We've survived moving house (twice!) and two street parties in as many weeks in our new home of Lockhart. Last weekend was our first foray into the Spirit of the Land, an annual art and sculpture festival held in Lockhart. It draws crowds of 6000 people over two days so it was an ambitious start to our new careers as cafe proprietors but it was a great chance to meet the locals and give them a small taste of things to come at the Blue Bird Cafe. Roger and I (with the much appreciated help of relatives) got out on the street with the other market stall holders and local business people to enliven the festival atmosphere.

Our plan was to offer scoop ice cream and granitas so when the weather turned chilly and grey earlier in the week (with roads in the Blue Mountains even blocked by snow!) we thought we had made the wrong choice of fare. However lady luck and the weather gods smiled on us and by Saturday the weather was brightening. The four of us were flat stick pulling granitas and scooping cones. It seemed that the crowds appreciated the tradition of old-fashioned ice cream flavours of Hokey Pokey, choc mint, passionfruit and rum and raisin. But mostly it was our chance to meet everyone in town...and I think we may very well have achieved that! They all had lovely words of welcome to our new home and pledges of support once we are open.

But the nicest thing was meeting members of the Veneris and Matis familes who came from all over NSW for the festival and to take a trip down memory lane by visiting the Blue Bird where they spent their childhoods and formative years. We felt bad that they were seeing the cafe at her worst, broken and bruised. We considered that it would be hardly recognisable to them but they still found enough in the shell to trigger memories and tears. Their support for our efforts was heart-warming and we only hope that we can do their memories and their faith in our vision for the future of the Blue Bird, justice. We can but try and we will do our best to live up to the expectations of the family and of Lockhart.