Family Gatherings.

We had a family gathering here last Saturday.
Originally Gordon and Wendy were going to be over from Western Australia and it seemed a splendid opportunity for family members to catch up with each other.Unfortunately Wendy's bad reaction to a drug administered  to her last month, prior to her back operation, meant that it had to be postponed till, ironically , this Saturday.
We decided to still go ahead with the gathering as Julie came over from Sydney specially, Elsje all the way from Streaky bay, Yvonne from Clare

 and other members from Strathalbyn and the Northern suburbs.
Everyone contributed to the table and I couldn't bypass the massive bottle of Cab Sav and photographed it alongside a normal bottle.The food was wonderful and as usual a lot more than it was possible to eat.
The day had started off with sunshine and then deteriorated into rain and wind but by the time everyone had arrived the sun was shining again and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. The children all exclaimed that the grass was green, as at other times the gatherings were later int he year and the grass had taken on its usual summer hue of straw.
The last time the children were here they had also been able to count all the big hay bales and this time of course the hay has not even been cut.

Jo's grandchildren are a delightful bunch and very good at entertaining themselves. They explored the our wild garden, climbed trees, found rabbits (I shall have to keep an eye on them, they seem to appear each spring time but then seem to go elsewhere, one or two in the pot of course....) and had a picnic lunch on the rug.
The five in a circle are home schooled and the two middle ones go to public schools. All are highly intelligent children and it will be so interesting to see what careers or artistic pursuits they will follow.

After lunch they decided to entertain us with a little musical soiree.
Alida plays both flute and clarinet (as well as the piano, though not all at once...) Gabbie the flute with Lucie on the flute as well and Jeremy and Susannah play the trumpet.
Joanna who is the youngest wants to learn the clarinet and will be able to join her sisters and brother in playing that instrument perhaps in a year or so. Monique is learning to play the piano
and her brother Benjamin is still making up his mind about what instrument to choose.

The audience in the background sat back with their beer or wine and thought they were so lucky to have "live entertainment", a beautiful afternoon glorious food and cheerful music, what more would you want?

On the right it shows Elizabeth ( a future violin player......) trying, without success , to distract her sister Alida , I think the wind was playing havoc with the sheet music and they had forgotten to bring the pegs to pin the pages down so Elizabeth is holding the page down for her.
I feel the whole day was a tribute to our parents who, at the instigation of our older brother, in 1952, when they themselves were middle aged,
brought us all out here to this wonderful country
where we have all thrived.......