A milestone birthday

Winter has arrived a few days early - and it has blown in with a vengeance. Gale force winds, snow and power outages. 
The schools are all closed today but the kids don't care, they're out playing in the snow or sitting by the fire and watching dvd's.
It blew in making a noise like a freight train or maybe even a jet airliner on Saturday afternoon, while we were preparing for my eldest grand daughter's 21st birthday. I wondered whether they would have to put it off but no, the weather behaved long enough to drive into town and celebrate, even though some of us had to get ready in the dark. It also stayed relatively calm on Sunday, long enough for eldest grandson and his partner to get on the road and head home but it followed them up the island. It was blinking cold the whole time though, a bit of a shock really as last winter was really quite mild.

working on the cake                          some of her gifts

Anyway we all had a great night out at one of the local night clubs, private until 11:30pm then open to the general public. We took my little mother home just after 11 but some of the younger ones stayed on till later to party on.

Monica and her older brother Andrew made and decorated the cake. I think they made a wonderful job of it, strawberry and vanilla layer cake with beautiful filling and iced by Andrew and decorations all hand made by Monica. I am so proud of them, I had to have a little skite. Two full days in the making. They didn't get their artistic talents from me!

Birthday girl with her cake

Two hours after it was completed she cut it, I don't know how she could bear to. I would have wanted it preserved somehow, forever. All that work. But it tasted so gooood :)

Andrew, Monica and Caitlin, brother and sisters.

Looking at the girls you wouldn't credit it was so cold, but it's all about glamour and not comfort when you're young, isn't it?
Last of all I want to show you a picture of the shoes Monica was given for her birthday, from her boyfriend. Very blingy, though it doesn't really do them justice. I love them. I'd probably fall off them these days. Aren't they gorgeous?

 Happy 21st birthday Monica. 

We love you heaps.

Have a good week everyone

and God bless you all.

Diana

Mother's Day fun run

Last Sunday was Mother's Day and a lot of mothers were lucky enough to have a lie in. But not me. I had decided to enter myself in the annual Heart Foundation Mother's Day fun run/walk. So I had  7:30am start. But I am not complaining you understand, I had fun.

in the tee shirt

At 9:00am I presented myself, in lovely sunshine, to the organizers and picked up my tee shirt and settled in to the long wait for everyone to turn up so we could get underway. I'll tell you what though, even though it was sunny it is late autumn and rather chilly. I had to stand with my back to the sun for a while to warm it up. 

Then at a few minutes after 10 we were all ordered out onto the middle paddock and the fun began. Most of the young girls had taken their jackets off and were just wearing a teeshirt and 3/4 pants but us older, more sensible ones (or so we thought) kept our jackets on. Big mistake. It's very hard to do warm up exercises in a polar fleece jacket! 

"How many of you have done the blah blah blah warm up exercises before?" All the young ones put their hands up while I was thinking - whaaat? 

"Oh good, thats what we are doing today, we don't want any injuries because you've started off cold. Just follow me and away we go."

And boom, we were into it. It was a lot like line dancing by another name. Lots of fun, but better without a polar fleece. By the time we finished I was definitely warm and I couldn't see my GKB to give him my jacket. So I had to carry it with me. The runners were first off the mark and we walkers left soon after. We went twice around the block, 5kms in all and I did it in just under an hour which I didn't think was too bad. I could feel myself starting to flag in the last couple of hundred yards or so, so I guess I paced myself pretty well. We were all given a nice goody bag at the end.

heading for the finish - my GKB had my jacket by now

What did I learn? - Take your jacket off for the warm up, you won't need it.

  They have water there, don't bother with a drink bottle.

  Thick socks are advisable, as are good walking shoes.

  Remember your gym towel, it's easier than using your polar fleece to wipe your sweaty brow.

  But most of all I've discovered that I'm fitter than I thought but not as fit as I'd like to be. 

 Would I do it again - yes, definitely.

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We picked up my little mother on the way home, the girls both came out for a visit in the afternoon and our son rang from Japan. All in all it was a lovely Mother's Day. 

Hoping everyone had a lovely Mother's Day 

and that you all enjoy the week to come.

Diana

A stroll on the beach

On a recent crisp autumn afternoon my GKB and I decided to head down to Taieri Mouth just to have a look. We haven't been down for about 15 years, since friends of ours had their caravan parked there at the camping ground. Not much has changed, it's a fishing community with a few cribs (bach, holiday home) thrown into the mix. We took a stroll along the beach and these are a few of the photo's we took. Enjoy.

Taieri River mouth with Moturata island in the right background.

'Moturata Island is a very fragile Sooty Shearwater and Little Blue penguin breeding area. Walking on the island can cause damage to their burrows. Your co-operation by not venturing onto the island will help towards preservation of these  species'

 - information on a sign at the river mouth.

The fishing wharf

trawler heading out on the incoming tide

recreational fishing boat

 along the beach

looking back towards the township

part of the Taieri Mouth township across the estuary

big boys toys in the yard

time to head home again

I hope you enjoyed a short stroll along the beach with us in the autumn sun.

Have a good week,

Diana