whanau

tonight the whanau are meeting for family dinner.....then you will be able to put faces to names.

roots...

wakefield library....always smelt so musty and the librarian had white hair in a bun, and she REALLY wouldnt let you talk in the library.

This is the main street of the village I grew up in. My sister and brothers family lives near here, and until recently my mum and dad. There is a butcher, baker, supermarket, hairdresser, pub, cafe, chemist, vet, primary school, fish and chips shop, petrol station, dairy, police station and fire station. What else would you need....there are several churches. Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Church of Christ....
So when I get grumpy about LA freeways, traffic and crowds, remember my heart belongs in a very quiet place in the country.

this is the post office, which is just used as a storage building now. It is an historic building, so cant be torn down.....needs someone with tons of money to turn it into a restaurant. We know a good painter.....oooh what a job.

my brother in law Sana

Sana paints houses and I'm bragging about him here.....look at the fabulous job he did on this place in Nelson. I need to find out how long it took him

more babies....

my great niece precious Alyssa Kate Higgins. She is my brother, Michaels first grandchild, and has won everyones hearts.


Wakefield Primary School where I attended 1959-1964

This is a school dental clinic, which we called the murder house...

Local papers in the supermarket. Nelson Mail, Christchurch Press and Wellinton Dominion

My sister Dawn and I had the morning out.....

This is where my sister Dawn, her husband Sana and their son Michael live in Pigeon Valley Wakefield

Lord Rutherfords birthplace....one of those places you drive past a million times as kids and then suddenly it becomes a tourist attraction, with a fancy sculpture. Rutherford was born here in 1871. He grew up to be a scientist and win a noble peace prize for his splitting of the atom.


this is how our mail is delivered....posties on bikes.

I found a great little quilt store in Upper Moutere

Called 'My Back Porch' and only open Wed-Saturday. The tide was out, but what a fabulous view

Owner Maureen with one of her creations....

the workshop room.... would you get any work done? or daydream out the window

My Back Porch entrance.

lots of folkart things in the store..

morning on the farm.....

Michael was heading into Richmond for a Council meetin, when the truck arrived to take cattle to the freezing works/slaughter house. It was too slippery to get up to the ramp, so Michael gets his digger and pushes it up.

Lucas would be having a field day.....he loves diggers.

...end of the line for these guys...

Michael, dressed in Sunday best

NZ number plate..