There have been too many gadgets going in this neck of the woods. As a humane act, for myself and for them, the boys were dropped in the wilderness to unsquare their eyes. Our wilderness is down the road and around the corner at the end of a suburban street. If you didn't know to look between the roadside trees you would drive straight past it. It holds a treasure trove of wild and marvellous things if you just stop and look.
As you enter the tree line there are wide steps...
leading down to a zig zagging bridge...
and a long curving boardwalk. The boys were specks far up ahead. Shorty loved running fast on this bit, arms a-waving in the air. There have been platypus sightings in this waterhole but you have to be very quiet. We have consequently never seen them.
I kept watching my little Bear Grylls striking poses with one of his oldest friends. He has fancied himself a bit of a wild man since he was about two. We've been poking around in the bush for a long time together, he and I.
He now has a protégée. He picked her up for the last stretch. I think she liked it.
She still thinks a feather is very cool. He has moved onto an i-pod and pocket knife.
It was a cornucopia of magical things down in that creek.
These trees always remind me of sun weathered skin on the old men out West- wrinkled, sinewy, sun spotted and scarred.
These quandong leaves have always been a bit special to us. They are pioneer trees and if you find the red leaf or round blue fruit....
you can usually look up and see one towering over you...
or their buttress roots spreading out beside you.
There was quite a bit of rustling in the leaf litter. We preferred to think it was these little water dragons...
rather than these little water snakes.
Why do they always find the more challenging way to do things? Why am I strangely loving every thing he does this last summer of childhood? Why do you want to hold them closer as they start to stride away?
Ah! Gotcha! Looking back at yo' mama when you hit a small obstacle or are you just smiling at me smiling at you? Be still my achy breaky heart!
He's a lovely boy, just gorgeous! Send him over with Anna's boys when they visit.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with Deb.
ReplyDeleteALL of the chillun are gorgeous.
These bush tracks are addictive and very contemplative.
However, I'm positive I see a human skull tangled amongst the roots in the first B&W pic.
He's a very good looking lad, that one. I wonder where that nook is? You must tell me. Isn't it wonderful to think we have these hidden spots so close to the City. I think we need a time of respite there. To be honest, I could strangle my sons at the moment!
ReplyDeleteI have a lump in my throat Annie. My big girl is beside me printing out photos to take with her to boarding school. I see rough waters ahead for this sooky Mama.
ReplyDeleteDeb: He would like that as he loves likes Anna's boys but he travels with his partner in grime. Can you take another three...and then there are Carmel's...?
ReplyDeleteDMC: I wondered who would see things in the tangle. I see a full breasted woman having a lie down with tired shoulders. It may be a Rorschach root.
MMMC: Send them round and mine can do it for you. They grow weary of strangling each other.
Fiona: Oh! My heart hurts for you. I have never NOT looked forward to the end of school holidays this much! Just think of me ironing and making school lunches. It just occurred to me I'll have to make them for Shorty too now. I need to lie down!
Seems so cruel that we can invest so much of our souls into them and in only a few short years we will not be their best mama in the world. I shall be holding onto my cuddles in bed as long as I can. And thanks for the quandong tree tip- did see those exact leaves and blue fruit at Moffat and now I know what I had found. melx
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great spot for unsquaring. Lucky you having such a place close to home.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm!
ReplyDeleteA Freudian Rorschach blot turns up and whoosh goes my subconscious.
It may come from a childhood spent with Coles Funny Picture Books, finding all manner of things in the pics there.
I think I recognise your full bodied woman, but she may have sourced the skull and be trying to escape.
Too many forensic programmes on Foxtel.
THE more the merrier!
ReplyDeleteDeb: I think you mean scarier !
ReplyDeleteOh Annie you made my heart go a little achey-breaky. I happen to still think feathers are cool! I feel the telly gadget has been getting too much action in the middle of the day, but it's so diabolically hot it's somewhat of a necessity at times.
ReplyDelete