2024 – A year of Fun, Family and unForgettable Memories
Winter Blues
The worst of winter is
always January and February. The fun and excitement of Christmas and New Year
are over, the days are shortest, the cold most bone chilling and the snow just
seems to keep coming. These are the days when our bodies cry out for late sleep
ins and early bedtimes. Like hibernating bears, we yearn to slumber through the
worst of it.
African Adventure
Having endured another
dastardly January and February of snow shoveling and huddling around our
fireplace, we took off for Southern Africa in March for an African Adventure.
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| Lunch with Cher's neice Kerry and husband Russel on the deck of the Royal Livingstone Hotel, in Zambia, just above the Victoria Falls - one of the most beautiful spots on the planet |
The trip began in
Zimbabwe where Rob’s old boarding school, Falcon College, was celebrating it’s
70th anniversary. Rob reveled in his reminiscing for a couple of
days, topping it off by speaking at the school Chapel Service, something he had
wanted to do since becoming a Christian over 50 years ago. We then headed for
South Africa where we spent three weeks reconnecting with friends and family.
Despite all the drama of South African politics, life in SA continues to be
something we enjoy tremendously, and we have lifelong friends who we love to
reconnect with.
The final three weeks
of our trip was to do a bucket list overland safari adventure from Cape Town to
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia, via Namibia and Botswana. This was a part of
Southern Africa we had never visited, and we figured, if we didn’t do it soon,
we might never do so. We weren’t disappointed and the smells, sights and sounds
of Africa still linger on in our memories. We are so privileged to have grown up
in this part of the world which continues to reside deeply within our DNA.
Sultry Summer
Shenanigans
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| ...until those dastardly squirrels wreak havoc and destruction |
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| Cher's garden always looks gorgeous... |
Having made virtually
no specific summer plans, we fell into a pattern typical of many Canadians.
Summers are short, so we eat, drink and be merry as much as possible while the
days are long, and the temperatures are fine.
On looking back, our
summer seems to have been one long party. Cheryl, whose pride and joy is her
garden was flummoxed by a full-frontal assault of squirrels on her potted
plants on our back deck. Along with that one squirrel finally figured out how
to make it past our baffle which protects the seed in our bird feeder. Each day
we would wake to the sight of Cher’s beloved plants having been dug up and
trashed. We finally figured out a better and improved baffle for the bird
feeder which gave us at least one small victory to show for the struggle. This
was a year in which the score ended up being Squirrels 10, Cher 1. Eventually
Cher, much to her chagrin, just had to accept defeat – a sign that one of us at
least is showing signs of old age.
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| We still love getting away in our RV |
The panoply of fun
and pleasing activities kept us on the hop. We didn’t do much RVing, but we did
get out for three short trips, which left us wondering why we weren’t doing it
more often. There is so much unexplored beauty to be enjoyed across this vast
continent we live in. On one of these trips, we met up with our Dinner Club
group which back in the day used to meet monthly. In recent years this group has spread out all
over Southwest Ontario. We now meet once or twice a year. This group has been
going for over 20 years. It’s always good to catch up with old friends.
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| We joined Julia and the grandsons on a bike ride down to Oshawa waterfront which has a gorgeous outlook over Lake Ontario |
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| Cher and Brenda Killick at Fenelon Falls |
In May we were
visited by Brenda Killick, who lives in Vancouver. We first met Brenda in
Durban, South Africa, shortly after we were married in 1975. Her husband Dave
sadly passed away a couple of years ago. We enjoyed Brenda’s company for a few
days including a trip to Niagara Falls. It is great how these long-time friendships
stand the test of time. We just seem to take up where we left off, which is
wonderful.
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| Port Perry waterfront pagoda - an excellent spot to enjoy a bit of local music talent |
Our Port Perry
lakefront is always abuzz with activity throughout the summer. A couple of evenings
a week our municipality arranges for visiting musicians to come and provide
live entertainment while folks sit in the park, enjoy the music, take in the
fine view, and observe all the other people who of course are endlessly
entertaining.
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| Sam and Granddad, a bit bedraggled after a very wet ride |
Elaine’s eldest Sammy
turned 15 in the summer. He has become an avid cyclist, so we decided to join
him doing part of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail and take him out to a nice
waterfront restaurant for lunch as a treat.
Well wouldn’t you know it, it decided to bucket down with rain at the furthest extent of our ride. We dragged ourselves 10km or so later into the rather upmarket restaurant looking like drowned rats. Building memories is what we call it.
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| Crow River - lots of nooks, crannies and waterfalls to explore on the river |
Julia likes to keep
her boys busy and out of trouble. We joined her for one of her day trips to a
place called Crow River Bridge. It features a wide river with some fun
waterfalls and mild rapids. The river was the highest I’ve ever seen it. This
added a bit of adventure as at times the pull of the water made standing
upright in the knee-high water quite tricky. Julia and Rob ventured out into
the river at one point with the boys to make sure they were managing ok. The
boys skipped happily around like a bunch of jack rabbits on steroids, while
Julia and Rob flopped around desperately trying to maintain their footing. We
eventually all made it back to shore unscathed, but Julia and Rob decided that
the boys were coping just fine without them.
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| L-R:Cher, James, Esther and Sammy taking their turn at coming up with breakfast |
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| Mariah and Gianni taking their turn at the never ending dishes |
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| L-R: Rob, Sammy, Julia and Gianni get some practice ahead of the annual pickleball contest. Sadly there were no awards for us this year. |
The highlight of our summer is always Fairhavens. This is the summer camp that we all go to as a family for a week in August. This year there were about 20 of us in all. On the first night, little Kairo acquired a tummy bug which involved diarrhea and vomiting. It wasn’t long before Mariah and Gianni were suffering the same symptoms. Slowly as the week progressed, each member of our group gradually succumbed, until on the final day, Esther and Elaine were the final victims.
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| Back Row L-R: Chris, Julia, Sammy, Esther, Elaine, Kairo, Mariah, Gianni Middle Row L-R: John, James, Peter, Front Row: Rob, Cher, Rose (Rob's sister) and Roy |
We had a memorable week at Fairhavens this year, but for all the wrong reasons.
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| It's hard to beat Fall as a time to get out and enjoy the beauty of God's creation. |
In September we
headed up country in our RV to Arrowhead provincial park to take in some of the
Fall colours. On our way home we loaded up our bikes as usual onto the bike
rack at the back of our RV. When we got home, Rob went to unload the bikes,
only to discover that both the bikes and the bike rack had mysteriously
disappeared. Gone – just gone. Somewhere along the way, the whole shebang must
have just dropped off. It was a bit of a shock. The bikes were 25 years old and
the bike rack low quality so no great loss, but we did wonder which part of the
road the pile of metal might be sitting threatening unsuspecting drivers. Rob
went to report it to the police in case they could put out an alert of some
sort. Well, our trustee police officers could not have been less interested and
sent Rob on his way with barely a thank you. All was not lost though, as our
neighbors had told us a week or two earlier that they were selling two barely
used ebikes. We now had the perfect excuse to justify the extra expense and luxury
of ebikes. Cheryl declared she has no further interest in doing uphills on a pedal
bike unless she had an ebike, so faced with that compelling ultimatum, we had
no choice but to approach the neighbors and offer to relieve them of worrying
about advertising their bikes for sale. We are now the proud owners of two top-class
ebikes. Thank you, Lord, for engineering this additional blessing in our lives,
and Cheryl can now safely face any uphill that challenges her.
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| Spectacular colors on the Trent Severn Waterway just below Peterborough's Lift Lock, the largest of its kind in the world. |
We enjoyed an
extended summer this year, with warmer than average temperatures extending well
into October. This was an unexpected bonus. However, there is only so long that
nature can go without normality reasserting itself. Ultimately Fall arrived,
giving us its annual treat of spectacular color, which can be quite
breathtaking in its beauty at times.
Family Roundup
Our family continues
to grow and thrive.
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| Esther, Elaine and Sammy heading out for a new school term. |
Elaine, Sammy and
Esther – Elaine is a great mother and does a wonderful job as a parent whilst
being a single mom. She continues to love teaching Bible at People’s Christian
Academy. We wish that we could audit one of her classes as she is such a good
teacher.
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| Many toothpicks and even more glue will produce wonders |
Sammy has started at a new school, where he is fitting in well. He has
taken to cycling, exercising daily and is looking lean and mean. He is playing
a mean game of badminton and is playing some exquisite piano pieces practicing
for his grade 7 piano. Nanna (Cher) is often the one who gets the job of
helping him with his projects, but this year Rob was recruited to help him build
an unbreakable bridge with toothpicks and lots of glue. It was a proud moment
when the bridge held at least a couple of toy vehicles.
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| Esther, is sprouting like a mushroom. |
Esther, now 13, is
growing up fast. She continues with twice weekly ballet lessons, to have lots
of friends, and do her weekly Awana (Bible memorization) group. She also
participates in her school Battle of the Books competition which involves
reading 10 books and then being quizzed on the details. Last year her school
won first and second prizes. Sammy and
Esther impressed the family at Thanksgiving by playing a piano/violin duet,
which had their soft-hearted grandparents going all gooey at the knees.
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| Chris and Julie have become keen birders and are always impressing us with their latest sightings |
Julia and Chris have
had a challenging year. Chris’s health condition has continued to defy
diagnosis for a second year. He experiences quite a lot of pain throughout his
body and more recently in and around his eyes. Numerous specialists of various
skill sets have not managed to come up with a solid diagnosis. One of the
possible suspects a couple of months ago was that mould could be causing Chris’s
problems. It so happened that they discovered a significant amount of mould in
their cold room in the basement, which they were using as a storage room.
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| Julia and Gianni ready for battle with the dreaded mould awaiting them in the basement. |
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| Proud Winners of the Lego Rising All Stars Award |
John, James and
Peter, Julia and Chris’s boys are doing well at their Christian school. They
have recovered from the initial shock of moving from homeschooling to formal
schooling. They have made friends and are settling down to school life well.
They are all playing musical instruments, John the clarinet, James ukulele and
xylophone and Peter, the recorder.
All three boys are Lego crazy and attend a weekly club called First Lego League. John and Jame's team were recently awarded the Rising All Stars Award at the regional competion
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| John, is shooting up like a beanstalk |
John, 12, loves to
read and can be often found with his nose deeply buried in a book. He has
recently taken to offering his Granddad (Rob) advice on good authors to read.
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| James and Uncle Al, having a ukelele jam session |
James, 11, is showing interest and talent in his music and especially seems to have a knack of strumming his ukelele with enough gusto to have his audience tapping their feet.
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| Peter taking it easy |
Peter, 9, has settled
in well with his classwork. He did a great job of playing his recorder at a
recent grandparent’s day. He excels at mathematics which seems to flow out of
him quite naturally. We wonder where he got this from. We don’t think either of
us.
We have a growing circle of wider family, around 20 – 25 in all, within an hour’s drive of us. We feel really blessed by this, as at one stage we were the only part of our family living in Canada.
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| Thanksgiving 2024, at Elaine's house,included a great meal, scavenger hunt, music and games Our growing Canadian clan, always includes a few extras who are connected in various ways. |
Celebrate the
Season
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| Rob and Cher viewing the Victoria Falls from the Zambian side - a view we grew up with and cherish to this day. |
Jesus is the Reason
for the Season. In this season we remember the One who came in human flesh, to
show us the Way. In John 14 v 6 Jesus states, “I am the Way, the Truth and the
Life, no one comes to the Father except by me”. No other human being has been
able to make a credible claim such as this that is believable. Over 2000 years of history, millions have
found that statement to be true in their own lives. John 1 v 12 says, “to all who received Him
(Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become
children of God”.
This is indeed the
Good News that we celebrate and thank God for every Christmas season.
Merry Christmas to
one and all, and may God bless you richly in the year ahead.
