Sam turns three and Glanmire is green

Back in Sydney, worked all week and went up to Glanmire to join Peter for the birthdays. 3/5 of the family have their birthday between 12 and 19 January - and two of their cousins in the same week! The countryside was green after a couple of really good downpours - and we got another lightning storm and rain on Sat night - you can see by the debris that although the creek flooded and blocked the ford, it wasnt as high as it had been a week ago when quite big logs had been washed down. Rain is always welcome, but we had to cut our meal in town short and drive home in a hurry or else we would have been spending the night in a motel in town! Within 10 min of getting home the ford was impassable by other than a 4 wheel drive and a high one at that!

Sam had a family morning tea birthday on Sunday morning with the cousins and she had been to another birthday party the night before -she is so quick to mimic every word you say and her favourite saying this weekend was " you rock Nana" or "you rock Mum" etc... The doll Peter won in a raffle was amusing - not sure how much it will get played with but it was well received.

I love the quietness up there but this time the noise of frogs at night was almost deafening - you could barely hear the TV and they went all night = quite incredible, wish I could have recorded them and posted them on this blog! The kids had collected oodles of tadpoles which they put in the little swimming pool, so they are likely to be overrun by frogs in a week or so ( how long do frogs take to go from tadpoles to frogs - we will find out!

Peter staying for a few more days then down to Sydney for a couple of days with me before he heads home to Auckland.

3 lovely weeks in NZ

Well my three weeks home in Auckland are almost over. The weather has been lovley, warm and only occasional rain. Did lots of housework, cooked up a storm, made two little dresses for grand daughter, cleaned windows, gardened, and basically ensured everything was as shipshape as I could get it. Slept really well - nice to have a body in the bed with me!

Christmas was peace-full with family and friends - great to see our expectant couple and the ultrasound photos of our next grandchild, great gathering of young and old for Xmas lunch with my brothers family (Gil now has three grandchildren) and then later in the afternoon, all of Peters children in one place with many of the grandchildren ( some very grown up!). Friends dropped in on Boxing day and then a quiet few days round home.

Took a day trip to Waiheke - Peter hadn't been there for over 40 years and so much growth and it is still an incredibly beautiful island, with wonderful beaches and then a quick overnighter to Mangawhai visiting friends on the way up and back. I love the fresh sea air, the views of sandhills and people enjoying the summer - going for a walk is such a pleasure up there and spending some one on one time with my niece and nephew and their families was fun.

We had the morning with cousins from Australia who had a day in Auckland off a cruise ship - and it was really interesting to catch up with them and all the news of the extended Wallace family.

We are both very well and relaxed, Peter is following me to Australia on Sunday for two weeks and I am sure he will enjoy catching up with the grandchildren.

So off to 2010 - another year another set of adventures hopefully.