Just a really nice weekend

As I write this, the sun is starting to sink down below the Mt Homeleigh Range and Dexter and Baxter are happily slurping up their afternoon treat of molasses and pollard. We've had very spring-like temperatures up here this weekend with today being quite warm. It won't be long and new buds will be appearing on the white cedar and other deciduous trees and the kangaroo paws will be in full bloom.

Yesterday morning began early with a fond farewell for Piglet who headed back down to the Central Coast after 5 weeks up here doing his prac at St Vincents Hospital in Lismore. We'd had a celebratory spa and dinner the night before with Piglet (celebrating his triumphant prac) and Warwick (our friend from Melbourne who playfully vies with Piglet for the honour of being our most frequent visitor) who came up for a couple of days of R&R here at Maryville@Larnook. After bidding farewell to Piglet we headed down to Kyogle, excited at the prospect of shopping at the brand new IGA that had opened earlier in the week. Very new, very big (well for Kyogle) but I fear not so country-esque as the previous IGA was. That's progress for ya, aye.

After giving the main street a good going over we drove across to Bentley, a small dot on the map midway between Kyogle and Lismore and called in at the famous Bentley Art Prize Exhibition at Bentley Hall. The small country hall was packed full of art, sweety, art, and what little space remained between all the art was pretty much taken up by people viewing it. Warwick bought some lovely scones, jam and cream from the CWA Ladies but alas we didn't purchase any art. Had the Hall not been so crowded and we could have thought about it a bit more, we may well have put a red dot on one of them.

A soak in the hot-tub and a few glasses of good champagne followed lunch, before Warwick headed down to Lismore to catch up briefly with a friend he'd recently met, and then we ended the night with a bbq, more wine and a dvd.

Warwick left around 9.30 for Gold Coast airport and Steve and I busied ourselves all day with tasks and chores and little projects all day, which has been great. We yarned for a while with Cheryl and Pete who have the property across the road from us and checked out their new dexter cattle that they had delivered earlier in the day. I've taken the eggs from the girls, given the boys their afternoon treat, and feel like I've achieved a few things today. It feels good.