Here's me, on the left, and Eric, Barb, and Darin at Shakespear Regional Park, north of Auckland. We had a picnic on Christmas day. We brought our snorkel gear, but decided to play Bocce ball instead. Darin and I won the first game, but lost the second and so had to do the dishes after dinner. Dinner was hosted by Barb and Eric, who served a lovely beef rib roast (from one of the Daves- both cows had the same name). The flower is on a Pohutukawa (sp?) tree, also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree. The weather was very nice.
The cats got a kitty "sky tower" for Christmas, as you can see in the photo. The window looks out to the west Waitakere hills, and lot of birds fly around that window. The Mynah birds steal the neigbor dog's food (their dog is named Jazz, too!) on the neigbor's patio, opposite our window. Jazz (our cat) managed to work open the window in the bathroom I had cracked for ventilation the other night, and escaped the house. We called and looked, shining our flashlights (torches) in the dark, under the thick vegitation in our yard and our neighbor's, to no avail. He returned the next morning, fortunately, but I see he has a fine scratch on his nose. He must have met the neighbor's cat. Serves him right. I hope he was cold too.
