When the Days are Gorgeous

Last Saturday the weather was stunning.  Beyond perfect.  In fact, there have been so many beyond perfect days that it's a struggle to believe we're not living in some honey-dewed afterlife that occurred after an unknown death.

I may have mentioned before that I love Sydney (although I am jealous of that insanely sweet crisp light that seems to exist in Scandinavian countries - is it just me or do blogs written by people 'up there' seem to glow with some of the best light on Earth?).

So on this Saturday we were sans fruit and vegetables since our organic box wasn't able to be ordered.  We decided to pop down to the Eveleigh Markets to pick up some fresh food and maybe do something afterwards, just because when the weather is this amazing you don't want to 'waste' it (whatever that means; how can you waste weather?).

Well we found a carpark close to the markets, which always works well to put everyone in a wonderful mood.   We walked past a group of share house occupants having a picnic on the nature strip outside their terrace - sitting around in pyjamas and wet hair, drinking hot beverages and nibbling on toast.  I remember that life!  It's fair to say that the type of morning they were having was not going to be the type of morning I was going to have.

Indeed, upon walking down to the markets we strolled through the stalls, buying up the vegetables we needed (and some that just looked amazing - seriously, brussel sprouts are one of my FAVOURITE foods and I love this time of year just so I can indulge in a plate full of butter-fried srouts with little more than a crack of salt and pepper).  There were smiles everywhere we looked.  Or then again, maybe it's just the way it feels when the light is amazing, the sun is shining and your family is in one of those great places.

As we got towards the end I lost James and the children to the innards of the Carriageworks building.  I do love that building, the light is stunning and when it's completely empty it demands that everyone run around.  Everyone.  Sure, the infirmed just feel the urge but the rest of us *must* run.  

 

At one point I had to run because I was being accosted by zombies. It's ok, our children haven't actually seen anything with a zombie in it, it is just something that has come up in conversation, as it does, and they were quite taken with the idea.  I must have had my brains extracted at least three or four times that morning.

 

 The four of us ran around like lunatics in that big open space - zombies attacked, circus acts were performed, magic tricks surprised us and in between it all I did manage to try and take a photo or two.  But mostly we just had fun.

 

All that running did require a bit of liquid sustenance at the end of it all. 

 

And of course sitting around waiting for James did mean I had to take a three-of-us selfie.

 

Ted and Harriet were laughing and lolling all over each other.  The heart is warmed when they play together so sweetly.  Ted was wearing his new deliciously sweet t-shirt from The Raisin Did It, which makes me smile every time he pops it on.   

 

And then on to the second part of our day - the picnic adventure.  After deciphering my destination through a series of interpretative dances, semaphore, sign language and eventually guesswork, James drove across the bridge to Balmoral Beach.  And there was no-one there!  Well, when I say there was no-one there I don't want all of you reading from Perth to start visualising that there were literally no other people present across the beach.  And for those of you reading from Sydney the usual interpretation of no-one being there means that you only had to drive twice around the beach to find a car park.  It was in between - we arrived and grabbed a park right on the beach.  James paid up the first year of our mortgage in parking fees and we managed to find a picnicking spot under a fig tree - dappled sun, no dirt, soft grass.  Ideal.

 

Whilst we sat there I forced myself to eat the organic camembert  spread thickly on the fig and date rye sourdough that we'd bought at the markets.  It was a trial, I can tell you. Ted did a wee about 45cms away from the picnic site and managed to appall our northern cousins within the first ten minutes of our dirty, non-exercise-clothes-wearing inner-west selves.  We laughed ourselves silly.

 

After eating we went for a potter over to Rocky Point Island and watched the water, thick with yachts, move between our headland and the two in front of us.  Beyond, the great blue!

 

As is our wont of late, James cracked open the geocaching app so we could scope out any caches.  We found one! And we soon realised that we need to carry with us a little pile of toys to be able to place in the caches (we bought a little packet of things the following morning).  And Ted found a 'mouse' under a rock which, upon inspection, was actually an *enormous* blue tongue lizard!  He looked like a confident, long-term resident of the island, in much the same way the blue groper was at Clovelly I'm sure.

Ted found the rotunda.  Shows were performed.  Songs were sung.  None of us were surprised.

 

And the warm sun of the afternoon leant itself to some paddling and sandcastle building.  I was too much of a wimp to go much deeper than my waist but James braved the water and went off swimming with Harriet.  Ted and I were snipped on the toes by some miscellaneous sand creature that I had to literally prise off his fingers, we saw a huge sea slug and admired the way it camouflaged itself so beautifully against the mossy rocks and, of course, marveled at the way the tide moved in and out of the deep hole Harriet and James had created.

Long shadows, shivering salt-crusted bodies and weary bodies signalled the end of the day.

We managed to keep Ted awake for the whole way home.

What a day.  I may have mentioned this before, but I love autumn.