The Brompton Bay Swim

Today we decided to swim across Brompton bay. It is about a 40m swim across and when you are that cold it seems way further. We were all very brave though (including me who is really scared of swimming in the sea) I will admit to some panicky breathing in the middle, imagining what was in the water near me.
We attracted some spectators, as you can imagine, when you hit that freezing water you let out a few high pitched sounds. They were all smiles at this family swimming in the sea. Then just as we are getting near the other side, this old man comes and strips down to his cozzie and jumps in and has a good swim (no loud cold sounds came out of his mouth) I had a full wetsuit on and was cold!It was good fun, though I can't say I'll do it again.

Tag, I'm not it right now

Thanks to all of the people who have tagged me. I am working on them. I've never personally had a bad hair day :) (yeah okay I know what you are thinking)

And as for the A-Z the most important letters in the alphabet to me begin with P for Pete, C for Cheryn and Corbin, R for Rachel, and Z for Zeek.

Belfast Botanic Gardens

We went to the Botanic Gardens today. After a year and a half of living here we finally made it. It is beautiful, it reminds me of the Durban Botanic gardens. We saw some South African (or at least flowers I recognized from South Africa, whether they are indigenous I can not say) I definitely thought of you Mom, and I will bring you here in June next year when you come for your visit.

Pete, forever on the internet, wherever there is a signal.
A sound rig setting up for some event caught Pete's eye.
There was a huge rose garden. When you came down the steps towards it you were immediately surrounded with beautiful scents, the air was full.
Check out this gnarled tree.
Me at one of the entrances
A huge thistle.

the Palm house, unfortunately it was closed, so we will see inside another day.

What to do on a rainy day?

Well there are loads of things that you could do, but today we pulled out a colouring page and all had some fun, I haven't coloured in ages!
The finished masterpiece.

Guess what I'm spending all day doing

Family Home Evening

Last night it was my turn for the game in Family Home Evening. I used to love playing blind man's bluff as a child (kind of like Marco polo, just a lot drier) but our lounge size doesn't lend to a very exciting game. You land up catching the people too easily.

So I decided to make it more interesting. We took a pair of Pete's boots and tied the laces together. Now you had to hobble to catch the people. I haven't heard so much laughing in one room for a very long time! It was hilarious!!

Corbin's fish

Donovan loves to go fishing. He takes his family along for some fun, and then afterwards feeds the happy seals in the harbour. Oh and sometimes they have a lovely fish braai (barbique).

He also takes our kids along sometimes, and the other day Corbin went fishing for the first time. And he caught a fish too! It was a Mackerel, not very big, but he was happy about it.
The beautiful markings on their backs.They brought it home to cook it, and here it is in the pan. Sorry about the focus, I don't know what happened there. He took one tiny taste and said YUCK, and that was the end of his first and last fish. Well at least the last he brings home. (the seal is really glad about that!)

A walk in the forest

We (Gillian, Cheryn, Zeek, Rachel, Corbin and our children's friend and almost daughter Poppy) went for a muddy walk this evening in the nearby forest.

We discovered this beautiful culvert, once it passes this small bridge it disappears under the ground and comes out about 15m later , we are going to come back with some paper boats next time!
These are the boots that went walking.
Poppy ran by as I was taking this shot, but I kept it and I am calling it Poppy the ghost.
The sun started setting while we were still walking, this is Zeek and Corbin by a marshy lake we found.
Then we found a whole lot of interesting toadstools. I love my camera, it can take such good closeups.

More fun on the boat

Donovan took his mom (Jennifer) and our family out on the boat. Look how Corbin is having safe fun, no tricks for him!

Happy birthday Rachel

Rachel is now 9, wow, she is getting so OLD! We had Donovan's family over for some cake in the evening.

Some more visitors from England

My sister came over from England and we had some good times visiting. It is great to have people over to break the monotony of the Summer holidays. The cousins on the trampoline.
I didn't get any other pictures because we spent most of our time inside chatting and the kids playing on the computer or watching movies. But I think the cousins enjoyed seeing each other again.