Winter Escape

Every year or so, Luke likes to plan a winter escape for us (and our dog Riley) & then slowly leaks teeny tiny amounts of information to me over the course of a month or so about where we're going and what we're doing.  Sometimes the first I know about it is he'll tell me I need to take annual leave for a certain date...or I'll be browsing the calendar and come across two days marked with nothing but question marks. For the ultimate list maker and "plan for every scenario" personality...this frustrates me no end, albeit in a warm fuzzy way.  I can guarantee you 85% of the fun for him comes from keeping me in the dark and watching me squirm due to lack of details & my having zero input. When Riley is in tow, we usually end up in Daylesford...the dog friendly "short break" kind of town that it is. So to start, we hit up the Daylesford Market on Sunday morning...at (and around) the railway station...

...in which we can't believe this is the first time I've been to the Daylesford Market given how often we visit & how much I love markets ...where Riley, who dislikes any other dog no matter how adorable, comes across a new arch nemesis at every turn (everyone takes their dogs to this market!) ...in which we sit on a the railway station platform and eat dutch pancakes (aka Poffertjes) with maple syrup & icing sugar ...where the people (and dog watching) as just as entertaining, if not more so, than the browsing ...in which you get that feeling where you never know whether there might be an amazing find at the very next stall, even though you also may not  but its fun either way ...where you can't help but buy apricot bites, these things are like drugs to me, not kidding ...where the only other thing you buy is a hand knitted jumper for your dog, because it feels like this is the kind of thing you would do in Daylesford. Never mind that your dog has never allowed you to put a little coat on him ever before without giving you daggers and refusing to walk one step in such a ridiculous thing. Never mind that your dog is currently giving the lady at the stall daggers because she picks out a pink one with purple trim to measure him up and see what size is best. He's also a bit self conscious about the extra curves he's carrying because it's winter ;) The most masculine colour combination you can find is yellow and grey & you get the feeling he's only wearing it this time to humour you because he won't even look at it later at home

The rest of the weekend involved more eating (it's Daylesford after all) and luckily a tonne more walking...and sleeping and iPad browsing by the fire...and all good things that come with an escape from real life.  I'll save the rest for another time :)

Don't you love the filter on these photos? It's called 'Grandma's Tap Shoes' by Doug Boutwell's amazing Photoshop plugin called Radlab. Is that not the most adorable filter name you've ever come across? As if I didn't love Photoshop enough, Radlab rocks my photo-takin' socks.