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 The Mount. 16/3/75. Dear Mum & Dad, We still haven’t got dates of Ordinations yet. Paul Donoghue has his from Bishop Mackie. He will be ordained in Frankton on June 29th – a Sunday. Our dates should be about that time. I think John Owens will be ordained in Onslow, although his parents shifted to Timaru last Christmas. They would know more people up here. We’ve got only about 1 day of grapes left to pick. It could be any time this week or next. We were very lucky with the storm. Some of the vineyards, as you said in your letter, were blown down. But we escaped without any damage. The grapes on our hills are being taken down & made into grassland, because they’ve been replaced by the vineyards on the flat. Fr. Doogan called in here the other day. We are still not back into the Chapel, but should be before Easter. There are a number of visiting days this year. As you know, you can come up most weekends now – except for the first weekends of every month. We have a retreat day then. The common visiting days are Easter Monday (31st March), Monday 19th May, Monday 29th September, Labour Day Monday 27th October. You’ll notice that these are on Mondays. The idea is that it gives a longer weekend if parents want to come on those weekends. You are of course most welcome to come to any of the Easter ceremonies. Even though it would be very nice, I don’t expect you to keep popping up here all this way!! I will be home for 3 weeks in June anyway! [At least I think it’s 3 weeks – not sure]. Today I preached at Mass here. I think it went quite well. I preach again next Wednesday – the Feast of St. Joseph. It’s my week on. We take turns. Well, I can’t think of any more news. I must tidy my room – it’s in a mess. Love from Bruce |