Time to call it a day

A family update:

Our Grandchild count has now risen to six, and now all our four children are married/partnered. Two live overseas, one in Australia, and our daughter still in Bahrain.

The last wedding took place in Queensland, Australia five weeks ago. Our youngest son married his long time Australian girlfriend. What a lovely occasion it was, way out in the country, in a vineyard, surrounded by Australian bush, kangaroos around (well evidence of where they had been) in the evenings and our accommodation in rustic wee cabins amongst the trees.

I can tell you though, these New Zealanders with their fear of snakes and spiders and other creepy and lethal Australian creatures, trod very carefully along the stony paths at night to their cabins! For those of you who may not know, we have no snakes in New Zealand, and only one poisonous spider and that is rarely seen. So here in NZ we can tramp around off the beaten tracks with no fear of anything nasty lurking. The grandchildren were warned not to play around the edges of the duck pond as a snake currently lives there! That struck fear into the hearts of the parents! Australians seem to learn to live with these creatures and are very casual about them. However in Australia I don't see children playing amongst the undergrowth or in any overgrown grass verges.

I have decided to say goodbye to my blog. It has been sadly neglected of late and rather than just peter out, I thought that I would give it a proper farewell.

I am not sure why this has happened, maybe as life moves on other things start taking precedence and there is not the need to record events as there once was. I don't even take the photographs I once did, my Husband has taken over as the family photographer.

I guess we have taken a slight shift in family life with my husband now retired and home all day. We are travelling more, overseas and in NZ, and also going off to our beach house more often,

I have also become more involved with quilting, a creative pastime I really enjoy. As well as knitting, and also transcription of old letters.

I thank my faithful readers, Candy, Betty, Gail, Veronica, Chrissie and Teepe for their continued interest. I will still visit your blogs and keep in touch.

I wont delete NZ Links, just in case I have a change of heart!

With best wishes for the festive season,

Bye and God Speed,

Merinz

Items seen in hotel foyers in Turkey

I became quite fascinated with various items on display at some of the hotels we stayed in. 

Shoe shine anyone?

The second pic is a lovely carved bench. I could have packed it up in my suitcase if it had fitted!

The tea trolley in the third photo was a gem. And the  buggy in the last photo is I think for a donkey to pull. 

Visit to a pottery in Bahrain

While in Bahrain we visited the A'ali pottery in Manama. They make these distinctive style of pots which are very popular here. People often have them in their courtyards as decoration or to house a lamp. The header photo shows a selection of sizes.

What a shame they were too big for  my suitcase!

Some photos taken in Turkey

These are two photos taken from our hotel in Cappadocia, Turkey. The first photo shows some older dwellings that appear to be unused. The second one us a modern house squeezed in amongst the rocks. It possibly has an underground room or two that is not visible in the picture.

Cappadocia  is a world heritage site, a place of wonderful natural beauty, as well as an incredible history. There are thousands of man made caves, many still used as dwellings and commercial premises.

There are entire underground networks of caves, some four stories deep, used by Christians as retreats when they were threatened by invading forces. We were lucky to be able to go into some of these, a humbling and amazing experience.

Bahrain and Turkey

We have been away from home for over a month now. Three weeks in Bahrain and another nearly two weeks touring Turkey.

What a lot we have seen and done. Where do I start!  We feel quite at home in Bahrain now having spent seven weeks there this time last year. This time we just slotted right into life there, an expat lifestyle I have to say. Although unlike some expats our daughter loves shopping and generally poking around in the souks. And eating in traditional places.

I will load some photos when we return home. At the moment we are awaiting a bus to take us to Istanbul airport to begin the long journey home to New Zealand.