A family picnic

We had a good weekend nicely portioned up between productive work, reading, knitting and our family. On Saturday morning I read through some of my book - in one of the final stages before it goes to the printer, and in the afternoon, I made cakes, a roast chicken and potato salad for our family picnic. Hanno picked up Jens and Cathy from the airport on Saturday night and we also said goodbye to Koda, after having her here with us for the past month. She is such a sweet dog but she became very attached to Hanno while she was here and then we had some jealousy problems and a couple of fights between her and Alice. In the end, I was pleased to see her go.

Koda watching Hanno work in the garden.

Sarndra organised a family and friends picnic on Sunday so we all met at the Roma St Parklands. The parklands is an oasis in the middle of our capital city that used to be a rail yard and then lay derelict for a few years. Now it's been beautifully planted with tree ferns and tropicals to resemble a rainforest garden. There are numerous waterfalls and streams and plenty of places to sit or have a picnic. To tell you the truth, spending time there yesterday restored my faith in modern life quite a bit. The parkland was packed with families socialising, playing and spending time together in the winter sun. There was a wedding taking place and a large group of people were playing The Amazing Race, having started in one of the outer suburbs and ending at the parklands. And in the midst of all that activity, children were playing, parents were carrying babies in slings or watching toddlers near the fountains, food was being cooked and eaten and it looked like everyone was having a good time.  Just a few blocks away the shops were packed but here in this oasis of sanity, people celebrated winter and spending time with their family and friends. I was enriched just by being there surrounded by it.

 This is about half of our group.

I also enjoyed socialising in our little spot, reconnecting with Sarndra's friends who I hadn't seen since the wedding - hello Jamie and Steve! and her beautiful mother, Sue, and sister, Cinnamon, and husband, John. Shane cooked the food brought along by everyone and we had a shared table just packed with delicious food that everyone enjoyed. Kerry had to work, so Sunny and Jamie didn't come along, but Sunny sent along some Korean BBQ beef for everyone, and along with my orange cake there was Jamie's vegan apple crumble and Sue's chocolate brownies. Sarndra made the most fabulous Chinese cabbage and noodle salad and along with chicken, meat balls, sausages, potato salad and many bits and pieces, we all ate, talked, ate and talked some more. It was a wonderful day.

Oh! I forgot to add these photos of the park, taken as we were walking to the car park.