Hoedown on a Friday Night

The Festival always ends with a Hoedown, and this year was no exception, except that this year the CMF Committee had the brilliant idea to split the evening in two, with a concert at the start and then the Hoedown in the Supper Room. Where else can you see the calibre of entertainers like Graeme Connors and Suzanne Prentice, as well as a number of others, for fifteen bucks!!!

 Now on Hoedown Night you will always find some dregs. Even the camera shied away from this one. Mrs MacDonald and Mrs Pye shown in the light of their natural colours!

 Mrs Butters, Dolly and Kate ~ as ever up to mischief ~ ready to be entertained. Toes tappin n all

 Drew and Kate. How does he manage it? Anyway I'll catch up with you Mister!

 Ah Haa. The fam damily. Mrs Parkins, Mrs Quinley, Our Robbie, Andrea and Derek

 Mrs Pye and some gorgeous young thing found floating around the aisles

 Brett and Sarah doing what they do best
                                     Damien and Chanelle

 Naomi. What can I say? This little lady is ALWAYS at EVERYTHING. How on earth did NI get along before you joined us?

 Tiff and Terry doing the Ebenezer Scrooge thing

 Gaeleen pretending to be naughty ~ under the admiring gaze of her sister in law. Honey, you don't have to pretend. We all know you!!!

 Liz busy at the sales stall

 Some louts in the audience, prepared to make alot of noise by stamping their feet and whistling. Harry, Alma, Geoff, Coral and Brian

 Tamara Stewart. Brilliant.

 Tamara again and the 11 year old Kiwi! What can I say. No words

 Hayley Smith, singing one of the numbers that won her the Trans Tasman Entertainer of the Year award

 Suzanne Prentice. Brilliant

... and again.  This shot shows some of decorations. Beautiful

 This is actually a photo of Graeme the night before but I couldn't have a Hoedown post and not have him on it!!! Great night. Great entertainment. Can't wait until next year for the 20th. Come one, Come all, you will definately have a ball!

Trans Tasman Country Music Festival

Well, the Trans Tasman Country Music Festival is here again in Norfolk Island, and is now in its 19th year. Once again it's been a fantastic week with stars flying in from Australia and New Zealand. Let's have a peek at the week.

 Rawson Hall looked amazing. You can't actually see Dids and George's decorations but they were beautiful and received many, many comments.  Tzarn, Corinna and I were given fantastic seats on the balcony ~ thanks Jen Jen ~ so we were up in the Gods. Great seats but not too good for my (Dids) little camera

 So, huge thanks to Jo Snell, the Festival's professional photographer for allowing me to use a couple of her shots for the blog. This is Jo's photo of the prize winners. Hayley Smith won the main award ~ and please note that the prize Dids made 19 years ago is still alive and well. Great win for Hayley and we feel proud also because she's George Smith's niece and has some of Fletcher Christian's blood pumping through her system, so naturally, we take alot of credit for her voice, even though one of her winning numbers was Like My Mother Does!

 Another thanks to Jo Snell for this photo also. This is the Kiwi Band with Sharyn McIntyre and Rosemary Hack, professionally known as Echo in Harmony. These ladies are fantastic (and a little bit naughty!) Paddy, is Rosemary's partner and not usually a member of the band but he flew in and his pedal steel added an amazing sound to the weeks entertainment.

 The ever popular Graeme Connors, again delighted the crowds with his music, his singing and his amazing words. His songs are internationally known and particularly loved in Norfolk, especially our own Norfolk Pine. Although, Pacifica and Let the Cane Fields Burn run a close second followed by Beach House in the Blue Mountains and, and, and....  I could go on and on here. This shot is thanks to Dids who took my (his) camera and went up close and personal to the stage

 ...and again. Here's Graeme charming the crowds who were most reluctant for him to leave and called for an encore with great enthusiasm

 Graeme again, and again, thanks to Jo Snell. He also ~ as did many of the others ~ went to the school and gave the kids a day to remember

 Up in the Gods and my (Dids) camera can't take the long shots, so I victimised those close to me. Wendy and Barry immersed in the music

 Though Wendy still had time to check out everything else that was happening in the hall!!!

 This is my pitiful attempt at taking a photo of the entertainers. You can see why I'm not uploading any of them!

 Graeme crooning to the crowds who were totally mesmerised. Good on ya Connors

 Graeme and Lyn up in the Gods enjoying some of the other entertainers. Fantastic to see you again Lyn. Alma has promised that we'll be visiting Burp! one day. Can't wait.

I stuck Tzarn in the middle of them so that I can send this to Chels! Hi Baby. Both Graeme and Lyn, and Sharyn sends you their love.

William

 You may recall that Sarah recently gave Duane another gift. This one was a little different because...well...it was alive! William joined the family and then promptly ran under the floor causing great irritation and stress, confusion and upset to the humans in the House. Fortunately after some time ~ three days or so ~ William re-appeared and in the intervening days had decided that he owned the whole domain. This opinion has stayed with him. Sarah is seen here trying to pose him for the camera. It's not working!

So Duane took over. However, as you can see from the pics, William has a mind of his own, and it is currently totally centred on tasting the green cake! He didn't get to it whilst I was there, but I have absolutely no doubt that one of them would have given him a piece!

Sunday night and celebrating still

The family couldn't quite make it Norfolk Blue on Saturday night, but nothing was going to stop them gathering at Aunty Rozzie's on Sunday night. Aunty Joy made a scrummy chocolate cake with her scrummy chocolate icing, and despite three of us having huge pieces of green birthday cake all afternoon, we still managed to do justice to Aunty Joy's scrumplicious cake. Everyone bought along a plate or four and we managed to quite neatly polish off the lot. Hopefully, Sarah took more photos so that I can post one for you to look at. The Quintal Tribe eating en masse is definately a sight to behold.

19 and still celebrating

 Sunday and Duane headed off to work. He returned at 1pm and not long thereafter Sarah turned up. She had spent a very very busy morning indeed. The ingredients are shown above!

 From those ingredients a cake was formed and placed into the oven to become that beautiful golden brown, so sought after by all good chefs, and those whose job it is to partake of such.

 Golden brown and almost ready to be fully appreciated.

 Some vanilla frosting, some cream and strawberry flavours set inside it, some green (being his Master's favourite colour) fondant, a burst of green fire and two delightfully posed dragons, and the stage is set.

 All required now was the delivery, which went very well indeed.  The visual delight was placed upon the table along with a very interesting box.

 Duane is more than happy to claim his own. The thought of sharing was prominent in his mind as he invited all of us to join him. That is. Saz and me!

 With infinite care he gently carved two very little pieces, before managing to slice and an incredibly large piece for himself.

 The Royal Taster does it again. Any comments my Son. Nom, Nom, Nom.

As you can see from the photo, Sarah's morning was not wasted in the least. The cake was positively delicious and we three had the perfect afternoon, tasting cake and drinking tea. So wish you all could have joined us.

The interesting box. Saz brought him an Ipad. He was ~ needless to say ~ on top of his own little world!

Duane turns 19

Duane has hit the 19 year mark and as the Country Music Festival starts on Sunday with the decorating of Rawson Hall etc etc etc we decided to dine on Saturday night. The family were invited but they couldn't make it so Dids and I, Duane and Saz turned up and had a delightful evening of fine food and wine. It really was delicious and started a weekend of celebrations for Duane.

Miss Rylee

Well it's been some time since I last posted. Not that I've been doing swafa, but simply that many of the things I've been busy with, didn't allow room for a camera. We've had cocktails at Government House; Maree's birthday; dinner at Dino's; lunch at Hilli's; some drastic gardening; some massive weeding... and a quantity of others things happening also. But one of the most important things is that Alma received an update photo this morning of Miss Rylee. You have to admit ~ she's absolutely gorgeous! Here she is, admiring herself in the mirror ~ touch of Grand~a~Ma there Lassie!