A family reunion

 Easter weekend saw 76 members of our extended family gather in Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Home for the older generation of cousins and somewhere most of our kids had never been! 

On Friday afternoon we set up the hall. What could have been a big job was made easy when people just kept arriving and we ended up with an old fashioned working bee going. The men got to work putting  the tables up and the women got to work in the kitchen.  Some things never change :) When all was set up it was a quick dash back to our motels for a shower and change of clothes, then back to the hall for our 'meet and greet' evening.

We had hired a church hall and were very impressed with all the facilities provided. Because it was Good Friday we had fish and chips, hot cross buns and whitebait on the menu. This was supplemented with fruit platters and small cakes, with wine, beer and soft drink as well as tea and coffee. One sister, who shall remain nameless, ordered a slab of cake, thinking she would get something big enough for everyone to have a small piece each - it came in a wooden box and took up the entire back seat of her car! She'll take a while to live that one down.

We had a lot of fun that evening, meeting family we hadn't see for decades in some cases and also meeting their kids and grandkids. People had brought their photo's along as well as other articles of interest, the family bible, some iron ore from a mine our ancestors worked in England - the owner had smuggled it out of the mine when she went to see it. The family tree was there for anyone to take copies of and the family historian had interesting letters and other papers to look at. We decorated with daffodils and flags, Granma's favourite flowers were daffodils and Grandad's nickname was Flags, so we thought it was appropriate.

When people first arrived they took a balloon off the stage and had to find the person whose name was on the name tag. I was a bit iffy as to whether the men would take part but I think most of them found a kid and did it with them, that way it wasn't really them playing with balloons :) I loved seeing the big age range. I think the youngest was about 7 years old and my Aunty was the eldest at 86. At the dinner on Saturday night she told us all there was one week and one month between her and Mum, what she meant was one year and one month. We all had a good laugh over that. That's her below with balloons all over her wheelchair. We were all very proud of her as she had a stroke earlier in the year but managed (was determined) to attend most events for at least part of the time.

At 9:30pm when it was time to go everyone pitched in again and it only took about an hour or so to clear everything away and make our way to our beds. Well, those with kids headed to their beds, my branch of the family met up again in my youngest brothers motel and we spent a couple of hours reminiscing and catching up with each other. Two of us live in NZ and the other two who were there are living in Australia, and two didn't make it. My daughters and their families didn't join us either as they had to drive quite a way to where they were staying. We socialised with them later in the weekend. And that completed our Friday night.

Did I say it poured with rain all day and night on Friday? Well Saturday morning when we were due to go to the cemetery to put flowers on our grandparents grave we were still being blasted with torrential rain, the tail end of Cyclone Cook. Those of us who grew up on the coast weren't at all fazed as this sort of rain is quite normal for the area but I think one or two of the younger ones wondered what had  hit them. We had a good turnout of people at the cemetery, mostly the older cousins as we were the ones who spent time with our grandparents, but it was nice to see some of the younger ones there as well. And as you can see, although it was grey and cloudy the rain stopped and the weather continued to get better and better as the day wore on.

My eldest cousin (the family patriarch) said a few words 

and we had a minute silence before  we all went our 

different ways for the rest of the morning.

My GKB and my son and daughter in law and I all went down to the beach which was just below the cemetery. It was cold and blustery but it was nice to relax and take a walk before we all gathered again at Shantytown after lunch. My son takes some quite arty photos and I followed him trying to get the same shots - but mine are not arty at all :( 

And Shantytown is going to have a post of it's own, 

so I think I will stop here and continue another day.

That's more than five photo's and probably not quite

 five minutes of reading but I'd still like to take part in:

Five on Friday

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I would also appreciate prayers for my little mother as she has been staying with me since Easter and is on complete rest. We travel to Hamilton on Monday for a CT scan (don't ask) and the plan at the moment is that they will send us home again on Wednesday then send us another appointment to go back for her heart operation. We are praying the operation will be done while we are in Hamilton without the need for another trip. We live in Dunedin in the south of the South Island, Hamilton is in the middle of the North Island and we will be travelling for about 4 hours. Many thanks.

Randomness

I haven't been up to posting for a few weeks as my Little Mother hasn't been at all well and I have been seeing to her needs.  

I have been looking in on you though and catching up on what you are all doing but I'm sorry I haven't had the energy to comment. 

It's relaxing just to read sometimes.

But I was looking through my photos and found some 

I've taken over the last few weeks that I could use to take part

 in Five on Friday with Amy and her lovely friends.

So number one: A shot taken one day while I was walking along the Silverstream. That is a cabbage tree (cordyline australis) on the bank. It is over the back fence from where a friend of mine used to live. The cabbage tree was given to her and her husband as a gift but she didn't think it went with her garden so she planted it on the floodbank instead. This way we all get to enjoy it. A lot of people think they are ugly but I like them. They are New Zealand natives and native birds find their berries very tasty.

Number two:  Do you remember a few months ago I told you that my friend's cat had departed to where all cats eventually go? Well shortly afterwards  she was offered this little lady. She is a real character and a lot of fun. She loves playing in the box and is a real blessing to my friend who missed her ginger boy dearly. But the thing that really struck us was that her lovely ginger boy was already named Leo when he arrived on the scene and when this little lady came along she was already named Cleo! I'd say it was meant to be, wouldn't you?

Number three: The Children's Marathon challenge. Out walking around the town one day I was passed by these kids out on a run. I see in the paper that a lot of the schools in the area are taking part in a  marathon of sorts. For the past 6 weeks they have been running around courses at the schools until they have clocked up almost  40 k's.  The final section of the run is then done at Logan Park on a running track and when it is over a ballot is taken to see who gets the donated prizes of sports shoes. A good prize for the lucky ones, only 10 to give out I believe.

Number four: My reading challenge books for a couple of months. I'd had the Joyce  Meyer one, Look Good, Feel Great, for quite a long time and had read a couple of chapters but no further. So I decided now was a good time to finish it. Easy reading, common sense stuff, but something to give you a prod into taking a little bit of action as well. That was the August read completed. :) 

The September book is going to remain unread I'm afraid. Too cynical, hard, and brittle for me. Nothing relaxing about it or even, for me, entertaining. So after persevering for six chapters I've given it the heave and shall probably be putting it in a bin for a book sale instead. What was it? The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher. 

Someone else may enjoy it.

And finally to Number five: These beautiful daffodils are growing at the boundry fence between our house and the neighbour's. They are the only true daffys I have and so I am reluctant to pick them. But the bonus is that I can see them from my kitchen window and can enjoy them anyway. They are a real promise of better days to come. We have had a few stormy days, snow and hail lately so it is lovely to see this splash of colour along with the jonquils all along the front of my house. See the header picture for a look at a small section of them.