for my cousins, we took them to this Harry Potter themed high tee. I swear I was more excited than them. I just love Harry Potter. It was really cool. They hosted it at Sydney University in one of their conference rooms and set up the tables to mimic the Great Hall. So we of course sat at a Gryffindor table and they had these actors going around pretending to be characters from Harry Potter. So Dumbledore, Luna, Professor Trelawney, Harry, Hermione and Ron and others. It was such a fun day and really cool experience actually. They even brought out the sorting hat and I had Professor Trelawney come and read my tea leaves which was pretty cool. While I was home, I also caught up on some gardening which I've really missed being able to garden since moving out. And I plan on actually sitting up some pot plants back home which I'll fill with herbs and greens to use in my cooking. So I have a plan to do that. I'm hoping to start that within the next few months. But while I was at home, I planted some lettuce, spinach, beetroot, carrots and coriander in our back garden so that they'd be ready for winter. Now I've learned from past experience to plant them early on in the season. Otherwise by the time they're fully grown and it starts to head into spring and the weather becomes warm that they begin to bolt so they don't become as nice anymore. My dad and I also salvaged some papaya trees that were growing in our vegetable garden out the back which they'd self seeded from our compost that we use in the garden. So we transplanted them next to our shed around the back where they had more space to grow and then gave them some water. So time will tell and we'll just have to wait and see if they take to the new location and continue to grow or not. Fingers crossed that they'll be there when I get back home. For one of my pracks for TAFE, we did a beach cleanup and this was just before I flew down to Sydney. We walked around Burley Beach and picked up around 30 kilograms of rubbish. You wouldn't think there would be so much to pick up when you look at the beach from afar but once you start searching, it just doesn't end. There's just more rubbish and more rubbish to pick up. It's too late. I'm in Baratech. So we are just going around and cleaning up the Talibutra Creek which is surprisingly full of rubbish. So there's about like 30 of us going around and cleaning. At the end of our cleanup, we pulled out all the trash we found onto a huge tarp and wrote down what we found on a data sheet to log online later on. Everything was separated into categories. So there was like plastics, glass, metal, wood, clothing and things like that, which we noted down. Then once everything was recorded, we had to properly dispose of it all. So some things could be recycled like the glass bottles and aluminium cans but other things like the bits of old clothing, plastics and lighters had to be thrown away. As I flew back into Gold Coast Airport, it was really nice seeing the ocean and beach from up in the plane like I was coming home. I'd really missed the sea and the sand since being away. As the days get cooler, I won't be swimming as much but I still love to ride my bike to the beach and walk along the sand on the rare sunny days that we have or just sit under the shade of the trees and watch the waves roll in and out. Thank you so much for watching this vlog. I hope to see you soon. Take care. Bye.