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I've been camping under Salmon Gums. The little Vonerables have been building cubbies in the scrub and bottle feeding newborn lambs. We've been soaking in golden sunsets and vast horizons. There is so much beauty and calm in my photos I am losing myself in them. There are 1,500 so there's a fair bit of losing to be had. I always love coming home, especially to shower, but a few more days of campfires and cooking dinner in the outdoors would have been just fine with me.
I have a nascent blog about camping for people who are dirt phobic. One day I will unveil my many, all conquering lists, including the List of Pharmaceuticals for Panicky Parents Camping in Paddocks. And the List of 4WD Recovery Gear which I have gleaned from blokey magazines and my own, very cluey man, but which we rarely bother with because, well, there would be no room for incidentals like food and clothes.
My list today will not be included on my blog but it is certainly part of my preparation each and every time we go camping.
1. Change all the sheets and towels just prior to leaving such that you will be so busy washing and folding, you won't have time to pack.
2. Spend two hours at the Drs/Phlebotomist/Chemist panic buying antibiotics and steroids because five days of public holiday/weekend in the country makes you very edgy about Possible Illnesses. On this occasion there were Actual Illnesses, unfortunately, including the sort that makes you lie down for a day and further delay the packing.
3. While searching for the darkest possible clothes to pack for the little Vonerables, have them try on all their clothes and shoes in the 'too big' boxes. There's a good few hours of extra, unnecessary work right there in sorting, washing, and bagging clothes for the Salvos.
4. Drag the tired (we've just finished an 11 week school term for goodness sake), sick children around the shops in search of 11 pairs of shoes and Lugol's Iodine. Feel elated that you came back with nine.
5. Spend an hour or two at the computer posting to your blog. Ignore husband's quizzical looks.
6. Organise a surprise morning tea for your friend's 40th. Decorate the lawn near her workplace with pinwheels (thanks Twirly) and tiny jars of roses on garden stakes. Oh, and ribbons. And metres of pink fabric.
Okay, so that last one isn't something I do every time we go away, but so. much. fun. Tune in next week for photos of merinos and fields of wheat.
Have a beautiful Easter.
Thank you, lovely bride, for including me in your party. Thank you for having very cool games and letting the little ones dress you in toilet paper and streamers. Thank you for your infectious laugh. For being your very genuine self.
Thank you, little petals, for wearing delicious headbands. Thank you for liking polka dots and pegs. Thank you for letting me take photos of your hair-dos and hems. You were much more awesome at taking pegs off the line with one hand than I will ever be.
You know how I promised blog rest and less photos of the little vonerables....
Hold still....a little longer....I'm just separating the middle-aged, imagination ganglion from the auxillary creativity fibres. Ahh, there it is Mrs Vonerable! You have a strained blogging nerve. Complete blog rest for one month for you.
