22 Dec A REMINDER TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
There’s nothing like death to remind us of our impermanence. And so it is that a cloud hangs over Nightfall and our close-knit Lamington community, with the sudden passing of our dear friend and neighbour, Graham.
Our thoughts are with his partner Nell and their family. Our memories are filled with recollections of shared laughter and deep discussions over glasses of Graham’s legendary home-brew. We’ll miss his generous hugs, his dry-humour, his passion for innovation, his ingenuity and his talent for re-purposing, not forgetting his creative use of baling-twine.
As with all in our community, Graham had been deeply involved in bringing to life our dream of Nightfall and the on-going building of our Queensland glamping experience.
Together we problem-solved how to drag huge canvas’ through my industrial sewing machine, positioning with contact glue instead of pins. He was on-hand to refine and test the camp’s gravity-fed water system; he was there with a glass of cold home-made ginger-beer as I oiled the first tent floor and, if anything was ever broken or missing a piece, it was likely Graham would find something in his shed with which to fix it. ‘Oh, you can’t throw that away’ he’d say. ‘We might need it one day’.
To Graham and a life well-lived. We miss you already.
And so we pick ourselves up to live again with passion. With our first guest bookings from February, we’re waiting eagerly for the return of the plumber to Nightfall. After so long in the planning and many refinements, we can’t wait to see the last bits come together — the hand-carved rock basins; generous showers, open to the private forest outside and king-sized beds, hand-built from chunky reclaimed bridge timbers.
In the interim there’s also other work to be done, fine-tuning of our luxury camping visitor experience, landscaping and maintenance – weeding, mulching and extending gardens, planting more trees and putting love into our organic food gardens.
(images L-R: departed wwoofers Ben and Ellie; Ellie trellising tomatoes with Anne; Juri clearing Glycine vine with Ben; Christian installing tent canvas’)
We’re sharing this Christmas with our three wwoofer volunteers. Christian hails from Perth – a school teacher on long service leave. Anne and Juri are from Germany. She’s on her way to New Zealand to begin a conservation-related internship and he’s taking a break from riding a motorcycle around the world. We’re looking forward to enjoying a few Christmas-morning Bloody Mary cocktails with those who share life on our ‘dirt track’, before taking a couple of days off to spend time with family and friends, soaking in Nightfall’s creek rock-pools and savouring the good life. Another highlight – our annual neighbourhood ‘Christmas Creek Classic Cup‘ – a private New Year’s Day golf in the wilderness event.
From all at Nightfall, we wish you a relaxing and peaceful Christmas. Enjoy the break.
(images L-R: Lillypilly – relaxed after a feed and a cuddle; ‘what’s for breakfast?)
p.s in response to those who seek a ‘Lillypilly update ‘ – yes, Nightfall’s resident wallaby joey continues to thrive. She’s now 1.14kg and growing up fast. Each morning she has us in stitches of laughter as she hops our staff tent at great speed – up, over the bed, around the couch, along the wall and back .. lap after lap. A cushion obstacle to two adds to the fun before she presses her head against us for a cuddle.