21 years ago today....

at Uncle Paul's xmas party in Groot Constantia

She was lovingly delivered into our waiting arms....her name.. well, it followed a few weeks later-
names are like that.

What kind of a child would she turn out to be?

Fearless, compassionate and kind....

Just walking, barely running, she would throw herself with wild abandon into the sea, over and over again- could she see her future?

Keurbooms beach

Visiting a pet shop, she'd choose the oldest, ugliest and mangiest guinea pigs-
'Are you sure?', they'd ask, bewildered. Yes, she was very sure.

Animals everywhere- Tracy, the untrainable Beagle (she spent years trying), chickens that slept inside on top of the grandfather clock, ducks that patrolled our back door and wouldn't allow us to enter and the horses....

collecting Tracy from the kennels

those dangerous ducks

Oh the horses! from Campese, her hobby horse, (yes, that's right-don't ask us how or why, but her horse was named after the great Australian rugby player) and the parties, years of horse parties with magnificently painted horse cakes, bless her dad, the 'art teacher'.

with Campese

Resourceful, tenacious and a little bit stubborn...

With no horse to call her own,  she found one in the neighbourhood and rode daily.
Lessons and tack- either she found them or they found her.

with Pony

Boyfriends, boundaries, schoolbooks and still horses- all the while deciding her future.

Then she's 18 and its full circle, once again ready to throw herself with wild abandon into the sea, only this time I can't hold her back.

Brave....

Literally just finished school and she's acquired all by herself,  with hardly any money-  a few papers, a passport and a passage to cross the infinitely large Atlantic ocean in a tiny catamaran to a future unknown.

at the harbour before her crossing

Hardworking, loyal, and generous....

Life on a magnificent yacht, exotic and affluent destinations, the places she describes - I see in my dreams.
and the parties....we'll say no more!

the Adela in Portofino

Happily, she's returning home for a visit in November,  lately when she arrives at the airport there's a definite cosmopolitan aura about her,  this time she's bringing home a young man.

Happy 21st dearest Carrie- we couldn't be more proud.