Tuesday...27 January 2015

Yesterday we took the new grandchild on her first ever road trip. What a trooper! She slept the entire two and a half hours there, smiled, laughed and gooed on cue to all she met and then slept the whole way home again. She was 12 weeks old yesterday so we are all very proud and pleased with her.
We, (daughter, partner, baby and myself), travelled back to the town I grew up in to show off baby and to visit with some of my family. We were given a wonderfully warm welcome and that was followed by a very tasty lunch. Loved hearing the sound of chatter around the table as we all gathered to eat. It is always great to see the old folk again and to reminisce of days gone past with the siblings.
Here is a picture of baby with her great grandmother.

All sorts of information comes out of the archives of our collective memories at these gatherings.
One of yesterdays conversations centred on my name. My daughter commented that this mob were calling me by a version of it that she had never heard me called before. Now a name is a very personal thing, it identifies to the world just who the soul inhabiting that particular body is. While my name has never actually changed, it has had many versions over the years depending on my age and mental outlook of the time. The version I am now would have been much too harsh for a young child but the one I used then would sound silly on the grandmother I have become. Funny things, names.
On the way home we stopped off  at my sisters place so that she too could meet the new baby. It was a very short stop as somehow time had flown and we were running very late for the trip home. This daylight saving is nasty stuff. We felt like it was still early but in reality it was much later and tiredness had crept upon us unseen. We had been expecting the usual heavy end of holiday traffic but somehow we jagged it for little to no traffic and had a good clean run home.
Today will probably be rest and recovery time. Thank you to the daughter for driving us there and thank you to the family for a wonderful day.

Sunday...25 January 2015

Tomorrow is Australia Day.
The park has been busy these last few days. There is a big basketball tournament on in town and large numbers have filled every available accommodation venue to participate. There is not a single patch of ground left to pitch a tent on. Mind you tents are the popular choice. Many of the visitors have camper trailers that fold out to huge tents. As I have mentioned previously, I am always fascinated by just much bang you get for your money with this type of travelling accommodation. The other popular choice for families on the move is the expanda caravans.
It was quite warm yesterday and the pool was busy but I did notice that there was so many kids in the water that swimming was impossible. It was standing room only. If noise is any indicator, the kids have all had a great weekend!

Sunday...18 January 2015

I had a birthday a few days ago, no need to shout them from mountain tops any more, there has been way too many of them lately! Anyway prior to the day one of the kids asked me what I wanted for a gift and to be honest I really have just about everything I need now, however there are a couple of little things I would like. So I told her please buy me a front door. Yes I know that sounds a little bit odd but you see I was working on the idea that if someone gave me a front door then I just might be lucky enough to have someone else buy me the house to put on my new front door. I thought it was very good forward thinking on my part.
Now this particular child is devilishly clever and a door was a bit much for her gift giving budget so instead she gave me a front door entrance set. I am still looking for someone to give me a door or even a whole house but when I do get it I have a lovely new door latch and key set to put on it. How lucky can one mum be?

The day before my birthday I had a marvellous time shopping with a friend from the west who now lives here. We walked for bloody miles and looked in nearly every shop there was. Neither of us bought very much and neither of us could walk very well at the end but we had a grand time together. We will try to do it again before I leave this area.
Then on the day of my birthday, some friends from Melbourne came to visit the daughter and her new baby and we had a great time catching up. They have a new car and they decided to give the gps a try out. It took them what it claimed to be the shortest route and it probably was in distance but was the longest in time owing to traffic and road works. They arrived later than they expected but it was so very good to see them. They are always a delight to talk to. And they came bearing gifts, even better!!
In the evening we went to Himself's brothers place and I was surprised with a birthday cake, complete with candles. Sadly I can no longer blow out more than one candle at a time so I have decided that any more cakes will only ever have the one token candle on them. It took way too long to blow this lot out. The icing was melting by the time I got done.
The next day another surprise. The daughter from Horsham arrived. She had planned to visit the day before but had not said so and she was way too tired for the long drive when she finished work so sensibly put it off until she had had a good nights sleep. She had one of her boys with her. We had a slap up lunch with them at the other daughters place so that she and her son could also see the baby as well as us.
Tonight we all went out again for our usual Sunday night outing with Himself's family at one of the local clubs. No wonder this old nanny is feeling tired.
It rained again this week. No floods but it was heavy enough to make our vehicle aquaplane a couple of times and the traffic on the open road was slower as visibility was not very good. The weather has turned cooler which is most welcome. Warm but not hot days and cool nights, great for sleeping.

Saturday...10 January 2015

Now that the sunburn has stopped stinging I can continue with my opinion on various aspects of life in general or more particularly my life!
So we had sweltering heat for a few days, the air conditioner got a good workout, the wind continued to blow fairly strongly which made a lot of Victorians nervous. It reminded them of the way things were on Black Saturday. There have been fires, some of them quite large, but so far no loss of life. Things are very different in South Australia where I am sure they are very happy to see this rain we are getting to help them stop a very large fire in the hills that has caused untold damage.
So as I said it is now raining. It started yesterday and apparently we got 41 mm in seven minutes. That is nearly two inches of rain on the old scale and of course getting that much that quick caused flooding all over the place. Stores were closed when water entered them and some cars in low lying areas were submerged as the streets flooded. Most of that has now run off but the rain continued today, nothing dramatic, just constant steady light rain. Too late to save the Victorian grain harvest which was a complete disaster with farmers being lucky if they got enough grain to plant again this year, providing the banks let them, but it is going to green up peoples gardens which were beginning to look a bit dry and tired and it has filled water tanks and water storage such as dams and lakes all over the place.
With the rain has come cooler temperatures. I had to get out the blankets and the cardigans again. It is very hard to know what the weather will do next.

Friday...2 January 2015

Day 1 of 2015....got sunburnt in the shade.
Day 2 of 2015.....41C
I think summer is here!

Thursday...1 January 2015

Happy New Year!
We saw the new year in quietly at home. We watched the fireworks from Sydney.
Today we had a picnic lunch with our daughter and her family at the local lake. Pretty little place and very popular with all walks of life. There were families, singles, older folk and everything in between. Most were just enjoying the weather, having picnics like us or walking the dog. Walking the dog seems to be a popular pastime here. We saw dozens of different breeds, all very well behaved and obviously much loved.
We had to chase our picnic around the table a couple of times when the wind got a bit too gusty, but it was very pleasant sitting beside the water, under a shady oak tree, watching the water birds swim and dive and squabble. We only came home so that some of our group could take a quick nap!