Oncoming Southerly

In a case of what surely must be filed under 'third time lucky', Friday saw me attend my father-in-law's retirement party, held at one of his customer's cropping farm at St Andrew's, south of Timaru.

When I say third time lucky I refer to the fact that this is his third retirement - he is coming up for 82 after all. He retired officially at 60 but then went back to work - twice. There's no keeping the man down as they say.

It was great to see so many of his current and former colleagues from within the grain industry with some heartfelt tributes for him. They all echoed my feelings of a man of great integrity and honesty. There was almost a sense of disbelief of his retirement (mind you, he does have form for coming back so you can hardly blame them!).

After baking in the sun and temperatures in the high twenties, South Canterbury put on a typical Nor'West turns Southerly show with the mercury plummeting as the cooler winds blew swiftly in from the South. After rushing to the truck to get a jacket, I pulled out the Nikon and grabbed this shot of the cooler air flow making its way across the plains of wheat.