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Today we were lucky enough to be offered a mild day of 27 degrees. We decided to venture down South to Donnybrook, home of the biggest free playground in Australia. We didn’t tell Caleb, just told him he’d like where we were going.
Along the way we stopped at a couple of orchards and stocked up on just picked nectarines, peaches, pears and apples at a fraction of the cost of the supermarket. Somehow they taste different too. They taste “real” like the flavour is deep and exactly how it is meant to be. I always want my experience of biting in to a peach to remind me of the novel by Roald Dahl – James and the Giant Peach. In that story the peach was juicy and the flesh just firm enough to harbour an adventure of deliciousness and imagination. I’ll never be able to eat a peach without brining my childhood memories of that novel to mind. So, the peach has to taste good.

We met a very nice orchard owner, Jo Licciardello, who spoke to us at length about the industry and just how hard it is for growers these days. He was honest and we could have spoken for hours. Aaron, who was waiting in the car, thought something untoward had happened in his cool room, we were gone for so long.
We continued on to the playground where we had a picnic lunch. Caleb nearly choked on his pear when he saw the playground and when Ray and I said, “surprise “, he told me that he loved me, with all his heart, for bringing him to the park. Gorgeous!
We returned via Bunbury stopping to have a coffee in town. Bunbury is the biggest city in Western Australia apart from the capital. It was a bustling town with plenty happening.
By the time we got back to the van it was late and we enjoyed a quick pasta meal for dinner and I went to bed wishing I had a particular book to re-read!