Dream of Hugh’s Mom [have you been dreaming about my Mum?]

Hugh’s Mum’s Dream

Mom’s Dream

We lived near Huntington Wellington -the capital of New Zealand when I was a child, my dad was at that time a physicist working for the government.

He loved his job, and he was also willing to go out. My mom liked to do farm work, hence she persuaded my dad to move to Nelson, and there they began to look after a farm.

I was only six years old when we four brothers and sisters moved to what we lived now with my dad and mom, my uncle and another single-parent family . We moved together to this apple farm about ten square hectares——a beautiful farm in mom’ dream it was Mum’s dream come true.

The farm offered a brand new life for all the children and we were all happy to play here, we used to go anywhere riding bicycles or horses, and we would be full of curiosity about little woods not far from our house and many times we walked into it with fear. Dad and mom were serious and hard-working, they were used to scrimp and save everything, they put their money together and they wouldn’t spend a penny more than they needed.

（to be continued）

Pretty good! One thing you missed (perhaps I didn't make it clear) was that My parents wanted to start a commune. I used the word 公社although in New Zealand, of course these are a very different thing from Chinese公社. In the 1970’s when socialist ideas were very influential, many people were experimenting with creating communes both in New Zealand and other Western influenced countries. Most of these communes were created by private people donating land, although we had one Labour government that also donated unused State owned land, in what was known as the ‘Ohu Scheme’ (see Wikipedia). My parent’s commune failed, but there are many others in my area still going strong.

My meaning was that Dad loved the outdoors (he was a mountain climber in his spare time etc.) Do you have suggestions for an expression I could have used which would make the distinction between the outdoors and away from home?

I also wanted to give the meaning that there was no conflict about money between my parents and the other adults, everyone just took what they needed and no more.

The forest was not small but a big timber plantation that I never walked to the end of until I was much older (you can see a corner of it in the photo). We never thought to be afraid in there, it was our playground.

The word ‘mom’ is correct in American English, but in New Zealand we say ‘mum’ as the British do.