Every now and then you are handed a day that should be wrapped up in paper, tied with a big bow and started with a loud "surprise"! Saturday was one of those days- a gift. August and September here can be rough- raging Nor'Wester winds followed by bone-chilling southerlies.
But that wasn't Saturday. Saturday was perfect from the get-go. The sunrise had painted Mt Grey pink, a much anticipated event in our house lately. The girls rip open the curtains while it's still dark outside, busy themselves with other morning stuff such as breakfast, all the time keeping one eye on the mountain. As the sun rises it paints the mountain a perfect small girl tinge of pink. It's heralded with much yelling, squealing and arguments about who saw it first.
We had a big list of "to-do" jobs on Saturday including erecting the new electric fence to keep the geese in the shelter belt. They are such fastidious weeders. They keep the fescue grass under "just surviving" conditions and leave the trees alone completely. They also manure the ground around the trees and act as early warning systems for anybody entering our property.
It was a big job, 300metres of four strand electric fence but we all pitched in- Ruby helped attach the strings, Matilda experimented with using the droppers as light sabres and Flynn attempted to eat the goose poo! We got it done.
The rest of the day was sacrificed to tree planting- more poplars for sheep shade, oaks for the same, and a few more fruit trees including an apple, plum and nashis.
As the day wore on it just got sunnier, warmer and stiller. Every now and then you'd just have to stop and take it all in- perfect silence, the sun on your back, then sky larks starting to sing, lambs in the distance, then silence again.
By the end of it we were all totally blissed out by the "gift day". The photos above was taken as the shadows lengthened and we realised that the end was nigh. Just had to capture it before it disappeared for ever. The perfect day.
