Margaret Mahy Playground

Ad was away car racing and one beautiful nor west evening, Yasmine, Rory and I along with Yasmine's neighbour her husband and 3 young kiddies all headed into town to see and play on the new Margaret Mahy Playground. How amazing is it, there is so much for the kids to play on and do Rory did not know what to go on first - as always the water is a real trap for kids big and old alike. We spent a good couple of hours there and decided to get a nice Subway roll on the way home. What a great night lots of fun and out in the fresh air.

 

 

 

A Little Lad Loves Fishing

It seems Rory has inherited his love of fishing from his grandad's and his Great Grandfather (GG). When ever Rory and I went out and passed a sporting/fishing shop/store we just had to go in for a visit. Brian had contacted his friend Malcolm Bell who is the owner of the Complete Angler and arranged for me to take Rory to meet him - Rory took his tackle box for show and tell and Malcolm talked to Rory about his gear and said he had some very good gear in the box - you should have seen the look on Rory's face his big smile said it all. Of course they had a photo taken together. Malcolm talked to Rory as he would be talking to a fishing mate/customer in an adult fashion he did not just treat him like a kid which was wonderful.

Malcolm and Rory at the Complete Angler

Below photos taken at the local sports shop in Hornby

 

 

A visit to Maori Gardens

When Graeme had his accident both himself and Kath were staying at the batch at Maori Gardens and had just restocked for  a longer stay. However things turned belly up with Graeme having the fall and having to be taken out by helicopter. The bach and all Graeme and Kaths belongings, food, kyak, tools and his ute (which was left in the Sandy Bay area)
all needed to be brought out by foot and back over to home. Along with Ang and Martin,Yasmine,Rory myself and Kath we set off from Sandy Bay walking the track to the bach. Graeme and Kath's friend Dean had kindly offered to get Graeme's kyak back around to Sandy Bay where it was put on the ute and Martin along with Rory drove the vehicle home to Skylark Lane. It was a really memorable time at the Bay I love that place and feel very at home there still to this day. Walking out with backpacks,bags and goodness knows what else was a mission up the hilly track feeling like a goat - how did we scale those hills as kids!!!!! oh I know we were YOUNG. Dean also loaded the dingy and kyak with as much as he could which was wonderful. A good deed done - just a shame it had to be under the cloud with Graeme lying in hospital.

Poppy returns

On Thursday 11 Feb we took a drive down to Bribie to go and catch up with Mike and Margaret whose house we looked after in 2014. They asked us last year if we could do it again this year while they go to Europe - we jumped at the offer, it's for 3mths over winter. We had a good old catch up with them and they were telling us about their trip last year to South America they had a wonderful time. While down that way we had arranged with our friends who have been looking after Poppy the caravan that we would call in and collect Poppy and bring her back up to the Sunshine Coast. As Helen and David our good friends (owners of the house we are minding) left on Tuesday to head down to Melbourne to visit family and they are staying a month on the Mornington Peninsula. Having Poppy here means we can fix a couple of things that need doing and also give her a clean.

Willowbank 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Willowbank 1

Rory and I had a wonderful time at Willowbank, it is such a great place for young and old a like. The weather was great and we walked around feeding and looking at the animals. We had a nice lunch in the cafe and after that went back out to have another look around,Rory fed the Eels and trout, we did get to see a Kiwi in the Kiwi house which was rather cool.

 

 

 

 

 

A few Pics from Christchurch

I spent a really lovely day with Angela,Martin and managed to see the big nephews, these are the new arrivals at the Vallance household.

 Above Angel and Buddy (pure Border Collie)

 Above Lily ( a cross BorderCollie/Huntaway)

Above hands full of fluff and energy

Below photos another household with a new pup is Yasmine,Adam and Rory - yep another ball of energy (pure bred Foxy - Chase)

 

 

Sippy Downs

13 February 2016:

Not alot has happened recently since we arrived at Sippy Downs. I did go back to Christchurch for a very brief visit the object of the trip back to mind Rory for Yasmine and Adam as school holidays were still going (way too long) and mum and dad were back at work. I had a lovely 2wks and the weather was pretty good I might add. Rory and I went to the movies a couple of times and headed to Willowbank for most of another day, that was just beautiful, both Rory and I enjoyed it. I managed to get to see most of the families which was great. I spent a bit of time at the hospital visiting Graeme who had had a nasty fall and broken his back in 3place, he has to the be luckiest person walking I think. He is improving all the time which is brilliant and has to go back to see the surgeon on the 26th so fingers crossed. Another highlight was meeting Yasmine new puppy Chase a pure bred Foxie and OMG full on to add to that, where does he get the energy. Sister Angela and hubby Martin also have two new additions yes two, a pure bred Border Collie - Buddy and a little girl Lily who is Border/Huntaway X - both are balls of energy.

Below photo shows Poppy leaving Bribie Storage

 Below photo is Poppy at Keryns and Grahams at Morayfield

Below photo at Sippy Downs

Thinking of you Graeme and hope that you get a good hospital report this Friday the 26th February, was great to be able to catch up and sorry it had to be like this.

Even had a birthday while I was back - Xmas shape birthday cake - well what else