Change of Seasons

Winter has been long and cold here, but at last it seems to be losing its grip on the countryside. Last Saturday was officially the first day of Spring and a drive around town will show that at least the cherry trees and plums seem to agree. Everything is in bloom. I must have pollen in my system, because my throat is so itchy and I'm sneezing all the time. The snow this season has been especially abundant and they say the ski season will extend until the first week of October, at this rate. We took the kids to Mt Selwyn snow fields last weekend and we all got to toboggan on the slopes and Brian and the kids went tubing a few times each. They were unsuccessful in getting me to go along with the tubing and Brian was trying hard to coerce me into doing it. "It's my Father's day wish" was his petulant response to my refusal to go hurtling down a snow slide on a rubber tube. He knows I hate speed. I think it's an inner ear thing-it actually makes me feel sick. It didn't stop him from putting a big guilt trip on me though! Sage impressed us all with his excellent balance, as he stood up on the toboggan and gracefully 'snow-boarded' down. I think we'll have to take him back and get lessons in snow-boarding. You wouldn't have guessed that it was his second time ever on snow. Sophia also loved the tobogganing and tubing. She loves speed in all kinds of vehicles. In the last holidays, I took them go-carting at Queanbeyan and Sophia was a real lead-foot, lapping me several times. I was finding it very uncomfortable in the tight rattle-trap, so was taking it very slowly. We're going on a cherry blossom viewing picnic with friends this weekend. I'll include those photos in the next post.

The first two shots are at Corin Forest, about 45 minutes from our home. There was about ten centimetres of snow and lots of families had driven up there to check it out.