Just admiring the general splendour

We enjoyed a family picnic yesterday at the Australian Botanical Gardens. It was windy and cold, but we were all rugged up and the sun was shining. It was a BYOAEEE (bring your own and eat everybody else's) event, so there were many good choices to "borrow." The girls' favorite discovery was lemon lime bitters in a glass bottle -- I'm sure they looked like boozers -- but, despite the tiny alcohol content, this is a favorite beverage of all ages in the family. I must admit a fondness for bitters, too, as I drank it in many a pub when single.

We had a lovely time chatting with all the family. Every one of them has some month-long international expedition coming up, which reminded me that it's an unusually well-traveled family. They're all doing well and up to all sorts of interesting and important things. It's fun to talk to the young adults, all of whom I met when they were children, and hear where life's taking them and what goals they're working to achieve. It's nice that instead of being their aunt (and a foreign and seldom seen one, at that), as they become adults we can be friends, too. Several of them took my girls under their wings and made them their little buddies, taking lots of walks and letting them use their million-dollar cameras(!). Lots and lots of laughter from all ages and quarters. Good friends, all.

I am the great aunt of seventeen.

Perhaps my very favorite moment of the day was in the car, as we left the Botanical Gardens. From the backseat of the van, EBH admired the contrast between the mustardy wattle and the purple blossom she'd picked, and said, "I love my flowers. They're exquisite." No, my girl, you are.