Juddy and her sore knee

We're settled in Eden, on the land of the Yuin people. Juddy finally had surgery on her poor sore knee and had her cruciate ligament replaced with a metal plate and a few pins. She's not very happy with this great big bandage, but that comes off on Monday and then the physio starts. The wonderful vets of Pambula/Merimbula have done a great job and expect her to be running and swimming in no time.

While Juddy was resting in Pambula, Stanny and I took the opportunity to take a couple of long overdue walks and a dump in the surf (him, not me). After several weeks of inactivity due to Juddy's sore knee, I've learned that while young Labradors maintain a pretty good level of fitness, mature-aged humans do not.

We're here for several weeks while Juddy gets back on her paws and apart from (hopefully) a daily walk with Stanley, we're pretty much confined to barracks. So I've set myself three goals for our confinement:

1. Be able to traverse some of Eden's hills without using Stanley as a sled dog (and still be able to breathe when we reach the top);

2. Add three new songs to my ukulele repertoire and play them at a standard that doesn't make the Labs' ears bleed; and

3. Improve my cryptic crossword skill level. Starting from a close-to-zero base, some improvement should be achievable.

I'll let you know how this progresses.

In the meantime, here are some photos of our walks around this beautiful part of NSW, and of poor Juddy trying to manage that impossible bandage.

Oh, and a massive shout out to our wonderful friends here in Eden, who've not only given us a roof over our heads while Juddy recovers, but who have also helped immeasurably in many other ways. This would have been impossible on our own in a caravan park and we're very, very grateful.