A Melodious Sonnet

My Family

Month in Pictures, Week 3

Month in Pictures, Week 3

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Wednesday, May 15:

A storm blew in, and I loved watching the clouds forming over the mountains that are visible from my room! The colors were spectacular, too, as different waves came through. It was sunny for a few moments, then I looked out and saw this!

Thursday, May 16:

I was amused, this evening, as the boys did a quick tackling wrestle match right before our family Bible time. #2 brother pinned #3 brother down first (#3 is on the floor in picture 1), then #1 tackled #2, and in the end #2 and #3 ganged up to get #1 brother down! It’s a wonderful life—and I love watching my brothers!

Month in Pictures, Week 2

Month in Pictures, Week 2

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Month in Pictures, Week 2 02

Wednesday, May 8:

One afternoon, all the younger ones were busy playing Lego—such fun! (And I couldn’t decide which picture to keep, so you get both.)

Thursday, May 9:

The table next to my desk showed remnants of the day’s work: Time spent on some studies on American History, and my first handwritten letter in ages! (So much fun to do! I hope you get it soon, Marlène!)

Month in Pictures, Week 1

Month in Pictures, Week 1

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Well, my grandma has inspired me once again. Last month, she decided to do a photo-a-day challenge, and I had such fun seeing pictures of her normal life! I’ve done something similar before, but it’s been a few years. Somehow, I always got caught up taking flower or landscape pictures because I couldn’t find anything else worthy of photography (or so I thought). After seeing Grandma’s lineup, and especially enjoying the pictures she shared of parts of the family I don’t see very often, I thought it would be fun to try the challenge again.

So, without further ado, here goes:

May 1:

The strip canoe project my brothers have been working on for nearly a year now—ready for more epoxy coating! They brought it out in the sunshine one afternoon so the epoxy would harden faster.

What Will be Left? (An Abandoned Gold Mine Adventure)

What Will be Left? (An Abandoned Gold Mine Adventure)

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Last Sunday, several people in our family had colds, so we had a family worship time together instead of meeting with our normal church group. Then, since we had an afternoon to spend together, we decided to go explore some new part of our local area. We finally settled on Waiuta, a town located north and east of us, what once was a gold mining town from 1905 to 1951, when the mine closed.

The first place we explored was the township area itself, around the first mineshaft to go in, the Blackwater shaft. There was a good-sized vein of gold-bearing quartz in this area, and apparently the operations were quite profitable while they lasted—they produced almost 750,000 ounces of gold altogether!

River Walk

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When we moved over here a month ago, I asked Mom, “Do you think I’ll always think of the East Coast as the most beautiful side, and miss it? Or will I eventually think the West Coast is the most beautiful, and if we move back to Canterbury, I’ll end up missing the West Coast?”

She answered, “I don’t know.”

A month into being here, I think I can pretty comfortably say that I’ve fallen in love with West Coast scenery. Before we moved here, I already really enjoyed it—there’s a certain charm to the rugged beauty of this place, but I knew I didn’t like the rain. However, I’m finding I haven’t minded the rain at all (so far, anyway—better wait until I’ve gone through a couple winters to make that an absolute statement!). And we still do get a good amount of sunshine, which is lovely!