thebestthebestthebest!

I ate a lamb chop today and then I ate second one! I also saw a lot of lambs today and couldn't believe how cute they are. The essence of innocence, right there. Now happily digesting in my vegetarian belly. Tonight is just a Sunday night and without any warning Gilly created an absolutely superb feast for dinner tonight. It was the first night of the season that it has been warm enough to have a bbq outside, so Greg grilled lamb chops, steak, chicken and prawns. Add roasted potatoes, homegrown pumpkin, fresh home grown salad, fresh home-baked-from-scratch-by-us-today bread, home-brewed wine from home-grown fruits, home-brewed beer, and caramelized bananas with chocolate ice cream and you've got yourself quite the Sunday dinner.

Maggie and I arrived here on Thursday evening and from the first moments it was a warm, welcome home. Gilly and Greg live out in the suburbs of Auckland, far enough from others that one feels completely isolated in country side when working outside. Their home is lovely and cluttered, making it easy to really make myself at home. They've got two dogs, Tansy and Dobby, cats, horses, chickens, a few black lambs, and a plentitude of plants. They've also got the pleasure of two octogenarians, Margaret and Ron, who live on the property as well. Margaret is Gilly's mother, and both she and Ron are unfathomably fit and energetic. This morning Ron came in during our breakfast and when we offered him french toast he laughed at the thought, having eaten hours earlier. When digging the other day, Ron watched us for a moment, took over, and finished our job of hours in minutes flat. Margaret used to be a florist and now lives out her days in her garden, making it a miraculous fairyland. Everything is the richest baby green and flowers hang all over the garden. Callalillies the size of my head are the weeds. Margaret is who I'd love to be at 82. She is sharp and fierce and funny, and clearly quite kind. Upon meeting Maggie she grimaced, saying she's never been able to stand that name. Stuck with Margaret, she did. Great first meeting moment.

There is another couple of wwoofers here, Malcom and Lindsay, both of whom are from Virginia and just graduated from school. It has been fun to have them around and the meals all feel like we are a happy little hodge-podge family. Maggie and I spent the entire first day mucking the stables! Maybe that's what it was called...really it was digging out manure to prepare the spring gardens with fertilizer and make clean beds for the horses. It was hard work - exactly what we wanted. By the end of the day my shoulders ached and I was bruised to the bone on my blistered hands. And I was happy as a clam. We've fed chickens and collected eggs, weeded the garden, cooked, etc. This is sort of the ideal work hard, play hard scenario. Working is physical and outside and makes you tired, and playing is physical and outside and makes you tired. The landscape out here is unbelievable. Today we went to another farm to load up a trailor with bales of hay and we had perfect views of valleys and green rolling hills dotted with sheep, and the ocean in the background to boot. We could even see a fine orange glow on the horizon of the Australian dust creeping our way. The green is the greenest green that ever greened. Words fail.

Gilly and Greg have also given us some fantastic cooking lessons. We've baked bread each day from scratch. Today we really went all out with the sweet loaves, adding every sweet, fruity, spicy bit we could find and dotting the top of the loves with chocolate buttons. Yesterday Gilly showed us how to make sherbet with oranges, limes and grapefruit from her garden. Saturday morning Greg made all of us poached eggs (fresh from the coup) on toast (fresh from the oven), and Sunday it was french toast with homemade plum sauce (from the plum tree outside.) THIS is how I hope to feed myself some day. It actually works!

After work yesterday Greg and Gilly took us to the beach nearest their house. It is a black sand beach called Bethels beach. It is one of those places where you can easily pretend that you are the only person on earth. It is rugged and vivid with flawless, soft black sand. We watched the sunset and hiked back to the car through the incoming tide. Tansy almost drowned because she wouldn't drop the rock in her mouth. (Tansy is obsessed with rocks. Greg walks through the house collecting rocks, reminding her that that is his driveway.) Our jeans were soaked and we encountered a group of horses who offered Tansy her second brush with death that evening. We were wet and freezing to the bone by the time we made it to the car, but all filled with happy.

So it's good. I wish my words held more power. I wish they could paint pictures for you. OR I wish that they invoked teleportation. Alas. Guess you'll all just have to come visit.

I DO miss you all. Home is always a wonderful place to be.

Deep love,
REF