OUR NEW GRANDSON 
FLINDERS LOK PING LAM

 Flynn was born on the 22 October 2013 at 8.30pm. Charlotte had a water birth.  Which is ironic really because I wanted a water birth with her being born on 31st January in Grafton where it was 40c everyday for a week.  I kept going to the local pool to cool down and the manager told me if I was still around at the end of the week he'd send me down the waterslide so I could have a water birth.

 Flynn weighed a hefty 4.45kg or 9lb 13oz for us oldies.

 Jeff holding our seventh grandchild.

 Jaimesons's big hand touches his brother's little foot.

 At home after two nights in hospital.
So lovely to see Flynn's eyes open.

The proud grandparents.

WEEKEND AT GREENFIELDS

Vicki is feeding 5 poddy lambs.  They are just gorgeous.  They know her voice and follow her everywhere.  I am mucking out the lambs shelter.  They sleep under an old ute canopy with some fluffy pillows but of course they wet their beds everynight.   They roam around the sheds near the house all day greeting whoever comes by.  They follow you bleeting all the while.

 Jeff and Roger near one of the three dams they threw a fishing line into, only getting nibbles at the third dam.  We had sausages and chicken kebabs for dinner.  No fish!

 We had a picnic lunch down by the dam in the far paddock.

 Tom, Tom the Pipers Son (as Vicki has christened him) giving his mummy some love.  He is still quite small compared with the other four girl lambs so beside an extra midday bottle feed he was getting extra love.

The 5 lambs drank two bottles at each feed.  Vicki was feeding the girls only morning and night but Tom was having  lunchtime bottles as well.

The innovative milking station that Roger set up.  Vicki just pushed the bottles down each pipe and the lambs ferociously sucked on the teats.  They were not satisfied until they had finished their second bottle.

WEEKEND AT GREENFIELDS
LUNCH IN GOULBURN                     
We met Vicki, Auntie Jan and Uncle John at Rose's Cafe in Goulburn for lunch on last Friday.
The cafe has gourmet pies, fritatas, wraps and salads.  I love the fresh flowers they have on top of their sweets showcase and they have a gallery of local paintings for sale.

 After lunch Vicki took us to the Lady Belmore Club.  An exclusive ladies friendship club in Goulburn  which took Vicki two years to get into after having recommendations by others and interviews.  It offers accommodation on a self cater basis also.  The club has been operating for about 80 years and has about 40 members.  It has reciprocal arrangements with other friendship clubs in other country towns.  It is a bit like CWA without the charity side.

 The furniture is exquisite.  The coffee table had a lovely handmade tapestry under the glass.

 A lilac in the garden of The Lady Belmore Club.  Apparently Lady Belmore purchased this house to be used by members.  The top floor of the house is rented out.

 ST. Saviours Cathedral is just at the end of the street the Club is in.

 You can really tell what a rich town Goulburn was in the days when Australia "rode on the sheep's back".  The old buildings are magnificent,.

 The beautiful old fire station.

 The Court House

 The lovely park in the middle of town.  They had just finished their Lilac Festival and the gardens were lovely.

 And of course the Big Merino.

 Venice's Baptism at St. Benedicts Church at Galston where Alicia and David were married.  The party afterwards was at David's mother's property at Galston.  It was a wonderful day.

 Felicity and Charlotte are Venice's Godmothers.

 Alicia designed Venice's dress and I made it.  * layers of tuille with an overlayer of spotted tuille.  Alicia had bought her little gold shoes 5 years ago.  And her lovely feather headband Alicia bought on line.

 The amazing cake.  And it tasted so good too.  A Vanilla mudcake.

VENICE'S BAPTISM 29 SEPTEMBER 2013

My birthday was the following day and Felicity's the day after that. As Yvette, Dave and Tassy  were also visiting from Canberra for the Baptism we took the opportunity of a birthday brunch at Little Rock Cafe at Baulkham Hills which has a strategically placed children's playground for the 6 grandchildren.

 VICKI'S 60TH
Vicki's 60th was held in the Tarago Community Hall.  She had a bush band from Canberra and they were fantastic.  We did quite a bit of dancing.

 Jeff, Vicki and Katie.

Nearly all of Vicki and Roger's grandchildren.  It wasn't until after the photo was taken that we discovered that little Ella wasn't in the photo.  Grant , the eldest, is 17 and his baby sister Bronte at just 9 weeks is the youngest.
No they don't all belong to the same parents!!  There are three families represented there.

 Vicki and Roger have been together since they were 14 years old.

 Katie and Troy.They have three children, Jack, Oscar and Phoebe.

 Scott, Renae and Bronte.Scott and Renae have Grant, Bre and Bronte.

 Luke.
Luke and Allison have Blake, Ruby and Ella.

 Vicki and Jeff and one of the working dogs beside Vicki's quadbike.

 Layla was a poddy-lamb brought up by the working dogs.  They kept her warm in their kennel and now she thinks she's a dog.  She runs up to meet you with the dogs and even tries to bark like a dog.

 I LOVE it when our car gets covered in dust on the road to Vicki's.  When we come back to Wollongong everyone knows we have been somewhere exciting!!

I didn't let Jeff wash the car for three days.
I just love getting out into the country.

CHRISTMAS IN WINTER
It was lovely to get together with Diane and Graeme, Annette and Norm and Daryl and Julie and have all that heavy Christmas food in the 'right' season, instead of trying to eat a baked dinner in 38c degree heat!!
I put out a few Christmas decorations but mainly just wintery things like pine garland and pine cones, lots of my bird ornaments, a moose and a deer.
We ate vichyssoise, roast pork and chicken and vegies, plum pudding, tiramisu and Di's famous sponge cake.  I made chocolate boxes for the ladies.

 We started the morning with an early walk and a coffee at the harbour with Graeme and Diane.

 Pre lunch drinks in the garden.

 My winter garden.  My hanging baskets of primula hang from the clothes line to get maximum sun this time of year.

 Our dinner table at the end of lunch.

 We finished off the time with a walk round Bulli with Norman, Annette and Paddy.

At  Belmore Basin in Wollongong.