Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Bloody photos!!
Some bright spark has upgraded photobucket and now I can't do what I always could do, with my photos!!!!!!!! Sorry is you are on dial up and the page is taking aeons to download. the piccies are huge, even though they are thumbnail size in photobucket. Maybe if I turn the pooter off it will sort itself out. Usually works for me.
An Omnivore's Dilemma
Sitting in bed on a Saturday morning when I really should be up (it’s nearly 9am) but I am using 2 excuses. Firstly, it’s cloudy outside which doesn’t inspire me and secondly, I have a hole on my foot (stood on a nail), which means I can’t walk at the moment. If I was walking I do get up earlier as I don’t like walking when it is warm which it is after 9am (150C at the moment).
I am listening to Kim Hill interviewing Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book on different food systems. It is fascinating and I will definitely read it. He is an American (ex Harpers editor) and I still get shocked at the American attitude to food, and their naivety, or ignorance as to where their food comes from. (Not Pollen’s, he has seen the light!). He describes industrial, organic and forage food systems and talks about Wholefoods, America’s fastest growing supermarket which claims to be organic. So what is organic? According to Wholefoods, and I think American law, it just means no pharmaceuticals and feeding animals organic food. However they still grain feed, keep animals in crowded feedlots and ship food all over the country AND you can buy organic junkfood from them and, get this, organic coca cola is on the way Duh!! Not quite what many of us would call organic. Did you know America only spends 10% of their income on food? No wonder they eat so much of it. They need all the money they don’t spend on food to pay their health bills they incur because they eat so much junk! I have always aspired just being sensible about what we grow/eat (my waistline testifies that I'm better at the grow rather than eat side of things!). We grow food because I want my family to ingest as few chemicals as possible and I like to know that our meat is ‘happy’ meat grown as meat is supposed to be grown. I am not a flag waving greenie (I drive a huge 4x4 and put bleach down my toilet) but come on, we must be able to feed the planet in a more sustainable, safer way than we do now. According to Pollan, organic food production is only 10-20% less productive than full scale industrial production and, there has been almost no research into this method, compared to that that goes into non-organic means of producing food. I am now trying to persuade Eric that we need to tow a chicken coop round the paddocks to follow the cows to eat the maggots in the cow pats (you need to read the book)!!
It’s 6th January, time to take down the Xmas decs and start to get back into the swing of normal life. It’s a bit harder her than in the UK as everyone is in summer hols mode. Eric still has another week off work and the girls have another 5 weeks off. There seems to have been a mass exodus to the beach, the weather has been gorgeous (at last), and in this context I have been trying to work since Wednesday! Not easy! Yesterday Eric took the girls fishing on Lake Rotorua. Eric texted me, ‘We’ve caught nothing but the sun”
He wasn’t wrong. He looked like this when he got home.
I was furious, I had told them about 6 times to put suntan lotion on and none of them did. Harriette has ¾ pants on so only caught it on her face, neck and shoulders, Alice of course was bored and so stayed in the covered bit of the boat sleeping/reading so she wasn’t too bad but Eric! That was his face, you should see the front of his thighs. How stupid can a 40 year old be???
The following day Eric was taking no chances!
Only 40 for a few more days though. Eric’s birthday is on Monday and Sarah’s is on Sunday so I am doing a BBQ for them with the Philips (the Zimbabweans), the rest of the Scotts, and Angela and Rob. 16 of us in all. Gosh I hope the sun shines. The pool could do with some use. I think only H and E have been in so far. As you know it has to be 24 decrees C before I’ll get wet and it is struggling to get to 21 at the moment.
Juliet’s baby is due on the 20th. It feels like the shortest pregnancy ever. Probably because of all the trauma in their lives in the beginning of the pregnancy, and the fact that I am getting older (well aren’t we all) and time is flying past these days. It has been a long time since I have done cooing over baby stuff and I am really looking forward to it. Just hope I can keep the broodiness at bay. It still overwhelms me at times and I struggle with the notion that that era of my life has passed. I always had this deep-rooted conviction that I was destined to have 4 children (boys at that) and still can’t quite believe that I was wrong! Don’t get me wrong, as I have said many times, we have 2 healthy children whom we love desperately and that is 2 more than many people can have, and for that I am eternally grateful but….
I really ought to get up. My veg plot has some gaps in it and I have decided we need more courgette plants so I am going to plant up a bit today. I have spent the week trying to get on top of the weeks which seem to grow 10 times faster than the veggies! Eric is planting fence posts and seems to have planted a random forest of them outside the barn. Some of the planking will go up today which should give it some semblance of order.
I am listening to Kim Hill interviewing Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book on different food systems. It is fascinating and I will definitely read it. He is an American (ex Harpers editor) and I still get shocked at the American attitude to food, and their naivety, or ignorance as to where their food comes from. (Not Pollen’s, he has seen the light!). He describes industrial, organic and forage food systems and talks about Wholefoods, America’s fastest growing supermarket which claims to be organic. So what is organic? According to Wholefoods, and I think American law, it just means no pharmaceuticals and feeding animals organic food. However they still grain feed, keep animals in crowded feedlots and ship food all over the country AND you can buy organic junkfood from them and, get this, organic coca cola is on the way Duh!! Not quite what many of us would call organic. Did you know America only spends 10% of their income on food? No wonder they eat so much of it. They need all the money they don’t spend on food to pay their health bills they incur because they eat so much junk! I have always aspired just being sensible about what we grow/eat (my waistline testifies that I'm better at the grow rather than eat side of things!). We grow food because I want my family to ingest as few chemicals as possible and I like to know that our meat is ‘happy’ meat grown as meat is supposed to be grown. I am not a flag waving greenie (I drive a huge 4x4 and put bleach down my toilet) but come on, we must be able to feed the planet in a more sustainable, safer way than we do now. According to Pollan, organic food production is only 10-20% less productive than full scale industrial production and, there has been almost no research into this method, compared to that that goes into non-organic means of producing food. I am now trying to persuade Eric that we need to tow a chicken coop round the paddocks to follow the cows to eat the maggots in the cow pats (you need to read the book)!!
It’s 6th January, time to take down the Xmas decs and start to get back into the swing of normal life. It’s a bit harder her than in the UK as everyone is in summer hols mode. Eric still has another week off work and the girls have another 5 weeks off. There seems to have been a mass exodus to the beach, the weather has been gorgeous (at last), and in this context I have been trying to work since Wednesday! Not easy! Yesterday Eric took the girls fishing on Lake Rotorua. Eric texted me, ‘We’ve caught nothing but the sun”
He wasn’t wrong. He looked like this when he got home.
I was furious, I had told them about 6 times to put suntan lotion on and none of them did. Harriette has ¾ pants on so only caught it on her face, neck and shoulders, Alice of course was bored and so stayed in the covered bit of the boat sleeping/reading so she wasn’t too bad but Eric! That was his face, you should see the front of his thighs. How stupid can a 40 year old be???
The following day Eric was taking no chances!
Only 40 for a few more days though. Eric’s birthday is on Monday and Sarah’s is on Sunday so I am doing a BBQ for them with the Philips (the Zimbabweans), the rest of the Scotts, and Angela and Rob. 16 of us in all. Gosh I hope the sun shines. The pool could do with some use. I think only H and E have been in so far. As you know it has to be 24 decrees C before I’ll get wet and it is struggling to get to 21 at the moment.
Juliet’s baby is due on the 20th. It feels like the shortest pregnancy ever. Probably because of all the trauma in their lives in the beginning of the pregnancy, and the fact that I am getting older (well aren’t we all) and time is flying past these days. It has been a long time since I have done cooing over baby stuff and I am really looking forward to it. Just hope I can keep the broodiness at bay. It still overwhelms me at times and I struggle with the notion that that era of my life has passed. I always had this deep-rooted conviction that I was destined to have 4 children (boys at that) and still can’t quite believe that I was wrong! Don’t get me wrong, as I have said many times, we have 2 healthy children whom we love desperately and that is 2 more than many people can have, and for that I am eternally grateful but….
I really ought to get up. My veg plot has some gaps in it and I have decided we need more courgette plants so I am going to plant up a bit today. I have spent the week trying to get on top of the weeks which seem to grow 10 times faster than the veggies! Eric is planting fence posts and seems to have planted a random forest of them outside the barn. Some of the planking will go up today which should give it some semblance of order.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Another Christmas
Gosh. Where to start!! Firstly by wishing you all the happiest of New Years. May you rise to the challenges 2007 brings you and we hope many good things come your way. It certainly feels like a good year for us is in store. (I hope they are not famous last words!) Just the fact that Eric is not studying is a good starter.
For my cousins son in a Miami ICU following an accident diving from a beach and now fighting for his life, I pray the New Year brings an improvement in Alex’s condition and that he can be soon flying home with his family and on the way to making a full recovery. Working in ICU for so long you se,e far too often, the way an accident can turn a family up-side-down. It is bad enough having to move into an ICU in your local hospital but to fly across the world and have to camp out in strange accommodation for weeks on end just makes it so much harder. Alex’s parents and 3 siblings are all there so at least they have each other but still what they are going through many of us can hardly begin to imagine.
I am sitting in bed, it’s nearly 9am on the first day of the New Year. We did not stay up last night (we generally don’t ‘do’ NY) but did spend the evening with friends. We had been invited to Hamish and Claires for a curry, along with the Scotts. They are a white Zimbabwean family who left their tobacco farm because of the well-publicised troubles there. They have two daughters, one in Alice and Katherine’s class last year and the other in Sarah’s class, and a pre-school son. Their 2 girls have become great pals with the Scott girls. We met them through Richard and Robyn and have had 2 evenings now where the 13 of us have got together and they have both been thoroughly enjoyable. Hamish and Claire manage a dairy farm just about 18km away from us.
Well the intrepid travellers have left and should just be recovering back in the UK now. Carol (Briggsy) and Milky (Paul) arrived early Dec and after a week here went north then south. I don’t know what was the matter with the girls in that first week but they played up terribly, bickering and arguing like I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m not sure if it was attention seeking or what but I had serious words with them before Carol and Milky returned. They (C+M) swam with dolphins in the Bay of Islands, did white water rafting, horse trekking, flew in a chopper over the glaciers, kayaking, swam with dolphins again, saw whales and a kiwi (the kiwi in the wild well crossing the road, something most kiwis haven’t seen). So they packed plenty in. They came back here on 23rd December. Christmas was, well a bit non-descript really, apart from my yelling at the girls. They really made me cross. You plan for weeks and try so hard to make everything nice, spend a fortune on pressies and come Xmas Day, ask for help putting a meal on the table and get a) ignored, b) “do I have to”, or c) “in a minute”. I must confess that general lack of help spoiled my day. On Xmas Eve evening we had neighbours, and the Stokes here for early evening drinks. The disappointing thing was that one of us (Eric) couldn’t drive as we were going to Midnight Mass, in the big white wood church (St Andrews) in Cambridge. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and really relaxed with the company and a few gins and glasses of wine. So much so that Eric seemed to think I was under the influence and when it came to taking communion Eric said, tongue in cheek, “don’t you think you’ve had enough wine”!!
By the time we got home and put pressies out, a carrot and mince pie for Santa and did all those other parenting things one does, it was 2am before we got to bed. This was on top of the previous 1-2 am bedtimes for the previous 2-3 nights followed by early starts. Christmas day did not start well. Now the girls are usually pretty good Xmas morning, we have almost never done the 4 am starts I remember from my own childhood!! At 8am the door burst open and Alice flew in, totally hyped, yelling “Happy Christmas”, Harriette behind her going “No, Alice No” followed but a groan as she realised she had not stopped her in time and knowing what our reaction would be! They were sent out and told not to return until they came armed with cups of tea. Harriette and I walked in the morning and popped into Jill and John next door to collect parsley for the traditional kedgeree which we finally got on the table for about 11.30am. (Alice was asked to lay the table. She threw place mats on and put the everyday cutlery out and thought that would do for a Christmas breakfast. She was not happy when she was told it wouldn’t!) Mom and Daddy arrived as we were eating and we finally unwrapped pressies in the early afternoon. I got: thin straighteners for my, recently acquired, fringe (which always seems to be pointing to the heavens when I wake each morning), Love perfume, silicone bakeware from Alice (Eric saying when they bought it, “Are you sure Mom will want this” knowing how kitchen stuff is a strict No-No in my eyes. Alice was adamant and this was something I was pleased with.), a book Coast from Bridget, Calender girls DVD from R+R, a big protea bush from Mom and Daddy (I am always cutting blooms from their beautiful bushes when they are in flower), a 1GB chip for my camera from Carol and Milky, the new Brooke Fraser CD, a fabulous car stereo from Eric (the one in the Mistral was seriously budget with no volume, about 3 radio stations and only played tapes). The trouble is the car now has no radiator in it so we haven’t driven anywhere to test it. More later on that.
I find it so hard to come up with something special for Christmas lunch. We eat so well all year and never eat turkey at Christmas as we don’t like it so… what do you eat? We have often had venison in the past but it is so expensive here and pennies being what they are we have not had it very often in NZ. The geese have not produced goslings (well one out of about 22 eggs this year and it died aged two days after a night of heavy rain) so goose was still not on the menu. We have been out of beef for a few months so thought we’d get a beast done and have a nice rib of beef but then we could not get the homekill guy out in time, despite phoning them in October (!!) and Eric has not had time to do it himself so, beef was out. We settled on a surf n’ turf with our lamb (a back half done on the BBQ) and a mixture of seafoods. Eric made a prawn salad (emulating a dish he had when he went out with the firm for their Christmas lunch) and a seafood platter, both very nice. I dug new potatoes and picked peas from the garden (the first crop of both for the year) and we had local asparagus with a homemade hollandaise sauce. The, now traditional, pav followed (with strawberries from the garden), Mom’s wonderful homemade ice cream (Richards moms recipe) and a passionfruit pana cotta (Nigella recipe, but I am sure the gelatine measures were wrong). I also made a Nigella Cossasina (? spelling) Christmas cake and so the overeating began!
I have decided that we will do something very different next year, maybe tramp into the bush and spend Christmas in a DOC (Dept of Conservation) hut!!!
On Boxing Day we had the, again traditional, smoked salmon scrambled eggs and I made salads for our day at Ann and Mikes. We had not been given a specific time but invited ‘for the day’. I was so embarrassed that we got there at 3.30pm. We just couldn’t drag ourselves out of bed after the lack of sleep over the preceeding week. Mike had done a loin of pork, which Eric restuffed and strung for him. They planned to cook it on the rotisserie on the BBQ but were not happy with it so awaited our arrival for Eric’s butchery skills before they would cook it. So, because of us, everyone was starving!!! Why I do not know as Ann had a continuous supply of nibbles! Ann had also done a salmon en croute and Eric had taken some of his home cured smoked ham and a pork pie. Just before dusk Eric and I took a walk on the beach for a much needed break. It was meant to be romantic but Eric talked non-stop, just general rubbish in between complaining that I made him walk in water and that the sand was getting into his sandals. He frequently did Ministry of Funny Walk impressions trying to shake sand out with each step. It was not romantic at all but he had me in stitches. We also spotted some rare birds. They were nesting on the beach and someone had put some pigtails and tape (common sites on farms to control stock but so out of place on a beach, well maybe not a kiwi beach) around the nest site to keep people away. I was amazed that, despite being very close to a campsite, it seemed to be working. I kept thinking that in another country someone would just pinch the eggs or trash the place. It was real pleasure to see these rare birds as the sun was setting. Maybe it was romantic after all.
The 27th was Carols birthday and we bought her the Brooke Fraser CD (she must have guessed as Milky was under instruction not to let her buy it when they were away and she didn’t get it for Christmas) and a fishing licence and took her and Milky to Lake Rotorua. E, C and M went with the boat and the Safari while the girls and I followed a few hours later in the Mistral with camp stove, tea and coffee making stuff and biscuits. We left in sunshine and drove through rain as we passed over the Mamakau’s me thinking I had no raincoats, and into overcast weather in Ngongataha. We made camp under a big tree, texted and waited, and waited! Apparently it was so windy on the lake they made almost no headway and took ages coming in. By the time they did, and had a cup of tea it was too late to take the girls so Eric promised them a fishing trip when I go back to work. Carol caught this:
We needed to get back as we had arranged to take Carol and Milky to Gengy’s in Hamilton where we were meeting The Scotts. We didn’t get there – the radiator gave out in Cambridge. The car has been a bit of a saga this last week or 2. The Friday before Christmas H, A and I were in Matamata where I left H in the car with the aircon and radio on while I picked up shooting goggles and ear defenders for Eric for Christmas. When I came back the battery was dead and I had to wait ages for the guy in the store to have a lull so he could come and jump start me (I carry jump leads). He noticed some water under the car but I assumed (incorrectly as it turned out) that it was fluid from the aircon. I forgot to mention it to Eric as, when he arrived he had this huge, fabulous hamper from work and was busy telling us about the fantastic meal he had had at Longlands, probably Matamata’s poshest restaurant as I examined the hamper contents. That afternoon we went into Hamilton to do last minute bits and a major vegetable shop at the Heaphy Terrace veg shop, called in on J and K on the way back then a final stop at the Countdown in Cambridge. We came out to find all the coolant running down the carpark! The garage over the road provided rags, water and Stop Leak (NZ equivalent to RadWeld) and we go home – late. We went to a party at some people we had met the previous week, arriving at 8.45pm (it started at 6.30pm and we had phoned to say we would be late). We thought it was just a party (bring a plate they said, that means a plate of food) and found it was a full sit down meal!!! Very embarrassing but they made us welcome and had not got as far a puddings. The car did well on the StopLeak, we went to Midnight Mass (20 mins), Ann and Mikes (1hr 15 min away) and Ngongataha (50 mins over the mountains) all with no trouble then overheated, again in Cambridge, on our way to Gengy’s. We abandoned the car at the garage, phoned R+R to say we couldn’t get there and had dinner at the Prince Albert pub. Ironic really as this was where Carol socialised when she worked at Trewlawney stud. R+R joined us for a chat on their way home and, after some RadWeld Eric had found in the garage at home and put in the car, and more water, they followed us back. We went to Tirau for a meal on our anniversary, 15 mins away and it was leaking a bit then so now the radiator is out and waiting for the world to go back to work on Wednesday after the holidays to get a replacement. Add to that at 1am yesterday we were trekking round paddocks trying to find a water leak when we had no water and found that the belt slipped on the water pump, Eric was able to fix, it has been eventful around here.
I have suggested to Eric that now he is qualified and life seems to be settling down we should make some plans and set some goals for the short, medium and long term. The sole goal for years now has been Eric get qualified and get a job!! We have lists of things we/I want to do around the place but it is so long I think we need to prioritise and plan rather than doing them randomly. We were making good progress with this plan until I told Eric I wanted the roof line altered on the bit of the house that contains Harri’s bedroom and my office (we plan to extend that bit again and make some alterations to our room) then it fell apart!! Still we can go back to it. This year’s plan is easy really, financially recover from our UK trip by November and save for Christmas. The following year we want to get the drive done and the shed/workshop/sleepout built which will mean a new septic tank. And so it goes on.
No NY’s resolutions but I do intend to blog a bit more often, I just cannot catch up after 6 weeks.
Wishing you all health, wealth and happiness.
For my cousins son in a Miami ICU following an accident diving from a beach and now fighting for his life, I pray the New Year brings an improvement in Alex’s condition and that he can be soon flying home with his family and on the way to making a full recovery. Working in ICU for so long you se,e far too often, the way an accident can turn a family up-side-down. It is bad enough having to move into an ICU in your local hospital but to fly across the world and have to camp out in strange accommodation for weeks on end just makes it so much harder. Alex’s parents and 3 siblings are all there so at least they have each other but still what they are going through many of us can hardly begin to imagine.
I am sitting in bed, it’s nearly 9am on the first day of the New Year. We did not stay up last night (we generally don’t ‘do’ NY) but did spend the evening with friends. We had been invited to Hamish and Claires for a curry, along with the Scotts. They are a white Zimbabwean family who left their tobacco farm because of the well-publicised troubles there. They have two daughters, one in Alice and Katherine’s class last year and the other in Sarah’s class, and a pre-school son. Their 2 girls have become great pals with the Scott girls. We met them through Richard and Robyn and have had 2 evenings now where the 13 of us have got together and they have both been thoroughly enjoyable. Hamish and Claire manage a dairy farm just about 18km away from us.
Well the intrepid travellers have left and should just be recovering back in the UK now. Carol (Briggsy) and Milky (Paul) arrived early Dec and after a week here went north then south. I don’t know what was the matter with the girls in that first week but they played up terribly, bickering and arguing like I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m not sure if it was attention seeking or what but I had serious words with them before Carol and Milky returned. They (C+M) swam with dolphins in the Bay of Islands, did white water rafting, horse trekking, flew in a chopper over the glaciers, kayaking, swam with dolphins again, saw whales and a kiwi (the kiwi in the wild well crossing the road, something most kiwis haven’t seen). So they packed plenty in. They came back here on 23rd December. Christmas was, well a bit non-descript really, apart from my yelling at the girls. They really made me cross. You plan for weeks and try so hard to make everything nice, spend a fortune on pressies and come Xmas Day, ask for help putting a meal on the table and get a) ignored, b) “do I have to”, or c) “in a minute”. I must confess that general lack of help spoiled my day. On Xmas Eve evening we had neighbours, and the Stokes here for early evening drinks. The disappointing thing was that one of us (Eric) couldn’t drive as we were going to Midnight Mass, in the big white wood church (St Andrews) in Cambridge. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and really relaxed with the company and a few gins and glasses of wine. So much so that Eric seemed to think I was under the influence and when it came to taking communion Eric said, tongue in cheek, “don’t you think you’ve had enough wine”!!
By the time we got home and put pressies out, a carrot and mince pie for Santa and did all those other parenting things one does, it was 2am before we got to bed. This was on top of the previous 1-2 am bedtimes for the previous 2-3 nights followed by early starts. Christmas day did not start well. Now the girls are usually pretty good Xmas morning, we have almost never done the 4 am starts I remember from my own childhood!! At 8am the door burst open and Alice flew in, totally hyped, yelling “Happy Christmas”, Harriette behind her going “No, Alice No” followed but a groan as she realised she had not stopped her in time and knowing what our reaction would be! They were sent out and told not to return until they came armed with cups of tea. Harriette and I walked in the morning and popped into Jill and John next door to collect parsley for the traditional kedgeree which we finally got on the table for about 11.30am. (Alice was asked to lay the table. She threw place mats on and put the everyday cutlery out and thought that would do for a Christmas breakfast. She was not happy when she was told it wouldn’t!) Mom and Daddy arrived as we were eating and we finally unwrapped pressies in the early afternoon. I got: thin straighteners for my, recently acquired, fringe (which always seems to be pointing to the heavens when I wake each morning), Love perfume, silicone bakeware from Alice (Eric saying when they bought it, “Are you sure Mom will want this” knowing how kitchen stuff is a strict No-No in my eyes. Alice was adamant and this was something I was pleased with.), a book Coast from Bridget, Calender girls DVD from R+R, a big protea bush from Mom and Daddy (I am always cutting blooms from their beautiful bushes when they are in flower), a 1GB chip for my camera from Carol and Milky, the new Brooke Fraser CD, a fabulous car stereo from Eric (the one in the Mistral was seriously budget with no volume, about 3 radio stations and only played tapes). The trouble is the car now has no radiator in it so we haven’t driven anywhere to test it. More later on that.
I find it so hard to come up with something special for Christmas lunch. We eat so well all year and never eat turkey at Christmas as we don’t like it so… what do you eat? We have often had venison in the past but it is so expensive here and pennies being what they are we have not had it very often in NZ. The geese have not produced goslings (well one out of about 22 eggs this year and it died aged two days after a night of heavy rain) so goose was still not on the menu. We have been out of beef for a few months so thought we’d get a beast done and have a nice rib of beef but then we could not get the homekill guy out in time, despite phoning them in October (!!) and Eric has not had time to do it himself so, beef was out. We settled on a surf n’ turf with our lamb (a back half done on the BBQ) and a mixture of seafoods. Eric made a prawn salad (emulating a dish he had when he went out with the firm for their Christmas lunch) and a seafood platter, both very nice. I dug new potatoes and picked peas from the garden (the first crop of both for the year) and we had local asparagus with a homemade hollandaise sauce. The, now traditional, pav followed (with strawberries from the garden), Mom’s wonderful homemade ice cream (Richards moms recipe) and a passionfruit pana cotta (Nigella recipe, but I am sure the gelatine measures were wrong). I also made a Nigella Cossasina (? spelling) Christmas cake and so the overeating began!
I have decided that we will do something very different next year, maybe tramp into the bush and spend Christmas in a DOC (Dept of Conservation) hut!!!
On Boxing Day we had the, again traditional, smoked salmon scrambled eggs and I made salads for our day at Ann and Mikes. We had not been given a specific time but invited ‘for the day’. I was so embarrassed that we got there at 3.30pm. We just couldn’t drag ourselves out of bed after the lack of sleep over the preceeding week. Mike had done a loin of pork, which Eric restuffed and strung for him. They planned to cook it on the rotisserie on the BBQ but were not happy with it so awaited our arrival for Eric’s butchery skills before they would cook it. So, because of us, everyone was starving!!! Why I do not know as Ann had a continuous supply of nibbles! Ann had also done a salmon en croute and Eric had taken some of his home cured smoked ham and a pork pie. Just before dusk Eric and I took a walk on the beach for a much needed break. It was meant to be romantic but Eric talked non-stop, just general rubbish in between complaining that I made him walk in water and that the sand was getting into his sandals. He frequently did Ministry of Funny Walk impressions trying to shake sand out with each step. It was not romantic at all but he had me in stitches. We also spotted some rare birds. They were nesting on the beach and someone had put some pigtails and tape (common sites on farms to control stock but so out of place on a beach, well maybe not a kiwi beach) around the nest site to keep people away. I was amazed that, despite being very close to a campsite, it seemed to be working. I kept thinking that in another country someone would just pinch the eggs or trash the place. It was real pleasure to see these rare birds as the sun was setting. Maybe it was romantic after all.
The 27th was Carols birthday and we bought her the Brooke Fraser CD (she must have guessed as Milky was under instruction not to let her buy it when they were away and she didn’t get it for Christmas) and a fishing licence and took her and Milky to Lake Rotorua. E, C and M went with the boat and the Safari while the girls and I followed a few hours later in the Mistral with camp stove, tea and coffee making stuff and biscuits. We left in sunshine and drove through rain as we passed over the Mamakau’s me thinking I had no raincoats, and into overcast weather in Ngongataha. We made camp under a big tree, texted and waited, and waited! Apparently it was so windy on the lake they made almost no headway and took ages coming in. By the time they did, and had a cup of tea it was too late to take the girls so Eric promised them a fishing trip when I go back to work. Carol caught this:
We needed to get back as we had arranged to take Carol and Milky to Gengy’s in Hamilton where we were meeting The Scotts. We didn’t get there – the radiator gave out in Cambridge. The car has been a bit of a saga this last week or 2. The Friday before Christmas H, A and I were in Matamata where I left H in the car with the aircon and radio on while I picked up shooting goggles and ear defenders for Eric for Christmas. When I came back the battery was dead and I had to wait ages for the guy in the store to have a lull so he could come and jump start me (I carry jump leads). He noticed some water under the car but I assumed (incorrectly as it turned out) that it was fluid from the aircon. I forgot to mention it to Eric as, when he arrived he had this huge, fabulous hamper from work and was busy telling us about the fantastic meal he had had at Longlands, probably Matamata’s poshest restaurant as I examined the hamper contents. That afternoon we went into Hamilton to do last minute bits and a major vegetable shop at the Heaphy Terrace veg shop, called in on J and K on the way back then a final stop at the Countdown in Cambridge. We came out to find all the coolant running down the carpark! The garage over the road provided rags, water and Stop Leak (NZ equivalent to RadWeld) and we go home – late. We went to a party at some people we had met the previous week, arriving at 8.45pm (it started at 6.30pm and we had phoned to say we would be late). We thought it was just a party (bring a plate they said, that means a plate of food) and found it was a full sit down meal!!! Very embarrassing but they made us welcome and had not got as far a puddings. The car did well on the StopLeak, we went to Midnight Mass (20 mins), Ann and Mikes (1hr 15 min away) and Ngongataha (50 mins over the mountains) all with no trouble then overheated, again in Cambridge, on our way to Gengy’s. We abandoned the car at the garage, phoned R+R to say we couldn’t get there and had dinner at the Prince Albert pub. Ironic really as this was where Carol socialised when she worked at Trewlawney stud. R+R joined us for a chat on their way home and, after some RadWeld Eric had found in the garage at home and put in the car, and more water, they followed us back. We went to Tirau for a meal on our anniversary, 15 mins away and it was leaking a bit then so now the radiator is out and waiting for the world to go back to work on Wednesday after the holidays to get a replacement. Add to that at 1am yesterday we were trekking round paddocks trying to find a water leak when we had no water and found that the belt slipped on the water pump, Eric was able to fix, it has been eventful around here.
I have suggested to Eric that now he is qualified and life seems to be settling down we should make some plans and set some goals for the short, medium and long term. The sole goal for years now has been Eric get qualified and get a job!! We have lists of things we/I want to do around the place but it is so long I think we need to prioritise and plan rather than doing them randomly. We were making good progress with this plan until I told Eric I wanted the roof line altered on the bit of the house that contains Harri’s bedroom and my office (we plan to extend that bit again and make some alterations to our room) then it fell apart!! Still we can go back to it. This year’s plan is easy really, financially recover from our UK trip by November and save for Christmas. The following year we want to get the drive done and the shed/workshop/sleepout built which will mean a new septic tank. And so it goes on.
No NY’s resolutions but I do intend to blog a bit more often, I just cannot catch up after 6 weeks.
Wishing you all health, wealth and happiness.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Birthdays and Anniversaries
I will not get up. I won’t! This week we have dragged ourselves out of bed every morning and kept telling ourselves that Saturday was coming and we could lie in bed as long as we wanted and sleep in. Well now it is Saturday and, Yes you’ve guessed it, ‘ping’ wide awake at 6.10am. But I will not get up on principle. Not one to waste time I have decided to blog. (Yes Carol a laptop has big advantages and would make a jolly nice Xmas pressie!!). Eric is progressing well at work, or seems to be. Colleagues uttered surprise that he had not worked in a law office before when discussing a new grad who had been canvassing for work this week. Obviously being an aged graduate they assumed he had some pre-grad law office experience. He is seriously exhausted every night though and obviously on a huge learning curve.
A slightly less hectic weekend is on the agenda this week. Last Sunday was Mom’s 70th birthday and I had offered to cater for a BBQ at their house. I was really happy to do it but it felt a much bigger responsibility than catering on the same scale for my friends here. I so wanted to get it right, and of course I had that ever-nagging worry that there wouldn’t be enough food (I can hear the comments now - The Tanners are not renowned for underfeeding their guests!). Anyway I did a triple layers pavlova (with strawberries from the garden), a huge chocolate cheesecake (recipe off the philly cheese box), truffle torte (Delia’s), trifle (another Delia, the one with home made custard, half a bottle of sherry and raspberries), rice, green and cauliflower salads. A few people also bought salads and we had enough to feed an army! I made a golf themed cake (what else) and the day went very well. We gave Mom a voucher for something she wanted and flowers but I wanted her to have something to unwrap on the day and found what I thought was a very tasteful pressie in ‘Cabbages and Kings’ in Tauranga. A necklace hanger. You may have seen them, they are like a clothed dressmakers manikin, about 18” high but with twisted metal instead of a head and arms, on which to hang ones necklaces. That’s a rubbish description I’ll get a picture! In fact I will have to get a picture as the girls said I must canvas blog reader opinions. I really liked it. Bought it home, proudly assembled it on the kitchen table, chuffed I had found the perfect gift, tasteful, unusual etc, and waited for the ‘gosh that’s nice’ comments that would surely emit from my family when they came home from work/school. Harriette first, ‘God what’s that, it’s gross’ (gross said with huge emphasis), followed by Alice’s ‘That’s horrible it’s not for us is it’. When I explained they said ‘Oh that’s alright, Grandma will like it’!!! Eric had it planted firmly in front of him and told by Harriette ‘Now Dad, what do you think of this, it’s Grandmas present? It’s for hanging necklaces’ said, with an eyebrow raised ‘Well it’s (pause) different. Grandma will like it’!!! Of course this caused great hilarity and the questioning was put to many guests at the BBQ. ‘Interesting’ was added to ‘different’ but generally they summed up the responses. Emma really liked it (one child with taste anyway), as did Kev though he had to deliberate before he came to that conclusion. And Mom’s response? “Different”!! I’m not convinced she like it though she said she did, but at least in the years to come she will remember the day she received it and the laughter it caused. (PS Eric, I later found out, told the girls they weren’t to buy me one as he didn’t want to have to look at it every day!!!!!!). The day was a success I think and, although it was hard work and I am glad it is done, I was really pleased that Mom was here that I could do it for her. (Just re-read that, what I meant was ‘here’ as in NZ, not ‘here’ as in walking this mortal coil still. Just needed to clarify that!)
The previous week I was in Tauranga teaching in their ED. Just a short session early in the morning. Well at 7.30am I rang Mandy to see if she would be around for a coffee afterwards. A sleepy Mandy answered the phone (very unusual Mandy’s an earlybird). ‘Did I wake you?’ ‘I’m in China.’ Now it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if we are awake down here then you will be asleep!! So coffee was obviously was out. Mandy had recently been on Dragons Den and got her $100 000 for a building site safety rail (King Klamps, it’s got a website but I can’t do links. Bridget please show me how when you come home) so I assumed this was a spin off from that. Turns out is wasn’t quite, but she was on the big trade delegation that’s just gone to China from NZ and was being treated like royalty. (I managed to catch up with her when I went to Tauranga this week for the same thing). It was a hugely successful trip, far more so that she expected and she is going out there again before Xmas. I am so pleased for her.
I have just been reminded of something that happened last night which I have to blog. (Harriette has just wandered in, book in hand, she is obviously looking for a cuddle). (Pause here while she climbs into bed and rips the duvet of us). We had friends for dinner last night (more on that in a mo). During the evening their son announced there was a mouse in the dining room. Now we are all country folk so this was no big deal. The cat was bought in (she had actually bought the flippin mouse in earlier in the day and lost it) and the magazine pile dismantled where it was hiding. Needless to say Feral was useless and the mouse disappeared into Harriette’s bedroom. Come bedtime Harriette got up (she had been in our bed again for more cuddles), and walked to the door adjoining her room with ours with Eric saying ‘Mind the mouse’ and other similar comments. This obviously psyched her up and as she opened the door she screamed, loudly! Her black school bag, which was propped in top of her sax case and leaning against the door fell in and scared the living daylights out of her!!!
Dinner. During the winter we became friendly with Angela and Rob, parents of Rebecca, Harriette’s friend, and Chris (13). Netball season finishes right in the peak of calving so an invite to dinner at that stage is not appropriate. We said we would have them over after calving but by the time I had asked them I had missed the window in the dairying calendar and now they were into AB-ing. We therefore booked a date well in advance, which was last night. I decided to do an Indian meal, which I later realised this was a mistake for a Friday evening meal, far too time consuming when I am supposed to be working. Anyway, it was a big success. They really enjoyed it and kept coming back for more (always a good indicator I think). They also spoilt us with bottles of nice wine and Belgian chocolates. The Apple Betty and Tiramasu will be finished tonight as we are going to R+R’s for a BBQ (far too good friends to mind half finished puddings being bought round!!). Rob and Angela are really good company and Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
It’s five years tomorrow since we arrived in NZ. We try to celebrate our anniversary’s with a fish and chip supper on the beach at Papamoa (this is what we did on our first day here). It doesn’t always come off, because of rain. Wet looks promising for tomorrow but as it’s not a weekday I think we’ll do it anyway. I am not good at reflection (for too much of a doing person) but it is a good time to look back on our first 5 years in NZ. All-in-all, and without a doubt, it is the best decision we ever made in life, and true to our style, (well mine anyway) it was a decision made with very little fore-thought. We (I) just acted on gut instinct. The glorious sunrise and fabulous weather on our first day I felt was a good omen, and in hindsight, I was right. I missed: Radio 4, IKEA, decent supermarkets, Tescos maple and walnut ice cream and, of course, our friends/family’s. Some of those have been addressed. National Radio here found an FM frequency and either they became more professional, or we got used to their ways (I fear the latter is true). IKEA shopping has been managed with visitors bring required items out in suitcases (or containers!). The supermarkets have been dragged from the 70’s into the 90’s here and are improving all the time. And friends/family, well we have been fortunate to have had many visitors (especially in that first 2 years), some even have been out twice, and we have other friends who are promising trips at some time. Inevitably there are some who will not get here, unless they win the lottery (!), but of course we will be able to catch up with them next July. Unfortunately I haven’t found an importer of that specific ice cream yet but 4 out of 5 ain’t bad.
Undoubtedly the biggest problem has been the battle Eric has had to qualify. The odds are stacked against law grads coming here and getting qualified and I still believe something should be done about it. This has meant we have been more broke and for longer than we expected and that has been really hard. We have ridden that storm though and, hopefully, are coming out the other side now. At least he is on the ladder now and hopefully in 2 or 3 years his salary will start to resemble something reasonable. As I keep telling the girls we should be right as they leave home then we can spend it all on ourselves!!!!
NZ is a fabulous place to live and fits our ideals perfectly. Why anyone would live anywhere else I cannot imagine.
A slightly less hectic weekend is on the agenda this week. Last Sunday was Mom’s 70th birthday and I had offered to cater for a BBQ at their house. I was really happy to do it but it felt a much bigger responsibility than catering on the same scale for my friends here. I so wanted to get it right, and of course I had that ever-nagging worry that there wouldn’t be enough food (I can hear the comments now - The Tanners are not renowned for underfeeding their guests!). Anyway I did a triple layers pavlova (with strawberries from the garden), a huge chocolate cheesecake (recipe off the philly cheese box), truffle torte (Delia’s), trifle (another Delia, the one with home made custard, half a bottle of sherry and raspberries), rice, green and cauliflower salads. A few people also bought salads and we had enough to feed an army! I made a golf themed cake (what else) and the day went very well. We gave Mom a voucher for something she wanted and flowers but I wanted her to have something to unwrap on the day and found what I thought was a very tasteful pressie in ‘Cabbages and Kings’ in Tauranga. A necklace hanger. You may have seen them, they are like a clothed dressmakers manikin, about 18” high but with twisted metal instead of a head and arms, on which to hang ones necklaces. That’s a rubbish description I’ll get a picture! In fact I will have to get a picture as the girls said I must canvas blog reader opinions. I really liked it. Bought it home, proudly assembled it on the kitchen table, chuffed I had found the perfect gift, tasteful, unusual etc, and waited for the ‘gosh that’s nice’ comments that would surely emit from my family when they came home from work/school. Harriette first, ‘God what’s that, it’s gross’ (gross said with huge emphasis), followed by Alice’s ‘That’s horrible it’s not for us is it’. When I explained they said ‘Oh that’s alright, Grandma will like it’!!! Eric had it planted firmly in front of him and told by Harriette ‘Now Dad, what do you think of this, it’s Grandmas present? It’s for hanging necklaces’ said, with an eyebrow raised ‘Well it’s (pause) different. Grandma will like it’!!! Of course this caused great hilarity and the questioning was put to many guests at the BBQ. ‘Interesting’ was added to ‘different’ but generally they summed up the responses. Emma really liked it (one child with taste anyway), as did Kev though he had to deliberate before he came to that conclusion. And Mom’s response? “Different”!! I’m not convinced she like it though she said she did, but at least in the years to come she will remember the day she received it and the laughter it caused. (PS Eric, I later found out, told the girls they weren’t to buy me one as he didn’t want to have to look at it every day!!!!!!). The day was a success I think and, although it was hard work and I am glad it is done, I was really pleased that Mom was here that I could do it for her. (Just re-read that, what I meant was ‘here’ as in NZ, not ‘here’ as in walking this mortal coil still. Just needed to clarify that!)
The previous week I was in Tauranga teaching in their ED. Just a short session early in the morning. Well at 7.30am I rang Mandy to see if she would be around for a coffee afterwards. A sleepy Mandy answered the phone (very unusual Mandy’s an earlybird). ‘Did I wake you?’ ‘I’m in China.’ Now it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if we are awake down here then you will be asleep!! So coffee was obviously was out. Mandy had recently been on Dragons Den and got her $100 000 for a building site safety rail (King Klamps, it’s got a website but I can’t do links. Bridget please show me how when you come home) so I assumed this was a spin off from that. Turns out is wasn’t quite, but she was on the big trade delegation that’s just gone to China from NZ and was being treated like royalty. (I managed to catch up with her when I went to Tauranga this week for the same thing). It was a hugely successful trip, far more so that she expected and she is going out there again before Xmas. I am so pleased for her.
I have just been reminded of something that happened last night which I have to blog. (Harriette has just wandered in, book in hand, she is obviously looking for a cuddle). (Pause here while she climbs into bed and rips the duvet of us). We had friends for dinner last night (more on that in a mo). During the evening their son announced there was a mouse in the dining room. Now we are all country folk so this was no big deal. The cat was bought in (she had actually bought the flippin mouse in earlier in the day and lost it) and the magazine pile dismantled where it was hiding. Needless to say Feral was useless and the mouse disappeared into Harriette’s bedroom. Come bedtime Harriette got up (she had been in our bed again for more cuddles), and walked to the door adjoining her room with ours with Eric saying ‘Mind the mouse’ and other similar comments. This obviously psyched her up and as she opened the door she screamed, loudly! Her black school bag, which was propped in top of her sax case and leaning against the door fell in and scared the living daylights out of her!!!
Dinner. During the winter we became friendly with Angela and Rob, parents of Rebecca, Harriette’s friend, and Chris (13). Netball season finishes right in the peak of calving so an invite to dinner at that stage is not appropriate. We said we would have them over after calving but by the time I had asked them I had missed the window in the dairying calendar and now they were into AB-ing. We therefore booked a date well in advance, which was last night. I decided to do an Indian meal, which I later realised this was a mistake for a Friday evening meal, far too time consuming when I am supposed to be working. Anyway, it was a big success. They really enjoyed it and kept coming back for more (always a good indicator I think). They also spoilt us with bottles of nice wine and Belgian chocolates. The Apple Betty and Tiramasu will be finished tonight as we are going to R+R’s for a BBQ (far too good friends to mind half finished puddings being bought round!!). Rob and Angela are really good company and Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
It’s five years tomorrow since we arrived in NZ. We try to celebrate our anniversary’s with a fish and chip supper on the beach at Papamoa (this is what we did on our first day here). It doesn’t always come off, because of rain. Wet looks promising for tomorrow but as it’s not a weekday I think we’ll do it anyway. I am not good at reflection (for too much of a doing person) but it is a good time to look back on our first 5 years in NZ. All-in-all, and without a doubt, it is the best decision we ever made in life, and true to our style, (well mine anyway) it was a decision made with very little fore-thought. We (I) just acted on gut instinct. The glorious sunrise and fabulous weather on our first day I felt was a good omen, and in hindsight, I was right. I missed: Radio 4, IKEA, decent supermarkets, Tescos maple and walnut ice cream and, of course, our friends/family’s. Some of those have been addressed. National Radio here found an FM frequency and either they became more professional, or we got used to their ways (I fear the latter is true). IKEA shopping has been managed with visitors bring required items out in suitcases (or containers!). The supermarkets have been dragged from the 70’s into the 90’s here and are improving all the time. And friends/family, well we have been fortunate to have had many visitors (especially in that first 2 years), some even have been out twice, and we have other friends who are promising trips at some time. Inevitably there are some who will not get here, unless they win the lottery (!), but of course we will be able to catch up with them next July. Unfortunately I haven’t found an importer of that specific ice cream yet but 4 out of 5 ain’t bad.
Undoubtedly the biggest problem has been the battle Eric has had to qualify. The odds are stacked against law grads coming here and getting qualified and I still believe something should be done about it. This has meant we have been more broke and for longer than we expected and that has been really hard. We have ridden that storm though and, hopefully, are coming out the other side now. At least he is on the ladder now and hopefully in 2 or 3 years his salary will start to resemble something reasonable. As I keep telling the girls we should be right as they leave home then we can spend it all on ourselves!!!!
NZ is a fabulous place to live and fits our ideals perfectly. Why anyone would live anywhere else I cannot imagine.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
We're Booked!
Booked flights today for our UK trip. Leave here on 29th June and arrive back on 27th July. 2 nights stopover in Singapore on the way back and enough air points to fly each of us to a pacific island, or Australia (and back) later. All that is for the equivilent to just under 3 months of my salary. So, I am now planning our itinery. When can we come and see you??? We will be based in Kent, London and Shropshire and going to Chestershire (Eric's parents), Bath (Eric's brother), Cheltenham (Louise), Leistershire and Darbyshire (Mark, Donna, Mark and Cheryl), Paris and Cornwall (I want to go to the Eden project) etc etc. Have to be in Kent for 3rd and 20th July (the girls birthdays). Otherwise we are free to fit in with people there!!! It's all beginning to seem real now and I am starting to get excited.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
London here we come - well nearly
I have sooo much to do. I am behind on emails, blog, and general indoor stuff (I never did get to the accounts over Labour weekend). I am also trying to get the lawn in front of the cottage re-seeded (still in a mess after I removed a camelia and re-leveled the area, the seed planted last summer got washed away with rain and has not been replaced), have decided I want to paint some bits missed when Harriette’s extension was done (yes I know that was 4 years ago) and am trying to finish the painting in the kitchen that was never finished after that was extended (all needs a 2nd coat etc). I really would like to take some leave (I need it anyway) but am not sure how much leave I have and have to keep a month back for July. We only get 3 weeks leave here (I miss my 5 week UK allocation!). I also have Mom’s 70th birthday next weekend which I am catering for (which of course I am only to pleased to do) and had booked a days leave on Friday but that has been partially swallowed by a leaving lunch for a colleague in Rotorua.
Today we are off to a flights expo in Hamilton where I expect we will book our UK trip so watch this space! Harriette has a busy day, gym followed by swimming with her friends (it’s Kylies birthday), McDonald’s lunch (yuk) to Kylies for the afternoon then stockcar racing in the evening in Tauranga. All good except I have to pick her up in Matamata at 11pm!! Roll on her 15th birthday when she can drive (maybe not, I’ll be worried sick for her). Alice is going to come into Hamilton with us but I will drop her at Juliet and Kev’s so she can spend the time with Emma. J + K moved into their rented house 2 weeks ago and it is great, I can pop in for a coffee frequently as I am out and about in Hamilton between 1 and 3 days a week. They have recovered from their traumas of earlier in the year now and are back on track. Kev is working from home auditing a hotel chain (which obviously means weeks away at a time), Juliet’s pregnancy is going well and the girls are thrilled to be 15 minutes from schools rather than the 1 and ½ hours away as they were before in Glen Murray. Kev pointed out how ironic it was that they are outdoors more now. You buy a rural property to give your kids space for an outdoor life and they live indoors reading on the pooter etc. Move to town and they are out all the time. It’s worth getting the bikes out as there are places to bike to; library, friends round the corner, shops etc. J+K say they never see the girls now.
It looks like a nice weekend so I am hoping that it stays that way so I can blitz the drive tomorrow. I want to make sure there is no fallen branches etc in case Carol decides to light fires!!! She and Milky arrive in 4 weeks and we are all on countdown here! Everyone is very excited.
Oh well, time to get up I suppose. If I am going to be in the garden at the weekends I don’t walk but I don’t have that excuse today so I’d better pull on my walking togs and get going. I MUST buy myself some descent shoes, my trainers are very cheap and aweful!
Today we are off to a flights expo in Hamilton where I expect we will book our UK trip so watch this space! Harriette has a busy day, gym followed by swimming with her friends (it’s Kylies birthday), McDonald’s lunch (yuk) to Kylies for the afternoon then stockcar racing in the evening in Tauranga. All good except I have to pick her up in Matamata at 11pm!! Roll on her 15th birthday when she can drive (maybe not, I’ll be worried sick for her). Alice is going to come into Hamilton with us but I will drop her at Juliet and Kev’s so she can spend the time with Emma. J + K moved into their rented house 2 weeks ago and it is great, I can pop in for a coffee frequently as I am out and about in Hamilton between 1 and 3 days a week. They have recovered from their traumas of earlier in the year now and are back on track. Kev is working from home auditing a hotel chain (which obviously means weeks away at a time), Juliet’s pregnancy is going well and the girls are thrilled to be 15 minutes from schools rather than the 1 and ½ hours away as they were before in Glen Murray. Kev pointed out how ironic it was that they are outdoors more now. You buy a rural property to give your kids space for an outdoor life and they live indoors reading on the pooter etc. Move to town and they are out all the time. It’s worth getting the bikes out as there are places to bike to; library, friends round the corner, shops etc. J+K say they never see the girls now.
It looks like a nice weekend so I am hoping that it stays that way so I can blitz the drive tomorrow. I want to make sure there is no fallen branches etc in case Carol decides to light fires!!! She and Milky arrive in 4 weeks and we are all on countdown here! Everyone is very excited.
Oh well, time to get up I suppose. If I am going to be in the garden at the weekends I don’t walk but I don’t have that excuse today so I’d better pull on my walking togs and get going. I MUST buy myself some descent shoes, my trainers are very cheap and aweful!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Champions
Firstly, and mostest important, we won the rugby. Waikato beat Wellington in the final of the NPC. We have only ever won once before way back in the 90’s and we had the semi’s and the final on home turf to boot. It was an exciting game, the Mooloo’s came out all guns blazing and played at a pace that looked unsustainable. There were some silly errors and scrappy play at times but the scrum was solid and the lineouts awesome. Waikato people are passionate supporters of their rugby and this was on full display. I tried, half heartedly I have to say, to get tickets. I say half heartedly as the weather forecast was not good and Helen and Phil had offered to have us over to watch it on their enormous TV. Anyway, the website was not co-operating when I tried to book and I gave up. We had already watched the semi-finals with Helen and Phil as it coincided with a barbi we had already arranged to have at theirs. I took upper with us, Delias Chicken Basque and a crème caramel. Our chook are laying well so eggs will be a feature of our diet for the next few months. Chooks mean lots of pavlovas, lemon meringue pies and home made lemon curd!! Between Robyn and Mom lemons are nearly always in good supply.
I am so pleased with the progress being made in the veg plot. Eric has almost finished the fencing. Although a relatively short bit on fencing in relation to the rest of the block, about 60m in all, it has 2 gates and 4 corners(!), which means lots of strainer posts. Each strainer post means a hole 1.2m deep and we live on the hardest clay you could imagine. He has worked so hard on this and I am really grateful. I do feel a bit bad as I offered several times to help dig holes but then got distracted with my own work in the garden. I have sorted much of irrigation system and started to weed the strawberries, finding hundreds of fruit in there, a few of them already red. Unfortunately the slugs have also found them!! I am so tempted to use slug bait but this goes against all my near-organic principles (I say ‘near organic’ as I’ll use anything to kill the beetles that have decimated my fruit trees in the last few years, and I use week killer on the drive). The broad beans are looking great but I think I should have planted a second row. I put some warratahs in to put the supports through. I had to fight Eric for them as he is very protective of his fencing stuff and always insists his need is greater than mine! The potatoes are looking good as are the first lots of brassicas and beetroot that I put in. The dwarf beans are looking less than healthy, and I need to look up why. I am now putting in the brassicas that I planted in seed trays. We are going to be so over run with cauliflower, broccoli and broccoflower in a few months!!! I put the courgettes in yesterday and when the chooks have finished eating their way through the weeds I’ll get all the pumpkins in. ALL the peas have germinated but we will see if they grow to descent size. I usually produce pathetic sized plants that manage one pea pod each! I bought some aubergine plants yesterday and several different types of basil. I love the smell of basil. I have also been working in the orchard, watering trees for an hour each and clearing the base of the trees. I have been laying the sheep dags around the base to feed and mulch them. Trouble is the bl***y dogs come along and poke their snouts in through the tree guards and drag out the dags to chew on – disgusting creatures. We have marked off a section in the veg plot to make into a fruit plot. This is in addition to what I have as making the whole plot square meant incorporating a section of paddock not already cultivated. I have put black plastic over it at the moment and will till it, edge it and add more topsoil before planting. I put a raspberry plant in the veg plot about 2 years ago which has sent off tens of runners but I am loathe to dig them up and plant them where I want them as they have yet to produce any fruit. I’ll leave them and see what happens this year.
I didn’t mention that it is a public holiday today - hence it is raining!! Oh well at least it means I have been able to write this. With the longer days now I would have been in the garden (at 8.30am). Labour Day weekend is viewed here as the traditional start to summer (so like an August BH in the UK you can almost guarantee rain). I suppose that means I have no excuse for not doing the household accounts and other boring stuff indoors today!
I am so pleased with the progress being made in the veg plot. Eric has almost finished the fencing. Although a relatively short bit on fencing in relation to the rest of the block, about 60m in all, it has 2 gates and 4 corners(!), which means lots of strainer posts. Each strainer post means a hole 1.2m deep and we live on the hardest clay you could imagine. He has worked so hard on this and I am really grateful. I do feel a bit bad as I offered several times to help dig holes but then got distracted with my own work in the garden. I have sorted much of irrigation system and started to weed the strawberries, finding hundreds of fruit in there, a few of them already red. Unfortunately the slugs have also found them!! I am so tempted to use slug bait but this goes against all my near-organic principles (I say ‘near organic’ as I’ll use anything to kill the beetles that have decimated my fruit trees in the last few years, and I use week killer on the drive). The broad beans are looking great but I think I should have planted a second row. I put some warratahs in to put the supports through. I had to fight Eric for them as he is very protective of his fencing stuff and always insists his need is greater than mine! The potatoes are looking good as are the first lots of brassicas and beetroot that I put in. The dwarf beans are looking less than healthy, and I need to look up why. I am now putting in the brassicas that I planted in seed trays. We are going to be so over run with cauliflower, broccoli and broccoflower in a few months!!! I put the courgettes in yesterday and when the chooks have finished eating their way through the weeds I’ll get all the pumpkins in. ALL the peas have germinated but we will see if they grow to descent size. I usually produce pathetic sized plants that manage one pea pod each! I bought some aubergine plants yesterday and several different types of basil. I love the smell of basil. I have also been working in the orchard, watering trees for an hour each and clearing the base of the trees. I have been laying the sheep dags around the base to feed and mulch them. Trouble is the bl***y dogs come along and poke their snouts in through the tree guards and drag out the dags to chew on – disgusting creatures. We have marked off a section in the veg plot to make into a fruit plot. This is in addition to what I have as making the whole plot square meant incorporating a section of paddock not already cultivated. I have put black plastic over it at the moment and will till it, edge it and add more topsoil before planting. I put a raspberry plant in the veg plot about 2 years ago which has sent off tens of runners but I am loathe to dig them up and plant them where I want them as they have yet to produce any fruit. I’ll leave them and see what happens this year.
I didn’t mention that it is a public holiday today - hence it is raining!! Oh well at least it means I have been able to write this. With the longer days now I would have been in the garden (at 8.30am). Labour Day weekend is viewed here as the traditional start to summer (so like an August BH in the UK you can almost guarantee rain). I suppose that means I have no excuse for not doing the household accounts and other boring stuff indoors today!
Sunday, October 15, 2006
A lazy Sunday evening after a day in the veg plot. I actually haven't done much, just pottered really, and watch Eric do all the hsrd work. He is currently putting up proper fencing for me. He gets so despondent digging a 4 foot hole only to fill it in again with the strainer post in. I also insisted on a gate (Eric thinks this is totally unreasonable and that I should just climb over a stile) which means 2 extra strainer posts. I did managed to sort out my irrigation system, having found goof plugs which means I can relocate the risers. A lot of them where in the wrong place once I'd moved the tubing. Otherwise I just put in a few seedlings and seeds and started weeding the hug strawberry patch that has been very neglected but seems to be producing more fruit than when I look after it! We had our first feed of broad beans and spinach today, AND the chooks are laying so I am long last feeling productive again. Rebecca came home with Harriette on Thursday having decided to give Waikato band a go again. The last time she was here was when I was in Auckland and they arrived home to find the sheep demolishing the veg plot. As we came up the drive she looked down and said "the veg plot's looking much better Michelle'!!!!!
I have avoided cooking for much of the weekend. On Friday we went to Mom and Daddys for supper. They have an odd room downstairs from their main living area which would make an ideal rumpus room, it is very big. Well they are trying to get it decorated and use it as another spare bedroom as they have 2 sets of visitors next month. Mom's sister is coming over from the UK and an aunt and her husband from Australia for Mom's 70th on 12th November. The decorating has been a long job as the wallpaper has been very reluctant to separate itself from the wall. Still I think they are nearly there.
Last night we went to Helen and Phil's. They had friends over from the UK. Waikato were playing in the semi-finals of the NPC final AND the Silver Ferns were playing their second test against Australia so we ended up watching the TV (at Harriette's begging I hacve to say). Helen and Phil have an obsenely huge screen so it was a real treat. Waikato thrashed Otago 44 - 15 in the rugby which means a home NPC final. We will definately try and get tickets for that. To cap the evening off we won the netball also. On top of that we had a lovely meal and an all round very pleasant evening. Thank you Helen. Helen and friend Vicki came over for a coffee today so Vicki could have a look at where we lived. "Relaxing' was how Vicki seemed to sum up Cedar Lodge!
Well I am going to relax off to my bed now.
I have avoided cooking for much of the weekend. On Friday we went to Mom and Daddys for supper. They have an odd room downstairs from their main living area which would make an ideal rumpus room, it is very big. Well they are trying to get it decorated and use it as another spare bedroom as they have 2 sets of visitors next month. Mom's sister is coming over from the UK and an aunt and her husband from Australia for Mom's 70th on 12th November. The decorating has been a long job as the wallpaper has been very reluctant to separate itself from the wall. Still I think they are nearly there.
Last night we went to Helen and Phil's. They had friends over from the UK. Waikato were playing in the semi-finals of the NPC final AND the Silver Ferns were playing their second test against Australia so we ended up watching the TV (at Harriette's begging I hacve to say). Helen and Phil have an obsenely huge screen so it was a real treat. Waikato thrashed Otago 44 - 15 in the rugby which means a home NPC final. We will definately try and get tickets for that. To cap the evening off we won the netball also. On top of that we had a lovely meal and an all round very pleasant evening. Thank you Helen. Helen and friend Vicki came over for a coffee today so Vicki could have a look at where we lived. "Relaxing' was how Vicki seemed to sum up Cedar Lodge!
Well I am going to relax off to my bed now.
Monday, October 09, 2006
A great weekend with The Jackson's
Our clocks have gone forward, and the temperatures plummetted! It was OK over the weekend but last week it was so chilly I lit the fire again. This weekend was OK but it is blowy and raining now (Mon evening) and there is a bad weather warning for the South Island with 20cm of snow expected down to sea level. For heavens sake, what is the weather coming to? Eric and I got outside when he got home at 5pm today but we gave up when the rain arrived. I must say I am pleased with the progress I am making in the veg plot. I do not have much luck growing peas. I diligently collect twiggy pea sticks to support the plant and put them in when I plant the peas and end up with about 3 scraggy plants in a 20' row. Eric laughed at me today and said 'you're not planting more pea sticks are you' I'll show him. I've planted about 400 plants this time!! The seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, broccoflower, beans, silverbeet, spinach parsley, coriander etc are doing well and my broad beans look fabulous. Another 3-4 days and I'll pick the first ones I think. (I'm typing this while MSNing Katie, Eric's neice and I obviously can't multi-skill as well as I used to!!). Chooks gave up laying eggs 3 days after they got here but have just come back into lay so as long as they stay that way I will be happy.
Had a very busy few days. Beth, Graham and Luke came down from Auckland for a weekend in the country. They are such good company and we thoroughly enjoyed them being here. Luke (aged 10) loves all the animals and they bought their goergeous shaggy golden retriever Max. He was shampooed for his trip out(at Grahams insistence before he would let him in his car) and rolled in cow poo within 5 minutes of arriving! Actually they got dragged off to the paddocks before they got in the door as, just as they arrived, Eric had spotted a ewe trapped under his trailer and we were just going to release it. Eric had his trailer in a back paddock as it has all his fencing stuff on it. The daft creature had gone under the the towing arm and obviously knocked it. The trailer tipped and trapped her. She must have been their awhile as her back legs took a good few minutes to work once she was freed. Anyway, we finally got Beth and Graham indoors for a sup of tea.
Eric and Graham went to Rotorua to do some fly fishing early on Saturday morning and arrived back just as the rest of us were leaving to go swimming. We had a lovely supper that evening. Huge's aromatic pork belly. It is in his Meat book that Carol gave us and absolutely divine, and sooo simple. I also made bread and butter pudding but when I went to serve it I found we were out of apricot brany and one cannot serve B+B pud without it. Eric was not impressed! We had some pud left over and, after going in 3 liquor stores on Saturday, I managed to find some so he had it on Saturday. Saturday we had a great evening. R+R came round with the girls. The poor Scotts had to suffer Chicken Thighs Normandie again as Beth had particularly requested it (I always seem to be cooking it for the Scotts - and Richard doesn't eat chicken!). We had some pork left over and I served that also but I don't think that appealed to Richard either, not that he's fussy you understand!!!!!! We also had jacket potatoes, Robyns famous potatoe dish, asparagus (the local farm has started selling - hurray. I was beginning to think they had gone out of the asparagus business), broccoli and this new veg I have seen but not tried. Beth bought it down. It is like a bunch of about 30 thin, spring onions but 18" long, straight and garlic flavoured. Does anyone know what they are called? It was very nice. I also made a choclate cheesecake - again and Robyn did a fabulous meringue roulade. We went to bed stuffed!!!
Sunday was a bit of a lie in, a huge breakfast (home made sausage and bacon, our own eggs, home made bread, OK from the bread maker, and brought mushrooms - I can't be fagged to grow them) and then a wander down to the veg plot to discuss with Beth (a keen veg grower despite her hankerchief sized city garden. I'm amazed at what she produces), and then on to my orchard. It was while we were there that Eric spotted the calf that I posted photos on yesterday. After B,G and L left we had a lazy few hours curled up on the sofa reading. Bliss!
Today the girls are back to school after 2 weeks holiday and I spent the day trying to catch up with work that has been neglected! Eric is in week 6 of soliciting.
Had a very busy few days. Beth, Graham and Luke came down from Auckland for a weekend in the country. They are such good company and we thoroughly enjoyed them being here. Luke (aged 10) loves all the animals and they bought their goergeous shaggy golden retriever Max. He was shampooed for his trip out(at Grahams insistence before he would let him in his car) and rolled in cow poo within 5 minutes of arriving! Actually they got dragged off to the paddocks before they got in the door as, just as they arrived, Eric had spotted a ewe trapped under his trailer and we were just going to release it. Eric had his trailer in a back paddock as it has all his fencing stuff on it. The daft creature had gone under the the towing arm and obviously knocked it. The trailer tipped and trapped her. She must have been their awhile as her back legs took a good few minutes to work once she was freed. Anyway, we finally got Beth and Graham indoors for a sup of tea.
Eric and Graham went to Rotorua to do some fly fishing early on Saturday morning and arrived back just as the rest of us were leaving to go swimming. We had a lovely supper that evening. Huge's aromatic pork belly. It is in his Meat book that Carol gave us and absolutely divine, and sooo simple. I also made bread and butter pudding but when I went to serve it I found we were out of apricot brany and one cannot serve B+B pud without it. Eric was not impressed! We had some pud left over and, after going in 3 liquor stores on Saturday, I managed to find some so he had it on Saturday. Saturday we had a great evening. R+R came round with the girls. The poor Scotts had to suffer Chicken Thighs Normandie again as Beth had particularly requested it (I always seem to be cooking it for the Scotts - and Richard doesn't eat chicken!). We had some pork left over and I served that also but I don't think that appealed to Richard either, not that he's fussy you understand!!!!!! We also had jacket potatoes, Robyns famous potatoe dish, asparagus (the local farm has started selling - hurray. I was beginning to think they had gone out of the asparagus business), broccoli and this new veg I have seen but not tried. Beth bought it down. It is like a bunch of about 30 thin, spring onions but 18" long, straight and garlic flavoured. Does anyone know what they are called? It was very nice. I also made a choclate cheesecake - again and Robyn did a fabulous meringue roulade. We went to bed stuffed!!!
Sunday was a bit of a lie in, a huge breakfast (home made sausage and bacon, our own eggs, home made bread, OK from the bread maker, and brought mushrooms - I can't be fagged to grow them) and then a wander down to the veg plot to discuss with Beth (a keen veg grower despite her hankerchief sized city garden. I'm amazed at what she produces), and then on to my orchard. It was while we were there that Eric spotted the calf that I posted photos on yesterday. After B,G and L left we had a lazy few hours curled up on the sofa reading. Bliss!
Today the girls are back to school after 2 weeks holiday and I spent the day trying to catch up with work that has been neglected! Eric is in week 6 of soliciting.
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