I feel like I've spent the last 48 hours in my car. First I had to drive up to the Southern Highlands to pick my youngest daughter up frmo a YMCA camp then this morning an early morning departure to collect daughter number two from a farm outside Cooma where she has been horse riding for a week. The drive up to the Southern Highlands was unusually peaceful. Normally the Canberra-Sydney road is one I find tedious beyond belief but for some reason it was beautiful on Thursday night. Whether it was the time of day, early evening of a hot, hot day and the fields all yellow against the faded green of the gum trees, or the glow of sunset on Lake George but it was a peaceful journey. Similarly the drive this morning was lovely - albeit dodging a kangaroo who bounded out of the mist. Miss I snuggled under a blanket while we listened to Odo Hirsch's Bartlett and the City of Flames being read by Roger Cardwell. We listen to a lot of stories on tape and I have to say Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter is the worst of the lot. Don't get me wrong, because my kids love the stories but I find he reads in such a monotone or maybe it just brings out the worst of the prose? Tim Curry reading Lemony Snickett, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to. His Count Olaf sounds evil where Stephen Fry makes Voldemort sound like Jeeves.
At the farm, we watched my older daughter go over the jumps and generally show off her skills from a week in the country. She also proudly recounted her tally of dead rabbits - one of the highlights of this camp is playing spotlight. Now when I was a child this was sort of hide and seek with torches. They way they play it is to spot rabbits and then the farmer kills them. Of course, for me raised on a Beatrix Potter childhood this was really shocking but it's one of those things that makes me realise my children have an Australian sensibility about wildlife and rabbits are a pest.... I came away not only with my family complete but having bought an apricot nectar rose since this farm also trades in roses. Madness given my current need to water everything by hand with our drought and water restrictions but I couldn't resist the pale apricot blooms.
At the farm, we watched my older daughter go over the jumps and generally show off her skills from a week in the country. She also proudly recounted her tally of dead rabbits - one of the highlights of this camp is playing spotlight. Now when I was a child this was sort of hide and seek with torches. They way they play it is to spot rabbits and then the farmer kills them. Of course, for me raised on a Beatrix Potter childhood this was really shocking but it's one of those things that makes me realise my children have an Australian sensibility about wildlife and rabbits are a pest.... I came away not only with my family complete but having bought an apricot nectar rose since this farm also trades in roses. Madness given my current need to water everything by hand with our drought and water restrictions but I couldn't resist the pale apricot blooms.
Comments