Last Day of Freedom

Day Ummm ....?

The weather is divine and as I think of packing up I'm excited to come home and slightly saddened that today was my last day of hanging in the sun with the children running wild and free.

This morning started slowly; coffee brewing, reading my book.  Did I mention that Andrew took the kids for a three hour walk *grin*

We decided to go for a drive. Past the farm we almost brought and then on through an area called the 'Promised Land'.  I wondered how I would feel when we drove past the garlic farm.  I thought it would be nothing but a funny little dream, but as we stopped and then drove slowly passed and looked at the bits and pieces they had done I got teary.  It looked exactly the way that I had imagined it would look and it still ticked all the boxes for what we would want if we moved out of town.

I wasn't totally surprised.  Beliingen is still the only other place that I have come across that I could imagine settling down in.  As we were driving in, it all felt right and the more we walk / drive around the more ways I can see myself here.  At the moment the city is winning and ticks the most boxes but when I am here its a very fine line.

We then drove through the 'Promised Land'.  It is lovely and the scenery is quiet breathtaking.  We stopped by a little creek.  It had water so clear and crisp that I found it almost impossible not to jump in.  At one point AB laughed and told me to stop smiling.  There is something about a rock bottomed clear river that makes me feel so peaceful and centered. As I walked up the middle, knee deep in water, listensing to the frogs. I looked up and there was a high rocky out crop that gave the spot a enclosed and secluded feel.  I thought to myself that I had finally found a spot that I could imagine putting mums ashes.  It seemed to fulfill everything that she had wanted; it was cool under the trees, the slow running stream was tranquil and clear, it was secluded and altogether a dreamy sort of place.  Even the kids were taken with it asking if we could stay a long time and if we could go back to that spot lots.

I don't know if I will scatter mum there, but it felt lovely to find a spot after all these years of keeping an eye out for 'the' place, to think that maybe I would find it after all.

After we got back to the tent we all lay in the sun reading and talking for an hour or so and then we wandered down to have our last swim in the Bellinger river for 09.  The locals were finishing for the yearly eel fishing championship. Imagine two dozen people all gathering around a few garbage cans and pulling out eels the size of a five year old and you get the drift. 

So now we are back at the camp site.  The kids ran till they dropped. The men went up to get pizza. Trish and I heard something in the bushes and spent 20 minutes freaking out. Trish armed herself with a carving knife. I seemed to think that a dust pan and brush would suffice.  Needless to say the boys got back and we were saved by the rabid whatever it was in the forest. Now we are eating pizza, laughing and trying to think a bit about the job of packing up tomorrow.