The young ones here are all back at school / Uni this week. School holidays always bring opportunities for us to connect with the kids in more relaxed ways - and this July break was no exception.
We take Abi to horse riding one afternoon a week in school time, but this school holiday she had a 5 day "camp" at Forest Park with the chance to put Lotto through his paces over the five days. The verdict? Lotto is beautiful, but probably not THE ONE!
July coincides with NAIDOC Week. This year the theme was "Keep the fire burning! Blak, loud and proud". We were lucky to celebrate NAIDOC at the NGA with a wonderful performance by Eric Avery - playing an ode to the Aboriginal Memorial - 200 hollow log funeral poles - one for each year of European settlement 1788-1988. After the performance Eric was joined by Djon Mundine, the original curator of this poignant memorial for the bicentenary.
We were lucky to have a day just to "hang" with Ella and Abi. We went second hand book shopping, made some focaccia, enjoyed lunch at the iconic Tilley's Devine Cafe in Lynham, ............
Note the tail plaiting .....
There were hundreds of kangaroos out this afternoon - but no cows luckily. Ringo is afraid of the cows!
Lots of treats for Ringo this afternoon.
He's a lovely big, mostly good, horsey boy that Ringo. He's going to be lost without Abi too I think!
We took a road trip to Wollongong in the holidays and met up with Ollie on his Uni break. We enjoyed a long lunch and great conversations, finishing off with a coffee on North Wollongong Beach in the afternoon. We love seeing how Ollie is making his way at Uni, forming great friendships and always focussed on learning (while managing to enjoy a beach side life in his spare time).
played some hard fought rounds of Jenga and taught ourselves how to play an equally hard fought game of poker (with Monopoly money). It was a wonderful day.
These girls are practically grown women now. We are so lucky they are still prepared to "hang" with Granny and Grandpa occasionally. The conversations we have are just amazing!
We had a magical afternoon with Abi and Ringo out at Redlands on Monday afternoon. The arena was too wet for riding, so we just spent the visit watching Abi give Ringo some pampering and then going for a walk around this amazing property, as the sun was setting.
Ringo enjoyed it all enormously, as we did, especially knowing that Abi's lease on Ringo is ending soon with the promise of new horsey adventures in the future. But that doesn't mean we all love Ringo any less. We are going to miss these Monday afternoons very much!
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