“I’ve found a place you need to look at.” Was what Mom greeted me with on my return home that fateful day.
She said it calmly, but one look at her tense bright eyes gave the game away. She was bursting with excitement. We had tea and she talked.
Mom was an inveterate explorer. Left on her own while I working, Mom explored the countryside. She was never happy in the boring house we had moved to after leaving The Reef. She’d fixed up the garden and planted trees and Proteas. Repainted and refurnished, and still it remained just a house. It was too close to the saw mill and the brick making kilns to ever be quiet or truly dark at night. Her soul rebelled. We both craved the peace and stillness offered only by being remote from other habitation. We wanted starlight and owl song. We wanted a home.