A window with a view

On Friday afternoon my GKB and I decided it was

 time for a trip down the harbour and a visit to his sister.

We arrived in time for afternoon tea - good timing.

looking up the harbour towards Dunedin

I took the camera because I wanted to get some shots from her kitchen window.

The house overlooks a small inlet in the harbour near Port Chalmers.

Looking across to Roseneath

And even though it was cold I wasn't allowed to take them from the window. 

The reason? It overlooks my SIL's back yard and her washing was out on the line!

Sawyers Bay and around to the right to Port Chalmers

So while the others sat inside drinking hot tea and coffee 

I went outside and took the shots above

with the clothes line at my back and their bounteous garden in front.

In another city you would pay a lot of money

 for the views they have of the harbour.

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

Not the cup we had at my SIL's but one we had while out and about one day.

I thought it was quite elegant for a tea rooms but maybe it was because 

the tea room was attached to a garden centre.

joining in with:
Martha's favorites
roses of inspiration

That's it for this week.
Short and sweet. 
Keep well until next time.
Diana

A birthday celebration

Last Saturday our middle grand daughter turned 18.

Lovely Caitlin

She decided to go out for an evening meal 

and invited all the family - children excluded.

When she turned 16 she didn't want any 'old' people there

and all the kids got to go. :)

I laughed and told her mother that she would 

either have a very big 21st (which is the coming of age party) 

or a very small one.

Anyway we all duly arrived at the restaurant

 to discover tables being moved and rearranged. 

They had set us up at four different tables if you please.

entrance to restaurant

Eventually we were all seated at two tables, 

'old' poeple at one and younger people at the other.

That was a lot better than 4 tables and we were

 all close enough to interact with each other.

Her older brother and his partner travelled down from Christchurch 

 - and brought the cake with them, arriving after everyone had eaten. 

He had been up until four in the morning making and decorating it,

with an emergency trip to A&E to get his thumb stitched up.

sweet 18

The cake looked even better in person, so to speak, than it does in the photo.

It was beautiful and delicious to boot. Vanilla cake filled with mock cream.

This is what he is training to do, and his other sister is inclined this way as well. 

I'm trying to encourage her to do a course in cake decorating.

Eventually we all headed home after a lovely night out. 

Grand daughter had not been really well and 

whereas she had been hoping to go out for the rest of the evening

 with her fiends she just headed home and went to bed.

She said she had a good night out though, so that's the main thing.

joining in with;

roses of inspiration

And that's it this week. 

Keep well until next time,

Diana

Days of our lives...

As I said last week it is autumn in the south.

Today you'd be forgiven for thinking that winter had arrived.

The temps have dropped and the wind and rain have been howling through.

As usual for Tuesday I went to little mother's group 

and then took her out to do her weekly shopping.

I thought she might decide to stay home by her fire, but no, out we trotted.

Being so cold and miserable when I got home I decided it was time to get out

 one of the jigsaws I kept at home and started doing that.

It's only 500 piece so shouldn't take too long - I hope.

Buuut there's a lot of water all looking much the same, oh well.

When it's finished I'll put it in the library at church with the others.

Of course it was Mother's Day at the weekend 

and my girls and some of their kids arrived out for a visit.

I was given lots of sweet stuff, yum, 

and some smelly candles, yum again.

And my son skyped from Japan just before they arrived 

so everyone had a good catch-up.

I had taken my little mother to church in the morning 

and she had already gone home, so she missed them all. 

She always likes to go home early on Mother's Day 

to be there in time for my brother and his partner arriving.

Our middle grand daughter is turning 18 this week

so we are going out with her next weekend for an evening meal.

We gave her an early birthday present.

You may think this is a funny gift to give an 18 year old 

but she was really thrilled as she is going away this week for the course

 she is doing and was hoping to borrow some of our luggage.

And when she graduates she hopes to be travelling some more.

So what else would we give her? And blue is her favourite colour.

What else have I been doing? 

Well I was given these...

...quinces, apples and pears fresh off the trees.

So I have been peeling, stewing and freezing a lot of it.

Some of the apples and pears I kept to eat, lovely and sweet 

even if they had to be washed or peeled to get the bird poop off. 

I have to admit that I gave most of the quinces away, not all of them though.

Because they are such an old fashioned fruit 

and not seen much I think they are probably an acquired taste,

 especially for younger people.

I gave them to some older ladies I know 

who were really quite thrilled as they hadn't had them for years.

One was going to make jelly and the other was going to stew them whole.

Everyone has different ideas about what to do with them and how long to cook them.

I just stewed the ones I kept and froze them with the other fruit.

My little mother gave me a teaset a week or two ago. 

She had already given me one she knew I liked, or what was left of it...

she used to have tea parties with some of her great grandchildren 

and I rather think they were broken then. 

So I am on the lookout for replacement pieces for it.

Anyway  here is the newest one. A Yamato fine china.

It's black, white and silver and I think it is rather elegant and unusual.

 

Unfortunately I'm not too good at taking photo's at night

(something I'll have to try and remedy) 

and the trim looks gold here rather than silver.

Oh, an update on Mack, eldest grand daughters wee dog.

He is standing on all fours again to everyone's relief

 but still has to be confined to his cage for a few weeks yet.

So no drastic decisions have to be made :)

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Martha's favorites

 Well I think that's it for tonight,

 so until next week I will say goodnight.

Diana

Autumn ... and some Aussie visitors

Autumn is here in the south - but the trees haven't been told.

There is a little bit of colour change but not a lot.

Today was a lovely warm day, 28 degs C. 

so my GKB and I decided  that we would try 

to take some photo's of the plain in all it's autumn glory.

We headed up to the bridge over the motorway to see what we could do.

We were looking not quite into the sun which has resulted in the pictures

being a little hazy. 

Looking north across the plain toward Mount Allen, 

lovely, green and lush.

Part of our little town in the foreground.

Further around toward the west, where our warm wind was blowing in from.

Not a lot of colour. On the whole I think it has been too warm

 even though we have had snow on the hills a couple of times.

Looking west to Mount Maungatua. 

Now what has this got to do with Aussies you may ask? 

Nothing really, except that my little mother's 91 year old sister, 

her daughter and grand daughter came over for a surprise, flying visit.

And flying it was.

They spent a week in New Zealand,

 flew from one end of the country to the other, and back again,

visiting various relatives on the way and tomorrow fly home again.

We all went out for dinner last night, 

girls only as the men had other things happening. 

Three cousins, grand daughter took the photos.

We had a lovely meal together made all the more enjoyable

 because it was a spur of the moment thing.

We all enjoyed the visit, its a long time since we have caught up,

in one case about 40 years.

joining with:

Roses of inspiration

Have a lovely week, 

till next time.

Diana