This week

This week we have been working on starting a institute class. We have three who have expressed interest, two of which may have to return to Tonga before the year is up. We still have to decide on a topic. Ana Langi wants one on the B of M because she missed that course in Seminary.

I took this this morning on our walk. We get blasted in the US for our environmental pollution, but the rest of the world is still using coal for heating. I don't think this fire was for warmth but to heat water for showers. In the winter it is not good to go out when everyone gets home from work, because the first thing they do is light their coal fires, which when not at their hottest are very smoky.
For those who have been following the tomato plants, here is the latest. We are now seeing some tomato's, but the foliage far exceeds what the Kinikini's were expecting. If they ripen they should have a lot of fruit.
This week I took my camera on our walks to get some shots of the flowers we came across. These marigold's are a couple of doors down from our driveway.
Here we are, on our walk.
This plant is everywhere, and is called an agapantha.
Do not know what this pretty yellow flower is.
Nor this one.
Dahlias and Hydrangeas are in bloom at this time. We have seen a lot of both, especially hydrangeas
More Dahlias.
Today we drove out to Inchbonnie to see Doug Thoms who is living with his daughter out there. It is 50 minutes east of Greymouth. The last part of the drive is in a beautiful valley with green mountains surrounding flat green dairy farms. Ten years ago it would have been all sheep. I have reported on Doug before, he having lost his home closer to Greymouth. He hopes to get a place for him and his wife in Christchurch, but are having difficulty. Most of it being the fact that he has a couple of dogs and cats that he won't give up. He has not been in good health lately and has been quite depressed.

There is some good news however. His daughter Sharlene has a boy 8 years of age that the Elders are teaching. She brought herself and her three children to church on Sunday. She is not a member, but her oldest daughter is. It was the first time I had met the daughter. She was not home the last time I was at their place. They stayed for a short time at primary. If they come again, that will be a sign of real progress. I had intended to ask Sharlene about her feelings about the church, but she was off with her family fishing. She used to be a member and has some word of wisdom problems.
Sharlene lives on a dairy farm. Sorry to get their laundry, but I couldn't get on the other side of the fence. This is their back yard and I think it looks west. The whole valley is like this with cow paddocks everywhere. That is their herd in the background.
Before we left Doug Thoms he told us of a shorter way home, but maybe not as fast. He said it was a beautiful drive with a good portion on gravel road. He was right, it was beautiful, even though the other way was pretty also. The gravel portion was mostly on the banks of Brunner Lake.

This is what we saw from the road most of the time, but there were a few places to see the lake. Last part of this road was more scary as we met the only moving car we saw on the road. It was going very fast around a corner and if he had lost control on the gravel we would have been toast. A little farther along I even lost a little control because of very loose gravel. Most of the way I drove 35 to 40 k's an hours because of loose rock.
We did not get to the Thoms place until around noon, so when we left we were pretty hungry. Sister Hoagland had a day old "Subway" sandwich and I had a nice fresh one made before we left the flat. She orders the foot long and only eats half and saves the other half for later. We stopped here in a place called Mitchells for lunch on the banks of the Brunner Lake. You may see the town of Moana on the far shore.
This view was to the right of the above shot. I have no idea what direction anything is here.
The Mitchells Lodge is for accommodations for those who come to this side of the lake. It must be a weekend get away as there was no one there today, Friday. Behind the Lodge is Carew Falls. There is a trail to the falls, but we did not have the 1 1/2 hours to take the walk. Maybe some other time.