Its been windy.

 We were forecast for high winds today. It started blowing through the night but being deaf I never heard a thing. Sometimes being deaf is good but I would also sleep through a civil defense alert on my phone - not so good. Anyway, when I went out into the kitchen I checked the driveway for feijoas. The wind brings them down. There was a good smattering of them.

 The smattering continued throughout the day. The wind didn't let up and was quite strong at times, it almost blew me over at one point when I was gathering the feijoas this evening. There are so many of them I don't really know what to do with them. I've taken a large bag to one of the local rest homes this afternoon and stewed some to freeze. I think I'll bag some up to go into the community pantry at church tomorrow. And hopefully the girls will come over and take some off my hands. If its a nice day tomorrow any left over can go in a bucket outside the gate for people to help themselves.

Enough of the feijoas 😄

My GKB Bob came through for breakfast and said 'it must have been a good wind overnight, the swing seat's been blown over'. So it had. The wind must have caught it under the awning, it was definitely not in the position we'd last seen it, up against the fence. Instead it was looking a bit skewiff in the middle of the lawn. I'm just pleased it was a swing and not a trampoline or goodness knows where it may have ended up.

Once the wind dropped a bit GKB Bob went out and put things to rights, removed the awning and put it in the shed and the swing is once again in its rightful place by the fence.

The wind's still blowing this evening, hopefully it'll blow itself out by morning.

And that's as exciting as it's got this week. 

Take care, keep well and enjoy your week.

Diana

Oranges and lemons

 Oranges and Lemons

Oranges and lemons,

Say the bells of St. Clement's.

You owe me five farthings,

Say the bells of St. Martin's.

When will you pay me?

Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich,

Say the bells of Shoreditch.

When will that be?

Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know,

Says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

I've just been reading a book with 'oranges and lemons' in the title and it got me to thinking about some of the games I played as a kid. 'Oranges and lemons' was one of them. 

We played on the street, ours was a short street and everyone knew each other. We were in and out of each other's homes and only went back to our own for meals and bed. 

The street I grew up in taken from the hill end. This must have been taken at least 40 years ago as our house is still standing in this photo but it has actually been knocked down along with a few others and pensioner flats have been built there. My aunt at the top right of the page and some of the boys I grew up with at the bottom right and on the bottom left.

Other games we played were cowboys and Indians and the boys were actually allowed to play with toy guns and bows and arrows. None of them grew up to be murderers. Skipping with a rope someone's father had brought home from the wharf, one girl at either end and 2 or 3 jumping in the middle. Hide and seek in the dark and ring a ring o' rosies.  The boys played cricket with old apple boxes for wickets. Our neighbour had a bay window at the front and the ball frequently went through it. Strangely by the time she made it to the street to see who the culprits were there was not a kid or an apple box in sight. These are just some I can think of off the top my head. Did anyone else play these games. I'm thinking some in my age group would have.

At the top end of the street was a farm on a hill. As long as there were no sheep in the paddock we were able to climb over the stile and play there. There was a large piece of exposed rock at one side and generations of kids used it as slide, I'm sure our knickers and shorts all wore out more quickly than they should have. Poor mothers. Mind you some of the parents had grown up in the same street so had inflicted the same thing on their mothers :) 

It was a great place to grow up, even if everyone knew everything about everyone else :) It was a real community.

******

Thank you for your kind comments on my last post. I really wasn't fishing for compliments but appreciate what you all said. My mother was a writer in that she wrote stories for her grandchildren as well as short stories and was great at writing poems but never had anything published. I suppose I take more after her although I don't write poetry :)

Until next time. 

Look after yourselves and keep well.

Diana

Where's mine?

I'm not sure what happened or why but I seem to have missed out on the creative gene that other female members of the family have.

 These are a couple of flowerpot people youngest sis made. She's done a few. She also paints stones and leaves them around the place for kids to find.

This is a quilt middle sis is in the throes of making - her daughter also makes them. In fact I think she got her mother started on it although her Mum has always had a creative bent.

And this is a blouse my eldest daughter has just finished. The black and white to the right is a dress she made herself. She's a lovely seamstress and made a wedding dress for one of her friends when she was barely out of her teens.

Both daughters had lovely gardens last summer, I haven't even inherited my grandmother's green thumb!

So what I want to know is who's got my share of those creative juices? Cos I haven't 😉

Until next time,

 Diana 

Tuesday 4

 I thought I would join in with Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 this week as not a lot has been happening in my life - and I'm quite happy with that state of affairs after the last few weeks :) So I've just copied and pasted the questions but if there is a better way let me know.

Staying Put/Moving On

Welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Sometimes we live in the same place where we were born and remain there all of our lives.

Sometimes we move away and never come back because of jobs, marriage, circumstances of all kinds.

Sometimes we choose where we will live and we have definite reasons for staying there even though we might be far from family.

1. Are you far from family and if so why? Would you like to have them closer and have you discussed that with them? 

I live within a 10 minute drive from one daughter and 15 minutes from the other. Our son was 5 minutes away but he has moved north and is now a 2 or 3 hour flight away. But still in the same country so not too far really - close enough not to have to worry about getting there if we need to. But in a city I enjoy and my husband doesn't :) Oh, and we're in New Zealand, so it's provinces not states :)

2. How did you come to live in the state you are in? How about the city/town?

I moved down to Otago to work and was living with my cousin for a while and then an Aunty. Met my husband and we were married and stayed here. We've had a few moves, one down to Southland where two of our kids were born then back to Otago, mostly because of Bob's work. He is Otago born and bred :)

3. What good things keep you living where you are?

What's good about your state and town?

Well It's not the climate although I enjoy the spring and the autumn. The winters are wet, cold and long and these days I find the summers a bit hot. I enjoy being close to the family, we do quite a lot together and always enjoy celebrating milestones of all sorts. Bob's only sister lives about an hour away, on the other side of the city but for us older folk buses are free during off peak hours so if we don't want to drive anywhere we take the bus and meet in the middle. The city is only 10 minutes drive if we want a change of shops but we can get pretty much all we need here. Of course there are art galleries, theatres, museums, parks and some wonderful Victorian architecture. We were a satellite town but are now an outer suburb. The area is flat so good for walking and we have beaches, lakes, mountains and rivers all within easy driving distance.

4. What things might convince you to move to another state or just another town? 

Nothing will convince my hubby to move and really the only thing that would convince me would be if all the kids moved away. Then again I might feel like I'm too old to be moving and making new friends and all the other adjustments that go with a move. I'm a bit of an introvert and am not good at meeting new people or going new places :)

And that's about  it for now. 

Have a good week.

Diana

Mother's Day

 Just wanting to wish all the mothers in blogland a very Happy Mother's Day.

I hope you've all had a lovely relaxed day doing things you enjoy doing with the people closest to you :)

I've had a very lazy day myself and might send my GKB Bob up the street to get curry rice rolls and chips for tea.

I've been feeling tired lately so had a long lie in and then watched our church service on line today. And after lunch both the girls visited at different times, bearing gifts :) I'm so glad they keep them simple. One gave me a nice scented bath bomb and the other a tub of slightly more expensive ice cream than I would normally buy, in a flavour I've never tried. I'm looking forward to trying it. Supper tonight probably, if I can wait that long.

Leaving you there. 

Have a wonderful week.

Keep well.

Diana

Here and there

Well the kids have been here ... and now they're there. 

 It's been quite an emotional few weeks.

And I'm feeling a little blue.

My GKB came home from hospital and the next day was Aaron's ordination. He wasn't able to attend but I went with Jacqui our eldest daughter, our youngest daughter was away visiting her grandchildren for Easter or she'd have been there too. 

Aaron and Sofi after a relaxed but suitably formal service. 

Very proud Mum and sister.

There was a nice celebratory supper put on afterwards.

Aaron called in on his way home and donned his robes so his father could have his photo taken as well which was really thoughtful of him. We appreciated that :)

A couple of days later it was time for our house group to farewell them so we had raspberry chocolate cake before we started our study that evening. Yum. Very rich though.

Then at the weekend the family wanted to have a farewell get together and as Vanessa was home from her visit we gathered at her place. Nothing formal, we had takeaways - fish n chips, Chinese and pizza so there was something for everyone. Including the wee fellow.  Followed by GF cream puffs :)

Not long after Aaron and Sofi left on their trip north to their new home and appointments in Auckland.

They crossed on the ferry on a beautiful day, after the crossings had been cancelled for three days due to stormy weather. 

Out for a meal with Chloe, Atu and the kids in Palmerston North.

They drove up and stayed with friends and family or called in for coffee and a catchup on the way.

Catching up for coffee with Andrew in Cambridge,

and spending money in his shop before they left.

Then arriving in Auckland to discover their furniture hadn't arrived and was still on the wharf in Picton. I was quite pleased to hear that's where it was as we'd seen containers toppled on the wharf in Wellington due to the winds and hoped theirs wasn't among them.

So they're camping in their new home at the moment. Luckily they'd packed their camping gear in the car in anticipation of their first night being without furniture so are coping okay for now.

So they've been here, and now they're there. Not a five minute drive away but a two hour flight. Sigh.

Hoping everyone is well and enjoying the season, whatever it is. There is always beauty to be found in our surroundings if we only look.

Until next time,

Diana