More birthdays

Yes there's more August birthdays - this week it was Angus's - such a sweet sixteen year old boy ....

Yes he is!! 

Although he can easily pose it tough for the camera, this is the real (sweet) Angus we think .....

Happy birthday darling boy - we are so lucky you will put up with blowing out your candles and getting your photo taken by me - when they're not really your favourite things to do (not at all!). But you are definitely our favourite 16 year old - by a long shot!

Other highlights this week have been - our morning walk on Wednesday after a -4oC overnight minimum (following a freezing day on Tuesday with rain, wind and dumps of snow on the nearby mountains and outlying suburbs) ......

... and our usual Wednesday late afternoon date with Abi at Forest Park Riding School. This is Abi and Amira heading out on their trail ride (happy times!).

At the end of lessons the girls have to untack their ponies, brush them down and rug them. This week Abi and Amal got to rug Belle the Clydesdale Thoroughbred cross horse - which was a big responsibility and an awfully exciting thing to do - because Belle is a big horse and a bit tricky to rug - but utterly adorable all at the same time ....

But Abi is very assertive with all the ponies/horses under her care - no matter their size!

We enjoy the after lesson time too - and have got to know these beautiful animals better ourselves. We always imagine they're being friendly to us (but I think they're just looking for the treats they expect all humans to have hidden in their pockets).

And so today it was Jody's birthday!! - and another special celebration for us with a night out at Iori, a fave Japanese restaurant of ours - which was actually Canberra's first high end Japanese restaurant all those years ago - and still going strong!

There were even mocktails to start ...... 

We all felt so lucky to be able to sit with this wise and wonderful young woman over dinner tonight, and reflect on how lucky we were to be in a buzzy restaurant together, eating beautiful food, drinking a great Chardonnay and blowing out candles on a "cake" (matcha and black sesame ice cream!) while thinking about the circumstances this time last year when we were in full on lockdown and none of us were able to share any kind of celebration, let alone our dear family member's birthdays. 

But this year its different; so happy birthday darling Jody, and here's to many more celebrations like this one in the future!