Home Sweet Home

Back home again after my two weeks holiday in South Africa and it feels like the sun has followed me. I probably shouldn't feel too smug though as I'm sure we still have another snowfall due before winter bids us a final farewell.
It's was so exciting to see Craig and Amber again and even Jemma was able to escape working in the City to spend the weekend with us. Feeling just a little jet lagged, I slipped back into my role of Mother hen :) I feel relaxed, regenerated and happy that I was able to spend so much time with my mum, dad, sister, brother and auntie, as well as meeting quite a few extended members of my family for the first time too.
It was my birthday just a few days after I arrived and my sister Heidi was very sweet and organised a little get together at her beautiful home to celebrate.

The two weeks flew by so fast and were filled with fun times, delicous lunches, and interesting African sights. Johannesburg is booming with many new businesses, buildings, roadworks, traffic and people! Quite different to where I live now in Nova Scotia.

My little sister Heidi, spoiling me on my birthday

The day and night at Sun City can only be described as pure luxury, in our own suite at The Palace!! (very swanky) My mum, sister and I had some precious girly time together followed by several pampering treatments at the Gary Player Spa.
Below is the spectacular view from our balcony!

Another lovely place we visited a couple of times was a restaurant called Bellini and alongside is an old style home that has been converted into several little shops. It was all so beautiful I just had to get my camera out to try to capture it.

Lunch at Bellini with mum and auntie Joy

A week into my stay my auntie Joy came over from England to stay with Mum for a month and I was able to spend plenty of time with her too, it must be about 15 years since we have seen each other!

My little brother Kevin

Well all good things must come to an end and I have some great memories to treasure and will not be waiting so long until my next visit. It's a long way to travel, but well worth it.
It's also good to be 'home sweet home' back in the valley ready to start some serious Spring cleaning. The Canadian geese are already back and I have spotted a few squirrels and chipmunks awake from their long winter sleep looking energetic and hungry.
Hazel x

Heading for South Africa!!

I can hardly believe it myself, but it's true!
Just a few days ago Craig convinced me that it is time for a long overdue visit to see my family in South Africa!! Now that Jemma has left home. Craig and Amber are quite capable of managing a couple of weeks without me. Craig has done the same long journey to SA three times alone to see his dad, who was not very well at the time.
My mum, dad, brother and sister all live in Johannesburg having emigrating, oooh about 25 years ago and I haven't seen them all for literally years and years, it's been over 10 since I saw Heidi and Kevin and I haven't even met my little 5 year old nephew Luc. Nor have I met Kevin's wife Christine yet. Even my aunty Joy is coming over from England while I am staying, so we get to overlap our visits for a few days before I fly back. It feels like a lifetime ago that the four of us, Craig, Jem, Amber and myself left Jo-burg after living there for 18 months when the girls were only 4 and 6 years old. My mum and dad did come and visit us here in Canada in 2007, but the week they stayed with us flew by so fast and it seemed like they had only just settled in when they had to leave us again, so they didn't really get to know Jemma and Amber properly at all.
I will be travelling 'solo', something I haven't done since the days before I met Craig, so I will admit I am a bit (a lot) nervous, but excited at the same time. Not too thrilled with the prospect of waking up at around 2.30am to get to the airport at 4am on Thursday, but once my journey has begun I expect it will be fine. Plenty of water to drink, a good book and some earplugs! Just in case the compulsory in-flight baby or toddler is in the seat in front of mine. (a sleeping pill would be a great idea, but I don't have any of those)
What will I be doing in SA? Very little I imagine, I have no expectations apart from loads of nattering. Looking forward to visiting both siblings in their new homes, sitting under the shade of a tree, taking in the familiar scents of grenadines, oranges and other summery African smells, perhaps a dip in the pool when the heat is just too much for my winter white Canadian skin! I will be reminded of the many visits to my parents home back in my early 20's and again in in my 30's as a much younger mum.Taken just before we left SA in 1998!
I intend to get unit 5 done on my course before I leave so I can justify a break from studying. The freezer is jam packed with meals for my own little family of two and fingers crossed they will become closer in my absence :)
So for this week I shall sign off on a happy note with only 4 more days left of looking at the deep snow in the back garden for a while. Having said that, today was spectacular and did almost feel warmish, well at least driving around in the car. Blue sky and pristine snow everywhere - will I miss it?
Nah, mosquitoes and tall iced drinks - here I come!!!

Long lost friends

Hi there!
Not sure why, but I just haven't been in the mood for blogging recently (two whole weeks have gone by since my last post).
All is well up here on Blossom Hill mountain, after several days of glorious sunny weather the wind arrived yesterday with a vengeance and blew thousands of golden leaves to the ground. Now where there was lawn there is a carpet of red and gold, still soft but soon to become irresistibly crunchy underfoot!
I have been dabbling on facebook a little and came across two long lost friends. Well, actually I found their children who were able to put me in touch with Sheena (who I last saw about 11 years ago in England) we took National childbirth trust classes together while expecting our first babies, and Marie in Norway, going back even further to my wild early 20's! The wonder of computer technology :D
Mid week I had a lunch out with some girlfriends, something I haven't done for ages, not since I lived in New Zealand where I used to meet my friend Keriann for coffee after swimming, or in Napier at a wonderful cafe called 'port o' call'. Here in Berwick on the other side of the village is a lovely cafe called the 'cider press cafe'. Tina, Kathy and I had the yummiest curried carrot soup and fresh salads. They also serve great herbal teas (I had pear) and Tina indulged in a lemon chiffon type desert with whipped cream.
All the local apples are pretty much stripped from the trees now with just the 'drops' on the floor to be picked up and put into crates to be used for juicing (backbreaking memories of last year!) There are quite a few varieties surrounding us; Honey crisp, Golden del., Red del., Spartan, McIntosh, Empire and Gravenstein. I am now finally getting to know the difference after living here for my third apple season.
I was glad yesterday that the weekend had arrived as I felt we hadn't spent much time together as a family. Craig has been working long hours, the girls both had extra mural activities after school which involved lots of driving around and during time at home we seemed to all be doing our own thing. A family discussion was called at the dining room table last night to go over some 'issues' which I think have been pretty much ironed out now. We used to have family meetings on a regular basis and even had a suggestion box to put ideas into, but the girls have grown up so quickly recently and we just got out of the habit.

I don't imagine I will get many comments on this post as it is mainly family orientated and I have no diy, sewing or decorating projects to report on (still working on the chest of drawers).
Bye for now
Hazel xx