Forest Friday

Squeaky didn't raise her head until 9.15 this morning, and when she did, rather than the usual plaintive demand for Daddy, she cried out for "Cole! Cole!" which made us laugh.

Maybe it's a sign of the role-reversal that Nicole has been either demoted or promoted from Mummy, although it was back to that before long.

Usual breakfast of toast and ginger marmalade was followed by getting E to Nursery for 10.15 which wasn't bad going considering.

Nicole's on a late today, so rather than run around trying to get the dogs walked and her back to the house for 11.30, I went out solo on Forest Friday at Mount Coot-tha and did the long walk I found a couple of weeks ago which took me around a hill along the Maculata Track then down into the valley to a little lake (which was looking somewhat denuded, presumably due to evaporation, since the last time I was there), and up the other side of the valley on a 2.5km circuit mysteriously called the Kulgun Circuit.

This led up over a steep hill through what was once a quarry and around a track on the other side which clung to the slope and offered very pleasant views of the city through the trees, and, looking Northeast, across to Moreton Bay in the distance.

The climb back was very steep and tiring, I was dripping sweat by the time I got to the top. It was very sunny and I reckong the temperature was in the mid-30s. The dogs were exhausted and climbed straight into the car with "take me home" expressions on their faces.

It was 12.25 by this point so I thought maybe I could attempt to rendezvous with Nicole as she cycled into work. At 12.38 I parked up toward the tail end of her route, but ten minutes of hanging around in the sizzling heat was enough for me and I figured I'd missed her.

The afternoon, which should have been spent doing productive things, was instead spent pottering and cooling down... and not much else apart from a bit of weeding in the garden.

I went up to the water lookout as the sky clouded over and saw some nice god-beams marching across the city and suburbs. Then off to fetch Eloise who was very keen on showing me the toys she has there to play with, and gave me an excellent demonstration of dual pram pushing.