The Outdoorsy One came down to stay for the weekend. She was missing her mum and wanted to hang out. So we did.
Saturday was a beautiful day. We got up and sat in the sun having breakfast. I made spiced ricotta, raspberry and hazelnut muffins, which we had with real coffee and champagne (well – I had champagne). I don’t always make muffins for breakfast, but it was a special day with my first born.
Then Doc said he wanted to go to the markets to get some workshirts. The Outdoorsy One’s eyes lit up – MARKETS! I tried to get her expectations back under control – our local market is one of those trash & treasure things, but more trash than treasure. People come along, spread a tarp on the ground and get out all the things they decided to get rid of in their cleanup. At least that’s what a lot of it looks like.
But where there’s a market there’s always the possibility of a bargain. So off we went. And lo and behold, we found a stall selling tie died denim shorts at a reasonable price. So of course we had to buy some. They even threw in a free ring for The Outdoorsy One – gold, with an owl made from coloured glass beads. She liked it!
Then it was back home and into the business of the day – cleaning walls and painting Joel’s old bedroom. I figure this was our bonding time. A chance to spend some quality time together, doing something useful and chatting.
Doc had refused to do any painting. He said he liked the colour the walls were (blue – just like every other wall in the house), and if I wanted to change it then I could paint it myself. Fair enough. So I picked out some paint – bright green on one wall and pale green on the others and off we went.
Doc made a few trips in “just to check how we were going”. As it was The Outdoorsy One’s first time painting a room, he did some of the rolling for her – just to show her how of course, because he wasn’t doing any of the work himself! Between all of us, we got the whole thing done in a few hours – including a trip to Bunnings to buy more paint. Now there’s just painting over a few green spots on the ceiling (I told you it was The Outdoorsy One’s first time with a roller), and the skirting boards to do.
As we worked so hard on Saturday, we decided to do something nice on Sunday – Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, but Doc’s not the walking type. His motto is “if you can’t drive up to it, over it, around it or through it, it’s not worth visiting”. As we had a ‘tourist’ in tow for the weekend it was the perfect excuse, so off we went.
I’m not really sure what I thought of it. Spectacular views of course from the escarpment to the sea, across Lake Illawarra to Wollongong, and down to Bass Point at Shellharbour. We did a tree top walk at the Daintree Discovery Centre when we went to the Cape last year, so the experience wasn’t completely new. And it is rather exciting walking on platforms high above the ground, particularly when they sway while you’re walking on them. I’m not sure if the trees have grown since the walk was built, but I just felt like it could have been a bit higher – that it was going through the trees instead of at the top of them.
But it was a good walk, and I got some great photos.
Then we went in to Robertson for lunch – to Pizza in the Mist. Doc and I had dessert there when we went to Robertson Markets in autumn. I always think of the southern highlands as an autumn place, where the trees turn all the shades of gold and red, and where fog shrouds can reduce visibility to almost zero.
But I’ve just discovered spring can be equally as spectacular – and as a bonus it’s a lot warmer! Trees are starting to bud, and many of the paths are carpeted with flowers. Which was good, because it gave us a chance to walk off the desserts from lunch. The menu might say “hot chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce” but that’s code for “mmmmm” – which is what everybody says when they take their first mouthful. I tried to get a photo, but Doc and The Outdoorsy One had almost finished it by the time I got my camera out!
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