Hannah is growing

delighted to see her mama

My favourite little baby girl is getting so cute.  Apparently, according to the clinic, she is too tall for her age...  73cm tall at 7 months.  Anyway, she is sitting, has 2 teeth, and is communicating more clearly.

carefully choosing a block

handing blocks to daddy

Saturday school

Last night Graeme and I went to Bishop Richard and Jane Fenwick's home for supper. Graeme especially enjoys their company as they are both accomplished musicians - Richard has a marvelous organ and Jane plays an rather large harp.  Needless to say, their instruments take pride of place in their lounge.
As it was the opening night of the olympics, we hurried our supper a bit so that we could watch the ceremony on the tele.  We had dessert on our laps.  It was a most enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning dawned cold and wet.  So I unconsciously shelved the idea of clearing out the store room, as planned.  Then the door bell rang, and I was faced with 4 children dressed in jackets and boots - who had come to help me clear out the store room!!  I felt so bad, that I offered to take them to Sandy Bay beach in the afternoon - no matter what the weather was like - Josh had never been to Sandy Bay.
At 2pm sharp, the little rascals pitched up.  We put 2 in the boot, 3 in the back seat and Danny and Hannah in the front.  It was a 30 minute drive on very windy and steep and narrow roads to the beach and it was cold and overcast, but the children were happy to run and play in the black beach sand and wade in the cold sea.  

Sandy Bay valley



A stark, black beach

wading in the cold sea

The landscape is very stark and barren in Sandy Bay, but if you look, you will always find a plant of some sort growing in the sand.

succulents growing in the sand

Hannah keeping warm in the boot

On the way back, I spotted a shrub with fruit on it that neither the children nor I had seen before. It had l-o-ong thorns, and sweet smelling fruit that tasted something like sour plums.  Apparently, the Saints call them curry apples.

inspecting the fruit

scary thorns

Sock chimes...

We had a more conventional Sunday school today.  The activity afterwards was to make "chimes" out of felt.  The package that the materials came in, called them "sock chimes".  They blow noiselessly in the wind....

New Style Sunday School

We now have 3 or 4 children that attend Sunday School.  After sussing them out as to what activities they enjoy, I decided to change my teaching style.  Instead of formal lessons, the children meet at the manse, and we do gardening, baking, sewing, picnicing etc.  While we are busy,  I try to use our activity as the practical part to a spiritual lesson.  The children seem to be responding better to this approach.  The first Sunday we made crumpets; the next we weeded the back garden - it had been raining and the ground was soft.  Then we made chocolate brownies.

 The girls are good at entertaining Hannah.


 The boys are the best at cracking eggs.

  Karla stirring the pot.

Last week we transplanted spring onions and prepared little pot plants in which we planted pansy seeds.