A campdraft school was held by the Braidwood Pony Club on August 18-19. The turn out was terrific through the windy, and sometimes soggy, two days. I watched as patient instructors took time with each child but my happiest memories will be of the young people who participated with enthusiasm and great patience for a keen six year old with a lot to learn. Not once did anyone show the slightest impatience. The support she received while striding out on her wee pony was great. The feelings of belonging and worth she was given can’t be contrived. Thank you.

This weekend our family, and others, were caught up in the magical world of the professional storyteller. Children and adults alike leaned into the well-crafted stories of sheep dogs, ‘souperman’, animals, fishermen, and squeaky doors. Characters came to life and audience participation was rife.

It made me remember family gatherings with the ‘oldies’ stories of drovers and snakes, laxettes in lamingtons, what the milkman’s horse got up to, ‘townie’ cousins lured among the bee boxes and ‘just what that dray has seen’. Evenings when pianolas and fiddles were primed and even the quiet Aunties found their voice. (The men never lost theirs!)

I’ll take my youngsters back to the farms and we’ll glean over the prospectors’ old campfires, just once more. But these storytellers are the closest they will get to that feeling I had, squashed in amongst cousins on the hessian bags and blankets while our Aunts, Uncles and Nan shared the stories we still hear when we care to remember.

What a buzz. JULIE REYNOLDS, Braidwood.