This picture was taken some time in April last month when we noticed on our way to St George Hospital in Kogarah how sometimes a left over ‘old’ dwelling can persist in the midst of a lot of high rise apartments!
https://www.whereis.com/nsw/kogarah-2217/st-george-public-hospital
This is a tree in Lakelands Park. I took this picture last Thursday when Peter, Monika, Natasha and little Carter went to the playground of that park. It was past three o’clock in the afternoon. A little later some young soccer players arrived at the park. They practiced on a soccer field near the playground.
Seventeen months old Carter had great fun at the playground. Both Monika and Tash promised they’d come to visit us again next Thursday. If the weather is fine, we all might go to the playground again with little Carter.
Krystal’s birthday was on the 5th of April. She turned 21 this year!! I looked up what I wrote four years ago on Krystal’s birthday. Here it is:
https://auntyuta.com/2014/04/05/krystals-birthday-today/
It features some pictures what the playground in Lakelands Park looked in 2001.
Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stands beside her.
And while I am at it, I copy here what the bush in front of our house looked like in 2000 and I am going to show what it looks like now 17 years later:
This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2000. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. (After it had been there already for some six years!) It looks very huge now, and the gardener trims it every so often, otherwise there would not be enough room left for the parking spot left of the house. 
This bush looks so much bigger now. Also, the trees behind have grown enormously! And now back to the playground, what it looks like at present at Eastertime 2018:
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This picture is from Good Friday, the 30th of March 2018, when I went for an early walk to the playground in Lakelands Park. Some Peter Rabbit Books for the Kids
In this picture is our daughter Monika with her three daughters, also Peter’s sister Ilse who was at our place in Australia on a visit from Berlin, Germany. Natasha, the eldest daughter of Monika, is next to me on the left.
Camphor Laurel, they are very persistent!
These are very recent pictures.
I am looking forward to go today for another walk across the grass in Lakelands Park. Yesterday I had meant to write about certain things, however one thing or another kept me pretty busy until lunch time. And when after an early lunch I finally could spend a bit more time on the computer I nearly forgot that at 2 pm I wanted to be at my neighbour’s place for our Friday games afternoon together with two or three other neighbours. This get-together we always enjoy very much. So at 1,30 it suddenly occurred to me, that I had to get ready for my afternoon away from home. Luckily, I still made it on time. This meeting with the neighbours is very important to me. It is a good way to not loose contact with all of these neighbours.
I thought, I had saved what I had written yesterday. So I went to yesterday’s draft savings. And I only found this bit:
“Today, both of us were awake before six. We are looking forward to another busy day. After breakfast I would like to go for my little walk in Lakelands Park, the same as every morning.”
The above bit is what’s left of yesterday’s earlier writing that I think I had done before breakfast.
The hour’s writing I had done yesterday between 12,30 and 1,30 pm has all gone. I had written about how to discard most of our books. I also had mentioned what was going on yesterday in Berlin about a World War Two bomb disposal. This writing has all gone. Ah well, I did not like it very much anyway. So today is another day.
We already found out that the bomb disposal went well. Everything is back to normal in Berlin. This disposal was a major undertaking for they dealt with a 500 kg bomb in the midst of Berlin near the central city railway station (Hauptbahnhof), a lot of public buildings, a hospital, as well as quite a few residential buildings. All this had to be evacuated. Really a major undertaking that required a lot of planning.
There is always a lot of building going on in Berlin. During excavation work it happens frequently that they still find World War Two bombs that have not exploded yet. And this after well over 70 years!
Peter and I listened to this interview. It was very interesting to hear Martin Seligman speak about his work. Of special interest to me were his explanations about what PERMA is. I looked up several articles about it. I also sent some links to our son in Victoria.
PERMA is an acronym for a model of well-being put forth by a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman. According to Seligman, PERMA makes up five important building blocks of well-being and happiness:
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT POSITIVE EMOTIONS:
I DO FIND IT VERY INTERESTING WHAT MARTIN SELIGMAN SAYS ABOUT POSITIVE EMOTIONS. IT SEEMS TO BE VERY IMPORTANT THAT EDUCATORS FOSTER POSITIVE EMOTIONS IN CHILDREN. WHEN WE MOVED TO AUSTRALIA WE WERE AMAZED TO FIND THAT LITTLE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL WERE CONSTANTLY BEING PRAISED FOR SOMETHING OR OTHER. IN OUR EXPERIENCE OUR UPBRINGING IN GERMANY DID NOT EVENTUATE WITH A LOT OF PRAISE FOR EVERY CHILD.
I WOULD AGREE THAT BEING COMPLETELY ABSORBED IN ACTIVITIES IS A GOOD THING. I IMAGINE IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE TO FIND FOR EVERY CHILD ACTIVITIES THEY LIKE SO MUCH THAT THEY CAN BE COMPLETELY ABSORBING FOR THE CHILD.
I THINK EVERYONE WOULD AGREE THAT FOR A CHILD IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO FEEL CONNECTED TO OTHERS
AND IF A CHILD FEELS CONNECTED TO OTHERS FOR SURE THEY WOULD ALSO FEEL THAT THEIR EXISTENCE IS IMPORTANT TO OTHERS.
A CHILD WOULD GET A FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND SUCCESS IF IT KNEW THAT THERE ARE THINGS HE OR SHE CAN DO WELL OR WELL ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO EVENTUALLY BE GETTING BETTER AND BETTER ON IT.
CHILDREN THAT ARE BROUGHT UP WITH POSITIVE EMOTIONS LIKE THIS MAY FIND IT MORE EASY TO SUSTAIN POSITIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH OUT THEIR LIVES.
IF SOMEONE DID GROW UP WITH INSUFFICIENT POSITIVE EMOTIONS HE OR SHE MIGHT BENEFIT ENORMOUSLY BY LEARNING ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF SELIGMAN’S PERMA AND WORKING ON IT TO BECOME A HAPPY ADULT AND FEELING GOOD MOST OF THE TIME.
I THINK I AM ONE OF THOSE LUCKY PEOPLE WHO FEEL GOOD MOST OF THE TIME. BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I HAVE NOT FELT BAD AT CERTAIN TIMES DURING MY VERY LONG LIFE. YET I DID ALWAYS FEEL THAT THERE IS A SLIVER LINING NOT TOO FAR AWAY. ONCE A WOMAN SAID TO ME THAT GOD DOES NOT MAKE RUBBISH. I FELT PRETTY WORTHLESS AT THE TIME. BUT WHAT THIS WOMAN SAID SOMEHOW MADE A LOT OF SENSE TO ME. DEEP DOWN MY BELIEVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT EVERY PERSON HAS SOME KIND OF WORTH, AND THAT I SHOULD NOT THINK THAT I AM WORTHLESS.
Posted
“A Tasmanian sparkling wine has made history by being named Champion Wine at the National Wine Show of Australia.
It is the first time a sparkling wine has won the overall champion title, taking out the Len Evans Memorial Trophy for Champion Wine of Show.
The winning drop, a 2006 House of Arras blanc de blanc, is a 100 per cent chardonnay wine.
Chief sparkling wine maker for the House of Arras Ed Carr said the grapes mainly came from Tasmania’s east coast and the state’s south. . . . ”
The other award winning wine that we had was:
Monsigny Champagne
Early in the morning I went for a walk in Lakelands Park. It was a glorious, sunny morning. So, again I occupied myself taking some pictures and here they are:
I could see in the distance a woman with her two dogs. The dogs were very exuberant, running around freely and actually extremely fast! But there was no danger since the dogs were controlled quite well meaning when the woman called them they obediently went back to her.
When I was back home I had a lovely breakfast with Peter as well as Caroline and Matthew. During the course of this breakfast we had two bottles of sparkling wine! This was an excellent beginning of this Easter holiday.
For lunch there is Leg of lamb and plenty of vegetables. Lunch is going to be in one hour at twelve o’clock midday. Today is the finish of Daylight Saving in Australia, that means we could sleep in today. One hour extra sleep was very welcome for we went to bed late. And when I got up this morning, the sun was up already, and I could go for my walk across the wet grass, which, as usual, I enjoyed very much.
Krystal’s birthday coming up on the 5th of April. She turns 21 this year!!
I just looked up what I wrote four years ago on Krystal’s birthday. Here it is:
https://auntyuta.com/2014/04/05/krystals-birthday-today/
It features some pictures what the playground in Lakelands Park looked in 2001.
And while I am at it, I copy here what the bush in front of our house looked like in 2000 and I am going to show what it looks like now 17 years later:
And now back to the playground, what it looks like at present at Eastertime 2018:
When I arrived back home, I took some Easter pictures:
This is another picture from Lakelands Park in 2001. Ilse, Peter’s sister, was here in Dapto on a visit from Berlin. She is in the picture on the right. Our daughter Monika in the middle with her three daughters: Roxy, Krystal and Natasha on the left. I am between Natasha and Krystal.
Above is a link to a post I wrote about the Palm Sunday of March 2013. Reading this post once more I do remember the way this day had been celebrated. Yesterday was Palm Sunday again. As is usual for me these days, I missed out on going to church. It seems, that unless one is a church goer, Palm Sunday does not hold any significance, except maybe that one is reminded that the next Sunday is going to be Easter Sunday. Easter time is of course a good time for meeting family. This is something to be looking forward to!
It turned out that yesterday was a somewhat special Sunday for us, because we had a chance to meet old friends again. We met Tilde and Klaus for lunch at the Illawarra Yacht Club. We stayed together for about four hours. We were able to do quite a bit of catching up with them. With a lot of talking about our lives, time passed quickly. We promised each other that we would meet again as soon as possible.
We were sitting next to the windows looking out onto the Lake Illawarra where quite a few boats were to be seen yesterday.
Soon after I did hang out the washing, the sun came out and I got ready for a ‘little’ walk. I took my walking stick along, walking along the footpath through Lakelands Park. Before I was back home I had taken 28 pictures. Now, I cannot resist selecting some of the pictures to insert in this post!
First, about this sad left-over of our bougainvilleas:
In the afternoon, while the rain had stopped for a bit, Peter cut a bit more off this bush. This is what it looked like this morning:
Peter says he has to dig the whole thing out now! He insists he’ll do it slowly so it won’t cause him to feel exhausted. Oh yes, with his heart condition, he better take it easy. But maybe it is just as well that he is trying to stay a little bit active.
The footpath towards Lakelands Park leads along here:
In some places the lantana is growing immensely, overtaking the Australian bush.
AuntyUta 