Why the Sendout Festival must be extended

Okay, so, I had every intention of spending a fair bit of time this weekend sending out stories. But I did two things that were even more important: I met an editing deadline for a (paying) client, and — most important of ALL — I went camping with my daughter. It was Fourth of July weekend, after all — Independence Day — so Margaret and I had to celebrate our Americanness with s'mores and sparklers. (The s'mores were only approximations, graham crackers and Sta-Puf being unknown here, but they were close enough.)

As you can see from the photos, we have developed our own hybrid traditions: camping in the mid-winter chill amidst the wombats and kookaburras is not strictly American, but s'mores and Fourth of July sparkers are not strictly Australian, either. The location is a campground on the beautiful Shoalhaven River, and we nearly had the entire 125-acre campground to ourselves (except for the people in the private house a half mile from us who blasted their music all night; I tried to tell Margaret that that sort of thing is a Fourth of July feature all over America, but that made it no less annoying at one in the morning).








Note to Carolyne and Paul: the origami bowls work a treat!