Gingerbread house

 

The gingerbread house made by my eldest grandson for the rest of the kids, for Christmas day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, a lot of work involved.

The kids, young and old, loved it.

 

We still have to make a date, in the not too

distant future, to demolish and eat it.

 

 



Hoping you've all enjoyed your Christmas as much as we have.

 

 

blessings,

Diana

 

 



Merry Christmas

Pohutukawa aka the New Zealand Christmas tree

The presents are bought and wrapped.

The first pavlova is in the oven - one to go.

All that is left for me to do is get out my good cutlery to take

to youngest daughter on Christmas day.

Plus the serving dishes.

Oh, and make a salad, I'd better not forget.

Eldest grandson is here on holiday and is making

 a gingerbread house. The little boys will love that.

Then we're good to go.

Pohutukawa flower

I want to share a poem with you,
 written by Dawn McLean

Son of Joe 

Once in a manger long ago,

There was a man and his name was Joe.

His wife was with him there that night,

Mary her name, a pure delight.

She bore for him a child so famed

That everyone still recalls his name.

Jesus was the name they said

As they lay him down in his manger bed.

And the kings they came to see that night

And the shepherds too, by the star so bright.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

The angels sang,

For hope is born again for man.

So when you're feeling sad and low,

Remember Mary and the man called Joe.

But remember most of all this day,

The child that in the manger lay.



Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas cheer

 

 

 

 

Wishing you all the blessings of the season,
Merry Christmas folks.

Diana

An olden Christmas

At last, Christmas morning

  

         At last it had come, Christmas morning. The Christmas cards had been displayed on the mantle piece for weeks, school was over and yesterday, Christmas Eve, the Christmas tree had arrived and been planted in its bucket of broken bricks inside the front door.

 

We had all gone away to bed far too early to sleep but in great anticipation of hearing reindeer on the roof and of what the morning would bring.

 

 

And here it was - daybreak!

Just light enough to see that the empty pillowcase left on the end of the bed was now bulging with goodies.

Toys, books and lollies, a bag of seasonal fruit and a striped peppermint stick.

We had been good enough for Santy to come, not that we kids ever doubted it.

 

What a happy racket, now everybody in the house was up to share in the excitement. Out we rushed to see the tree - no longer drab in an old bucket, but decorated with tinsel and baubles, shiny glass balls and pretty lights, topped with a shining star and standing in a red wrapped container. Hidden amongst its branches were more presents to be opened later.

 

 

Out to the kitchen for breakfast, oh what a glorious sight. The walls were hung with green garlands and balloons and crepe paper streamers criss crossed the ceiling. Chinese lanterns hung down along with paper balls and bells. Santys elves had been extra busy while we slept unawares.

 

A wonderful morning finished off with our traditional roast Christmas dinner and plum duff filled with sixpenny pieces. And a small bottle of fizzy each.

 

 

 

 

Wishing you all the blessings of this Advent season.

 

Diana



it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

 

Youth group have decorated the church Christmas tree.

 

 

Sunday school have been preparing for their Christmas breakup.



 

 

 Oops, a slight accident with Joseph :(

I've wrapped some Christmas presents.

 

Helped with a Christmas gift stall. 

And written out my Christmas cards. 

Yes it's definitely beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Have a good week, folks.

Diana



Bull Creek

We are still having typical spring weather - it's all over the place.

Today is blue skies, white fluffy clouds and a coolish breeze, but the temperatures are supposed to get to a high of 16 degs C.

Not like it was on Sunday afternoon when a small group of us went 70 kilometres down the road, half of which were gravel, to Bull Creek.

 

 

 

 It was a lot of fun even though the wind was cold and blowing a gale it stayed fine. We did some bush walking,

 

 

 

 

the kids played on an old tire swing in one of the clearings,

 

 

And then we headed for the beach.

 

 

The tide was out so there were a lot of rock pools

to go exploring in. And mussel beds to avoid.

 





 

It was far too cold for swimming but that didn't deter the little boys, or some of the bigger ones for that matter, from getting wet to the waist and having to go home wrapped in blankets or towels.

 Boys will be boys!

 

 

On the way home we passed this World War One memorial  in the middle of nowhere, so I couldn't resist taking a photo.

 

 

It's still being cared for, the grass is kept cut and scrub cleared, and I imagine there is still a small gathering there every

ANZAC Day.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

to all readers in the USA.

 

blessings,

Diana

 

 

 

 

Caravans and fish

We decided it was time for a break away last weekend so my GKB put in for annual leave and I took my normal days off and we packed up and went up to the caravan for a few days.

 

 

 

Once we got ourselves sorted out we just sat around enjoying the warm sun. So nice to sit and relax with not a worry in the world.

We didn't bother with the awning as we weren't going to be there long enough to warrant the trouble of putting it up.

Thank goodness we didn't.

That night the temperatures dropped and the rain poured down

non-stop (and I mean non-stop) and the snow snowed.

Oh dear.

When we got up in the morning we found a pond outside our door and snow not quite right down to town level. Just a tad chilly!

We had a good few days of enforced slothfulness which we both enjoyed. My GKB went down to the lake to try for a fish, nothing biting, and I went out walking a couple of times.

 

The sun came out again the day we left.

 Oh well, thems the breaks.

 

Talking about fishing -

 

 

- my GKB has done quite well the last couple of times he's been out with the angling club. The photo above is some of the trout he caught about three weeks ago, including the prizewinner for the largest and the heaviest fish. (2.3kg which I think is 4lb 9oz).

 He was really chuffed. 

Then yesterday he arrived home with more, which I promptly gave to our eldest daughter who was visiting. And he had also won the raffle which was a box of assorted goodies - drink bottles (for youngest grandsons), daughters new beau scored the cap and I now have a lovely ceramic tile adorning my kitchen wall.

 

 

There are still several items to be given homes but that won't be hard to do. Perfume, lawn sprinkler, coffee mug and gardening gloves to name a few. It was a bit like a lucky dip. It's lovely to win something or receive something unexpectedly, isn't it?

 

 

And this year I have my sunflower seeds in on time!!!

I am sooo good :D)

 

Have a good week everyone

 

Diana

 

 

 

Labour weekend 'Steam Festival'

Yesterday was quite a nice day for Labour Weekend, historically it's wet and grey and just generally horrible. So my GKB and I decided to go into town for lunch. On the way we thought we might make a detour via the railway station and see what was happening seeing as the 'Steam Festival' is on this weekend.

 

 

 

The farmers market at the northern end of the platform was just upping sticks in readiness to depart. No-one told them we were on our way, ha ha. It's a great place to buy fresh produce,
 jams, pickles etc. Lunch in the cafe on the platform and people watching for a while sounded like a good plan.

 

  

 Steampunk is also part of the festival and some of their members were strolling about - and having lunch at the table next to ours!

 

There is something strangely attractive about these people, costumes and paraphernalia, I'm not quite sure what it is.
 I just love the look of them.
 

 After lunch we met a friend who works on the railway and were given complimentary tickets on the train to go for a trip down the harbourside, leaving in about half an hour.

 

Everyone climbed aboard and we chugged away down the line. Just getting settled in to the journey and the p.a. system tells us there is a problem with the engine and we'll have to go back to the station. So back we chugged much to the disappointment of all the kids on board. It was going to take half an hour to fix whatever was wrong so we disembarked and went up onto the overhead

footbridge for a looksee.

 

 

 

Lots of people, mostly kids, were having rides on the hand powered jigger... 

 

 

...but we decided it was getting too cold and we'd just wait for the engine to come back from whence it had gone and hopefully get a good photo from the bridge. You won't believe it but we waited for over an hour - with the weather closing in and the wind blowing in from the harbour - to get this shot...

 

 

...a great billow of smoke, you can just see the engine. Ha ha, you have to laugh. But we weren't the only ones, there were a lot of trainspotters on the bridge with us as well

 as mums and dads and kids.

 

We didn't get back on the train again, we decided to go and have a hot coffee instead and head back to our nice warm home. The traditional Labour Weekend weather had arrived!

 

Blessings to you and yours,

Diana