Mothers Day

It was Mothers Day yesterday here in Australia, and after a big night out with friends at Darling Harbour the previous evening, I was very grateful for the lie-in I was granted, and even more so for the delicious late breakfast the children so kindly brought me. They gave me some gorgeous presents, some beautifully homemade and some they had bought with their pocket money, then we set off to Clifton Gardens to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Clifton Gardens is located next to the Sydney Harbour National Park and is a lovely spot as it combines a sandy beach (with a shark-netted safe swimming zone) with a great play park, harbour views, basketball hoops, cycle paths, and the all-important coffee shop.

Ally and the kids had rustled up a delicious picnic for us to enjoy and it made for a lovely afternoon. There are beautiful coastal walks to be done from there which we have promised ourselves we must do one day, and also it's a great place for snorkelling as apparently the shark nets play host to a wonderful array of fish and even sea horses!

The weather has been completely delightful for weeks now, the Autumn days starting with a slight chill, but quickly becoming warm with that incomparable blueness of sky I have only ever seen on this hemisphere. The mandarins in our garden are now starting to ripen and I was thrilled to bits this morning to have been able to pick and eat a couple - they are so sweet and fresh and there's such a joy of knowing you're 'growing your own'.