I know it’s been awhile since I’ve put anything on here. Our keyboard has been acting up for the past two weeks, and it takes twice as long as usual to type anything. Today was special, though, so I decided to share it anyway.
We are part of a homeschool writing group called Dead Boring. Every two weeks during school terms we meet at someone’s home and the children each read a story they’ve written. We eat lunch together, and then the children play with their friends while the moms fellowship. This group has been an incredible blessing in our lives here. We also do a few fun things through the year, and today was one of those.
We met at Waikari, about 50 minute’s drive south of us, and the children and some adults biked to Scargill, approximately 20 km. My four oldest all did the entire route, but I drove James partway and then let him out to ride. I followed along behind him, and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was a perfect time to get some good pictures of our gorgeous scenery! The children all absolutely loved the day, although they are very tired tonight. James actually rode 13.5 km–I couldn’t believe he went that far on that little bike!
The scenery between the highway and Waikari was incredibly beautiful!
Coming over the hill to Waikari.
Everyone ready to take off!There’s one of my boys!That’s a wattle tree in bloom.Such a beautiful day! There is the determined rider I followed.
My bored passenger!Sheep in a yard.
Some farms have signs at the end of the lane with their name on.
I thought this hedgerow was interesting, with alternating shades of green.
[…] August 29, Monday. This was an interesting morning. Two boys got busy and did half their school subjects before breakfast; the other never started working till 10:30! They all got to work on finishing up in the van while I ran a couple of errands in Cheviot late in the morning. This afternoon, Pete and Dianne came by to talk about plans for tomorrow. It’s the Dead Boring bike hike, and they are going so that we can go. We don’t have a way to transport our bikes and people, so they are taking their truck, and hauling the bikes while I drive the children in the van. They both plan to ride with the children. They loaded up a bunch of bikes and took them home, along with a couple of boys, to work on brakes. The boys ended up helping Dianne with some gardening, too. Elijah and James helped me in our garden–we finished digging carrots. Those carrots are so sweet and juicy! August 30, Tuesday. Bike hike today! No problems waking people up this morning. They were all eager to get ready and pack their lunches. Pete and Di brought their truck over and finished loading up bikes, then we all took off for Waikari. Once the group had assembled there, the older children and adults who were riding all took off, and a few of the smaller children were taken partway, down the biggest of the hills, to start out. Our four oldest all went the entire distance, but I took James about a third of the way before he started. He has a bike with very small wheels, about 8 inches in diameter, so can’t go very fast, but he makes up for it with sheer grit! I expected him to do just a couple of kilometers, and was shocked when he ended up going 13.5 km before getting to tired to go on! He had only stopped twice, briefly, in that time; once when he lost a shoe and had to pick it up and once to take a drink. A 9-year-old girl was right behind him after that last stop, and she passed him a couple of times–he immediately passed her up again! No way was he going to let her be ahead of him! After we got to Lennie’s, at Scargill, we ate our lunches. The children had theirs in backpacks so they wouldn’t have to wait for me to come with the van. We spent a few hours there, visiting and playing, and then came home. The weather was perfect today; warm and sunny, with a light nor-wester blowing. The scenery was gorgeous, and driving at 10 km/hr behind James, I had plenty of time to enjoy it and take pictures. […]