Mama's got a brand new toy...

We popped down to Nowra this weekend to check on my grandparents and to see Nathan's aunt and uncle.

Nan and Pa are in slow decline; moving slower, thinking slower. Nan's going in for surgery again this week and each time it takes her longer to recover. She's so depressed that everything hurts nowdays. Its hard to watch. And hard to listen to, but no one else (ie her husband or children) want to hear that she's tired of feeling bad and thinks her time is near. I don't want to face it either, but she needs to talk. Anyhoo, circle of life I guess.

After that we went to see Nath's aunt and uncle. And boy did they have a surprise for me. I have long coveted Uncle Dave's camera. Every time I see him I take the camera out for a spin, playing with all the features and stuff - stuff my (more than adequate) camera doesn't do. And I've toyed with the idea of buying one, but can't justify the cost. Uncle Dave said that his mate was selling an old camera which was a similar model, and I asked him to check it out for me. Then forgot about it. Then yesterday he gave me his camera to play with. When I finished he asked if I noticed anything different. I didn't. Then he pulled out his camera and said 'mine's a bit different from yours'. Mine???? He and Aunty Jayne had bought it for me. Oh. My. Gosh. I was floored. In awe. Aware that it was too much and knowing I couldn't accept it, but in no way willing to give it back! How much do they rock? Heaps. So the rest of the weekend I spent playing with Barry (the camera). We took long walks, I looked into his eye and told him how beautiful he was. He responded by taking beautiful photos for me.




When we left this afternoon we drove back and finally stopped in at the Fedra Olive Grove and Grandma's Little Bakery near Collector.


We've watch the olive groves grow lo these many years we've been driving up the highway to Nowra. It was nice to stop in and see it. We very rarely break the journey. The homemade bread, dip (singular), dukkah, oil and a couple of olives was a sparse but lovely. And the pastry platter was a lot of pastry (as the name would suggest) but we took home what was left and I've been munching this evening. Yum.

Then we drove for another 15 minutes and stopped to see the zebra. Looks like they're going to stick around - and a good thing too! The rest stop was full which means people are breaking their journeys and resting. Stop Revive Survive people! Um, perhaps I should take my own advice.


And of course the windmill. Hmm. Not sure how I feel about them - but they are pretty to look at. Especially through Barry's zoom lense.


Anyhoo, back home. Ready to start a new school term (Lily) and brave the caretaker period (me and Nath). Have a great week!