Pine Forest

We took an afternoon walk through the Pine Forest near Armidale.  There were lots of bikes and kids and chatting and eating and laughing.  And some whinging.  The photos look like we had an idyllic walk through a lovely forest, skipping gladly through the flowers and discussing matters of the heart and philosophy (actually awesome friend Fiona and I did that part).  However, the real sound track to the walk consisted of a lot of whining, yelling, shrieking, shouting for no reason and declarations of hunger bordering on starvation.

The Pine Forest hosts some medieval re-enactments yearly, and some structures stay there all year.  We imagined this was a big meeting hall or a hut.  And I imagined being out here in the middle of an Armidale winter prentending I lived in the 13th century.  And then I was really glad people built houses with heating and cupboards full of hot chocolate and shortbread and the internet.

No, we could not figure out what this structure was either.  Gallows?  Quick! Get out of there Calab!!!!  Pine Forest ooggedy booggedy!

Clambering over the partially collapsed huts was fun.

 
I miss her!  Much silliness and chatting had to be squashed into a few days.  But lovely.  She has a farm to run in Gerringong (I learnt how to 'process' chickens...). Fiona is wearing a cool scarf overshirt combo.  Me - a muppets shirt.  Explains a lot.

 
Gab chose sun and safety protection at the same time on her head.  She makes me laugh.

 
The kids were mountain biking pros, especially second youngest nephew.

However, just after I took this photo oldest niece did a spectacular stack onto this bit of gravel road.  It was like it was happening in slow motion, and her chin took the brunt of her fall over the handle bars.  Ouch....she was so brave.  I would have cried and yelled a lot more.

So the day ended abruptly for the Pines in the Pine Forest.