Two of my Grandsons

These pictures were taken on their birthday in June of 2011.

December 2011 Ryan and Troy having a good ttime — December 2011
Ryan and Troy having a good ttime

Grandma Monika

Our daughter Monika became a grandma when Lucas was born on the 18th of July 2012. Monika was very, very happy that she had become a grandma at last.

Our younger daughter, Caroline, is in the front, Monika, holding Lucas, sitting on the Sofa.

This picture was taken on Easter Sunday, 31st March, 2013.

This is Lucas with his mum, Ebony.

This is the dad of Lucas, Monika's son. — This is Ryan, the dad of Lucas, Monika’s son.

At the table, our ‘sons-in-law’.

This is Lucas with his auntie Natasha, eldest daughter of Monika.

Great-grandma or maybe super-grandma? It's lovely to feel the baby's skin! — Great-grandma or maybe super-grandma? It’s lovely to feel the baby’s skin!

Bulli Beach

Here I go again. Since I can upload pictures again I cannot resist uploading some more of Palm Sunday’s Bulli Beach pictures.

We had coffee and cake and some cooled tapwater. It was a perfect outing on a beautiful day.

Black Forest Cake

Finally I am able to show you our lovely Black Forest Cake that we had for Easter Sunday. Peter said this morning something about our router being quite old and the modem being even older. So he went today, bought a new modem/router, all in one, connected it and voila, now we can upload pictures again. What a relief!

So for good measure I include now some more pictures from Easter Sunday.

Little Lucas, our baby great-grandson, was allowed a taste of that delicious Black Forest Cake. He loved it and later on licked the spoon! He also loved to drink out of his bottle.

We all love little Lucas very much.

For breakfast I had hard boiled egg with a garnish of salmon.

Here are a few more of Easter Sunday’s pictures which I only just found in the files when I looked a bit more. There is a picture with Grandma Monika in the background holding little Lucas. In one of the other photos you see Ryan, the dad of Lucas. The brother of Ryan is at the table too but cannot be seen properly. Sorry, Troy, that I didn’t catch you properly.

April Snow

We went as migrants from Germany to Australia in 1959. Eighteen years later we were able to go back to Germany for a visit. Peter had taken his long service leave. This is why we could stay in Germany for about two months, from the middle of March to the middle of May. The year was 1977. Peter looked up now the date for Easter Sunday of that year. It was actually the 10th of April.

Peter and I, we both distinctly remember Good Friday and Easter Sunday of 1977. On Good Friday late in the evening we went outside after we had seen a wonderful opera performance (Aida!). We saw gently, gently a few snowflakes coming down. During the following day the snow disappeared because it was not cold enough for it to remain.

However on Easter Sunday we went with Peter’s family to a restaurant called ‘Die Zwiebelstuben’. The same thing happened. We looked out of the window and saw snowflakes ever so gently coming from above and settling on the ground. It was such a peaceful picture. We just loved it.

People have been telling us recently, this year they still have a lot of snow all over Berlin. They are sick and tired of the cold temperatures. They are longing so very much for spring to arrive. They say in April it should be much warmer already. And they think it’s about time that the snow should disappear. Snow in April? It reminds us a bit of the snow we saw in April of 1977. However the snow in April of 1977 didn’t last for very long. We just noticed it on a couple of nights and soon it was gone again.

These two nights in 1977 when we saw the snowflakes coming down, these two night were an unforgettable experience for us. This sort of calmness you usually would remember in connection with Christmas. But this was not Christmastime; it happened to be Easter of 1977. Really wonderful.

EASTER

It was great to see the family over Easter. It’s Easter Monday today, another holiday. Today Peter and I are on our own again. We took some pictures yesterday with our lovely eight months old great-grandson Lucas and the whole family while they were at our place. We had Black Forest Cake. Baby Lucas had a taste of it too and liked it! He had his bottle, sitting upright and holding the bottle all by himself. He was keen to finish it right to the last drop!

Peter and I might go for a drive later on. For lunch we are going to have just left-overs from yesterday. We had yesterday a very colourful lunch. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of my lunch-plate. However it definitely looked very colourful. There was “Hackbraten” (Meatloaf!) with gravy and champignons, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage and boiled potatoes. Also a glass of beer with it. It’s such a simple meal but everyone liked it. We had Caroline and Matthew for lunch with us. Later on all the others arrived for afternoon coffee and cake and a little welcome drink. We were ten adults plus Baby Lucas. In about two weeks we are going to spend some time with our family in Melbourne.

Our drive to Melbourne in a rented car is going to be a great event for us. We don’t drive straight to Melbourne but have a few overnight stops on the way to see a bit of the country. We are very much looking forward to this.

Peter’s sister Ilse writes this is going to be an unforgettable Easter for them for there’s still snow all over Berlin. The asparagus farmers in the area fear the worst for their crops. It’s just too cold to grow anything. Large parts of Europe are still in the grip of winter. How much they long for warmer days and a bit of sunshine!

We had plenty of chocolate Easter eggs. I helped myself to quite a few and loved them!

Bulli Beach

It’s very early in the morning of Good Friday. I was just successful in uploading this one picture. I took this picture last Sunday (Palm Sunday) at Bulli Beach. So here now are the other pictures I took on that Sunday.

Sorry, the uploading has stopped again. It just doesn’t work anymore. Have to try once more another time.

Holy Thursday

Sometimes we need just a bit of encouragement to do something good for ourselves. When the doctor quite casually said to me the other day my health would improve if I did a bit of walking, I took this really to heart. I saw him some ten days ago and have been walking for about half an hour nearly every day since then. Last Saturday I didn’t walk because of some tremendous pain in my mouth. I did get some antibiotics prescribed for the infection in the mouth. So on Sunday (Palm Sunday) it had been much better already.

Just arrived back from my early morning walk. Peter came along with me. I appreciate this so much when he does this. Peter will be going for his little run towards the evening when it’s a bit cooler. Peter is happy to run every second day. Sometimes his knee plays up. Then he has to miss out on a run.

After my walk I’ve again been sweating a lot. Tried to get rid of most of the sweat with a towel (the way the tennis players do!). I think my body is more or less back to normal now. So I’ll soon take a shower and get ready to go out for some shopping.

Day after tomorrow (Saturday at ten o’clock) we have to be at another funeral. One of our neighbours, a dear old man age 86, died on Tuesday.

I hope I can make it to the Stations of the Cross tomorrow, Good Friday.

Bulli Beach Pictures

Finally I was able to upload this picture which I took last Sunday (Palm Sunday) at Bulli Beach.
Thank you WordPress for advising me to try again. I think with the rest of the pictures I have to wait because there’s a major delay again.

Sunday at Bulli Beach

Last Sunday, which was Palm Sunday, the weather was perfect for the beach. I’m glad we decided to go there.

We have a number of beaches to choose from in our area. I said to Peter: “Let’s go to Bulli Beach. We can have a cup of coffee there.” Peter agreed.

The day before, on Saturday, I had felt really awful because of a gum infection. I went to see a doctor who prescribed for me some antibiotics. So on Sunday I felt already very much better. I had been able to walk to the church early in the morning for the 7,30 Palm Sunday Mass. I encouraged Peter to do his running while I was at church. I insisted I was all right walking. Still, it was good he could drive me home then after Mass.

Soon after lunch on Sunday we took off for our twenty minute drive to the beach. The weather was still perfect. We parked near the Bulli Beach Tourist Park. I thought: Wouldn’t it be good to stay there for a few days! Our stay in one of the cabins at the Tourist Park in October of 2010 is still vivid in my memory. We had contemplated then that we would do this again soon. It seems, so far we just haven’t been able to make time for it!

Anyhow, we enjoyed our afternoon session at the beach on that Sunday before Easter. We strolled around, taking pictures here and there. In some of the pictures you can see a perfectly blue sky over the beach and the ocean. Where the life-savers were there were still quite a few people enjoying the water. But where we were the beach looked pretty deserted.

I made it as far as the edge of the beach sitting down in the sand. There was hardly any breeze. It was probably a bit under thirty degrees Celsius. Just perfect! Peter didn’t feel like going right into the water. But he took his shoes off and tried out the water with his toes. He told me the water felt quite warm at this time of the year.

Then a bit later we had our coffee at the Tourist Park Cafe. We even had a bit of cake to go with it.