Brightwater Peace.

Nelson has a very different feel about it from Wanaka. A garden country. People growing things everywhere. It hasn't got the wilderness of Otago, or the small town feel of Wanaka. The place where we are staying is just out of Nelson and called Brightwater. The North of France comes to mind somehow - maybe Normandy. We didn't go far today. The chidren have been so contended to hang around together, that we jsut did a wee cycle round the block past vineyards and orchards, with wee stalls and honesty boxes on driveways selling capsicums, tomatoes, courgettes, chillies etc. After a mad dip in the cold swimming pool in the garden (the children), we went to the recycling centre in Richmond - the poor neighbour to Nelson. It was the attendees of the centre that were more interesting than the items for sale. It was quite run down compared to Wanaka's but the couple of ladies browsing through were a feast for the eyes. Probably in their 50's and 60's and with a wonderful sense of freedom where they obviously didn't care a toss what other people thought and just got up in the morning and threw whatever precious items they'd bought at the recyling centre on - leapord skin trousers, trainers, woolie jumpers, big belts, jaunty hats and great hairdo's. I can't imagine them spending hours choosing an outfit and worrying over the size of their butts or if an outfit matched. Robbi and I admired them very much and she confessed to me that she would love to don stripy leggings and boots, but always felt self conscious and stuck to her jeans. I thought we should choose an outfit we would most love to wear and then make a pledge to phone each other and say, 'today's the day', and report back to each other about how it feels. Maybe total confidence doesn't come in your 40's - maybe we can still make it in our 50's. When our children don't wail at us for stepping out of line!
I completely gave up on the dairy free part of the new regime. 2 days of that has made gluten free like a picnic.
Marion and Glen came round for a drink. It was lovely to see them and we made plans to cycle and picnic at Rabbit Bay on Friday. Market, gallery and aftenoon tea at Marion and Glen's on Saturday, cycle and lunch here with Roddy on Sunday.