If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?

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!

Flower Power

I've been yearning for one of these little babies for a while now. So when CurlyPops put them on sale a few weeks ago, I could no longer resist. It finally arrived yesterday but I wanted to savour the opening. Little moments can be considerably better enjoyed without the Q and A brigade interrupting with requests for food and undies. So I dropped the boys off at the creek down the road and sent them for an adventure while I sat in the car with Snowy and slowly unpeeled my treasure.
I do love a present with layers!
This is one of the joys of mail presents, especially those from clever, creative wrappers. I even played some of my own wrap music in the car as I slowly unwrapped. Just look at the prettiness!
Underneath even the wrapping underwear was pretty, all hand stamped and brown papery.
There was some bubble wrap that may go in the dollhouse bath a la the MMMC dollhouse reno.
Et Voila! It has arrived in its glorious colourfulness and I got as much pleasure from unwrapping it in the empty car next to a quiet creek as I will have wearing it in years to come. Thanks, Ms Curlypops! It is beautiful.

If I made New Year's Resolutions, which I don't usually, it might be to appreciate more of the little things and to gather all those tiny moments of pleasure into one big marvellous 2012!