Taking stock

We set off early, just the three of us - Hanno, Alice and me, with the sun almost breaking over the horizen, heading for Shane and Sarndra's home, about three hours away. We packed Alice in the back of our station wagon on her bed so she would be cushioned from the bumps and turns of the journey.

We stopped twice along the way. First at this old hall near Somerset Dam for Alice to have a run. I imagined all sorts of old style dances happening in the corrugated iron hall in times gone by.

Our second stop was for morning tea at Marburg, a small town originally settled by German migrants many years ago. We had a flask of hot tea and water for Alice, but she was more intent on all the new smells waiting to be discovered.

Finally, after what seemed like too much time, we arrived at a little white house sitting alone on top of a hill. It was cold and windy. It had been snowing just the week before, the temperature regularly drops below freezing there during winter. After greeting us outside, Shane and Sarndra took us inside their little cottage to a hot fire blazing away and the smell of lunch cooking in the oven.

In some homes you get a really relaxed and warm feeling - this was such a home. There was a cat hiding under the couch that Alice never found, lots of books around and sunlight streaming in through the front enclosed verandah. We sat and talked till it was time for lunch and then all sat down to a delicious meal.

Shane is happy there in that little cottage. He is happy with Sarndra, his job and his life in general, I could feel it. Sarndra is a lovely girl and I am pleased they found each other, they seem to be a very good match. Usually we are too busy to take stock of a particular day and instead look back through the memory of it gathered in fragments. But yesterday, I looked at it all carefully while it was happening and tried to take in the small details so I could accurately remember that day for a long time.

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Have you ever wondered what cook books a chef uses? Here are just some of Shane's. He let me borrow two lovely books - The French Kitchen and The French Market. I quickly looked through them while we were visiting and they have some excellent simple recipes. I'll be trying some of them out in the coming weeks and will share those that I really like.

We left on our return journey at 3.30pm. It had grown colder as the day progressed and I was thankful for the heater in the car as we drove those long and winding roads home. We didn't take the highways, instead we took the back roads which, like those in life, are always more interesting.

There are points in life when you take stock and decide if what you see is what you want to see. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I came away from our visit with feelings of love and pride, and, I suppose, relief, that Shane has grown into such a fine young man. You never know while they're growing if what you're doing is the right thing and as each child is different, you have to adjust what you do to suit each of them. I'm not saying I did every thing right, because I know I didn't, but I think I got enough of it right. It's a good feeling to see your son as an adult functioning so well, knowing he is successful in his job and happy with his partner and the choices he's made. As we travelled along that long thread that connects his home to ours, all those little animals hiding in the scrub would have looked in our car window and seen a well contented mother. And if I could bottle the feelings I tried to contain on that trip home, I'd would be richer than the queen.

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