I wish I'd taken more pics, but I was too busy flapping my gums, and trying to keep at least a half an eye on the kids.
It was a gorgeous spring day, the park was loaded with Canberrans out having a good time, and we spent a few hours just hanging out, eating, talking about what we were going to do this summer, and generally just getting to know each others' families a bit better.
Apart from just hanging out shooting the shit, one of the funniest things was "Wayne" the swan, who kept hanging around waiting to be fed. When nobody offered him any, he figured Tom wouldn't put up much of a fight, and snatched his sandwich right out of his hand. Twice. Luckily, Tom thought it was pretty damned funny, so I don't think he's going to be traumatized for life or anything. Nothing worse than swanophobia, I'm sure.
Everybody had a good time, the kids were great, and we stayed until around 2:00, when it started to get hot and Tom was getting a bit tired and irritable.
Then when we got home, I decided that the day was just too awesome to just sit around the house all afternoon, so I decided to go for a little hike, and James joined me. We went over to Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, just a couple minutes up the road, and we walked around out there for a couple of hours.
These hills are taller than they look. According to Google Earth, the tallest of them, Old Joe Hill, is about 600 feet higher than where we started. Unfortunately, we didn't make it all the way to the top, because 1) the border fence between New South Wales and the ACT got in the way, and 2) James was having a tough time on the slope because he'd decided not to listen to me, and did the walk in shorts and beach sandals.
But we got up about to about 2500 feet (we started at about 2000), and had a very nice view (nice enough that I just stood there looking and didn't think to take any pictures) of all of Gungahlin and west to the mountains.
We checked out some of the local wildlife--a lot of birds, a few roos, one snake (didn't see enough of it to tell what kind), and what we think may have been a shingleback lizard--spent some good one-on-one father-son time together, enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine, and I got some serious exercise.
James pointed out that while he thought that was great for me, he is already a bean-pole and doesn't want to lose any weight, so he's got to be careful how much he hangs out with me when I'm exercising. I told him that bushwalking with make him stronger, not skinnier, but that I'd give him an extra-big serving at dinner tonight to help make sure.
We got home just in time for me to get dinner ready (beef stroganoff, only not really because somehow the mushrooms I bought on Friday have disappeared), everybody thought it was delicious, then Karen and I got the kitchen cleaned up and the kids in bed, and then I had a little time to put these pics online and write this so that I can remember how much fun I had today.
Oh shit, I nearly forgot to mention that while I was reading through my blog feeds before we left this morning, I found out that Joel Salatin is giving a talk here in Canberra this Wednesday. And because I don't have to work, I've already bought a ticket and I'm going to be there. I first read about Joel and Polyface Farm in Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. He's one of the main influences that helped me get on the path to eating Real Food. In a way, the dude helped save my life. I think it's pretty cool that I'm going to get to see him in person, and maybe I'll even get a chance to say thanks.
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