Aorangi Mount Cook

Yesterday and today have been a real shock to the system.

The Snow Queen decided to let us know winter

 is just around the corner by sending snow, wind and hail. 

The temperatures dropped to 3 degs F yesterday afternoon.

I decided it was a good day to stay home

 in the warm and read a good book, so I did!

hail on the lawn

And this reminded me that I hadn't done a post
on our trip last August to Aorangi  Mount Cook.

Well that's not quite true, I have written about some of the trip here

and said I would write more but it must have slipped my mind.
Which is quite remiss of me seeing as the whole point
 of the trip was to go to the mountain.

So here is Part 2 of Day 2 :)
We left our motel in Fairlie early in the morning
and drove inland, heading for the Southern Alps.

high country farmland 

We stopped at Lake Tekapo and after a hot drink from the thermos

 we went into the little Church of the Good Shepherd

and after a time headed on our way again. 

 The freezing fog had burnt off by the time we reached

 Lake Pukaki and the Southern Alps were ranged out before us.

Lake Pukaki 

It was a beautiful day and we stopped here 

 on the way back for photo's. Stunning views.

You can see the size of the boulders on the lakeside,

 they were huge, that is my son near the lake.

We had to clamber over them to get good pics, 

or stand on top of one if you weren't up to the clambering.

And that was mission. But it was fun.

Now this is something I love, every time I see it.

You're driving along and come to a bend in the road. 

The scenery is already quite spectacular and 

you round this bend and there is the mountain - 

dead in front of you.

Aorangi Mount Cook aka Aoraki Mount Cook

The lady at our motels had said to us that 

Aorangi was 'performing beautifully this year'.

And it didn't disappoint.

Covered in snow from top to bottom

 I thought it was quite breathtaking.

We drove on and arrived in time for a bit of a walk around the village,

three intrepid explorers :)

before heading  into the hotel restaurant for

a welcome coffee and some lunch.

Our DIL wanted a meat pie, she loves our meat pies,

and couldn't understand why I wouldn't have one as well.

I prefer something lighter when all I'm doing is sitting and travelling.

number one son and his wife (Aorangi to the left)

After lunch we decided to take our drinks

 out onto the balcony  while we relaxed, 

chatted and enjoyed the view.

larger than life statue of Sir Edmund Hilary,
the first man to climb Mt Everest

After a very enjoyable afternoon at the village,

 and a little time in the gift shop, we won't mention what we spent,

we climbed back into the car and headed for our motel again.

If we had thought about it earlier we could have done a round trip

 as we were actually closer to our caravan in Cromwell 

than we were to the motel - but they were in opposite directions to one another. 

Oh well, up top for thinking so they say.

Eventually we arrived back at the motel, 

about 12 or maybe even 14 hours after we had left.

Anyway 'twas a long day by the end of day 2 of our road trip.

We had a wonderful day out, took number one son

 somewhere he had never been before 

so he and his lovely wife were able to discover it together. 

joining with:

Roses of Inspiration

Enjoy your week, 

keep well and 

I'll be with you again soon,

Diana

Bits and bobs

It's been a bitsy week so this post will be a bit bitsy too.

We have just had a lovely Easter Weekend.

 The weather behaved and it was only slightly autumnal,

with warm sunny days and only a hint of rain in the evenings.

We were able to sit outside to enjoy our coffee 

and the company of my eldest grandson and his partner.

They arrived on Friday evening after a long car trip, 

made longer with all the people and places they stopped to visit on the way down.

They were busy playing Easter bunny and dropping off baskets on their way.

This one was for my GKB and me.

We have enjoyed tucking into it

 but I'll have to get out walking

 to make up for too much indulgence.

*****

Claude

Claude found it very hot and one day he was spreadeagled

rather inelegantly on his back on the mat catching the breeze. 

By the time I crept past him to get the camera 

he decided to change position and I missed it. 

But here he is anyway, I haven't posted a pic of him for quite a long time.

He's not looking too bad for an older boy :)

*****

Grandson always goes around to visit his great grandmother, my little mother, 

and she had a box of his things there that she had found out in the garage.

He came home and said "Here you go Granma, these are the souvenirs

 I brought back from Singapore for you and Grandad."

He was in Singapore about seven years ago 

so we all had a bit of a laugh about that.

Both the paper weight and the ashtray 

have the Singapore merlion on them, an intriguing creature.

*****

I thought I'd show you this little demitasse tea set I have in my china cabinet.

When we were first married my GKB saw them on sale

 and used to arrive home every Friday night with a cup and saucer.

 I have another completely different set as well and I'll show it to you another time.

I've just noticed tonight that one of these has a tiny chip, bummer :(

They have Japan stamped on the bottom, 

 and when you look at it the pattern is Japanese style.

I think it could be lustreware but not really sure,

but I think it is pretty.

*****

That's it for this week. 

I hope your Easter was enjoyable, ours was. 

We started with a Maundy Thursday shared meal at the church, 

met with church family on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday 

and spent time with family relaxing over a lovely weekend.

sharing with:

Martha's Favorites

Until next week,

Diana

Traversing the 'Green Belt'

No, I'm not learning martial arts, I don't think my body would survive that, but you never know.

Last week I was browsing the local weekly freebie 

when I saw an article about a walk through the town belt. 

This is a ring of greenery around and through the city, 

mostly native bush but some parks
and occasionally across a busy city road.

 I decided I'd go out and walk it. 

I tried to coerce some of my family 

into coming with me but no, they weren't interested.

So on Sunday I collected my map (and bar of chocolate)

from the starting point and headed out.

We had to check in at five points and each one was at a place of interest, 

e.g. the Beverley Begg Observatory where they had a telescope

 set up for us to observe the sun,

or at  a memorial of some sort.

This was a memorial to Admiral Richard Byrd 

who sailed from Dunedin to the Antarctic on Dec. 2nd 1928.

There were some great views down the harbour and a lot of people

took advantage and snapped pics, me included.

With so many people about it was hard 

to get one without a body in it, but I managed.

Some of the tracks were paved and others were just mud trails, 

some with gravel on the steepest parts.

It was definitely up hill and down dale

and had been advertised as buggy friendly 

but I'm glad I wasn't trying to get a buggy up, 

or down, some of the places.

I felt sorry for the young mothers pushing their buggys, 

the ones who had the daddy with them were lucky. 

Most times people helped them at the worst parts.

We were up above the CBD 

and the schools were mostly below us as well. 

This is a zoomed snap of Otago Boys High School 

with the sports ground in the foreground.

I love this type of architecture and we have quite a bit of it in the city,

part of our Scottish heritage.

Eventually we arrived at the Bullock Track, 

the final part of our 8 kilometre walk.

At the bottom was the park and the very 

welcome sausage sizzle and cup of tea or coffee.

When everyone had checked in there was a tree planting ceremony

and we were able to take seedlings home to plant. 

I grabbed some for my eldest granddaughter

 who has studied horticulture, 

I thought she might like to try growing them. 

Not me, I tend to kill off things instead of growing them.

I was quite pleased with my effort, 

I walked it in 2 hours. 

Buuuut do. I. know. it. 

My hips complained all day long yesterday

but are slowly coming right 

and my calves decided to  object all day as well.

Luckily we didn't have much to do so it could have been worse.

Was it worth it? 

Yes...but I think probably more enjoyable with company.

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

And talking of cups of tea, I wanted to show you this tea cup.

Easter is upon us and down under 

it happens in the autumn, not the spring.

So this is my autumn tea trio to celebrate the coming season.

It's a Colclough, bone china.

I think it is quite pretty even though 

the colours are not usually my favourite.

(Bun made by my GKB)>

Joining with:

Marthas Favorites

Roses of Inspiration

Have a blessed Easter,

Diana

A stroll on the beach #2

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day

 so we decided to head into town and go to the beach.

Well the beach is not in town - just next door.

So we parked here...

mini golf

and walked up there...

until we arrived here.

St Kilda surf life saving club rooms

A short walk along the foot path and we were at the track...

down to the beach.

Which way to go? Right...

or left?

It didn't matter really,

it was just nice to walk on the beach, we haven't done that for a while.

No not a snake, seaweed, haha.

(New Zealand is snake free).

Then it was time to reverse our footsteps...

back past the footy (rugby) fields..

and the childrens' playground and head for home again.

I haven't taken you out for a walk for a while so I hope you enjoyed this one.

joining with:

Roses of inspiration

Wake up Wednesday

Have a good week,

Diana

Kittens, sunflowers and other stuff...

This week I've got some bits and pieces

 to share with you and not a lot of any substance. 

First of all let me show you four of the five kittens 

the next door wee stray cat has produced, only about 

a fortnight after the first litter of the season 

went to the SPCA - the little bisom.

But they are cute!

And on the other side of the house - 

 remember the hedge that was coming down a few weeks ago?

Well here it is now, or I should say, here it isn't now.

Ready to have a fence put up along the drive.

We're looking forward to that.

 Now all this chopping down of the green stuff

 must be catching because this is what has

 happened at our place in the last week.

Before

This part of the yard was getting all overgrown 

and the bushes were taking up more room than we were.

After

Now it looks like this, we took out a

bush that had died in the middle, 

and had all the others cut right back.

A lot more room.

 There's still some work to do, 

like getting the rubbish to the dump, 

and fixing up the furniture again before next summer, but all's good.

Actually my youngest and her  husband 

paid for it to be done for my birthday.

Nice one.

Sunny the sunflower

I sprouted Sunny before Christmas and gave it

 to my girlfriend as a 'pay it forward' gift.

She is producing beautiful blooms 

and when I took this I think she had 11 blooms

 and about 20 more to come out.

She is just glorious and a real talking point 

in the community my friend lives in.

'She' being Sunny, not my friend!

And guess what, I never got my own seeds in! 

Ah well, there's always next year.

And just because I can I will show you another one of my teacups.

I tried to find a green one for St Patrick's Day

 but this was the nearest I had.

It looks Celtic but isn't.

It has Phoenix China, ?F&S Ltd on the bottom and is made in England.

It's not quite a full size cup but it's not a demitasse either...

May the saint protect ye-
An' sorrow neglect ye,
An' bad luck to the one
That doesn't respect ye
t' all that belong to ye,
An long life t' yer honor-
That's the end of my song t' ye!

(an Irish blessing)

joining in with:

Martha's favourites

I'd like to wish you all

a Happy St Patrick's Day,

Diana

A weekend to remember

This weekend I took part in the "Relay for Life".
For those who don't know it is a fundraiser for the Cancer Society. 

I've been wanting to take part in it for several years

 and when a visiting minister announced that his wife 

was putting together a team I decided now was my opportunity.
The idea is that the team walks for 24 hours in relays.
We did it in half hour slots, quite manageable.

Some slept, some walked overnight.

This was a school group next to us

who reckoned that they would be up well after

 all of us old ones were counting the zzzz's. Ha!

Anyway our team decided we would have a theme

 and it would be Noah's ark.

We would all come in animal onesies.

ONESIES? PARDON?

I don't do onesies!

Famous last words. 

I did onesies!

My granddaughter loaned me one of hers, bright red,

and I sewed black dots on the back and turned into a lady bird.

We had a good turnout of critters. 

A dog, a couple of dragons, a tiger and a giraffe and some more lady birds.

An owl. A rabbit. And one or two others I can't think of at the moment.

The event was quite emotional at times,

 particularly I thought at the beginning 

when the 'cancer survivors' did the first lap, led out by the bagpipes. 

We're in Dunedin after all, the Edinburgh of the south, 

we always have bagpipes.

There was entertainment as well, 

a Chinese Lion Dance done by 6 and 7 year olds,
it was quite something to watch.

Zumba to take part in,

at 7:30 in the morning - I watched.

Non stop music throughout.

And friends to catch up with...

...in the early hours of the morning.

We had a corner spot and the wind was blowing through
but we hadn't seen each other since I finished work
so we had a good old catchup.
Then we went to find hot tea and coffee to warm up again.

My youngest daughter and my grand daughter came to pick me up at 10:30am.
I was ready for the off by then and left the morning shift to carry on.
But did I get to go home ? Oh no.
Grand daughter had to be dropped at her boyfriends house,
then it was back across the city to pick up eldest daughter
so she could come out to our place to pick up the truffles
 she had bought as part of our fund raiser.
I didn't mind really, but I was ready for a proper cup of tea and my bed.
We had the cuppa and just as I was about to head to bed
youngest daughter says
" Mum, I don't know how much sleep you're going to get,
Dom's just arrived to do the hedge".

I went to bed anyway.
Dom did the hedge.
Then the neighbours did their hedge.
Eventually I got out of bed again and was surprised
 to see I'd actually managed 4 hours.
At least I'd rested and probably dozed though it didn't feel like it.

As a team we managed to raise $3400,
not too bad an effort really.

joining in with:

roses of inspiration

If you are still reading after that marathon, 

good on you.

Take care 'til next time,

Diana

Knick knacks and treasures

It was quite a cool morning a few days ago 

so I decided it was time to sort out the china cabinet.

I'd been wanting to do it for quite a while 

but kept putting it off because during

 the Christchurch earthquake four years ago 

everything inside moved forward. 

By several inches.

I was a bit reluctant to open the door

 in case everything fell out onto the floor.

As you can see several things are balanced on the brink,

but it all stayed put as I finally bit the bullet and opened the door.

Centre front on the top shelf was this tiny ceramic table and chairs, 

they belonged to my grandmother, along with the salt and pepper kittens.

The kittens are about 3 inches high or 8cms.

Granma loved her wee knick knacks.

My eldest daughter has one or two of them as well.

Colclough bone china, made in England

As a slight digression, I love this teacup and saucer set 

and I see I could buy another 5 trios on TradeMe 

and make up a full teaset, but alas, I do not have the funds.

And anyway I am trying to find replacements pieces 

for a set my mother has given me,

and one project at a time is probably best.

But you know it was tempting, right?

Back to the job at hand...

Of course starting this job meant not only washing and polishing everything inside,

but cleaning all the glass on the cabinet as well.

 What a long job! Such tiny lead light panels, 

but wow, what a difference when I had finished.

I'm amazed at how dirty the glass was inside the cabinet.

This cabinet belonged to my GKB's mother and is a good old age.

Some things got thrown out,

 like ribbons that started to disintegrate when I touched them. 

I'm not sure really why I kept them

 but there was probably a perfectly logical reason at the time. 

I didn't throw out the flowers from

 the top of our wedding cake though, 

even though they are very fragile now.

I think I'll hold on to them for a while yet.

Some things were packed away, like big soup cups 

and so we were able to bring out some newer pieces

 we have been given by family in recent years 

and didn't think we had space to display them.

So that is a job well done, even if I say so myself,
and even if it did take me years to get around to it.

I'm so glad it's finished.

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Marth's favourites

Have a good week, 

see you next time,

Diana