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

Hello there

Hello all. I know I have been away for a long time, 

and the Christmas season is fast approaching 

so things will not slow down just yet. I do hope to be a bit 
more regular in posting from now on though.

Life has been really busy over the past few months 

so I will try to catch you up a little bit on what 

has been happening since last I was here. 

In September I flew up to Palmerston North to spend some time with my granddaughter and her new baby. It was a lovely time with the new mum and baby and her partner, who was meant to be on deployment with the army (hence the reason for me going up) but at the last moment his deployment was cancelled. Still it let me get to know him a bit better and see how the family unit worked :) They are doing well, granddaughter is a natural mother and just cruising through, asking questions when she needs to. She came back with me for a few days to visit her family.

mothers and babies with a grandmother

On the other hand granddaughter down here is struggling with depression after the birth of her baby. It's very sad as she was so looking forward to being a mother. So on a Thursday I pick her up and we go to "Mainly Music", a group for toddlers and their carers. We have babies from 5 months (our Arlo) up to four year olds, and carers encompassing mums, dads and grandparents. Music, games and food for all. Both Mum and baby are enjoying it. Of course she has other support from other members of the family but I am the one who doesn't work so can be on call, so to speak :)

two proud great grandparents with the babies

Babies seem to be in the air at the moment. We had a baby shower (no pun intended) a few weeks ago for a young lady in the study group I go to. Middle daughter gave me a couple of dozen disposable nappies and said, 'you can make them into a nappy cake Mum!' So I did, once I'd had a look on the internet and found out what she was talking about :) Here's a picture, I hope. (I'm writing on one device and hoping to upload pics from another :(  haha.)

nappy cake

Daughter in law has also had family visiting from Hong Kong and from London so we have been visiting with them as well. That was an enjoyable time and we have invitations to visit. Whether that ever happens remains to be seen, but I never rule out the possibility :)

I've also typed up a dozen of my little mother's children's stories. They are just short ones and were written for her grandchildren as bedtime stories. I hope to get them printed up and give them to those same grandchildren for Christmas. Most of them now have children of their own and I think they'll love them.

Other stuff has happened as well but I think I'll finish off here.

Have a wonderful week and I hope to be back again soon :)

Diana