Road trippin'

On a blue sky day.

We had a couple of messages to do up the street before we left but were still away by 10:45am as we had planned. Whilst up the street I decided to change my clothes as I was already too hot and it was going to be hotter where we were going. No I didn't change while I was out, we went back home and my GKB also picked up a light jacket - just in case. Luckily going home was in the same direction as we were going so no time lost really.

We were on our way through the Manuka Gorge when I thought maybe I should take some pictures. So below is part way through. It gets quite rugged in places with a bit of bush overarching the road but the road itself is well maintained.

Coming out of the gorge into farming country.

Lawrence is a gold mining town and very proud of it's heritage buildings and mining equipment from back in the day. They hold an annual Heritage carnival which I've been to once. A family day with family friendly activities.

We were to have met up with Jacqui's partner for lunch but he never arrived. He was away working and we're guessing he just plain forgot :) We sat outside Bellview Wetlands, ate chips (crisps) and  had a bottle of ginger beer each then went on our way.

But not before we headed up to the Gabriel Read memorial. Gabriel Read was the man who discovered gold in the gully and so started the Otago gold rush.

On the road again until we arrived in Ettrick and stopped at what used to be our favourite wee cafe until it began to get rundown. It has new owners now so we thought we'd drop in for lunch and have a looksee. This is where we sat. It is so nice now and we'll definitely be making it our stop once again when we're up that way.

After lunch we were back on the road again. We were looking for a fruit stall selling peaches, we'd already stopped and bought plums, cherries and apricots from another roadside stall. We were in Fruitlands, orchard country. Stone fruit and berries in the summer, apple and pears later in the year. We bought a box of peaches that had been on the tree while we were eating our lunch - they were still warm from the sun.

Heading home again, sheep on one side of the road

and cattle on the other, not sure whether they're beef or dairy

 but look quite young.

There weren't a lot of campervans on the road, most people 

travelled home at the weekend I imagine, but we sat behind

 this one for a mile or two.

Crossing the new Beaumont bridge over the Clutha River.

Two horses looking hot in the mid afternoon sun in 

a paddock beside the river.

Look closely and you can see both the old bridge and the new one. The new bridge is only about a year old.

Back through Lawrence, the road heading home :)

A stop at Milton for ice cream, a family tradition when travelling from Central Otago, and only about half an hour from home.

The fruits of our trip. Some still in the fridge and some shared with a friend. Most family have just recently been through so didn't want any.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day out and I hope it's not too long before we do it again :)

That's all for now.

Until next time

Diana

Little mother...and a scavenger hunt

For those of you who have been asking about my little mother, she is doing well and talking about going back to her own home at the weekend. She takes care of all her own personal needs and is walking well. She hasn't walked for so long she had to ease back into it and now walks around the yard and up and down the footpath outside the house. I'm sure she will cope well with the help she has coming in and with my brother and me keeping an eye on her. We have a hospital visit this afternoon just to check all is well. Thank you for your care and prayers.

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I didn't think I was going to get all the photos this month but I enjoy the photo challenge and was determined to take part. Last night I found my final picture. Once again some are from the archives but I think there is only one I've used before. Most are new. I hope you enjoy them.

1:  Relaxed

This is our old boy, Claude, not long before he began to lose condition prior to his death. One of his favourite places when he wanted a snooze. The wood chips under the fern still held the heat of the sun as did the large stones. Very comforting for an old fellow. We miss him even though he has been gone a couple of years now.

2:  It begins with an M

and it's Mum, aka my little mother. She was only young when this was taken, in her early 30's I think, and looking at all the nappies on the line I'm guessing this was not long after my youngest brother was born. It was hard work with all those cloth nappies to wash every day but a fact of life. I rather like this photo of Mum, a peek into life as it was only half a century ago.

(I hasten to add that is not our house in the background

 but part of the neighbouring property).

3:  Time for...

...a hot chocolate on a cold winters day. We'd been out shopping and it was time to warm up. Really delicious and I love the marshmallows on the top to sweeten it rather than using sugar.

4:  Tangerine

I'd been wondering what to put up for this prompt and was going through some photos and spotted a pop of tangerine in this picture. We held a country gospel service at church a couple of weeks ago and one of the singers was wearing this lovely tangerine top :)

5:  It begins with an O

I was trying to think of something out of the ordinary for O. I thought I could look for something 'oresome' as a famous sportsperson once spelt it but then decided to just go for 'ordinary'. So this is my ordinary kitchen table with an ordinary bowl of fruit on it. And of course there are oranges in amongst the fruit. 

It also has some O shapes in it such as the table, place mats, fruit bowl, grapes and cake plate, none of which begin with an O.

6:  Whiskery

This is Missy. Isn't she gorgeous? I was visiting a friend when Missy decided to take advantage of the sun and leapt up on the back of my chair. I was going to put up a photo of one of my brothers, he has whiskers and looks like Santa Claus. Unfortunately he looked a bit cross in the photo I had so I decided on Missy instead. We can call her face whiskery I think, and she's cuter than he is anyway :)

7:  Lace

We went into the Octagon a few years ago to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the gold rush in Otago. Of course a lot of people were in costume and character and my GKB was chatted up by a 'lady of the night'. This is her back view with the  bodice all 'lace'd up. 

8:  Bridge

A road/rail bridge over the Taramakau River on the West Coast of New Zealand. Yes, this bridge is shared by trains and cars, trucks etc. There are barrier arms at each end of the bridge to stop road traffic if trains are coming. We always found it exciting when we were kids and wondered whether the car wheels would get stuck in the rails. When we went over at Easter a new road bridge was being built alongside this so I'm wondering how long it will be before this bridge is no longer in use or whether it will still be used for rail traffic.

9:  Letters

How to be original with this one? This may not be terribly original but while I was thinking about it I realised that whenever I was sitting in the doctors waiting room  I looked at a large wall hanging (about cot quilt size) with the alphabet on it, so I went in and asked permission to photograph it. What makes this a bit unique is that all the letters are orientated to New Zealand flora and fauna, that is why I study it. I always admire the work that has gone into it, all the individual panels have been beautifully cross stitched. People are so talented.

10:  My choice

My GKB took this photo of a goldfinch under our rose bushes. Isn't it beautiful? It was feeding on the chickweed that I had been thinking I should get out and remove very soon. We have never seen goldfinches on the property before and if the chickweed is what is attracting them then as far as I am concerned the chickweed can stay!

joining everyone at:

I live, I love, I craft, I am

for the monthly photo scavenger hunt

A day full of blessings

Well this has been a real day of blessings.

I turned my phone on as I was having my breakfast

 and a text came in immediately. 

Would you like some apples and pears, 

I can bring some down shortly.

So of course I said yes. I shared some with my daughter 

and took some around to a friend who lives

 in a retirement village. What she can't use she puts

 in the hall for other residents to help themselves.

She also gave me a beautiful red rose with a wonderful scent. 

They were heading away later in the day and thought it was

a shame for the rose not to be enjoyed by someone.

Lucky me :) The colour in the photo is pretty true.

Morning tea came around and my GKB came in with this offering. 

We both had a laugh...and he didn't sing happy birthday.

Raspberry slice, yummy. He knows I like it.

We had just made scones for lunch and my youngest

 daughter waltzed in. 'How's your day going?' she said,

 and then in came my little mother and my other daughter. 

Bearing gifts.

I'd already received a parcel in the post today, from Japan.

How great was the timing in that? 

The botanicals and exfoliater were from one daughter, 

and the coral necklace came from Japan. They also had a

 birthday cake with them, so lunch was scones and birthday cake 

with tea and coffee. And good company of course. We did

 have a healthy(ish) tea - filled baked potato. 

Yummy again :)

When I delivered the apples and pears to my friend in the village she had just been given a box of bread and asked whether I wanted any, so of course I said yes, again. I took three loaves so I could give some to my daughters as well as keep some for myself. As you can tell, the barter system is alive and well among my friends. 

That's six photo's not five, oh dear I can't count :(

Maybe the two cakes can count as one?

And that's it for this week.

Have a good one,

Diana

joining Amy for: 
Five on Friday

Two intrepid walkers - day two

A long post so you might want to make a hot drink,
 or a cool one, and settle in for a while.

setting out 

On day two of our walk we had a plan!

We would begin at the other end 

and come back to where we were going to start.

Clear as mud?

We had talked over where we would be going and decided 

that we would begin where we would have finished if 

we started from where we finished the day before.

Oh dear, I think I'll stop there before it gets too confused :)

(I think it's the Irish coming out in me).

Hyde railway station

We headed up the road to Hyde and duly set out

walking back towards Middlemarch - after a comfort stop.

 We figured that doing it this way we would be walking downhill. In reality the walk from Middlemarch to Hyde

 only rises 100 metres, so not a huge climb over 28 k's.

derelict wagon filled with old wood, this was the worst one.

We weren't sure where the first passport stamping station was

 so we called in to the local cafe where there just happened to be a full complement of the various stamps. Once we were stamped the walk proper was on. The first corner we went around brought us to the Hyde railway station, no longer in use of course and now privately owned, with a few derelict wagons on sidings. 

And a hundred yards further down the trail was the stamping booth!

We hadn't gone too far when we decided that perhaps we were walking too fast and should go at a slightly more leisurely

 pace than yesterday so that we didn't get so tired. So we slowed down a little. We looked at more stuff. And stopped more often.

There were a lot more cyclists about today so we had to give way to them as well. And as most of them were travelling in the same direction as us it was quite interesting and reminded me of when we were in Japan and cyclists are just considered to be pedestrians on wheels. They used the footpaths and you were always checking behind for them, they did have bells. It's surprising how quickly you adapt though. And so we adapted on the trail.

We came across these cows relaxing before the heat

 of the day set in. These ones were chewing their cuds...

...but this lady was on a mission.

Can you see her in amongst the bushes?

When we first saw her she had her front legs up in the tree

 but had settled for this by the time we got the camera out.

She had climbed up on a rock to get at the delicacy she was after.

Well, what was it, you may ask?

gathering apples

She was after apples. All along this section of the trail was lined with apple and pear trees. There were bushes covered in clusters of red berries as well but we couldn't identify them and they were too far away to see them properly. Not handy like the trees. 

gathering pears

The trees have grown from the cores of the fruit thrown 

out of the train windows by passengers as it was travelling from Cromwell to Dunedin. So some of them must be getting on 

for one hundred years old. We gathered some fruit and put it

 in our bags to bring home, this did not lighten our load 

as we were walking :) But they were really sweet when 

I cooked them up once we got home. Compensation.

There were also a lot of different flowers growing and

 we wondered whether they had been part of some ladies

 gardens as they weren't wild flowers.

We only had one other stamp to get on this part

 of the trip and that was at the Rock and Pillars hut.

We took photos of each other here as well but they are so 

inelegant they are only for private viewing, haha.

We were pooped for some reason. We had some

 refreshments and got on the trail again. Didn't let our

 feet dangle this time either, we learnt that lesson.

looking towards the Taieri Range

The countryside is very dry and we came across 

this reservoir which feeds down to one of the 

farms and is probably part of an irrigation system. After we

 had been walking a few hours we looked up and 

Sis said 'that looks like your car over there'.

And I replied 'and that looks like my bloke over there as well'.

my GKB taking a video of us

He had brought the car back and was waiting for us with a 

full thermos and the tea and coffee. He was very good to us.

We had arrived at the Hyde Railway disaster memorial and we stopped to have a look and a bite of lunch.

There is a picnic table over the stile and behind the trees. 

The cairn is the memorial to the 21 people who died in 

the train crash in June 1943. The train would have been packed as it was on it's way to the Dunedin Show. We had walked through the

 cutting where it had happened about 100 metres or so further back.

stone plaque

The problem with stopping for half an hour, sitting with your feet up and just generally relaxing is that you don't want to start again. Oh dear. So we didn't. We had walked for three hours, only covered half the distance we intended but as the sun was getting very high in the sky decided to call it a day. We have a 6 km section to finish off and will do that next time. Maybe.

Then again we might just start here, which is the bridge over the river from Hyde and takes us  in the opposite direction to what we had been going, towards Clyde, which is the final destination. 

We didn't think we had done too badly, we walked 21 kms altogether and that is a half marathon!

We didn't have ice creams today, we all went back to the

 camp and fell asleep on our beds instead :)

Sis is coming back in May to do some more walking, 

I'm not sure about that as it will be winter, we'll see.

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

joining Amy at:

Five on Friday

Have a good week,

I'll see you again soon.

Diana

It's still busy :)

The day after we went to the futsal at the beginning of the week...

...we met my niece and her husband for

 coffee at Wal's Plant and Fun Land.

They were in town for two nights, visiting from Australia.

And we  all (apart from Sis) met Ahyla for the first time. 

Little Mother's second youngest great-grandchild. 

She's 18 months or thereabouts, a wee cutie.

Afterwards some of us played mini golf 

and some of us kept Little Mother company 

guarding the bags, phones, cardies etc.

It had started out cool and cloudy but by

 the time we finished early afternoon it was really hot

 and so everyone came round to my place for refreshments.

I live just around the corner - handy. A very pleasant day.

A couple of days later and we are awaiting Sis

 and Little Mother's arrival for lunch.

My GKB has made a batch of scones 

so we'll have them with a good hot cup of tea or coffee.

And that's a bag of windfall pears next to them waiting 

for me to peel and stew along with a bag of apples.

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Some of you have asked about Futsal. Futsal is a modified version of football (soccer). The kids play it indoors, five a side and 12 minutes each way. It's a good way for them to keep up their footy skills in the off season.

sharing today with Amy at:

Five on Friday

and also with Stephanie over at:

roses of inspiration

That's it for today.
Have a good week,
Diana