In the beginning.....

This is a black & white flash-back.
When we bought our first little cottage, our SB was 6 months old.
We bought the house from an old French couple, who were getting frail, & wanted to join their only son, who lived in South Africa with his family.

They had made the little cottage quite cosy, & had done a lot of work on the backyard, planting several varieties of grapes, & the husband made their own wine from the grapes.

Ha had planted apple trees along the back boundary fence, & had espaliered them so neatly. There were gooseberry bushes, which bore huge crops in the summer. There was also a big patch of Rhubarb, which I detest!

The lawn was lovely & green & a generous size. It was an ideal house & garden for young children, as there was a gate & good fences to the back yard.

This is a pic of Meggie with SB when he was about 7 months old. Meggie was very thin, & looking at her knees, it is a wonder that they didnt cut her pants!!

And here is GOM about to set off for work, with SB on his knee, laughing.

Here is GOM harvesting the potato crop his mother & father had come & plantd for us- against our wishes. SB is helping his father, as small boys do Of course he was considerably older than the 7 months of the first pics. And he had a little sister too.

And here is Meggie picking some grapes with kinder. DJ was a real little blondie then!

Alterations to this pic were done by SB recently. It is his skill, & he made a cover for an album using this pic.

And here is GOM with SB lying on the lawn with the dratted rhubarb in the background. I used to give it away by the car load.

And here is GOM, who was really Happy Young Husband, & Father, in those days.

We lived in our first little cottage until SB was almost 5. We had many happy times there, & I think the blessings the lovely French couple said they gave us, had an effect. We loved the grapes, & the different varieties all had their own flavour. We never made wine!

The last time we visited Christchurch we went to see if the cottage was still there, & it was! We were surprised, to think it was still standing as the land was quite considerable, & most of the surrounding houses had been pulled down, to make way for more substantial mansions.