Sunday, February 13, 2005

Fleeing the city

It has become rare to spend a Friday night in town. But a Chinese New Year dinner with the family was the loveliest reason to do so. A particularly happy and memorable night. Tapering off at home with two young men and their mother having a geeky session on their iBooks - three faces illuminated by screens, showing off and swapping applications. The family that Macs together...
Ah, but it is lovely to hit the road early on a Saturday morning, humming along with uncomplicated traffic, out into the vales of vineyards, each with their borders of red roses. Willunga Farmers' Market was incredibly crowded - bubbling with bourgeoisie and fresh produce. I stocked up on fresh orange blossom honey, goat curd, kipfler potatoes, fresh beets and goodies, had a couple of chats, and hummed off on the road again to my friends Merry and Grant's Blueberry Patch to buy blueberries and raspberries. Those utterly divine rabbiteye blueberries are in season now. My favourite. Merry sent me away heavily loaded.
Back by the sea, it is all tranquility. Easy, mild weather. The magpies were glad to see me, coming to the balcony for their mincemeat treats. Amazingly, there seem to be two new young ones. I am wondering how many clutches of young these birds can manage in a season. I make this three. A flock of galahs came to graze on the back lawn today, too. They seem to have discovered the birdbath and they took it in turns to drink while the others strutted about looking for seedy things in the grass. The magpies left them alone.

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