End of summer

Signs that winter is approaching are all around us.  Thankfully the days are still sunny and warm but mornings and evenings are delightfully cool.  Yesterday morning there was a heavy fog.  I don’t like cold weather but I love the mists and fogs of winter.  

I drove through an absolute downpour coming home from work yesterday and later on the evening sky gave a hint of more rain to come.

It came during the night.  It’s a rare night that I hear rain on the roof.  Not because it’s not there, but it would take more than heavy rain to wake me once I’m asleep.  I belong to the “sound sleeper” camp. 

The last of the rainy mist was lifting from the lower valleys as I looked out the window this morning.

Today was a special occasion for Georgia – her first soccer game.  Unfortunately, she had a tummy bug yesterday and, to her great disappointment, wasn’t as energetic today as she usually is and had to sit out a lot of the games.  

Krystal and Shayde were also playing.  The occasion was an inter-school warm up before the footy season starts.  Our local school is not a ‘sporting’ school and most of the teams were outclassed by their opposition.   The children who want to play weekend sport have to find teams outside the area to join and, of course, this requires lots of extra time and expense for parents travelling to practices, etc.   This year Shayde will be playing netball (in a school team), Krystal will play soccer in a Whangarei team and Georgia will player soccer in a Bream Bay team.   Add to that mix their father coaching an Under 16 rugby team and you have one busy family.  

Most of my photos from today would be good candidates for a “Where’s the Ball” competition.  They remind me of the “Where’s the Ball”  competition in the paper when I was a child and my father marking his entry each week.  He used to tell us to look to where the players were following the ball with their eyes.  That wouldn’t be much help with these shots.  Half the time I don’t think most of the kids had more than a rough idea of where the ball was. 

Krystal looks like she’s giving some helpful tips to Shayde but they are both miles off the play.

Umm.  It must be somewhere on this field!

Anyone?  Any idea?

It went that a-way

It was right there!

Ah, there it is!

And, goodness gracious, I have a certain parent in this shot with their mouth closed.   Can you tell by the body language which parent it might be?  You know how there’s always one parent who shouts constant advise to their child?   The poor child would be run ragged if they went everywhere the parent tells them they should be.  (Shut it, Pauline!)