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

Notown Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church of St Lawrence O'Toole.

The church was built in 1866 in Notown on the West Coast of New Zealand. Later it was moved to Ngahere and after it was replaced

 it was moved to Shantytown (museum village) in the 1960's.

A beautiful little church, lovingly restored and 

still used as a wedding venue in the old pioneer town.

I haven't had a church to share 
for a long time so thought I would 
share this with inSPIREd Sunday

A short stroll around the lake

While my little mother was in hospital recently I had the opportunity to go for a stroll around Hamilton Lake or Lake Rotoroa as it is known in Maori. Ten minutes walk from my motel I found the lane I had been directed to and walked from a busy city street to a tranquil lakeside walkway.

There  were marvellous houses backing onto the lakeside, some with low fences and others opened up to the lake vista. 

The lake was surrounded by native flora and of course

 a lot of bird life.

Quite a number of cheeky Pukeko,

a solitary Shag,

Mallard ducks,

a few Australian coots, (related to the Pukeko)

and a good flock of Canada geese.

I came across a wonderful children's playground

with this fabulous climbing fort. 

There was also a nice cafe nearby but I never went in,

 I didn't have time as I was heading back to the hospital.

Of course there were also the usual doves or pigeons, 

you don't go far without seeing them around.

The sun was getting low in the sky as I headed back

 to the entrance and I got this shot of the lake.

I enjoyed this nice peaceful walk, away from the 

hustle and bustle of the city and everything happening at the hospital, a lovely way to recharge my batteries.

Been and gone and back again

Little Mother and I have flown north and returned. 

Just over a fortnight ago we had a call from the hospital in Waikato

 saying they had a space for her.

The Seaward Kaikouras.
South Island

So of course it was all on, flights and accommodation booked 

and bags packed. Medications reviewed and blood tests not done because we ran out of time and the relevant forms hadn't arrived. They were eventually done in Waikato.

Mounts Tongariro and Ruapehu in a sea of cloud.
North Island

We spent five days in Hamilton, for my little mother most of it was in hospital. But she is now home and recovering with a new lease on life.  Mum will stay with me for a few days until she is given the all clear to go home.

Taranaki, Mount Egmont.
North Island

We are very grateful to the cardiac team as well as to all who have kept her in their prayers. Thank-you so much. 

We have a very good God.

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The Kaikoura ranges.
South Island

I took photos of the mountain ranges from the plane window and thought you might enjoy seeing some of them.

The Southern Alps.
South Island

If you would like to read the legend of 

Mounts Ruapehu and Taranaki go here. 

It's a romantic story :)

Scavenging again

For photos that is. Most of them are from the archives, some are new. We haven't been out and about much in the last few weeks what with my GKB being a bit under the weather and then the snow followed by floods. I hope you enjoy them anyway even if you have seen some of them before. 

1:  Crane

We had been to Nunobiki Herb Garden at the top of the Ropeway (cable car, gondola) overlooking the beautiful city of Kobe in Japan. Travelling back down and naturally taking photos of the view we spotted this building being constructed. The crane was in the centre of the building on a gantry and as the building pushed skyward the crane was also heading skyward. Three photos I'm afraid.

2:  Ring

A cinnamon roll (ring?) I had for lunch one day whilst out with my GKB. Technically not a ring but with a smidgen of imagination it could be - it's circular, sort of :)

3:  Set

My DIL was baking and when I went out to the kitchen this is what I saw. I have never seen a cake cooling like this before but apparently it stops the weight of the cake from flattening itself. Who would have thought? Not me. Anyway I thought this cake was well enough 'set' to put in this post. I hope you all agree :)

4:  Light

Light reflecting off the top of the display case containing antique pocket watches. We took this photo in the jewellers/watchmakers shop in Shantytown earlier in the year.

5:  Bow

The bow used to be the pointy bit of the boat and landlubbers like myself could tell one end from the other. But looking at these two ships I'm not sure which end is the bow and which is the stern but I believe the ship on the left is bow toward us. If not we can see both ends of the ship on the right so one end must be the bow. Mission accomplished! Phew.

6:  Spring

Out visiting the local vet one 'spring' day and this was 

what I saw over the fence. 'Spring' lambs and one

 of them is 'springing'. 

7:  Open

Only 'twasn't. In fact it had been shut for a couple of weeks and was due to reopen the following day. We took this while strolling around one of the city suburbs one lunchtime and thought number  one son and DIL might be interested in visiting Kamome for a meal sometime. 

8:  Grand

We certainly felt grand sitting in these throne like chairs when out for dinner one evening with friends while on holiday. If we had realised how grand the setting was going to be we might have taken some grander (cringe) gear to wear. Still everyone enjoyed the dinner and the company and that's what it was really all about.

9:  Park

A sign pointing to a car park in a national park. Jacksons is a small place in Arthur's Pass National Park in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. If you blink  passing through you could well miss it, literally. There's a pub and not much more. That is the car park on the left, the sign on the right and it is surrounded by beautiful national park. 

10:  My own choice

A Thrush singing his lungs out one grey day.

 Just enjoying being alive

Joining Hawthorn and friends over at 

  I live, I love, I craft, I am me  

Weather watch

 I wondered what I was going to share this week as it has been a quiet time around here. But the last  24 hours gave me something, be it ever so little. A few of you might have seen the odd post where I've shown our benign Silverstream. Well it's benign in the summer but today that has changed.

summer on the floodbank

We had some of this weather below today which rapidly changed

 to extremely strong winds and very heavy rain.

autumn on the floodbank

Resulting in a not so benign Silverstream.

today

A lot of sandbagging was happening in the Silverstream area during the day.  This is at the bottom of our street but our house is built quite high off the ground, luckily. The rain is still coming down, it hasn't let up since it began this morning.

So now we wait to see whether it breaches the floodbank.

Well that's snow and rain out of the way, I wonder what's next?

Diana

Oh dear, there's just been a snowy forecast for tomorrow :)

Randomosity

I'm feeling a bit tired this week so I have just picked 

some random photos to post and will share them with 

Five on Friday and Friday Foto Friends.

My GKB playing at Shantytown on the West Coast. 

I will one day do a post on Shantytown as  promised

 but just now my head is not in the right space.

Some cute coffee mugs I was given during the past year that have been sitting in their gift wrapping. I finally decided they could go on a shelf in the kitchen along with one or two others I have.

New Zealand won the America'sCup yacht race this year and yesterday there was a parade in the city to show it off to the proud locals. It has been paraded through several of the bigger cities during the past week and ours was the final one. DIL was  in town and took this picture, the young captain is just obscured by the trophy. Unfortunately my GKB has been a bit under the weather so we didn't venture in this time.

Talking about the weather, we have just had an arctic blast travel the length of the country and  so we had a bit of a snowfall. Not much here but it has been heavy throughout the rest of the country and because most of our city is built on hills it was covered. Once again we haven't been out taking photos, decided it was best to stay home and keep warm. My GKB just took this nonsense one of our picnic table in the yard.

Because it has been so cold I have been doing jigsaws, a good winter pursuit. I just finished this one and today put it away and started on another one. When I finished I had two pieces left over, it wasn't until after I took this photo that  saw the hole in the middle. 

I fixed that but still had another piece left over from a totally different puzzle. Weird.

My GKB seems to be besotted with starlings, he finds the markings on them quite fascinating. This one was spotted (in more ways than one) on a neighbour's chimney pot, feathers ruffled to ward off the cold. Isn't he a beauty?

And seeing as starlings are critters I think I would also like to join Eileen for Saturday's Critters.