Family interests

My father has kept records of the weather - wind direction, rainfall, cloud cover, etc. - for probably 40 years now. He can state that so far this year we have had over 800mm of rain, and there are only 5 other years with that figure since 1972! So if you are feeling it's a bit of a soggy summer so far, you are absolutely right.

My sister is busy transferring all his data from diaries to a computer spreadsheet so that some interesting statistics can become the result of all these years of meticulous record-keeping. He also records every bird he sees and other interesting things every day. His interest in so many areas of life has resulted in all of his children being of a similar bent, and we all belong to numerous organisations and interest groups, because we all like to learn something new all the time.

Fortunately my mother is also interested in keeping records, and she has an amazing collection of diaries of all the holidays they have gone on, something I should have done myself, but have only started rather late in life. As a result, she can look back to see exactly when a particular event happened and what her thoughts were at the time. She is an avid reader and also keeps a note of every book she reads, with a brief critique.

Although Mom has been a housewife all her life, she has never stood back when called upon to lend a hand with church duties, fetes and other organised charitable duties and that has also been passed on to us. There is always great satisfaction to be gained from being of service to others, no matter in what way or how briefly. Although they are both in their 80s now, they are possibly more active than your average middle-aged person and certainly most young ones.

Mom, Dad and my two sisters and I have breakfast somewhere nice every Saturday, as well as seeing each other in between, and I consider it one of the highlights of life - there are not many families of our advanced age who are all still together!