Old slides

Dad's been digging out old slides and has a programme whereby he can convert them to digital. These two were sent to me. Unfortunately, I haven't changed that much - there's still the furrowed upper lip, hairy eyebrows, deepset eyes in the top 5 yr old pic, and that sense of purpose and annoying probing into the affairs of others (in this case my 4 yr old brother Steve) as in my 2 yr old person, below.

Hoar Frost in Otago, South Island

My good friend, John, who works for Parenting with Confidence, often heads off to other places and towns for seminars over the weekend, and sent me these photos he took of hoar frost in Central Otago, where he's been recently. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
They remind me of a poem by one of my favourite poets, Christina Rosetti:
In the bleak midwinter, Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.





Those little touches of pale gold in the middle of the photos, where the house is, are heartening are they not?

Winter walk at Western Springs

Trace and I came here last Saturday, for a walk, and Helen joined us when she found out! Western Springs was full of people and families and ducks and geese, but all spread over this pleasant lakey parkland. Trace is sitting in one of the many chunky wood seats facing the view.and here's another chunky seat and sitter, facing the prospect of my sister coming up and over the next hill to join us.
the FIRST thing we did was go to the entry to the Zoo and the cafe that's there and enjoy a fortifying coffee first.
and then we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw a Sheep family arrive to go to the zoo. Yep, that's Dad in the black sheep outfit, Mum in the white, and the little lamb in white to the left hand side. Cute and brave of them amongst all us wolves.
then the real walk began, and Helen and I are silhuetted against a winter tree.



Nice way to clear the head and get some exercise.

A glimpse of sun on a crisp winter day

The storm has blown itself out! There's flooding up North, but down here, I only have to clear the yard of fallen twigs and sweep. I had to rescue my only new Hyacinth, which was a little battered but still beautiful.

Then I visited the house being built by Habitat for Humanity for the Pene's who are part of our church.I found Kohe painting with a roller, the ensuite to their main bedroom. The five kids will be able to spread out over the other three bedrooms - yay.

Hard to get a decent photo of the house which is still surrounded by mud and building debris. . .
but there's a great big lounge which also has the dining room as part of it, and the sun streams in through the glass doors.
Here's a couple of guys (from various churches around Auckland) painting and constructing the kitchen cabinets.
Aw, it was great to take a pile of fresh scones over and check progress. Mark and Steve from our group have been over some weekends helping build.

Holing up for the winter

Nothing much to say here, except that it's now WINTER - and outside it is blowing a gale and knocking the trees around. I don't walk for an hour at 6.30am in weather like this. I stay in bed! AND with me, is a trilogy of books I really love. If you haven't read these yet, and you love mystery, adventure, romance, history, and yes, a lot of India/Victorian flavour, then you are in for a treat. Thalassa Ali's website has more details. Enjoy.

Midwinter Christmas Party

We just enjoyed our annual mid-winter Christmas dinner last night - this time at the lovely home of Cathy and Gordon, who did an excellent job of setting it all up, having the tree decorated and the ambience just right, AND the roast lamb looking mouth-watering.
Peter came with a good selection of wine which joined the wine brought by others, and this is a typical profile of him about to open the 'right' bottle. . .
and this was the roast dinner spread when all laid out. Naomi did a great job of the roast vegies, which included some wonderful yams.
Little pockets of conversation and laughter all night. Here's Linda, Dave and Mike catching up on a year's news.
AND who knows what these lads are talking about.
Naomi and I in red and green.
The table is almost ready. The camera never did get the right angle.
Lovely Helen and Naomi!
The roast is carved.
Gene providing entertainment (of sorts)
and finally we are THERE!
Linda had made an apple and berry pie, and I made a boiled pudding, which we lit and served. And later, with coffee, we enjoyed Helen's homemade chocolate truffles. YUM.
To finish the evening we opened the presents under the tree, swapping them if we didn't like them as much as someone else's. Great fun.