Kokstad Family | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

29 December 2016

We celebrated 37 years of joy with Laurie today.

While the neighbours are overseas Lauren, Lisa and the boys are staying in their house. Their dogs looked at her pleadingly this morning so she and I took them for walk after breakfast.

It was a perfect morning for walking

Major and Blackie agreed

It rained hard last night resulting in ditches of water for Major to swim in

It was a scenic route

Ann and Dean invited all 10 of us to join them and their kids for lunch. Jacob was here for the day so he joined us too.

Ann is the youngest of the Mackenzie children and of course we always think of he as the baby – but now she is a working wife and mother of three and has the most beautiful home with a wonderful view over Brooklyn Farm. Dean bought a lot of the Brooklyn land as well as the neighbouring farm.

The house on the hill

Birthday Girl

As we downsized this year we really felt emotional about parting with some of our much loved possession. Our Blackwood dining room table was one such item and so we offered it to Ann and Dean if they would pay to have it transported from Cape Town to Kokstad. And wow – what a delight to see it looking just right in their dining area.

Dean, Ann and Baby Sarah

Even though there are varying ages among the cousins they always connect and get on well together. Caitlyn and James adore Simon and Shannon and having Jay and Josh and Shan’s boyfriend Jacob was an extra bonus for them. There is so much space for the kids to have fun and even the big ones enjoyed the trampoline and swings!

The View

Lolz getting birthday attention from Sammy

Simon reading a story to the little ones – the older ones enjoying it too

James is king of the castle on Jacob’s shoulders

Lunch was lovely and Barbara and Andrew came over after to have tea and deliver a gift to Lolz.

Barbara with Sarah – her 12th grandchild

Later we went to Brooklyn to collect some beans from Barbara’s garden. Margaret was beside herself with excitement to see Laurie.

Nicoline came for sundowners and then we had a delicious stew with sweet potatoes and Barbara’s green beans. We finished the day by watching an episode of Master Chef Australia.

This morning my grandsons/personal trainers let me down and neither of them accompanied on my morning run. The wind was howling great guns and I’m using that and the fact that there was no encouragement from the youth as an excuse for not achieving the time I did my 4.2km yesterday! The run there was fine but the return against the wind and uphill to boot did was a huge struggle. Nevertheless I made it in 34 minutes and 10 seconds.

After breakfast the kids all went to the beach but I stayed home intending to catch them up later. However, after a missed day of housework the cottage needed a good clean which took me a while. Everyone was back by 11:30 and the wind had dropped so the visit to the beach was most successful.

As it was the last day before the Kokstad Clan are to leave we decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant lunch. Sea Gull in Agulhas was therefore grace with our presence. Yesterday I promised the kids a milkshake so that was first on their order.

Kids at Sea Gulls

Milkshakes at last

Jay and Shannon fooling around

After lunch we all relaxed at home for a bit. Shannon was dying to go back to the beach but nobody quite felt like it. At 6:00 it was still quite hot so I took Shan and Josh for a surf. I went in first so they could look after my camera – It was heavenly – I stayed in for about 20 minutes and then said – Stay in as long as you like.

I messaged Allan and Lauren and told them it was worth coming down so they came down too. It was 7:30 when we left the beach. The weather is expected to change tomorrow so the chocca boats were in sheltering in the bay in preparation for stormy weather.