We spent Christmas at my husband’s family just out side of Bathurst, country NSW. There something about Christmas, that laconic passage of those few days, where time stands still in suburban homes throughout the country. There’s the BQ, table set, turkey, christmas pudding, TV, maybe lawn cricket, overeating and usually the blend of heat and cicadas.

Home in the suburbs of Bathurst with the sound of lawnmowers, followed by silence, distant traffic and a suspended lassitude.

The home setting