Auspicious Occasions

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Had a very pleasant birthday on the island as usual.  Went out to a French cafe in Surfdale for a galette with a chicken, bacon and mushroom filling, followed by a nice cup of strong  coffee.  The weather was great on Saturday too, and passable the other two days.

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary so remembering that happy day in 1978

Anniversary spidery chrysanthemums in an old Hungarian Toby jug vase bought in Hungary in the 1960s.

Dieter picked this fragrant rose and rosebud and the first sweet peas for the lunch table today.

A splash of colour in the front garden - one of several yellow flag irises.

The very fragrant heavy double roses are about to bloom too.


Eli finishes his information and communication studies  course at Aut this week and has a three month full time job starting on Wednesday. That house of my mother's where he has been living for the last 7 years is about to be renovated. 

St. Francis and the Blessing of the Pets at Surfdale Reserve

Stayed a bit longer on the island so we could attend the Blessing of the Pets ceremony and liturgy conducted by the two Anglican ministers, held conveniently down the road near the beach. 

 Sat next to friend Colleen and her elderly poorly tabby cat , Purrsia who reminded us of Malkovich, R.I.P.  Next to us on the other side was a lovely white dog who was very interested in Purrsia but was kept away from her by her owner.

Solar Cafe in Oneroa

Is one of my favourite places on Waiheke Island.  It is part of our Sunday ritual when we are over.  First we go to Mass which this morning was taken by a Franciscan Father Bernie Thomas, who is called the Assisting Priest.  He used to be a relieving priest but liked it so much that he is sharing the ministry down here.  His sermons are straight from the heart and always interesting. 

Then we get the bus into Oneroa, these days going to the new library which is open on a Sunday too.  Picked up a Patrick White novel to read today,  "The hanging garden" which from a cursory glance is an unfinished novel of his, set in Sydney 1942, about two children spirited away from wartorn Europe to spend the war years in Australia. 

Following the library we go to the Community Art Gallery which  this week has three different exhibitions - one of recycled art, a Jeff Thomson corrugated iron one and one other.  Liked the artworks using recycled materials and hope to make my own for an exhibition next year. Knitterati are having one out at Corbans in Henderson.

Then finally Solar for a ginormous streusel muffin for me and a savoury one for Dieter. Mine had grated apple, white chocolate, berries and cinnamon; Dieter's,  red onion, cheese, fetta and sundried tomato.  

By this time it is time to pick up some fresh Turkish bread made on the island and get the bus home for lunch.  My mouth is watering and off I go to buy the bread. 

Daylight Saving

Looking forward to enjoying a bit more daylight at the end of the day.we have taken to enjoying a late afternoon stroll and a later evening meal and later tv viewing. The first photo is at our present house and the flowers in gardens along our usual route .  The two little cottages are ones we owned thirty years ago not far from our present domicile. 

Fathers Day

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The day dawned  sunny and warm so Dieter and I decided to make the most of it.  Though we don't seem to get out of Auckland often these days, there Is nothing to stop us hopping on a bus and going 

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to another suburb for a change, as long it doesn't involve too much walking for Dieter.

We started off the day with a leisurely breakfast before driving up the road to the carpark and getting the bus down to St Patrick's Cathedral for 11am Mass.  I enjoy the singing and music and join in lustily.

Trotted downtown, picking up some sandwiches before getting a slow bus along the waterfront to St Heliers .  The bus was full and traffic was heavy.  Spent some time at the beach before inspecting the op shop and library and having coffee and cake at a beachside cafe.

It was a beautiful Spring day and 18 degrees and time we had a bit of warmth again. 

E came round in the late afternoon and I cooked a delicious meal of pork fillet roasted on a bed of onion and apple, seasoned with fresh thyme. Ran out of oomph by dessert and had the usual fruit salad and yoghurt as is my custom in such situations.  

Island bliss

Another glorious Sunday morning up at Oneroa after Mass. Just had the most delicious muffin at Solar which I will have to try and replicate - raspberry, cream cheese and lemon. 

Went to the new library again yesterday which is lovely and spacious and a great place to while away a half an hour.  Carried on upstairs to the Community Art Gallery to look at a photographic portrait exhibition and a browse in the craft shop.

Weekend at Home

Another one of these which I was not anticipating but eventuated and turned out not too bad in retrospect.  Saturday was brilliant weather but D was not up to a trip to the island so I acquiesced and we actually had a pleasant day locally with a trip to to the library to return books and read the paper in comfort at a table.  

Drove to the supermarket to get some hoki which was on special at $10 and tried out a new recipe - baked in the oven, sprinkled with fresh thyme and topped with seasoned panko crumbs and melted butter. It was delicious and so much easier than the usual flour-egg wash-crumb routine. Polished up my lax baking skills with a batch of courgette and corn mini quiches and some fudgy chocolate muffins.  

Lunched at a Richmond Rd deli, and enjoyed a curried chicken pie, followed by a nice hot latte and a slice of pistachio loaf.

Sunday I was meeting good friend M to go first to a concert by the Auckland Youth Orchestra in the Town Hall. The solo cellist, Edward King in the Schumann cello concerto was excellent and I enjoyed the Dvorak Carnival overture before and the Sibelius Symphony no 1 afterwards.

On to Giapo's for a Christchurch hazelnut icecream before checking out the entries in a architectural competition for an apartment block at the Art Gallery.  One of the five finalists are the architects who are doing the remodelling of our Herne Bay house.  They are submitting the plans for the building consent to the Council today so it won't be long now. Their apartment block entry is imaginative and innovative and I wouldn't mind living in one of those apartments should they win.  However I am not so keen on Mt Eden as a suburb .

The house is considerably more comfortable now that we have shifted the television into our sitting room with the heat pump. It is closer to the other rooms in the house we use too.

Ponsonby Saturday

Ponsonby on a Saturday morning is one of my favourite pastimes when we are at home on the weekend.  This morning we started out at the Hospice Op Shop where I never have any trouble finding something nice to buy.  Today it was two pretty Laura Ashley teatowels and an eye bag which I am hoping will sooth my brow which is wracked with frequent headaches at present. And an updated Edmonds microwave cookbook for $1.

Onwards after that to the library to read the Herald in comfort and quiet at one of the large tables, then to choose an armload of books for the weekend - a Margaret Forster novel, traveller tales from Poland and China, a NZ gardener magazine and a biography of a woman who traces her birth parents, her Scottish mother and Nigerian father.  Where to start first!

Jumped on a bus after that to go to Artstation now called Studio 1 to pick up a 3rd term programme and look at the current exhibition of Pakiri paintings by Aroha Gossage which I liked . I like the idea of doing art myself, upcycling remnants of my more creative past into something relevant to my present experience.  Unfortunately the course I chose is not going to proceed as there are not enough participants so will try something similar on my own. Watch this space!

Back on the bus down to Ponsonby Central for a bite to eat at Bread and Butter which has fabulous bready goods and cakes. I like the soft filled pretzel rolls, this time with bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado followed by a strong coffee and slice of cinnamon flavoured banana loaf, worth trying to replicate with the big bag of bananas I bought from Nosh yesterday.

Wallace Cotton had a sale so in we went and I found and bought the cosiest fairisle beanie and gloves to wear straight out of the shop on a cold bleak day.

Waiheke Pics

Upcycle is a fabulous shop run by a collective of creative women who recreate new items out of old.  

This painting has been around for many years at different locations on the island and now hangs outside the community art gallery. It has all the quintessential Waiheke elements - baches, blue agapanthus and letterbox friendliness.

Sunday morning Winter stillness overlooking Oneroa Beach. The climb up the very steep path from the beach is rewarded by this lovely panorama. 

Museum

We are at  home this weekend so took the opportunity on a sunny but blustery day to go to the museum to look at an exhibition on Samoa under NZ administration during and after the First World War. Lots of interesting photographs including a few from German times, recorded  interviews by notable Samoans like Albert Wendt which we will go back and listen to when there are not so many people there.

Went home via Parnell and got off the bus in town to go to the Vogel's pop-up cafe where they were serving delicious dishes incorporating Vogel's bread.  My favourite was Vogel's triangles of toast with blue vein cheese, slices of moist preserved fig drizzled with runny honey.  Also sampled kawawhai fish cakes with salad greens, toast with mushy green peas, sliced avocado and sesame seeds, and a pear, bacon and Brie tart with crispy Vogel's base and top.   

Midwinter Waiheke

Over on the island for the weekend.  There is a strong wind blowing outside and it is good to be Inside looking out at nature and the effects of the elements on it and the various structures dotted round the backyard.  Good friend Fr and self walked around the headland through Blackpool and on to Oneroa , via the op shop where we lunched at Spice, formerly known and still known by us as Robinson's Deli.

Couldn't resist buying three lovely Crown Lynn china saucers with a delicate dot and oak leaf pattern in 3 shades of grey and green.  At home I use my mother's Noritake dinner set with a similar leaf pattern and also have a Royal Doulton small plate with dots and leaves so I see the beginning and end of another little collection. Also bought a 1996 John Leech catalogue of NZ art through the decades from the 19th century to the 1990s which will give me pleasure looking at some less familiar works by familiar NZ artists. 

After a delicious bacon and egg panini followed by coffee and ginger crunch we pressed on via Upcycle, a lovely arts and crafts shop featuring the work of a creative collective of Waiheke women,to the library and Community Art Gallery. 

 In a couple of weeks the library will close and reopen a couple of weeks later in its stunning new building which has slowly metamorphosed over the last 3 years.  

Bought a book on NZ birds so we can identify them on our beach and bush walks.

Back home the fire is lit in the wood burner and We are hunkering down for the evening.  

The old army hut

The old longdrop now used as a tool shed.

One of the original water tanks which supplies water to the original washhouse.

My latest purchase by Surfdale artist Katie Trinkle-Legge.

Armchair Travel

For one reason or another I haven't ventured forth much apart from the usual weekend sojourns on Waiheke.  I rely on my friends to relay accounts of their travels which I enjoy from a distance.   Canada, Scotland and Norfolk Island being recent destinations I have read about.

Weekdays I go to the gym when I can and find the exercise beneficial  as also the social contact with fellow travellers, especially afterwards when we repair to one of the cafes nearby.  La Cerise on Pitt St is the current favourite - good strong hot coffee, delicious French pastries and a good range of well-priced sandwiches and delicious looking slices which I haven't tried yet, it being rather early in the day for such things.

Met up with the Knitterati at Tetuhi in South Auckland recently to look at the exhibitions and discuss plans for an exhibition next year.  Ended up not participating in the last one a year or two ago as my creative juices seemed to have dried up, so hope I can produce something for this next one.  Enjoyed a delicicious date and orange scone still warm from the oven with a coffee on a very cold day.

There was an exhibition on the plight of the Maldives and global warming the effects of which are being felt with flooding and the resulting loss of land.

This exhibition was in an old sixties caravan parked outside which was a blast from the past.  We had a caravan in my youth parked in the camping ground at Red Beach which looked rather like this one.  Must see if I can find a photo of it and work out how to scan it on to here.  I have a new laptop and my cache of pictures has disappeared, not permanently I hope.  

Mother's Day

I celebrated the day by taking part in a 5km fun walk for women organized by the YMCA Marathon Club. Other women did 10km or ran for 5 or 10 km. It took  place in the streets  near Cornwall Park with its great bounty of trees in autumnal splendour.  There are lovely old villas to be seen in those streets and a nice change from Ponsonby where I usually walk. 

It did me good and good friend Frances and I came in under the hour like everyone else and she won a spot prize.  I got one too later on, a nice hanging toilet bag and some sweetpea body lotion. Sweetpeas along with lily of the valley are one of my favourite flowers along with lavender and roses.  All for their fragrance.  

Eli joined us for afternoon tea for which I had made a cake , Jewish cake from the Edmonds Book with cinnamon and sultanas and a passionfruit icing. It was a little dry for my liking but it will get eaten.  Was given beautiful roses, some magazines  and a monetary contribution towards the black ruffled velvet jacket I bought last week from my favourite Ponsonby shop, Carly Harris.  

Made a nice roast pork dinner for which Frances joined us and celebrated the day with a Sauvignon blanc tipple. so lots of warm fuzzies all day long.  

   

O Island in the Sun

Rangitoto from the Waiheke ferry.