Had an interesting week what with bathroom repairs progressing to the point of having bath and shower removed and the room prepared for new ones. All this has made daily routines trying .
Went to the Contemporary art and domestic craft course n Tuesday and carried on with my stripey knitting for the Shelter exhibition that the group is planning for next year. They hope to have about 100 blankets in an installation and they will be later donated to the Red Cross, who will pass them on to refugees or the like. To encourage wider community participation in this somewhat daunting project, seeing there are only 5 or 6 in the group we decided to go public and stage a knit-in in the library on Tusday after our Artstation session. Lots of my workmates came and looked and it was a very pleasant place to carry on with our knitting. The public managed to assiduously avoid looking at us, but hey better luck with interest and participation next time.
On Wednsday evening I attended a seafood tapas evening at the Seafood School down at the Viaduct. This was organised through wortk and was fun. We watched demonstrations by the chef of the Duxton Hotel prepare mussel fritters (with grated courgette and carrot) , olive and anchovy cheesey biscuits and prawns in a spicy Thai broth served in little glasses, all very yummy. He also did choritzo in red wine, marinated olives, almonds in egg white and toasted in the oven until crunchy and arranged it all on a platter for us to sample. Then we prepared the first 3 things ourselves in groups of four, made our own platters with them and sat down with a glass of wine and savoured them. Am looking forward to replicating them at home some time before I forget how to make them.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mother's Day
Most of my female rellies and friends are mothers of one sort or other - be it mother, godmother or grandmother, and those of you who are not, then you have your own mothers to celebrate, as I do mine. Here is an excerpt from something I wrote about my childhood a few months ago.
I grew up in Dunedin – born in Wellington and lived there for the first year of my life or so, when my parents shifted to Dunedin where my father got a job with the Inland Revenue. In Wellington he had been with the Dept of Lands and Survey.
We lived at 21 Onslow Rd which later became 26 Albert St, St Clair. The house is still there. At the age of 5 I went to St Clair School for the first few months of school. When my sister Helen turned 5 we both went to St Bernadette’s Catholic School in Forbury. We had double wooden desks with built-in seats. The uniform was a navy gym frock with a blue and white striped tie. I was rather a quiet child who was intimidated by school and the nuns and remember often turning round and coming home again in the mornings and my mother having to take me back again, or sending me off again. In Std 2 I was in Sister Barbara’s class. She was impressed with my imagination and liked me and vice versa. The Std 3 class was in the same room and I often did their work as well as my own.
We had a carefree childhood going away to our crib or bach in the Queenstown camping ground in the school holidays. We went by train as far as Cromwell and then on by bus, going skiing in winter to Coronet Peak or to the lake for swimming etc in summer. We spent a lot of time at St Clair beach when at home in Dunedin, going for long walks or playing on the beach, or in the playground with its great array of swings and roundabouts.
My mother cooked hearty meals with a European flavour but didn’t follow any recipes. Stuffed steak was one – rump steak with a pocket cut in it and filled with diced bacon, onion, and sewn closed, braised in the speckled oval casserole on the top of the gas stove , big rissoles , or battered fish on Fridays, a roast on Sunday etc. Pea or vegetable soup was a favourite lunchtime dish with lots of grated carrot and celery greenery floating on top. We always had thick brown bread sandwiches, usually egg and parsley, or cheese. We came home from school on the tram for lunch in those early years. After school we often used to get the tram to the library in the Octagon, taking out the maximum number of fiction and non-fiction books at a time. I was an avid reader, both at school and home often devouring a book in a single sitting eg stories of the composers, the School journal and the Catholic School journal .
Most of my female rellies and friends are mothers of one sort or other - be it mother, godmother or grandmother, and those of you who are not, then you have your own mothers to celebrate, as I do mine. Here is an excerpt from something I wrote about my childhood a few months ago.
I grew up in Dunedin – born in Wellington and lived there for the first year of my life or so, when my parents shifted to Dunedin where my father got a job with the Inland Revenue. In Wellington he had been with the Dept of Lands and Survey.
We lived at 21 Onslow Rd which later became 26 Albert St, St Clair. The house is still there. At the age of 5 I went to St Clair School for the first few months of school. When my sister Helen turned 5 we both went to St Bernadette’s Catholic School in Forbury. We had double wooden desks with built-in seats. The uniform was a navy gym frock with a blue and white striped tie. I was rather a quiet child who was intimidated by school and the nuns and remember often turning round and coming home again in the mornings and my mother having to take me back again, or sending me off again. In Std 2 I was in Sister Barbara’s class. She was impressed with my imagination and liked me and vice versa. The Std 3 class was in the same room and I often did their work as well as my own.
We had a carefree childhood going away to our crib or bach in the Queenstown camping ground in the school holidays. We went by train as far as Cromwell and then on by bus, going skiing in winter to Coronet Peak or to the lake for swimming etc in summer. We spent a lot of time at St Clair beach when at home in Dunedin, going for long walks or playing on the beach, or in the playground with its great array of swings and roundabouts.
My mother cooked hearty meals with a European flavour but didn’t follow any recipes. Stuffed steak was one – rump steak with a pocket cut in it and filled with diced bacon, onion, and sewn closed, braised in the speckled oval casserole on the top of the gas stove , big rissoles , or battered fish on Fridays, a roast on Sunday etc. Pea or vegetable soup was a favourite lunchtime dish with lots of grated carrot and celery greenery floating on top. We always had thick brown bread sandwiches, usually egg and parsley, or cheese. We came home from school on the tram for lunch in those early years. After school we often used to get the tram to the library in the Octagon, taking out the maximum number of fiction and non-fiction books at a time. I was an avid reader, both at school and home often devouring a book in a single sitting eg stories of the composers, the School journal and the Catholic School journal .
In 1953 my parents went for a trip to Europe, the first time my mother had been back to Germany since coming to NZ in 1939 with the Lillies. We were sent to boarding school at Villa Maria in Christchurch. They travelled on the Rangitane I think and sent us postcards from wherever they went and big parcels of toys such as roller skates and colourful balls . Our grandparents and Auntie Dorothy were living at North Beach and we often went there after Mass on Sunday for the day. We missed our parents and found boarding school life rather harsh . When they returned in the November they took 5 year old Mary back home to Dunedin with them but Helen and I had to finish off the year at boarding school.
The top photo is of my mother about the time they went overseas in 1953.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Renovations
Had a nice weekend on Waiheke to escape the inconvenience of not having a functioning laundry and only seimi-functioning loo. The bathroom will be next with a new tiled shower and a claw footed bath in which I can soak the aches and pains of the work-a-day world away. Got some new specs today - dark red across the top and sides . To sparkle life up a bit and to have something to look forward to Dieter and I have booked an 11 day cruise to Fiji and Tonga, both places a little unruly for me to want to spend a week there in the normal holiday way. This should be fun, though I will have to think of something to do to while away the days at sea.
Went to my knitting group today and did more on my strip of knitting which will be 1/12th of my blanket for othe shelter exhibition next year. Each month I will start a new strip. Learned how to make a diamond shaped piece of knitting from one of the older members of the group - you start with 1 stitch and inscrease into the first stitch of each row until the first half is the size you want then you decrease one at the beginning of each row until you have 1 stitch again. Voila! I also made a badge with a crocheted base and three buttons and a bead on top. We are planning some knit-ins at various public places, probably libraries for a start. Went to an exhibition at a local art gallery, Whitespace in Crummer Road, just opposite the new Soho development, featuring large paintings of trees, paths and white fences. Quite magnificent.
Went to my knitting group today and did more on my strip of knitting which will be 1/12th of my blanket for othe shelter exhibition next year. Each month I will start a new strip. Learned how to make a diamond shaped piece of knitting from one of the older members of the group - you start with 1 stitch and inscrease into the first stitch of each row until the first half is the size you want then you decrease one at the beginning of each row until you have 1 stitch again. Voila! I also made a badge with a crocheted base and three buttons and a bead on top. We are planning some knit-ins at various public places, probably libraries for a start. Went to an exhibition at a local art gallery, Whitespace in Crummer Road, just opposite the new Soho development, featuring large paintings of trees, paths and white fences. Quite magnificent.
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