Easter and Afterwards

Spent Easter up at Orewa doing our usual things. Went to the Good Friday ceremony which along with the Easter Sunday Mass were meaningful occasions. E came up on Saturday evening to celebrate Easter with us, with D providing the usual easter eggs for us to find. The dahlias were in full bloom so picked some for the table. Had some lovely lamb shanks for our evening meal and fresh feijoas from neighbouring trees for dessert.

Have been busy on the domestic front making a pot or two of quince jelly with my good neighbour, Gladys's high-up quinces. She and her daughter made two batches of quince jam which looked beautiful but too much work for me, peeling and cutting up that hard fruit.

Our flatmate Gerard moves in up there on Anzac weekend so I have been busy making space in cupboards, pantry and on shelves for him to put his gear. This has been a good opportunity for me to prune back our possessions there and I have two big bags of stuff for the op shop.
Had some welcome light relief when the shops reopened on Saturday and made a foray to the Baptist op shop and replaced my old blue dressing gown with a nice bright cherry red one for $5 and my old black handbag for a new one for $4. So it's two steps forward and one step back in that direction.

Friend Frances came up with us for the weekend and took us on a jaunt to Wenderholm on Easter Sunday. Visited Coudrey House with its beautiful old architectural features and furnishings. Drove home with a detour to Waiwera where we reminisced about outings to the hot bathes there is the oldendays and vijsits to the Waiwera Hotel afterwards for dinner or drinks.

Weekend on Waiheke

Enjoyed lovely late summer weather on the island with a couple of swims, a visit to a country fair at the Steiner kindergarten and general lounging about. The bach is let for Easter so did a modicum of housework to make it spic and span for our guests.

D has a new camera so hopefully the images will be of better quality once he has mastered it. I have a new mobile and am concentrating on mastering that. There is a picture of the bach with feijoa tree and another spindly tree in the foreground, one of Blackpool , another of Oneroa Beach from the Little Oneroa walkway in front of the church and one taken at the country fair of childrenand adults enjoying very creative teepees.

There is an abundance of feijoas under our feijoa trees and we scooped out the flesh of a bucketful of them and froze it in containers for future use. Made guava jelly during the week , a perfect set for once, because it can be sometimes a bit runny.

Visitors from Germany

Had a delightful 10 days or so with D's nephew , Klaus and his friend Christiane who spent the last days of their 7 week Neuseeland OE in Auckland. Thankfully the weather was better and they enjoyed warm sunny weather at Waiheke and Orewa and also round Ponsonby with us. Had a couple of swims at the Herne Bay beaches, walked around to Westhaven and along Ponssonby Rd. It was very nice for D to have some family here for a change. His other nephew came about 22 years ago.

Sunny Saturday and Sunday

We had a pleasant day with Klaus and Christiane, showing them the sights and delights of our part of town - started off with a swim at Sentinel Rd beach , then on to Westhaven by foot and then to Sitting Duck cafe at Westhaven for lunch - lovely sandwiches, ginger crunch and a latte, then walked toVictoria Park Market. Home for afternoon tea with the nice linen and china and then dinner. E was here too for the latter two.

They took us out to an Italian restaurant in Herne Bay on Saturday night. We shared a lovely seafood platter for starters then a pasta dish with spinach and fetta for me. Earlier in the day we went to an arts andcrafts market up at the Ponsonby Community Centre. There was a great a great array of crafts and bric-a brack. D bought me a lovely shiny biscuit tin with the Fresh-Up advertising on it. E bought herself a brown phone shaped like a handbag, seventies style. She reckons it will go. There was a great display of Crown Lynn china - small plates $5, dinner plates $10. the domestic crafts are very much alive and well among the younger generation - there were some lovely knitted purses and crocheted badges as well as afternoon teas with yummy home baking. Dieters nephew arrived back fromtheir sojourn in Orewa while we worked witha beautiful hazelnut cake for Dieter, a rolled up shortcake strudel time roll with a delicious nut filling, just like his mother and aunt used to make. My aunt made a different nutcake - with the ground hazelnuts folded into the plain cake mixture, replacing an equal amount of flour, also delicious.

Waitemata Weekend

This was a jam-packed weekend from go to whoa. Klaus and Christiane had arrived Thursday evening, spent Friday sightseeing and getting their rental car back to Mangere, and were ready to start their Waiheke experience on Saturday. We got an earlier boat over than usual so we could take in the Ostend Market before noon, buying tamarind chutney and chunky marmelade from our favourite stall to take home to Germany. Had a long and hot walk back to Surfdale, lunched on the deck, then took off for a swim at Little O. At last just as the season winds down, the water is lovely and warm. Home for a quick cup of coffee and peanut brownies before D and I returned to Auckland, as we had our Historic Places Trust cruise to Ponui Island on Sunday.

This necessitated another early start as the boat left from Half Moon Bay. It was great seeing some new scenery and the water features from a different angle. Browns Island, Waiheke, Motuihe , Rotoroa, Paketoa and Ponui were all islands we saw from a completely different angle to what we usually see. We landed at Ponui which is farmed by decendants of the Chaamberlin family and others. There are 11 adults on the island owned by 2 Chamberlins, 2 others and John Spencer, who owns a piece of Waiheke, and another island near Coromandel. Ponui has an early breed of donkey, the Ponui donkey, descended from the first donkeys imported to New Zealand, the Akaroa donkeys. There was an idyllic bay ideal for swimming , which one of our number took advantage of. I stretched out on the beach and enjoyed the sun and tranquillity.
It was interestimg to see Pakatoa with buildings we remember from our youth. There was a beach resort there with motels and place where functions were held. It was a place where people went for a weekend, or had their honeymoons. There was a pool, and a hydrofoil which got people there and back.

Books and Baking

We are expecting visitors from Hamburg later today so I have spent a little time poring over a new recipe book - Robyn Martin bakes: quick and easy favourite recipes, which has all the old Kiwi classics given a new twist either with a new ingredient or prepared in a more simple way ie in a pot! Suits me. I made a Louise cake slice but couldn't find my slice tin (at first) so made it in a large Christmas cake tin) which was not quite big enough. The middle soggy bits, I have consigned to the freezer to be used in a trifle one of these other days.

Then I made some peanut brownies from the Edmonds book and called it a day after that. I remember the olden days making 4 or 5 things one after the other to fill up the tines. This was in my teenage years when I did a lot of baking for the family. My mother concentrated on hearty and healthy meals , followed always by a milk pudding - semolina and fruit, banana custard made in a fluted yellow bowl, baked macaroni or vermicelli pudding with sultanas and cinnamon, bread and butter pudding, not to mention all the fruit sponges, apple pies and crumbles. Makes me tired thinking about them.

Jigsaw

This 1500 piece jigsaw occupied our dining room table and a lot of our time for a couple of months but it was lovely to see it finally finished and now back in its box ready for the trip to the op shop where it came from originally.

Rangitoto Island and the Baches

I hadn't been to Rangitoto for at least 15 years when I half- killed myself keeping up with the Vermont St kids on a school trip to the summit. We didn't look at the baches that time as they are off to the side round the coast. But now the Dept. of Conservation has preserved one as a little museum - all the traditional bach furniture - old wirewoves made up with candlewick bedspreads, dressers, kitchenalia, aprons, oven cloths and the like, Crown Lynn and floral cups and saucers, old tins, all as the bach was when it was vacated on the death of the owner. Many of them were pulled down as that was the policy then to return the whole island to being a reserve. There are still a few owned by descendants of the first owners and their proud owners , bachelor men, showed us around their 1930s abodes with great pride. We were on a guided walk taken by Susan Yoffe, who did her MA thesis on the Rangitoto bach community some years ago. She was very knowledgable and informative about the history of the island, from the Maori inhabitants to the prisoners who lived and worked on the island making paths and roads, stone walls and fireplaces in the 1930s. The beautiful hardy kidney fern is found only on the island I think. After the walk inthe company of other members of the NZ Historic Places Trust we had tea outside accompanied by scones, jam and cream eaten off a great array of bach china, of the Crown Lynn or floral variety. The summit will have to wait for another occasion, as we were not suitable shod for such an expedition, having had to rise very early to get the ferry at 9.15 am and were not adequately equipped (or as it turned out inclined).

Ngatea Water Gardens, Kaiaua and Hunua Falls on a Very Rainy Day

Last Friday was the monthly day trip for March which we had booked for and I became increasingly worried about going on, in the course of the gale the previous two evenings and days. But then , the Historical Society goes on its trips, rain or shine, and rain it was this time. I layered myself in all sorts of unglamourous and ancient rainwear from the bach to get myself half-dry to the pick-up point round the corner in Elizabeth Street where another couple of drowned rats were waiting at Judith's place for the bus - which necessitated another dash when it stopped at the corner a little while later. However once on the motorway in our nice velvety upholstered bus all was semi-forgotten and before we knew where we were we were at Drury for our first pitstop as they call these coffee and loo breaks. McCafe was the cafe of choice for D and me and we got a nice big bran, carrot and walnut muffin to cheer us up (Wouldn't cheer everybody up !)

On to Ngatea through rolling countryside, all very sodden and green with very little other traffic on the back roads, arriving at Ngatea round 11 in time for the aptly named water gardens. I gave my fellow travellers a good head start of about 10 minutes so I could gallop round in about 3 minutes and not be impeded as I charged around. Which worked fine for the first 2 minutes, when I was left regretting I had not gone back for one of those riduculously big umbrellas and I got WET. There was a beautiful lily pond , a selection of rustic looking seats with corny signs on them, quaint mini-edifices , some bedraggled looking ducks and - a nice dry spotlessly clean beer can museum with nice soothing music in it. The only trouble was, it was the farthest place from the next driest place, the exit! However spent a few minutes longer than I would normally have had, just to show D what happens when collecting gets out of hand (and me too). It was a sobering sight seeing all those empty beer cans especially my favourite (fyi) Lion Red. (I prefer it in a glass out of a bottle actually).

On to the township of Ngatea for lunch at cafes of our choice, as disappointingly for some, we were not able to have the planned fish and chips outside at the world-famous Kaiaua Fish and Chip Shop because of the rain and they didn't have enough room inside for a busload of us. Not to worry - we will all probably live longer with less cholesterol. It didn't worry me. I am philosophical these days about most things, as most of us were.

Then we motored on down to the coast at Miranda to look at the godwits before they wing their way back to Siberia. Not that there were too many birds around - we did see a flock nestled down beside a pond which just could have been godwits, and did see some favourites - seabirds like pied stilts and seagulls.

Spent some time at the excellent visitor centre at Miranda and looked at the displays on the various birds and had time afterwards to walk along the beach a bit and pick up a few shells as a souvenir.

Our last stop was at the Hunua Falls which I been to in my student days. Camp Adair was there and I remember sleeping in very small 2 bed cabins and not getting much sleep . Needless to say the Falls rivalled Niagara Falls (when I first typed it with its typo it looked just like Viagra with an N ) with all the rain and gales we had had, and it was a raging muddy sight with a great volume and noise, all its own. At this point words fail me. But the sun did come out again and by the time we got back to Orewa the tide was in and it was 23 degrees and great swimming weather.

Ponsonby Posting

Spent the weekend at home , for a change. Our Hauraki Gulf trip had been cancelled due to heavy rain on Friday. As it left from Half Moon Bay I was not too disappointed but we did not do very much with the day apart from the usual meandering along Ponsonby Road looking at the shops in the morning and a visit to the food hall in the evening.

In between I made a second batch of peach chutney from a new NZ book from the library, Pick, preserve and serve by Chris Fortune - this recipe containing cinnamon , cloves and grated fresh ginger and tastes very delicious. Our Golden Queen peach tree is laden this year and so far the peaches have been spared brown rot and attacks from the birds.

Sunday we sallied forth to Newmarket to look at whiteware seeing our frig had leaked a trail of water across the kitchen floor during the night and by the time we had got from the Warehouse at one end of Broadway to Farmers at the other end we succumbed to a 10% discount offer on an already reduced price on a new stove and frig and ordered these to be delivered Tuesday.

Peaches

Spent the weekend at Waiheke where I passed a good part of each morning preserving these peaches. It involved a lot of peeling and eating and needless to say was I pleased when the morning's quota was done. Took a couple of kilos home to turn into peach chutney which I did this afternoon. It is rich fruity chutney with preserved ginger, raisins, spices and onion from the Edmonds Cookbook. The rest left on the tree next weekend will definitely be just for eating!

Once Upon a Time

Two exhibitions I enjoyed last week and today are the fairy tales and fantasies for children one in the library and the gardens in art exhibition, Enchanted Gardens, at the art gallery.

The fairy tales one spans the 19th-20th century mainly and it is very interesting to see the different ways different artists have illustrated the same book eg Peter Pan by Mabel Lucie Atwell and Arthur Rackham. The contemporary illustrators bring a new dimension to old favourites. A lot of these books are familiar to me from my own childhood - eg the Fairy books by Andrew Lang and the modern fantasies and animal fantasies from E's era.

The Enchanted Gardens exhibition was a treat - beautiful flower photographs by Ernst Haas, flower paintings by NZer Karl Maugham, garden sculpture, engravings, even a knitted tea cosy by Heather Nicholson, (knitting guru), shaped like a house with embroidered flowers climbing up the front of it.

Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Well not the mists, but the rest is apt. Went to Orewa on the weekend and my neighbour up there offered me some damsons from the high up branches of her tree so D picked some and I made a batch of delicious damson jam the next morning. Also made some damson chutney a couple of weeks ago with some of last year's (frozen) harvest.

Over at Waiheke I will be leaping into action and doing something with the peaches - bottling, chutney probably. we are going over for Waitangi weekend.

Sculpture Walk at Waiheke

Did the sculpture walk on our last visit to the island, always a treat. This year there were 25 diverse works. It was Anniversary Day and very hot on the island. My friend Janet came with us and was good company. The views were stunning and the headland a great setting for the sculptures.

The evening before we went to the opening of the miniature sculptures exhibition in the gallery and also the Mike Morgan one. He was there and I had a word with him as I bought one of his paintings several years ago. The little 2 storey villa he painted was in Cowan St, just around the corner from us. It is called Solo mother with little house. He paints the same little houses, including ones like the 2 we had in Clarence St, 76 and 78 before we moved down the road to 95.

They had some nice Waiheke wine at the opening - Obsidian wines.There were a lot of people there so I didnt take any pictures of the small sculptures but we did go back a day or two later and look at them at leisure and savour them. The image of the quirky ceramics are items in the gallery shop by Brendan Adams.

Cabbage tree, pohutukawa, and Agapanthus above Little Oneroa

Weekend in Ponsonby

Spent the weekend at home for a change as both Orewa and Waiheke have holidaymakers in them. Quite enjoyed the change and did a variety of things - domestic and pleasurable, not that I find the domestic unpleasurable. Washed the curtains in the diningroom and put upsome new stripey ones I bought at the op shop (new). They look good. The old ones from the 70s will go in my study for sentimental reasons. They hung in our first little cottage in Clarence St.

Went up the road on Saturday morning and bought a pair of bermuda shorts and some 3/4 pants suitable for my exercise class at the Y which starts up again tomorrow. They were $8 each at the op shop and I bought a 1500 piece jigsaw for $4 so did quite well I thought. The jigsaw is of antiques and nicknacks on a very crowded table. Fortunately the last person to do it put it back in the box with large sections intact so it will get done a bit faster than from scratch. I have it on the dining room table and it is likely to be there for a few weeks to come.

Had a swim this afternoon down at Sentinel Road beach at Herne Bay. It was resanded before summer and is a nice little beach to swim in with the Harbour Bridge over to the right and the Chelsea sugar works across the ditch.

Pukekohe Post

Happy New Year to you and yours from deepest Ponsonby. Today we ventured forth to pastures new on the train in our quest to get to know Auckland again. Must be twenty years when we were last in Pukekohe, rather a nondescript little town with a main road of shops,with the station and library off to one side and not much else to recommend it. There is a pioneer cottage with shuttered windows which is only open twice a month on a Sunday so missed out on that. The library was worth visiting, a very large "bookopolis" they call it, with plenty of computers (but didn't seem to be free to visitors as they are in Auckland City libraries) . Nice to relax for a while and read the newspaper in one of their comfortable armchairs. Had the most delicious muffin - spinach and olive with a bit of onion, and cheese on top, and coffee at the cafe outside the library - Mocca it was called, then browsed the art in the community art gallery, also part of the complex. There was some interesting crochet sculptures , sort of firm like porcelain and the more traditional landscapes and still lifes. Nice jewellery made in the area too, but not as appealing to me as the selection in the Community Gallery on Waiheke.

Meandered through Pukekohe then the 20 or so kms on the bus this time, on the way to Papakura where we transferred on to the train again where I read my book "Native wit" by Hamish Keith all the way to the Britomart. It is worth reading for its expose of arty Auckland in the 1960s and beyond.

Christmas Eve

Here's wishing you a joyful, peaceful and happy Christmas. Ours has already started with our evening meal last night and our exchange of presents . I got home from work before six and Elisabeth and Dieter were about to put the cheese potatoes in the oven and Elisabeth was making a traditional Kiwi dip - onion soup and reduced cream which we had with some nibbles while we waited for the turkey roll to cook. Had some tiramisu with some bottled peaches and strawberries for dessert. Elisabeth's friend was there as well which was very nice having some company. After coffee and cookies we had our presents by candlelight. Elisabeth gave me dip and nibble set, a round bowl and little shaped dishes, making a circle set inside a shallow basket with a lid, which you can then use for the chips to go with it. It is from Vietnam and the most beautiful turquoise ccolour. Dieter had given me a new phone which am trying to master, having left the booklet at Orewa I think. I got Dieter some nice sporty looking shoes from there too last week for his present. Also gave him some seceteurs and gardening gloves and some pottery beakers for our Gluhwein. Dieter gave me some floral-patterned seceteurs which I will recognize as my ones.They are very pretty. Also a box of chocolate finger biscuits.

Today being Christmas Day we are going to 11am Mass at the Cathedral, followed by lunch or dinner afterwards. Elisabeth will join us again. Am not in a great hurry to get down to the island as the weather is not that summery. There was rain and cold yesterday and the night before.

Have started my Christmas reading ,a McCall Smith , a Sunday Philosophers Club one, The comfort of Saturdays and have a new Maeve Binchy already at Waiheke, ready to be savoured.

Also have some knitting on the go - some socks in a very pretty multicoloured Opal wool, knitted on 4 needles in the round as socks are. It makes a change from patchwork.

Christmas Crumble

Invented a dessert for Chrismas entertaining the other day when my nephew Philip and his wife Rosanna came round for dinner - Spoonfuls of fruit mince added here and there to the apple and cinnamon added to the crumble topping of a normal apple crumble recipe. It is delicious and worth trying.

Went to Waiheke last weekend, writing my Christmas cards on the way over which was very satisfying as I tend to find other things to do at home and have been procrastinating. The garden was looking like a wilderness garden with the cinnerarias gone to seed. The pohutukawa was in full bloom and the deck was covered in a blanket of red stamens.

Mass the next morning at 9.15 and afterwards I came home straightaway as there was a market "Gifts-by-the-Sea" on the Surfdale Reserve. Bought some nice things - a new peg bag in a pretty cretonne material with fuchsias on it, and some herb spread x 2, and tamarind chutney to keep or give away. There was a lovely atmosphere there and I had a good look around, and again when Dieter joined me after his look around Oneroa. I got the 3pm boat back, and Dieter the 4pm as I had invited a friend to come around for some Advent cheer at 7.30, so didnt want to be too rushed for that. Got out the nice china, Stollen, gingerbread and we listened to some Christmassy music by the light of the three candles on our Advent stand.

Made some speculatius biscuits this morning which looks as though it will be my effort for this year. We will see.

A Blessing

A Hylanders Blessing


May your heart stay as active and young as your mind.May your kindness to others be returned ten-fold, in kind.May life's adversities be light, and easy to bear.May joy and peace quickly dry up each tiny tear.May you always be able to count on one good friend. May God's Grace light up your road, to its very end.
Thomas Hyland, Jr. -- Graces, Harpers 1994

Advent 2008

We celebrated the second Sunday of Advent in our usual reflective way with some seasonal music and coffee and chocolate treats sent over by our friends Ria and Gerd . These are Dominosteine - squares of gingerbread, jelly and marzipan dipped in chocolate and Aachener Printen, thein slices of gingerbread with crunchy bits , also encased in chocolate. Earlier we went to a concert of Christmas music in the old St Mary's chapel, where both Elisabeth and I went to school. The Schola, conducted by noted NZ composer, David Hamilton performed carols and sacred works, some of which were composed by David Hamilton especially for the Schola. St Mary's Chamber Orchestra performed various works including a couple of movements of the Christmas oncerto. A couple of the members performed solos, showcasing their talent. One of the former pupils of Sister Mary Leo, Lindsay Freer sang some of the carols that were sung in Sister's day and one that I sung, Oh Holy Night. The evening finished with a sung blessing, the words by Tom Hyland of which I will write down in my next post, as they are so beautiful, as is the music to them by David Hamilton.

Auckland Museum and Wintergarden

Took our visitors Eileen and Leny up to the Auckland Domain to look at the museum, fernery, wintergarden, and duck pond. There was an interesting exhibition of interesting quirky objects that are usually in storage - a stuffed water buck, a collection of 60s bathing caps.