Surprised by joy

When I'm having hard times my mum often says she prays that I will be "surprised by joy". This is how I was surprised by joy yesterday...

I joined the library and there were so many good books I wanted to read that I couldn't choose! So that was good.

Then I went to Henley Beach where there's a grass square under a canopy, with big deep concrete steps around it that you can sit back on. It's small but a nice place for reading books, you can watch the beach without getting sandy and it was quiet because it was mid-afternoon. So I was leaning back on one of the steps reading and behind me a little girl started to climb down. It was quite a lot of effort but she was doing well, I think she'd have been 2 or barely 3 and quite petite. She stopped in front of me and said, "we going to play hide and seek now" and I said that sounded nice. Then she told me that there's a bird down there (in the square - there wasn't right then but there sometimes is) and then she told me it was very sunny and hot, that the beach was over there, that you can get sunburn and that she was going to play hide and seek (I wasn't sure who with as she was only with her mum who hadn't come down the steps yet and the girl seemed happy for her mum just to watch). We went in a circle with that conversation for a while then she clambered down the next step and started running, jumping and stamping around the grass. Sometimes she put her hands on her hips and did a wiggle. She went up some smaller steps on the other side and used them as a little stage....didn't seem to be especially looking for attention though mostly dancing to herself I think.

Then she told her mum it was time to play hide and seek and she also told a smaller child that was with its own mum and was too young to understand/respond. Then she came back over to where I was, turned her back to the square and did a little singsong 1...2...3... count (not sure if she knew the numbers or just the intonation, it was hard to tell from behind her hands) then "here I come!" and ran back to the square for more running/lunging/stamping. Brilliant! Then there was some more dancing and she flapped her skirt about and twirled around. Her mum said it was time to go and she said, "we're going to play hide and seek one more time" so then she came back to where I was sitting and did her routine again. It was so funny! There were a few other people watching and she didn't mind or seem upset that nobody else was playing. Then it was time to go and she told me mum said time to go and she'll see me next time and to have a nice day and then told her mum that I was a nice lady. What a happy child! With good vocab I thought. She was joy and I was surprised.

Barossa Valley wineries and chocolate marmalade tea

Had a lovely day at the wineries today, although it hardly involved any wine. Lunch at Maggie Beer's farm shop which came in cute wicker baskets. They had homemade tea blends including chocolate marmalade! Who'd have thought... I thought it would be awful but it was like a very mellow black tea, very drinkable and tasted natural, warming, slightly rich and made me think of log cabins. Recommend.

We stopped at Jacobs Creek (it's a real creek!) and I had my photo taken by the sign, watched some men get told off for taking photos of each other peeking around bushes and sipped Sparkling Moscato Rosé (sweet, refreshing, summer in a glass).

Lastly we popped into Kellermeister. It has a red brick terrace with heavy, leafy plants coming down from the roof and winding down wooden pillars. The winery is up a hill and from the terrace you can look over the lawn and see rolling hills, vineyards and warm, earthy colours. It must be incredible in Spring.

All day I thought about how much everywhere looked like Spain, and also thought about weddings. And I'm not the kind of person that thinks about weddings all the time. It was so peaceful and quiet, lush space that was open but still itimate, and I'm sure there's some kind of poetry in the growing vines.