Who is Juni?

When I was 9 years old we moved from suburbian Dromana to a property - 27 acres of mostly bush, surrounded in state forest. We lived down an eternally dusty or muddy dirt track (depending on what time of the year it was) which was about 15 minutes out of Daylesford. Mum, Dad, my brother and I.

My first memory of seeing the property was when we followed a real estate agent down this dirt track that seemed to never end. It started with pine trees on both sides, then changed to eucalyptus trees on both sides and then all of a sudden you turned a bend and it opened out to a view of a gully and out to Daylesford. It was beautiful. The house was a shambles of bits and pieces - a half finished house, but it's exactly what my parents were after.  The house was surrounded in lawn, which was then enclosed by trees. Our home was on a patch of green amongst the forest.

I have a lot of memories there, that are tied in with that place. In someways it feels to me now like my real home still. It's funny how your heart can tune into something and never let it go. It's also funny how you can identify yourself with something - such as a place - and when that place is gone part of you feels gone to. It's not just the place - I know that. It's what I associate with it. It's all the good things and the bad things, moments, rituals, family, sounds and even smells.

A vivid memory of my childhood was when I was out on the lawn. It was dusk, it was that weird in - between temperature when it's not hot and not cold and there is no breeze. I was dancing on the lawn - I can really only remember doing this once. Pretending I was a real dancer - kind of like ballerina - and I was dancing with a pretend friend - Juni. I didn't care who could see me, in fact I think I was hoping Mum might see me out the window and see my true potential and send me out to dancing lessons.

Juni and I danced until it got a little dark. Then I laid down and the sky was spinning. The grass was a cold underneath me, everything was quiet except my breathing and the frogs near the dam.
I was so happy. I thought Juni and I must have looked amazing in the twilight.