One Word Sunday: Rain

The theme this week for Debbie’s ‘One Word Sunday’ is Rain. We did have quite a nice downpour yesterday, which I photographed through my kitchen window.

Today it’s bright and sunny and I really must begin packing as we leave on Tuesday for South Africa. I’m so looking forward to seeing our daughter Mandy on Wednesday. Apparently, her cat Ravioli is also beside herself with excitement and yesterday was in full party mode to celebrate her 16th birthday.

It’s going to be a wonderful reunion after two years apart.

Wishing you all a very happy Sunday. I’ll post some photos from South Africa soon.

To join Debbie’s ‘One Word Sunday’, just click the link.

One Word Sunday: Roll Or Role

Here are photos of my cute granddaughter Sienna when she visited us in South Africa In 2012. We went to an Italian restaurant and in her unexpected ‘role‘ as chef, she was thrilled to be able to make her own pizza. She first had to ‘roll’ out the dough.

It was an exciting experience for her, being able to add her own toppings.

She declared the finished masterpiece very yummy.

It’s really good at the moment to look back through travel photos which bring back happy memories. Wishing you all a relaxing Sunday.

To join Debbie’s ‘One Word Sunday Photo Challenge’ just click the link.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: One

Here I am in Umhlanga South Africa, enjoying the ocean views, the sound of the crashing waves and of course, the daily sighting of my number one favourite lighthouse.

It’s good to be back here and to spend time with my one and only sister Yvonne. We’ve have some really fun outings together, involving lots of eating, chatter and laughter.

I haven’t found much time for blogging, but have enjoyed visiting some of your blogs. Wishing you all a very happy Wednesday.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is ‘One item or the number one’. Click the link to join in the fun.

Pull Up A Seat: Great Grandma’s Centenary Bench

To celebrate my Mom-in-law’s 100th birthday, she donated a bench to her village. When she was just a few years younger, she regularly walked a couple of miles uphill from her house into the village to do her shopping. Just before she arrived at the shops, was a wooden bench where she used to stop and rest for a while before doing her errands and returning home, usually carrying a bag of groceries in each hand.

One day she reached her usual rest stop, only to find to her disappointment that the bench had been badly vandalised and was no longer usable. When her centenary came around, it seemed fitting that she should replace the bench with an indestructible one for the use of other senior citizens.

At the time, she was the oldest person living in her village.

The following year, the family gathered for a sumptuous Christmas lunch at the picturesque country pub just across the road. Grandma was of course the guest of honour and my grandson together with his cousin, sitting on an old bench there, serenaded her with an impromptu ballad all about their amazing great grandma. She’s still going strong and her 106th birthday is coming up in August.

 

If you would like to join in XingfuMama’s ‘Pull up a seat’ challenge, Just click the link.

Wordless Wednesday: Still Full Of Fun At 105.

On her 105th Birthday, my dear mom-in-law poses with her card from the Queen.

After three months away, we’re finally back home again. It’s very nice to go travelling, but there’s definitely ‘no place like home’. Happy Wednesday to you all.

Having Fun On A Windy Day

It’s been a strange sort of vacation, with far too much time spent in doctors’ waiting rooms, hospital X-ray department, CT Scan and Bronchoscopy units. There is no part of my lungs which haven’t been minutely inspected and scrutinized. My persistent cough is apparently due to nothing more serious than chest inflammation and sensitive airways. I’m now on my third lot of antibiotics plus a course of corticosteroid tablets which actually give me nightmares. For example, last night I dreamed that I was staggering around with a fold-up bed on my back, looking for hubby who was supposed to be meeting me with the car. My cell phone wasn’t working, so I couldn’t call him. Luckily I woke up before I got too tired of lugging the bed around whilst totally lost. So many pills that I do believe were I to be shaken, I’d rattle.

On the bright side, I’ve seen quite a lot of my darling sister and a few very dear friends. We’ve had some really fun times together. Here after dinner, we had just discovered that our fingers are actually identical in length.

Today is the last day in our beach front apartment here in South Africa. Tomorrow we drive up to stay with our daughter in Johannesburg for the weekend, before flying to England on Monday to see hubby’s soon to be 104-year-old mom, Kathleen.

We have a splendid view of the Indian Ocean from our balcony and yesterday hubby took these photos of intrepid guys having fun in the surf. I think it must feel really awesome to do this.  I’m not much of a water-baby myself,  but I do enjoy watching them.

 

I may not be able to blog or comment for the next week or so until we get back home to Florida on July 4th. I wish you all a very good week and will see you again soon.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Grandchildren are a blessing

They’ve been and gone, leaving behind many happy memories.

Keep Calm and Scary On

I’m so thankful to you all for your good wishes after my eye operation. I really appreciate my wonderful friends on WordPress, and am happy to report that my sight is improving every day. Although I still have the gas bubble bobbing around in my right eye, it is definitely getting lower, and it now seems that I’m peering over the top of it. Hopefully it will soon disappear altogether,  and my eye will be back to normal.

I just wanted to wish you all a happy Halloween and to show you the pumpkin carvings done by my three NJ grandchildren. My son sent me these photos yesterday.

I think that five-year-old Max did a scarily good job.

His older sister Taylor, managed to come up with an awesome owl/bear.

Big sister Sienna, created a very good likeness of herself, inside her pumpkin lantern.

My sister has driven down the hill to see me, a few times this last week, and on Wednesday our daughter is flying down from Johannesburg to spend a few days with us. I also see my eye doctor on Wednesday morning, and will then find out how soon I’m allowed to fly. We are hoping to leave on November 15th for England to see hubby’s 103-year-old Mom, and will then be back home in Florida on the 22nd.

Hope you all have a great week, and that tonight is just scary enough for you who are celebrating Halloween.

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B&W Sunday: 103 Today

Paula’s B&W Sunday challenge is ‘Traces Of The Past’.

Today, Kathleen my darling mom-in-law, is celebrating her 103rd birthday.

What an inspiration she is to the whole family. Born in 1913, she has come through both world wars, giving  birth to three children during the second one. She is still full of fun and loves a good laugh.

Always elegant, she takes a pride in her appearance, and you will never see her without her earrings.

She is still hail and hearty, having survived her husband and all of her siblings.  Living on her own in a two storey house, she told us last Sunday that to keep fit and get more exercise she had just walked up and down the stairs a few times. Being such a positive person even at her advanced age, means that she has a great many friends who enjoy her company. For her 90th birthday, she made this amazing strawberry pavlova for all her guests.

Her 100th birthday was of course an extra special occasion, and attended by over a hundred people.

A week later, she was on a Rhine Cruise with her family, rocking the night away.

Today, she has eleven of her friends coming to her house for tea, and on Sunday, is taking family and friends out for lunch to the local pub. where we all had a wonderful Christmas lunch last year.

Cheers to my gorgeous MiL, who has lived a long and happy life. She may have many traces of the past, but loves living in the modern world and certainly makes every day count.

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count; it’s the life in your years.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Have a wonderful Thursday.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Partners

For this week’s WPC, Michelle says, “Whether two of a kind or ten, give us subjects that are in sync with one another — show us partnerships.”

Here are two beautiful Red-shouldered Hawks we came across at a nearby nature reserve.I would say that they are partners, wouldn’t you?

I’m sure that some of you remember seeing my photo taken in Rome, of  this loving couple who most probably had been partners for many years, dancing to the clarinetist’s rendition of ‘Bésame Mucho’.

Talking about long term partnerships; hubby and I have been partners in love for a long time, and in December we’ll have been happily married for 50 years.

Last but not least……these two spoons are ‘partners in crime’, and the ice cream is an excellent partner for the Tennessee Whiskey Cake.

To participate in the challenge, click here https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/partners/

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

 

 

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