Colin and I went out to an Indian restaurant to celebrate Valentine's Day. We love to eat Indian food. The girls stayed home and had a party--the Rubies girls, Mercy, Meadow, Rashida, Clara and Audrey. They prepared a lovely Valentine's table using the roses Colin gave me as the centerpiece.
Our current Rubies girls--Lauren, Hannah, Chloe and Lindsey.
Sahara and Meadow
Clara and Mercy
Princess Mercy
Princess Meadow
Princess Rashida
Colin and me together.
Iqara playing with Lily in the Above Rubies office.
When the grandchildren come over they like to create things, make houses or dress up. Here Chalice has made a little house out of boxes.
No, it is not a bandit! During the summer I grow loads of peppers--HOT PEPPERS! My African children love to eat hot food, so I grow habanero peppers and hotter than habanero peppers! I grow lots so we have extra to dehydrate and use until next harvest. After dehydrating I keep them in a jar and we grind them up in my coffee grinder as we need them. This is the scary part! They are so hot that whoever is in the kitchen when the grinding begins will start to lose their breath and begin to cough and cough! No one wants the job! This time John is relegated the job because he eats the most peppers! I make our food pretty hot, but he will add at least a tablespoon full or more of these ground peppers on his food at each meal. John is geared up for the job with nose and mouth covered. The person grinding usually wears goggles as well! Who would like to come and enjoy some hot food at our place?
John practicing hip-hop in his bedroom. He is home from Job Corps because of the Kentucky ice-storm which crippled Earle C. Clements. He has been home about three weeks and they are still not ready. The power is on but they are still fixing water pipes.
Mercy with Lily in a lapa.
Anyone need a hair cut? Rashida is brilliant at cutting hair. Here she is styling her Aunty Kate's hair.
Rashida in our lounge--she turned 13 years on the 5 January. 
Rashida, Mercy and Meadow baking together.
They baked chocolate chippie cookies which are Mercy's favorite.
Zadok, the oldest son, reads to his siblings.
Iqara, the youngest, but not for long. Evangeline is expecting No. 10 in June.
Arrow, with their new puppy, still un-named, but I like to think of him as Patch.
Sharar foot-locking in a tree by their home. He is also carrying weights in his backpack. The children do a lot of exciting things in this tree. The boys are always in training. At this stage of their lives, their dream is to become a FREE BURMA RANGER, helping to rescue lives in Burma who are being killed and persecuted by the Burmese government. Or perhaps one day become part of THE DELTA FORCE team, the most elite force in America. It is winter time but the boys often sleep outside--the other night Zadok and Crusoe slept outside when it was only 2 degrees!
Not be outdone, little Sahara does some repelling inside.
My father was one of five boys. Sadly, the youngest son was killed in a saw-milling accident when he was 15 years. All the sons have now passed away, my father being the longest survivor.
My parents were married in Hastings, New Zealand on the 27 March 1940. My mother was a very fast walker. On their wedding day my father said that he had to meet my mother because he could never have caught her! My father was born in Dannevirke, New Zealand on the 23 March 1916 and passed away on the 29 December 2007. My mother was born in Hastings, New Zealand on the 4 January 1916 and passed away 28 January 1999.
The Bowen brothers with their parents and wives.
My parents, Ivan Verdun and Joyce Kathleen Bowen with my grandparents, Walter Eugene and Catherine Rudman Bowen (although my Nana was called Kate by everone). My Granddad passed away on 11 July 1956 and 73 years and my Nana passed away on 20 March 1953 at 64 years.
Our family together at my 21st birthday many years ago! I wore a royal blue velvet dress. I shared my 21st birthday party with a dear friend, Lauris Newton, who wore a red velvet dress of the same pattern. Lauris later became Lauris Lee. and was also my bridesmaid at my wedding. We had over 300 guests. Down in New Zealand the 21st birthday party is the big party of your life where you are given the key to the door of the home! It is actually a symbolic key, many times made of wood, so everyone at the party can sign it.
We grew up in the little town of Te Puke, New Zealand, but after we were married for some time my parents moved to Rotorua where Dad became the entertainer at the Agrodome, the big sheep tourist show in New Zealand. Here are my parents at their 3-level Logwood home looking over Lake Rotorua. It was a beautiful home and we missed it when they built a one-level home in Ngongotaha which was easier for my mother to care for.
This is a wonderful memory from our home in Te Puke, New Zealand. Every year in duck-shooting season my father would come home each morning with his limit bag of ducks. He would hang them up ready to pluck. Back in the early days we didn't have a deep freeze and we would eat stuffed wild ducks every night for the three weeks of duck-shooting season. We loved it. The first night of the season my mother would cook three ducks--a whole one for Dad and the other two for my mother and us three children. It was never quite the same experience in later years when we got a deep freeze and could space the eating of ducks throughout the year. It was quite amazing eating them every night for three weeks! We eventually had two huge deep freezes which my father kept filled with meat--wild duck, turkey, pheasants, venison (he was a great deer-stalker and loved to stalk the deer) and of course lamb (the meat we eat mostly in New Zealand).
My brother Grant, myself and my sister, Kate with our parents. Mother and girls are dressed the same, the dresses all made by my mother.
Notice my father's jacket. Not only did my mother make all her own clothes, but she made my father's trousers and jackets too.
A month or so before my father died. He went to glory on the 29 December, 2007.
I am always thinking of ideas to celebrate. On the 12 February we had a REMEMBERING GRANDDAD AND NANA NIGHT. We all came together to share memories about my parents, Ivan and Joyce Bowen--our children's grandparents and the grandchildren's great-grandparents. Everyone had to share a memory about them. It was a wonderful idea to keep their memory alive, especially in the hearts of the grandchildren. The little ones can only just remember their white-haired great-granddad and most of the grandchildren cannot remember my mother as she passed away 10 years ago. This was an opportunity to help them remember. We enjoyed this evening in our Above Rubies packaging room which we use for all our family gatherings as it fits us all in. However, you will notice that it is still unfinished. It has been sitting like this for well over a year now, but we trust that one day we'll get some extra money to finish it.
Engedi (Serene's daughter) and Autumn Rose (Pearl's daughter).
Autumn Rose posing.
Some of the grandchildren waiting to get started. They are all the greatest friends and more like brothers and sisters.
My sister, Kate wearing a blouse of my mother's, a brooch of my mother's in her beret and a black woollen singlet of my father's.
My sister Kate sharing her memories. She is wearing a blouse of my mother's and a black woollen singlet my father wore when shearing sheep. You will notice she has a bag of goodies beside her.
Out they come one by one. Here she shows everyone my mother's wedding dress. My parents were married in Hastings, New Zealand on the 27th March, 1940.
Here Kate shows a dress my mother made with beautiful beading work. She was a wonderful dressmaker and made all her own clothes, including her own hats. She always dressed like a queen.
Arden takes his turn to share. I am wearing a dress that my mother made for me many years ago. I also gave a quizz of facts about my parents' lives. The children who answered correctly got a packet of peanuts. They really enjoyed this.
Sharar shares. Little Shepherd is in front of him.
The grandchildren are lining up to have their turn to share a memory about their great-granddad Bowen--Meadow, Rashida, Bowen and Arrow.
Bowen, Arrow and Jireh.
Zadok has his turn.
Serene shares her memories of her Granddad and Nana. Little Shepherd climbs up beside her.
Pearl's turn.
What a privilege to be blessed with such a wonderful father.
Dad, at the Agrodome, in Rotorua, New Zealand, where he was the Entertainer for many years and where, even after he retired, he turned up every day to keep an eye on the sheep and to train his sheep dogs.
Demonstrating at Agrodome how his sheep dogs work. With his different whistles he could make the dog take the sheep to the right, to the left or wherever--even between his legs! 
Shearing a sheep blind-folded--not so hard when you have shorn about a million and a half sheep!
