A glimpse...

...of things to come.

My son and his wife are still with us but away out for a meal with friends tonight. We have been very busy and it's been a lot of fun but I'm quite pleased of a break. The weather has been really kind to us and although it has been cold, still winter, it has been mostly sunny. 
A few photo's now just to give you an idea of what we have been up to, then I'll try and catch up with some of you, whether or not I'll leave a comment I'm not sure, I'm a bit weary. And this is only what I've been doing with them, not everything they've been up to.

We've been to watch the little boys play soccer.

Visited Cadbury World.

Relaxed in the sun with family after church.

Taken a scenic trip on a heritage train.

Enjoyed a picnic in Timaru.

Visited the Historic Precinct in Oamaru. 

We've been to the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo.

Driven past Lake Pukaki to Aorangi Mount Cook, the highest mountain in the Southern Alps.

 And some of us strolled the beach at Moeraki and played among the boulders.

We have covered quite a large section of the South Island so I'll expand on some of the places in later posts. I think they're going to need a holiday when they get home so they can recover, but then again, they are young and my GKB and I are older, so maybe not.

I hope you're all well 

and enjoying your week.

Diana

Linking with:

Say G'day Saturday

A long haul flight

Number one son and his wife are arriving from Japan tomorrow, so I've been busy making the spare room nice for them ... 

... and putting one or two of his things around. 

They will be in the air now on route to Hong Kong then tonight will head to Auckland and then down to us in the south. A long haul, they arrive here late tomorrow afternoon. It'll be good to see them both, it's a couple of years since they were both here. The family are all getting excited.  :))

**********************

And here's a snap of a little visitor we had yesterday afternoon.

Eldest granddaughters' wee dog, Mack.

Have a good week,

see you back here sometime soon.

Diana 

Going...

...going...

 ...gone!

I didn't realise how much light was blocked out of our kitchen

 and dining room until these next door trees were taken down. 

It's like a light has been turned on.

Have a good week.

Diana

.

World War One commemorated.

On this day when we are commemorating the beginning of  the First World War, 100 hundred years ago, I would like to honour all those men and women who went to war and fought in such dreadful circumstances. So many never came back, so many young men lost and who never really had a chance to live.

My Grandfather did come home, he told Granma he would be back, before he left, and he kept his promise. He sailed on T.S.S. Aparima on Feb. 16th, 1917, with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. He was a volunteer, he could have stayed home and waited for his call up papers because he was a married man with a family - but he didn't. I admire him and others like him so much. He fought in the trenches of the Somme, at Passchendale. They suffered unimaginable hardship that we can't really comprehend in this day and age. 

This was supposedly the 'war to end all wars', little did they know that in just over 20 years the world would once again be plunged into another devastating conflict.

 I honour them. 

Corporal H.B. Gifkins
before embarkation