My Lake

Whenever J travels for work, I try to get up to my parents' place for a few days for some grandparent time. Just under 2 hours north of Sydney, their house is only metres from the water's edge in beautiful Lake Macquarie.

I grew up on this lake - swimming, picnicing, fishing, waterskiing, many of my most vivid childhood memories involve this body of water. Many friendships were forged and lost here and my two first serious boyfriends were very involved with the water, one a swimmer and the other a fisherman.

Here in the west of Lake Macquarie, it's not so much coastal as water meets bushland. Framed by huge gums and wild scrub, our lake is a unique, beautiful and serene part of the world.

Heike seems to love it here as much as I always have. "Warda, warda!" she screams when she sees the lake. I hope that she will form her own memories here and it will one day mean as much to her as it does to me - the place her grandparents live, where her Mum grew up, and she placed her first crab pot, caught her first flathead and had her first waterski.

Heike dressed in Seed

Enough of this Mum, let's jet

Z xx