A smile as wide as The Painted Desert

After finishing lunch I wandered back to work via the shortcut through the Ghan Museum yard when my phone rang. I pulled up a seat on an old railway relic to hear news from home. 

"Hey Mum, how's it all going?" was the opening question. 

"Really well," I said.  "I've just stopped in the sunshine, with my t-shirt on, jumper in hand for later in the day.  The weather's great and everything is going well.  And you?"

"That's why I rang, I'm rounding up the cows in our back paddock, it normally has no water but the puddle is so big there are seven black swans having a swim! As soon as I saw them I thought of you." 

The conversation continued briskly, full of questions, "What work are you doing? What's Will working on? Is he enjoying it?" The questions flooded me as quickly as the waters had flooded the back paddock until very abruptly I heard "Gotta go." The line went dead. First thought was 'Is he OK?', second thought was 'Wonder if the cows are doing the right thing?' which was confirmed with the next text - Cows everywhere talk soon.  

News from home warmed my soul. It's easy to forget it's still wet and miserable down home when we have sun shining on our face each day and we haven't seen a cloud since leaving South Australia. How lucky are we to be warm all the way to our bones! And to know my son and I are thousands of kilometres away but are connected by the simple act of watching birds is priceless, and fills me with pride.  I had a smile as wide as the Painted Desert for the rest of the afternoon.