Courses and horses

Winter is well and truly here. Bizarrely although it is very chilly in the mornings and evenings hardly any houses here have heating and any fireplaces in old houses have become 'feature' spaces for presenting piles of logs rather than burning them. So we were thrilled when we moved into this house to find it not only has ducted air con but also heating. As I type the girls are playing and cooing in the family room in a balmy 20 degree heat while outside it is dewy and nippy. Weren't they two of Snow White's dwarves? We went out to dinner on Friday night en famille, meeting up with our friends Melissa and Larry and their baby. Our babies slept silently throughout, Scarlett was well behaved thanks to a Margarita pizza and and a small serve of hazlenut ice cream as a reward for getting 3 stars on her chart for being good. On Saturday we headed to Orange Grove for the organic markets and after a Honey cured bacon and egg sandwich and a latte, for us, and a babycino for Scarlett, she lept astride one of the ponies available for rides, with her kilt-laden father at her side. With a loaf of spelt bread under one arm and a baked sour cherry cheesecake under the other we headed home to make dinner for Martin and Drew. Mart had just returned from 6 months working for Amex in Manhattan and was full of stories shared over bowls of moules washed down with a few too many wines. We also found time to crack open an old box of home movies and watched one of the four of us on a weekend away in the cotswolds in 1996, presenting our own drunken version of Through The Keyhole. Embarassing isn't the word. On Sunday we headed up to our local church to see the vicar Andrew about organising Florence's christening in late July. Rob's family missed Scarlett's as it was in England but this time his Mum is travelling from NZ. We then enjoyed a well needed two-hour lunchtime sleep as a family. Bliss. Paul Chinnery and his 'friend' Nyree came for dinner on Monday night. It was brilliant to catch up with him. He hasn't changed a bit and it was an evening filled with laughs and reminiscing. They've headed off to Uluru and Cairns and Paul is coming back to stay in two weeks. Can't wait.