Nudgee All Over again

As my sister, Trish, her husband, Bob and I happily made our way homewards from a family gathering the day after I arrived home in Brisbane recently, Bob commented, "It was just like Nudgee all over again." 

I'm sure that statement wouldn't make sense to anyone except a member of my family. 

We grew up in Nudgee, Brisbane and spent our holidays "up the creek" at our grandparents farm - refer to yesterday's post.  We were a large family, 12 kids.  I'm the oldest and was 22 when the youngest was born, six days after the birth of my oldest son.  (Yes, a bit of Irish Catholic mixed in there.)  As we grew and left home we all came to refer to our home as Nudgee, not Forrest St, just Nudgee. 

We had a large back yard with plenty of room to run and play.  And as we had our own families we loved nothing more than going back to Nudgee and sharing with our own children the fun of Nudgee back yard cricket.  (I can still recall very clearly the sound of a yet another window breaking as a ball went astray into Mum's or Mrs Delitt next door's kitchen windows.)

Our link with Nudgee came to an end, of course, as it had to eventually.  But not until just a few years ago when Mum and Dad came to the inevitable conclusion that a small unit in a retirement village was a lot more practical for them than that big old family home.  To our delight, a girl who grew up one door up in Forrest Street and who spent a lot of her youth playing at our house with my youngest sister, bought the house.

On this occasion we had gathered at my brother Danny and Aussie Jude's new home, which is situated right next door to a park.  It was heartwarming to see younger nieces and nephews played happily with the offspring of the older nieces and nephews. 

Of course there had to be a game of back yard cricket.The seriousness of the game was not minimised by the makeshift equipment.

My nephew Matthew's boys and niece Rebecca's daughter wait patiently for the call to blow out the candles on the cake which had been bought for my mother's birthday.  It was also the birthday of those beautiful twin boys so they were happy to oblige when it came to blowing out the candles.

 
My niece Elizabeth's little girl, Ellie prepares to eat her lunch:

 Four sisters - Pauline, Trish, Janet and Clare

Bob and Peter - I'd love to know what these two were talking about!

And my favourite shot of the day, captured by my brother, Peter of two different generations - my brother Terry's daughter, Merrin carries my niece Rebecca's daughter, Chloe:

As Bob said, it was just like Nudgee all over again!