Day together - Blaauwbank Mine

This was taken on a day out together. We went into the country westward. Shortly beyond Magaliesburg is Blaauwbank mine. We meander-drove around the huge area exploring here and there, then stopped and took some photographs.



We drove on to the camping and mining area and wandered around there on foot. We decided not to go on a visit down the mine this time - maybe never.

We drove on for lunch beside the river at Wicker Gardens. Notice how one of the resident cats made itself at home behind my Dad!


I found our periodic visits together like a refreshing oasis to look forward to and a reserve memory to look back on. I'm glad we made these days happen.

Another Pocket Knife

Look what I found! Another more advanced pocket knife. The different accessories are hard to open. I'm sure this was a great advance on the previous one.

Pocket Knife

Pocket knives just weren't what they are now!

I am sure this one served Dad well.

Second World War Medals

Mark Goodger (was a foster child who lived with my parents after I left home and was married) put this together for one of his school projects:

Thanks Mark!

"Since I am the one in the defence forces..." (Ronald is in the Air Force), he is keeper of the Ken and Philippa Powrie Second World War medals.

Handkerchiefs

I was sorting out Dad's Temple Clothes Case. In it I found these three handkerchiefs.

Two of them have "Father's Day 1969" written in clothes marking ink on the seam. 40 years old this year. One of these handkerchiefs particularly shows it's age.

The other has "CKP" machine embroidered in the corner. I remember doing that for Dad when the Temple opened here in 1985. 24 years old this year.

Dad carefully valued gifts given to him.

CLURT

Someone else came and told me about a talk my Dad had given about "CLURT". I thought about it this morning as I sat preparing my Seminary lesson for Thursday.

Jesus reasoned with the Pharisees in Matthew Chapter 12.
In Isaiah 1:18 he says "Come now, and let us reason together..."
In Doctrine and Covenants 50:10 "And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit,... and let us reason together, that ye may understand;"

So CLURT stands for "Come, Let Us Reason Together..."
I try and remember that - expecially when my temper starts to rise above thee out of ten... And I think of my Dad at the same time. I would like to have heard the whole talk!

So What?!

Andre Brummer came to me once and recounted some of a talk my Dad gave once.

"The thing that struck me" said Andre "was his statement 'So What.' So what if you made a million? So what if you made the front page of the newspaper? What do you say about yourself?What will your wife and your children say about you? What will the Lord say about you? THAT is what really matters!"

The Stag

This is the stag bronze sculpture that was in our home through all our years.

It used to have only one antler. The other got lost/broken along the way. My Dad had one of his aquaintances/colleagues carve a new one out of wood, then cast it and another mate out of some lighter metal material. So now there is a single bronze one in a box with the wooden carving of the new one, and the statue has two "replacement" antlers.

This came from my mothers home of origin. The leaf the stag is reaching for used to be straight up. My mother, in her earlier years, felt sorry for the poor stag, so she bent the leaf down so that he could reach it.

Ronald was the only of my siblings to ask for it when I notified them that it was amongst the treasures that came to me, so he has taken it for his home. We can all enjoy it when we visit him.

The Royal Family Visit - 1947

My latest "find"... and I see it was given to me and my brother Tim who was aparently not yet born, from my Dad's sister Aunt Betty and her husband Uncle Wally.

Interesting to read through the souvenir booklet and look at the pictures... Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Swaziland and Lesotho were still part of the Union of South Africa. Apartheid was loosely in place - later . Jan Smuts was the Prime Minister.

I remember the Royal Family visit. I was 2 years old. I remember sitting on my Dad's shoulders, standing amongst those lining Main Reef/Coronation Roads in Krugersdorp, near our home, as the Royal Family drove past. I suppose this is my earliest memory?