Playground Upgrade

Great to see the new playground equipment so well accepted and well used by the youngsters.

 

Swings	Climbing ropes

Flying fox

Main Street

Main Street, Sunday July 26.

Mid morning, and the street is almost as busy as you will ever see. The Farmers’ Market is in full swing and 27 motor cycles have just pulled up.

 

 

 

A walk up View Hill

 

 

A great sunny day, light breeze, temperature just nudging 20, so time for a walk up View Hill.

 

The picture left shows the view from the car park – looking back towards Oxford and over the Canterbury Plains.

 

From the car park, the path is an access track, well formed, a few loose stones, a couple of ruts, but easy walking. A gate around 500 metres in marks the true start of the walk.

After another kilometre or so, we took a path to the right to head to Ryde Falls. This track is moderately well formed, but has some areas of slippage and steep sections. Not having walked for quite some time, I found a couple of sections quite hard, but as I walked further, my body became used to the effort.

Just before the falls, you must cross Coopers Creek, it is quite shallow and has a small rock dam that can be negotiated with care.

Sunset

Sunset over Oxford

The picture says it all.

Oh Happy Day!

There are many delights in country village life, but also the odd downside. One downside when living in the village, working in the city, is remaining in the city after work to do the grocery shopping. Yes, Oxford does have an excellent Super Value, but it cannot satisfy all my needs and wants.

Strolling through the cemetery

Oxford has quite a large cemetery, with graves dating back to those who first settled on the Canterbury Plains. Its a nice place to stroll through, and to stop and read some of the headstones.

Every headstone tells a story, of a loved one, of a tragedy or of a life lived well.

Changing Seasons

I love Summer, the heat and the light, the lingering twilight. It is one of my favourite seasons. The Summer just gone has been one of the best in the time I have lived in Canterbury, more hot days than before.

I had also been looking forward to winter, the shortening days, longer nights and the snow that will soon cover the mountains I see from my home. That was until Tuesday when we had our first taste of the winter to come. 5:30 pm, the wind swang Southerly, the sky deepened and became brooding over the Port Hills and I began to feel a chill through my body. The cold lasted throughout Wednesday, and on rising Thursday morning there was a light dusting of snow on the top of the alps.