Two boys on Anzac Day

Saturday was April 25th, Anzac Day.

The day New Zealanders and Australians around the world remember those
of our countrymen and women who have taken part in conflicts around the world since WW1.

This year our youngest grandson was taking part in a small parade

with his cub pack so of course we went out to watch him.

His big brother and a mate came to watch as well.

Jack

Being a boy with ants in his pants he couldn't just stand 

on the footpath but had to find a better vantage point. 

Good on him.

His father did stop him from getting up on the roof of the bank though,

 we didn't want him being hauled off by the local bobby, haha.

Anyway we didn't have to wait too long before we heard the bagpipes 

and the little parade came down the street led by the army cadets.

our cubs

There weren't many people there watching 

but we discovered later that the main parade was after the church service

 when they marched down to the war memorial and laid wreaths.

We didn't wait around for that but later went out to the cemetery 

for the service there and see the cubs put poppies on the soldiers graves.

Danny

Looking for a place to put his final poppy.

It was a big day for some of the younger boys 

because they had met at the Scout hall at 9:30am 

paraded down the street twice, had a church parade, 

bussed out to the cemetery and back again.

I went with his mother to pick Danny up just after 1pm.

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Wake up Wednesday

I hope you're all having a good week,

it's wet and miserable here today, 

so I'm inside doing 'inside stuff'.

Have a good week,

Diana

Winter is a'coming...

Autumn is here and in the last week 

the temps have dropped considerably.

There has been a lot of this happening today,

in fact this was when it had begun to clear a bit towards evening.

I'm hoping that it will be nice at the weekend when we commemorate ANZAC Day,

and 100 years since the Anzac troops landed at Gallipolli

with such awful loss of life on both sides.

I'm hoping to go into the city for the Dawn Service

and I think it will be pretty crowded.

Granddad and Granma 

I love these photos of my grandparents 

and this is hanging up in my lounge all the time.

They were so young. Grandad came back from the war 

 and they lived to a good age, 

bringing up six kids as well as having various grandkids 

living in their home over the years.

My youngest brother looks very much like my grandfather.

Mack

My granddaughter's wee dog, Mack. 

He is a sweetie and a real little guard dog..

but at the moment he is not well.

He has lost control of his back legs and also his bowel and bladder.

After having x-rays it seems he has a slipped disk 

which has calcified and now it is pinching the nerves to that part of his body.

He's had a couple of nights at the vet and is now home in a little cage,

on bed rest. He has to have a harness on when he comes

 out to do his business and needs help standing as well. 

Currently he is at my daughters home 

because there is someone home with him there all the time.

They hope to know this week whether he will improve or not.

I hope so for granddaughters' sake.

Winter time means jigsaw time to a lot of people, me included.

I have suggested that we start a jigsaw library at church this winter

and up above is the pile Mum gave me to sort out, name and mend to go in it.

So that is what I have been doing this evening 

- it didn't take long though, most of the boxs are in pretty good nick.

Mine are already down at the church and one other lady is putting some in as well.

I think we'll have about 50 to start us off. 

Just to finish off here is a teacup I gave my mother in law for Christmas one year.

When she died it came back to me and is in the china cabinet with my other teacups.

It is a Regency English Bone China trio.

I thought it was very pretty when I bought it and I haven't changed my mind.

joining with:

Martha's favorites

Roses of Inspiration

That's it for this week,

see you next time. keep well,

Diana

Aorangi Mount Cook

Yesterday and today have been a real shock to the system.

The Snow Queen decided to let us know winter

 is just around the corner by sending snow, wind and hail. 

The temperatures dropped to 3 degs F yesterday afternoon.

I decided it was a good day to stay home

 in the warm and read a good book, so I did!

hail on the lawn

And this reminded me that I hadn't done a post
on our trip last August to Aorangi  Mount Cook.

Well that's not quite true, I have written about some of the trip here

and said I would write more but it must have slipped my mind.
Which is quite remiss of me seeing as the whole point
 of the trip was to go to the mountain.

So here is Part 2 of Day 2 :)
We left our motel in Fairlie early in the morning
and drove inland, heading for the Southern Alps.

high country farmland 

We stopped at Lake Tekapo and after a hot drink from the thermos

 we went into the little Church of the Good Shepherd

and after a time headed on our way again. 

 The freezing fog had burnt off by the time we reached

 Lake Pukaki and the Southern Alps were ranged out before us.

Lake Pukaki 

It was a beautiful day and we stopped here 

 on the way back for photo's. Stunning views.

You can see the size of the boulders on the lakeside,

 they were huge, that is my son near the lake.

We had to clamber over them to get good pics, 

or stand on top of one if you weren't up to the clambering.

And that was mission. But it was fun.

Now this is something I love, every time I see it.

You're driving along and come to a bend in the road. 

The scenery is already quite spectacular and 

you round this bend and there is the mountain - 

dead in front of you.

Aorangi Mount Cook aka Aoraki Mount Cook

The lady at our motels had said to us that 

Aorangi was 'performing beautifully this year'.

And it didn't disappoint.

Covered in snow from top to bottom

 I thought it was quite breathtaking.

We drove on and arrived in time for a bit of a walk around the village,

three intrepid explorers :)

before heading  into the hotel restaurant for

a welcome coffee and some lunch.

Our DIL wanted a meat pie, she loves our meat pies,

and couldn't understand why I wouldn't have one as well.

I prefer something lighter when all I'm doing is sitting and travelling.

number one son and his wife (Aorangi to the left)

After lunch we decided to take our drinks

 out onto the balcony  while we relaxed, 

chatted and enjoyed the view.

larger than life statue of Sir Edmund Hilary,
the first man to climb Mt Everest

After a very enjoyable afternoon at the village,

 and a little time in the gift shop, we won't mention what we spent,

we climbed back into the car and headed for our motel again.

If we had thought about it earlier we could have done a round trip

 as we were actually closer to our caravan in Cromwell 

than we were to the motel - but they were in opposite directions to one another. 

Oh well, up top for thinking so they say.

Eventually we arrived back at the motel, 

about 12 or maybe even 14 hours after we had left.

Anyway 'twas a long day by the end of day 2 of our road trip.

We had a wonderful day out, took number one son

 somewhere he had never been before 

so he and his lovely wife were able to discover it together. 

joining with:

Roses of Inspiration

Enjoy your week, 

keep well and 

I'll be with you again soon,

Diana

Bits and bobs

It's been a bitsy week so this post will be a bit bitsy too.

We have just had a lovely Easter Weekend.

 The weather behaved and it was only slightly autumnal,

with warm sunny days and only a hint of rain in the evenings.

We were able to sit outside to enjoy our coffee 

and the company of my eldest grandson and his partner.

They arrived on Friday evening after a long car trip, 

made longer with all the people and places they stopped to visit on the way down.

They were busy playing Easter bunny and dropping off baskets on their way.

This one was for my GKB and me.

We have enjoyed tucking into it

 but I'll have to get out walking

 to make up for too much indulgence.

*****

Claude

Claude found it very hot and one day he was spreadeagled

rather inelegantly on his back on the mat catching the breeze. 

By the time I crept past him to get the camera 

he decided to change position and I missed it. 

But here he is anyway, I haven't posted a pic of him for quite a long time.

He's not looking too bad for an older boy :)

*****

Grandson always goes around to visit his great grandmother, my little mother, 

and she had a box of his things there that she had found out in the garage.

He came home and said "Here you go Granma, these are the souvenirs

 I brought back from Singapore for you and Grandad."

He was in Singapore about seven years ago 

so we all had a bit of a laugh about that.

Both the paper weight and the ashtray 

have the Singapore merlion on them, an intriguing creature.

*****

I thought I'd show you this little demitasse tea set I have in my china cabinet.

When we were first married my GKB saw them on sale

 and used to arrive home every Friday night with a cup and saucer.

 I have another completely different set as well and I'll show it to you another time.

I've just noticed tonight that one of these has a tiny chip, bummer :(

They have Japan stamped on the bottom, 

 and when you look at it the pattern is Japanese style.

I think it could be lustreware but not really sure,

but I think it is pretty.

*****

That's it for this week. 

I hope your Easter was enjoyable, ours was. 

We started with a Maundy Thursday shared meal at the church, 

met with church family on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday 

and spent time with family relaxing over a lovely weekend.

sharing with:

Martha's Favorites

Until next week,

Diana