Oh gawd I wish they were closer

 Welcome back Reader.

  

It has been a while I know, when I left off last year we were expecting our daughter and husband over from New Zealand with their four month old baby.  

I had said repeatedly when I was there that they didn't have to come..... but they did, I collected them from Heathrow and when we got back home David had the baby put into his arms and she gave him the most beautiful smile.  

I was slightly miffed as I had been with her when she was born and cuddled her for weeks but I get the blank face.

Such is life.

Here they are, 28 hours flying and not looking too bad on it.

Mutual love.

So this is my mum with her tenth Great Grandchild, pretty good achievement mum.

So when I got home in September from NZ, David announced that for our winter holiday he'd like to go to New Zealand, I was a bit surprised due to the distance and that I had only just got home from there but come January we did return, I wasn't really wanting to do a big tour as we had done almost exactly ten years previously for their wedding, I just wanted to be with all their family.

But beaches were included.

So jet lag has its benefits, here we are on the beach in Auckland at about 6am, David even swam too.

Now Frequent Flyers to this blog may remember the lovely Marilyn and David, from their own blog

HERE 

Well we became friends via this blog really, but we only met face to face three times!  Marilyn and David sold up their narrowboat Waka Huia back in 2023, and returned to live full time in their native NZ, after having their summers in the UK for many years.

 

We took a flight from Auckland down to Paraparaumu, a wee airport north of Wellington, they picked us up and took us to their wonderful home in a retirement village.  Frankly I could go and live there myself right now and my David was equally impressed with the facilities, pool, gym, cafes, bar, endless activities and even a nurse on call!  

It was so very very impressive, with only an eight year waiting list.....  

We played cards, walked the extensive grounds, including the native forest and met some of their friends, including a lady who produced a quiz which I may reproduce for your delight on here, we ate like kings and I have the recipes of the delicious meals, Thank you both so much for you amazing hospitality and I hope to return the favour if you return this way. 

They even got up at dawn to take us back to the airport back to Auckland.

Paraparaumu airport way back in time,  the aeroplanes have changed and now there's a terminal! 

Three days before we flew David decided to take his Brompton, he whizzed around the park and to the french bakery, a bakery so good it's sold out by 11am.

The view from Michell's family Batch on the Coromandel peninsula.

We are all in factor 50spf.

The baby being bathed in the family tin bath that has seen every one of the 18 grandchildren bathed, and now onto the Great Grandchildren, so many of them I don't know.

Back in the 1950's Mitchell's grandfather built their batch primarily for fishing, I think they were one of twelve batches built, today there are many many more two are in the same family hands as in the 1950's.

Back then it was sheep grazing land without a tree or hardly a bush.  Today the natural bush has recovered much to the pride of the families.  Where we are standing is still grazing land.

I could barely watch as Mitchell climbed up the rocks then with all his nearest and dearest watching he jumped into this natural forest pool.  Evidently it was freezing, but NZ freezing.

Greater Auckland from the top of an extinct volcano 

Leaving on a jet plane....

Well I guess you can imagine how hard it is to leave, but let me tell you, it's way harder.

They won't be over here again for a long while so guess where we will be going next winter.

Well Reader that sums up pretty much what we have been about since last autumn.  Normal service will be resumed in a short while.  Just after Easter we will be off on a grand trip.

Stay tuned for more on that in April.

TTFN

A long trip and a short flit.

So Reader here I am again.  Back from endless cuddling, kissing and cooing over new beloved baby.  

She has quite a name to conjurer with Xanthe Olympia.  The well travelled parents spent a summer in Greece and went to the site of the first Olympic Games and Xanthe was born during this years Games in Paris. 

If you needed reminding it is winter down under when we have our summer.  I've seen heavy rain before but this was something else, almost biblical and it goes on for hours.  The the next day I was in a tee shirt.

Anyway after a bumpy start mother and baby were doing marvellously and I loved every minute, I could retire to Auckland....

Moi leaving on a jet plane

Xanthe in a swaddle, these were soon dispensed with and she liked to have her arms free.

View from Cornwall Park Auckland.

So odd to Magnolia trees in flower in the summer, I was seasonally confused all the trip.

Mitchell's adorable mother and her two sisters.  (I now count them as my honourable sisters.)

Verity's lemon tree in the garden, I LOVED having lemons on tap.

Xanthe asleep in the shade of the Camellia tree, under the blanket knitted by my mother.

Unusual Irises under planted with parsley, a novel idea.

Part of Onehunga harbour and somewhere down there Verity's house.

One Tree Hill, visible for miles around and Verity's kitchen.

One day I drove to Mission Bay, where they serve Italian Gelato in Pistachio flavour,  to die for. 
This is Rangitoto Island, you can catch a boat and walk up it, I didn't this trip.

Tulips 

Bird of Paradise plant or tree.

Kowhai Trees coming into bloom

This amused me, we are the Carr family and we DID have a herd

Verity and I at Auckland Harbour

Saying goodbye was horribly hard, luckily they are coming to visit all the family later this month.

So to celebrate my return, seemed David missed me!  We have come away on WaL for a short waft up and down.

We had several ideas, first the Ashby, not enough time so just down to Hawkesbury Junction and dinner in my favourite pub The Greyhound.  We got to Fradley on a windy day and moored up on the end of the moorings immediately before Shade House Lock, as we approached a boat left the exact spot we fancied mooring on, great.  

The next day was high winds and rain on and off.  Maybe we'll just go as far as Tamworth or even Hopwas.....

We went to the Mucky Duck pub.

The following day was rain the entire day.  Luckily we had the car so pootled off to the cinema in Tamworth, on the way home again we had supper in the Tame Otter at Hopwas so we did go there one way or another.

The next day it was blowy but brightened up nicely.  We winded at the entrance to the Coventry Canal and retraced our steps.  We'd pretty much ran out of time to get down the Coventry so inserted a detour into the end of the week of going to London instead to see the Granddaughters (And their parents of course) so we had an uneventful run back to Great Haywood and are sitting on a nice mooring in Tixel Wide, I intend to drink the champagne that's in the fridge, stretch the old legs around Shrugborough grounds and read my book.

Shrugborough Hall almost completely hidden now the trees have grown around it and the hedge is unchecked.

I am a good Boater and get off to walk ahead in Plum Pudding, plenty don't bother and just plough though.

WaL was covered, but I quite like the coloured leaves.

This went on half way though the week.

We returned in sunshine and needed our sunnies.  The gorgeous hills come into view that is the beginning of Cannock Chase and tells me we are almost home.

Look carefully and you might just make out the Sweet Chestnuts ripening, we are too early for autumn colour this time.

So that's us done for this year I feel.  Xanthe and her parents are here for a month and that takes us almost up to Christmas, we'll be doing a fake Christmas for them as in NZ its all going to the beach which of course is all mad.

So until the spring, I'll just say Au Revoir Reader.

 

I shall return, now who said that?

I thought I'd have a change of font.  Ummm, we'll see.

So David went out a biking this morning very early and reported back that there were a few spaces in Fradley.  Now I wanted to go to Fradley  because I wanted to see the Wimbledon finals and I didn't want to risk no signal.  We do have a TV on WaL, the TV system cost a small fortune as we had a split wire which meant that David could watch the cricket in one room and I could watch something else in the fold down mini TV in the bedroom.  This has never happened in the twelve years.  But way back then it was the up to date system.

Anyone want a fold down TV? 

 

I was really upset when some years ago David Lewis got the actual TV working again as I really wanted to convert the cabinet into a drinks cabinet. Now we watch TV only a bit and on either our phones or a iPad.

So back to Fradley, to secure one of the two spaces available big enough for WaL we wanted to leave straight away.

 We did at about 7am,  it's only a hop skip and a jump and we arrived, the first boat the jolly volunteer helped.  He even radioed ahead to see if there were any other moorings further through Fradley at Shade Lock which there were so we were confident of getting in. 

This is the (fairly) new marina at Fradley, I quite liked it, not to big, not a ton of facilities that we would never use, I wonder how it compares price wise...

Action shot of David winding down the paddle on his side.

What a prize Git Gap, the moorings start at the post.

We shoehorned into a gap.  Had breakfast and set off for the post office in Alrewas to return a parcel.  David knew the way on the country lanes, at one point a herd of Mamils came haring towards us, but they were a friendly lot all saying Good Morning.  We arrived in Alrewas.  Now I have to tell you something Reader, it's usually me who says this but today David said Alrewas is lovely I COULD RETIRE HERE!!!!!

I did see a lovely cottage for sale too but it's too far from those priceless Grandchildren. 

My first bike ride since last summer

We cycled into Post Office Road, couldn't see it.  I asked a lady where the post office was please, Oh it was in the Pharmacy but it's gone now.  It's now in South Fradley at the Butchers, next to Co-Op.  So Reader now you know.

The butcher served me sausages and took the parcel.

We got back to WaL.  The plan was to watch the tennis and then go to the pub for supper.

Three of these things with drivers well older than David and myself, or rather they looked much older.  Huge noisey things called "Trikes" evidently they are great fun. 

The Jam Butty was here and we couldn't resist.

Well the tennis was very exciting and we celebrated with a proper afternoon tea.

We'd spent a couple of days here so time to move.  We shifted off at 06:30, as quietly as we could drifted over to the service point for water, it took 25 minutes, David got fed up waiting by then, the tank was only on 8/10,  meanwhile I prepped the lock and was quite convinced another boat would come and I would have to turn it but luckily not.  

Reader don't bother with this water tap.  

Our mooring on the left.  The motorbikes were a bit noisy on the road, but good people watching.

David finally leaving the service and coming along as quietly as possible.  Not a soul about.

The very beginnings of Cannock Chase, a sign to me that we are nearly back.   

O

And here we are at Great Haywood, just done the last lock.

 

So Reader an early departure from cruising for now, there is a good reason.

Frequent Flyers here might remember two years ago that our dearly beloved youngest daughter and her husband have gone to live in New Zealand, the country of his birth and the place she decided to spend the Second Lockdown in when we were all cold.

In August they are expecting their first baby and our 5th Grandchild.

I am flying out to "Lindahand" as we say in our house and David is staying home to help with the school holiday child care and mind my mother.  

He also thinks he'll play golf. Ha!!

So this is all from me for now, I have to pack and cram into a case all she wants me to bring out with me...