Sunday, June 22, 2014

It's winter

We're not talking about why we were in Bowral the other weekend (this is a blog about delightful things after all!) but there were a few aspects of it we really enjoyed. Staying at Links House, opposite the golf course, was an unexpected pleasure. Built in 1928 as country guesthouse it has loads of character and charm while being immaculately maintained.  I won't forget the wonderful breakfast, cooked to order and featuring all local produce, in a long time.

The drive back to Canberra gave me an opportunity to photograph the Lake George wind farms on one of our early winter, big blue sky days.

Our new Conservative government is introducing legislation into Parliament to repeal the Carbon Tax this week and by way of introduction Joe Hockey, our country's enlightened Treasurer, has announced that this wind farm is a blight on the landscape - something ugly, that offends him every time he drives past!!!!  Obviously, open cut coal mines are much more to his taste.



We visited the very classy Bowral Farmer's Markets (takes place every second Saturday of the month) on Saturday morning. We resisted the temptation to buy a couple more cymbidium orchids in fabulous flower, but succumbed to the charms of the French guy flogging his smoked spiced sea salt and organic garlic.

Rob purchased a bagful of goodies fresh from local farms and was inspired to get cooking.



Another charm of cooler weather is the Sunday night roasts we enjoy with J & J and A & E. Joshy does a wonderful job with his spit roasts and the girls are the greatest fans of what he creates.


We always talk about the similarities (or not) between Abi and Ella - so I decided to present Exhibit A and B as evidence. Exhibit A (above) is a picture I took of Abi last night (age 2 years and four months). Exhibit B (below) is a picture I took of Ella at exactly the same age. I purposely chose pictures with similar positions and expressions. But even if you discount this you can easily see the similarities!


 .....but still some differences!



This girl is one cheeky monkey!

Abi loves playing with her big sister - which can result in some real disruptions at times. Ella's big girl, highly focussed activities are usually much too hard for a two year old to cope with.

Last night there was quite a long period of peaceful play with the wooden tiles from the Hungry Caterpillar set. Ella was stacking them into threes and then calculating 3 times multiplication formulas while Abi was happy matching apples.



... (and black olives).




1 comment:

Unknown said...

The girls both have the most amazing eyes. Such concentration, a joy.
While we were in the Hunter Valley we saw some lovely picturesque great piles of dirt courtesy of the mines. The wineries are so worried for their beautiful fertile farm land.
Joe Hockey you are an idiot.