Weekly Winners : 18 - 24 July

I was so delighted to receive a gorgeous bunch of flowers from hubby's cousin when they joined our celebration for his 60th birthday last Sunday ..

... petals perfectly pink ...

... furled from the inside out ...

... with a whiter shade of green ..

... a greener shade of green .... (and must add here .. whenever Connor passes the vase of flowers he says ... "I love green flowers" .. strange child !)

... and a greener shade of white .... (lucky me .. Elaine also gave me a gorgeous bunch of St Joseph lilies !! :)

Is it spring? This yellow weaver thinks so .. one or two warmish days and the birds are busy ....

... still looking up ... I loved this delicate twirly chandelier which hung above our heads at a Winter Wine Evening ...

... back to ground level ... when boys are quiet you wonder what they're up to - I spotted Connor playing on his own in the garden ..

... lining up his cars on the garden bench ..

His cars didn't need batteries ..... but his mommy did ... Jeanette had a power failure at their house the night before a wedding where she was taking photos, so dashed over - in her jarmies -to recharge all the batteries for the camera equipment ..

Finally .. I must add this photo ... taken by a friend last Sunday at my hubby's 60th birthday ...

OUR FAMILY

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An orange rose from a bunch I bought for the vase ...




... a 'World of Fun' was 'opened up' ....

... all pieces of wood the same size ...

... and a box of 'doubles' to add to the dimensions ....

All tumbled out onto the floor ...

... and construction began ...

... will the plane fit in the garage too ? ...

The other day I took Bradley and Connor to see our friends' puppies ... remember the Jack Russell puppies from five weeks ago when they were just two days old ...

.. and had cute little pink noses and paws ...

Look how they've grown ....

.. now have cute little black noses and little fat tummies ...

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Connor and Jackie ... togetherness ...

A boy and a dog ....

.. a boy giving a dog a love/a squeeze ...

.... a boy telling the dog he loves her ...

... a boy giving the dog a kiss !!!!

... then 'the boy' gets hold of camera and takes photo of his granny ... (would have been legs and feet if granny hadn't crouched :) )!!!!

Connor and I (photos above !) were in the back garden having fed the birds and not long after Connor had put the apple there, it was nibbled on by a few birds ... amongst them was this Black Collared Barbet ...

Jeanette's birthday was yesterday. I made my 'speciality chocolate cake' without the usual smarties !!!! Ohhh nooo !!! ... but sprinkled it with teeny tiny stars instead ... stars for a 'star daughter' ...

Fortunately I had made the cake earlier that morning as the power went out in the afternoon and had to cook camping style !!!! (which by the way, we don't DO camping - these are for emergency use ONLY!) We have two gas bottles with cooker tops for cooking when the electricity goes off .. which used to be frequent .. very frequent .. but we are now cut off less frequently, fortunately ... but it just happen to go off when I was cooking our dinner .. Jeanette's birthday dinner!

Sooo .. out came the gas stuff. Bryan offered his Mom's Wonder Bag to help with the cooking process - dashed home to fetch it and returned with this amazing bag ...

I had heard of them years ago but had never actually seen one. I had heard how good they were for slow cooking. It's hard to believe anything could cook in it but it does! Whatever you are cooking has to be boiled first (soup, casseroles, etc) then pop the pot into the bag ... pop the lid/cover/hat on .... tie it nice and tight ... and it cooks .... s l o w l y ....!!

It works !!!! It's amazing !!! I must get one !!!!

And here's the birthday girl ...

.. blowing out her candles ...

... and finally, must add Bradley, with chocolate smeared lips and sporting his new haircut !!!!

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I must be feeling better ... there are lots of photos this week ... !!!!!!

.. from buzzing bees in warm winter sunshine ..

... sipping nectar ....

... and gathering pollen from Hypoestes aristata (Ribbon Bush) ...

... one bright white Namaqualand daisy ...

... an orange clivia sparkling in the sunlight ..

... all this/the above/warm winter days ... before the heavy frost appeared ....

.... not just ordinary frost ... but 'black frost' ....

.... touching the leaves and flowers, turning them black overnight ....

..... and brown ...

... and droopy and withered ...

... and sad ...

But we were warm inside the other evening ... watching our boys - Bafana Bafana - play soccer against Uruguay .... sadly they lost :(

Zakumi and Bradley seeing eye to eye ...

... with Connor preferring to cuddle the soccer mascot Zakumi, which stands at OR Tambo International Airport, here in Johannesburg ...

.. where Jeanette, the boys and I went on our first time jaunt on the newly launched Gautrain which runs from Sandton to the airport ...

Had to add these last two photos of Jeanette and her two sons while we waited for the train to take us back to Sandton .... a first world experience .. and so exciting for the boys, their first train ride ...

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