Autumn, and a week off between Easter and Anzac Day. Back to Steve’s family’s holiday house via a day-long drive, with busy activities with all the cousins. After the adults had blown more than a dozen eggs, the children painted them – and some of the adults including me too. Lara painted five consecutive eggs including two purple ones, outlasting everyone else (unfortunately only one survived: it was multicoloured and the first one she did). Rhea loved the waves, even when the air temperature was only 18 degrees. And after the extended family had left, I supervised the girls playing in the tree-house while I did some work from my bed.
Long, slow days, in which I have been doing some pre-reading for my new job on Monday, alternating sleep ins with Steve, and enjoying our favourite things (our favourite Greek restaurant, local bookshop and café) as well as taking pleasure in what thrills Rhea and Lara (inlet mini speedboat rides, different playgrounds, pony rides). We bummed around the house, and at the beach we had lots of sand and salty foam that relaxes everyone. The girls are seeing patterns everywhere: repeated images in pages of the books we read them, noticing a pen I used upstairs and then downstairs. On the beach when we traced our names, Rhea noticed the similarity between the ‘V’ in Steve’s name and the ‘A’ in hers, and now they see ‘E’s from Rhea and Steve’s name in signs everywhere, and ‘L’s.
With only us at the beach house, the neighbour’s large brown poodle came sniffing around. Steve dealt with it. As Lara later described the incident, ‘daddy said piss off! And the dog came around and daddy said piss off! And then the dog went near the laundry and daddy said piss off! So the dog went away.’
All chocolated out, we overnighted in town with Steve’s parents, where the girls had fun with the swing, toy car, trike and even the rocking bird made by a great great great aunt. We arrived back yesterday, in time to swish through the yellow, orange, red and burgundy carpet of leaves that our Manchurian pear deposited over our garden path. Whereas we missed our apricot crop which was a brown and slimy smudge by the time we returned from being away for the summer, the autumn leaves are still fresh and light. The girls jumped up and down and threw armfuls of them to each other in the fading sunlight.
Today we had a day to settle, like tea leaves in a teapot, and catch up on the washing, shopping, gardening and cleaning before starting work again. One last lovely sleep in for me, and a last day to savour before being propelled into a hectic and challenging new season.
The homecoming is so nice, for that reason and a few others, next Easter I think we will stay and enjoy our home treats. Including the Folk Festival. Been meaning to experience that for years.
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