Hiking, and an all round satisfying long weekend.

We had Monday off for a public holiday, and took the opportunity to go hiking in the Cathedral Ranges, which is near Marysville, where my parents have a holiday house. They drove us up Friday night and on Saturday morning dropped us off at the beginning of the hike. It was so great to get out into the countryside. Perfect weather and a challenging hike was so very satisfying. 

I took Elton, and got a little bit done (this is me knitting at our lunch stop)

but, like long distance running, hiking makes my hands puffy and my mind calm, so it's one of the few times when I'm not driven to knit.

Even though you can do the Northern circuit in a day, we chose to camp: a bush camping situation, with no facilities at all. It was so peaceful, and we actually saw lyrebirds. 

In all the hiking and camping I've done, I've never seen them in the wild.

We also saw frogs and lots of lizards. Mainly little newts, but a few of these bigger ones. If you look at the end of this log you can see a well camouflaged lizard. 

On Sunday we hiked out and my lovely parents picked us up. We stopped in Marysville on the way back to the house and visited the Mira, which is a sort of art space and tourist information centre combined. I knew that Melbourne City DyeWorks had some yarn there, and I picked up this stunner.

It felt really good to buy local, and I like spending money in Marysville, because the town has had it hard. I have big plans for this skein, which I will talk about some other time.

Then, on Monday we ran up to the Falls. I haven't been doing much running, because of niggling injuries, but this run felt so good.

I feel like I've come back to myself. The whole weekend was so nurturing and enriching  and full of beauty and nature and just what I have need for quite a while actually.

Now it's off to unpack, and do the washing and get reading for my week, relaxed and refreshed.