Summer holidays

We're home from our holiday*. We visited my sister in the beautiful Western District. It was lovely: a slow holiday with simple pleasures.

Pancakes for breakfast. A spot of kite flying. Trips to the playground. Dinner with delightful friends.

And making wishes at the wishing well (should I worry that one boy wished for ice cream, while his younger brother wished for money?)



Then there was a bit of strawberry picking (... we didn't eat any out in the field ... cross my heart).



And Mr HB joined us later in the week. We drove to a beautiful white sandy beach ....



... and made lots and lots and lots of sand castles (Mr Hoppo Bumpo worked like a man possessed .... do we think its connected to his childhood? He grew up by a shingle beach.)



On the last day we went to a little wool museum.

There was all manner of shearing paraphernalia to admire. I liked this middle shearing comb called the 'Moffat Virtue Trimmer' (.... its reassuring to know that there is a way of taming those embarrassing unruly virtues)



We tried a little hand spinning (my joy at thinking we had a future yarn artist in the family was dispelled when I noticed that there was actually a little reverse engineering going on).



And I mustn't forget my purchase from a gorgeous new place in town (more on Hazel Green next time).



Sadly all holidays come to an end.

We had such a lovely time. I must thank my sister who made us feel so welcome. Its not easy to have house guests who rise at 6.00am, spill food on the floor and think flatulence is hilarious. (But I do promise to be better behaved next time).



* The four hour drive there went swimmingly. I didn't make any wrong turns into pine plantations.