Monday 20 December 2010

Home in time for Christmas

When I left here just over a week ago to return home to Brisbane for my aunt's funeral, the countryside was bone dry.  I wondered a few times while I was away how my garden would be surviving.  I needn't have bothered, the garden is flourishing after a lot of recent rain and the grass and weeds are positively thriving. 

As I was leaving, just a couple of miles down the road I noticed a car pulling out of the entry to the Lodge, which is owned and operated by the Lions Clubs of Northland as a school camp in the forest.  I thought, "Oh lovely, now I will have to eat his dust all the way to the corner (12 kms)."   Most visitors to the camp drive very slowly along our road, which is wise if you aren't familiar with it.  

Just around the corner from the entry I noticed there were two cars up ahead - or is that three?


Now, before my daughter comments about taking photos while I'm driving, let me say that I stopped to take each of these photos.  Each time I stopped I fired off a shot before driving on at my usual speed and catching up with the entourage.  I was curious to see how many of them there were.

Because there are so many corners, I could see there were more cars than I first thought.  Five cars in a row is unheard of on this road! 


But wait, there's more!   These six, plus the little red car in front of me.  Why they were travelling so closely behind each other I do not know.  When it's dry it pays to hang back from the dust of any other vechicle on the road.  And you can't get lost between here and the corner, there's just one road. 


Anyone who visits my blog regularly knows about my 'thing' for churches and graveyards.  So here is the church in which my parents were married and I was baptized - and where the service for my aunt was held - St Patrick's Church in Laidley.


After the burial, one of my brothers called me over to where he was standing and pointed to the grave beside him.  It was that of our maternal great-grandparents.  We hadn't known where their grave was!



We wandered over to visit my sister Esme who lays at rest in the Ward family plot, next to her grandparents and great grand parents:

 
 The second Daniel below was my grandfather and Catherine Eileen (Eileen) is the my father's sister who died of blood poisoning (who I mentioned in my Very Long Post on 7 December).

5 comments:

  1. Hello Pauline,

    Welcome back, I haven't a clue about the cars,do you think they were in some kind of rally,or maybe they were just of to the carwash. Glad you were able to discover some more family history. Happy Monday.
    Bev.xoxo

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  2. Glad you are back safe and sound. Another lovely church.

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  3. Something so reassuring about the loved ones being in the same place. A walk through ones history. A stroll through old memories.
    A beautiful church and a wonderful old graveyard.

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  4. That church is a far cry from the churches of Northland and, in fact, most of the areas of New Zealand outside the main cities that I have visited.

    The cars is a puzzle. Strangers obviously!

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  5. What an elegant church building.
    Did you ever hear what was going on with those cars?

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