rivettingKateTaylor

After a broken ankle and 10 weeks of not doing much, I took to the tennis court today for fitness tennis aerobics! And boy, am I feeling it!

I have played some golf and umpired some netball but breaking into a run for the first time in a couple of months was certainly a strain on the breathing.

Thank goodness it was in the stadium here in Waipukurau because it is blowing a blustery cold gale outside. Not conducive to good tennis!

Listening to the radio on the way in, tales of snow 7cm deep on the hills around Dunedin make me pleased to no longer be living in the deep south. Although, a few hours on an old tray sliding down the hills on our farm makes for great memories.

Speaking of which, on a recent visit to my Dad (whose ashes rest on our former family farm down there), sister#2 and I were going from story to story, memory to memory about things we had done as children on the farm. It was great to remember those wintery days sliding down the hills (seeing if we could reach the creek at the bottom and get muddy to boot!), making huts from tree stumps or outcrops of rocks (Mum used to wonder what took us so long to get from the bus stop at the top of the hill down to the house – we were playing!),  damming the creek below the old house (much to Dad’s chagrin when a big rainfall came….)

My niece Alice (and hence my Sarah) was jealous of our stories and wished loudly that her farm was as exciting as The Glen had been. It made us laugh and didn’t take long to tell her any fun we had was in our own imaginations. It was fun just because it was fun. There was nothing else to do. You had to make your own fun.  She has trees and creeks and stumps and hillsides – get out and use them!

We had no playstation (still don’t) to wile away the hours. I’m pleased to say my two often find themselves with “nothing to do” and end up playing a wonderful imagination-born game of families, pirates, dinosaurs, Hogwarts and Harry Potters etc etc whether they are using the arm chairs, deck furniture, trampoline, woodshed or haybarn. 

I’ve been a bit paranoid about the creek etc but I think it’s time I let them roam more. (I can always hide in the trees and spy on them anyway to make sure they don’t drown themselves). I’ve always thought the little pine plantation on our block would make a wonderful Terebithia (hence the comment about the drowning, that was such a sad ending to a great pearl of imaginative wisdom).

Anyhow, here comes the bad weather up the country. Probably a good week for my washing machine to croak it (hopefully temporarily) as I wouldn’t get the darn things dry anyway!