St Clair beach

 

On a beautiful, warm summer's day just recently

 I found myself at St Clair beach with a group friends.

 

The sun was shining, the surf was gently rolling in and we had a lovely stroll along the esplanade, stopping every now and then to watch the surfers riding the swells. And the occasional gentle breaker :)  A nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Southern sojourn

It was our 49th wedding anniversary so my GKB and I decided to have a weekend away. We packed the car up and headed south to Invercargill. We left about mid morning and as it's only a 3-4 hour drive, depending on how many stops you make, we were there in good time. After we'd booked into our motel we decided to take a drive out to Bluff where we lived for a couple of years early on in our marriage. Our two youngest kids were born while we were living here.
 

Bluff Harbour from the lookout on Bluff Hill

 We only had a quick look around as there was a cold wind blowing, but we did go up to where we once owned a section to see whether it had been built on at all. We were interested to see that none of the sections available back then had houses on them. On our way back we called in to the new K Mart on the outskirts of the city. Twice the size of the one we have up here. There is a lot of building happening there just now, it'll be interesting to see what the cityscape looks like in a years time.

Across the road from our motels was a large water tower that was once the town water supply. It is quite an impressive building and looks even more impressive when lit up at night. 

Built in 1898 it provided the city with it's first pressurised water supply. Unfortunately you can't go inside because it needs to have work done to bring it up to earthquake standard.

The next day dawned cool and with quite a brisk wind, so we dressed up warmly and headed to the Transport Museum, one of the reasons we had gone down there. I won't write about it here as it deserves a post of it's own.
 

Part of one of the sheds

After lunch we decided to go to Riverton, a seaside fishing port. When we lived here I'd only been once and was surprised at how far it was out of town and it also struck me how much prettier this port was than Bluff. It was a pleasant drive through farming country and then around little bays on the coast. Although it was still overcast it had warmed up considerably, enough for people to be out swimming, surfing and boogie boarding.

 After a drive and look around we had a nice afternoon tea at a little 70's style cafe and headed back to town after an enjoyable day out.

And I'll finish there, 

so until next time, 

Diana

scavenger hunt

Lost/found

 Lost...and not yet found.

I was getting ready to go out a couple of weeks ago  and was changing my ear rings. I always stand over the bed when taking them out so that if they drop I don't lose them. Haha. One of my good pearl studs fell and disappeared. We have searched, the floor, the bedding and shaken out the bath robe that was on the bed. Nada. A mystery. 

Prints

I received a lovely Christmas card this year from my 

granddaughter and her husband. Granddaughter is quite 

arty crafty so she made her cards this year - with help

 from young Arlo. He played in paint and we all received 

cards with his handprints and footprints on them :) 

Something to treasure.

Lunch

Every now and then I go to a daytime concert with one of my friends.  A light lunch is included in the cost of the tickets. It's usually a sandwich and a muffin with tea and coffee. I had to take something out to the car between the end of the concert and lunch this week and when I got back all that was left were the sandwiches in the picture.

Starts with M

 Breakfast doesn't start with M but Marmite does. Yum. Nothing better than tea with marmite on toast for breakfast - unless of 

course you're an Aussie and you'd probably prefer Vegemite :)

Ends with T

Windfall walnuts are sometimes on the path where I walk along the Silverstream. This is one of them. I know because I couldn't work out what they were when I first saw them so I picked one to bits - and ended up with beautifully stained fingers :) Walnut.

My choice

A lone sheep, a lost sheep or just left behind. 

On the bank of the Silverstream one evening.

Joining Hawthorn for her photo scavenger hunt on:
http://livelovecraftme.blogspot.com/2020/01/januarys-link-up-party.html

Well my intention was to join up with Hawthorn but I have been away for a few days and the link wasn't up before I left and it was finished when I arrived home. Never mind, you can still
have a look at what others have done if you follow the link above. 

Diana

A stroll along the Silverstream

I went for a wander along the Silverstream today.

It was warm but with a bit of a breeze blowing at times and the fragrance coming from these lilies as I walked by was lovely.

I had decided to walk as far as the walnut tree about halfway along this section. It hangs over the path and I guess if you went along at the right time you might be able to pick up the windfalls. I've never been so lucky :)

As you can see it was quite a dull day and I actually had the path to myself - usually there are dogs and walkers or runners there. 
There are seats every so often, some donated by Rotary and others put out by home owners. The ones above look like they came from Carisbrook, the local football stadium, when it was pulled down.

I sat for a short while and just looked about and enjoyed the tranquility. Butterflies, bees  and birds flew past but 

I couldn't see any ducks in the stream, it was probably 

too early in the day for them.

On the opposite bank it was quite pastoral with sheep and

 cows in the paddocks. I didn't see any rabbits about but

 it was probably too early for them as well. We had a baby one in the front yard one day last week. I don't know where it 
came from and we haven't seen it since.

 

There were a few windfall walnuts but not worth gathering up. 

I'm not sure I'd know what to do with them in this green state anyway.

**********

And for those of you who expressed an interest in seeing 

Alice's Christening gown up close here is a photo her 

Granma took of her on the tapa cloth mat.

And I will now finish and make my GKB a coffee, 

he's been out mowing the lawn so I think he deserves one :)

Until next time,

Diana

A baptism

Sunday was a cool day but fine when the families gathered at the church for Alice Dawn's baptism. Alice looked beautiful in her new white gown and cape with a bow on a band on her head. The photos don't do justice to the wee dress, it was beautiful.

with her Mummy and Daddy waiting for people to arrive

 And yes, we all managed to find the church and arrive on time. It was a private family baptism but we managed to almost fill the little church. The service started with a hymn, in Tongan, so only half the congregation joined in but it was beautiful to listen to. No accompaniment, one of the men lead and they all joined in.

I love this picture of the parents and Godparents all paying attention to the pastor and Alice looking as well, as if she knew what was going on :) 

I also love this one, if you look closely you can see her bottom lip dropping, she'd had enough by this stage but didn't cry until it was all over and everyone wanted photos. 

We had a lovely day, it was a very joyful baptism, with half a dozen other babies and toddlers of varying stages and ages in attendance.

Arlo was also there but by the time his mother realised all the babies were being photographed Alice was making her needs known in no uncertain manner. As far as she was concerned her bottle was more important than photo calls with all and sundry.

After all, she couldn't take part in the feast that had been prepared for the adults afterwards in the hall.

 A whole pig was just part of what was on offer. There was ham on the bone, fish including salmon, prawns, salads, chicken and soft drinks to wash it all down. Some of the fare was European but a lot of it was prepared the Tongan way so gave some of us some new food experiences.

 

 Three Christening cakes on Tapa cloth.

I'll leave you with a photo of the grandparents, 

one set looking much more comfortable than the other.

Until next time,

Diana

Welcome to a new decade

 

Well New Year celebrations are over and we have a new year to look forward to. 365 empty days to fill with life and adventures.

 I wonder what the year will bring?

 

We ended the last year looking after Sass for a few days so the family could go away over the New Year break. She and I went walking and played fetch until she tired of it and dropped the ball and then dropped herself to the floor. I thought I would get sick of it first, but no.

 She watched through the window while my GKB mowed the lawns. She also 'guarded' the house while we went out on New Year's eve for dinner with extended family. Out of town family on my GKB's side were visiting with their new baby, so it was a bit of a meet and greet time as well. An early evening though and we were in bed before midnight :)

9am

 On January 1st we awoke to orange skies - smoke from the Australian bush fires. Very surreal. We could smell the smoke in the air the evening before. The photo above was taken at nine in the morning and not long after we had to turn the lights on in the house. And they remained on all day.

11:30am

  By 11:30 am it was really quite dark. Sass wasn't happy and declined her walk and wasn't keen on being outside at all. We live on the East Coast of New Zealand, at the bottom of the South Island, and although we were expecting a bit of a haze from the fires we didn't expect it to be so bad. Runny, itchy eyes and nose are the order of the day at the moment for most of us.

The Met Service photo above shows the smoke plume in the lower left corner spilling across the Tasman Sea and reaching New Zealand. I know what we are experiencing is nothing compared to what is happening in Australia, it is really quite devastating and distressing to watch. What makes it worse is that some of the fires were deliberately lit.

On the 2nd we had a visit from Alice and her mother who are here for a couple of weeks staying with her daddy's family. Alice is to be baptised on Sunday so that will be another big family gathering - as long as we all get there. Some of us don't know where the church is but we have all been given directions, address and a map! 

So watch this space.

And last but not least, I thought I would show you the cover of the little booklets I made up for the grandchildren and their kids. These are some of the stories my little mother wrote for her grandchildren and I managed to get them ready to give out at Christmas. Number one son designed the cover and I think it looks great. I think Mum would have been pleased with how they turned out.

Looking forward to a year filled with promise.

Best wishes as you go forth into 2020 

Diana

January 1st, 2020

from our house to yours