Maria Gabb, d. 28 December 1994

This is a portrait of my mother which hangs in our hallway. It was painted many years ago when she was in her 40s, by one of the tutors at Elam where she used to sit as a model for the art students.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas. It is 8am here and everything is quiet . Had a lovely day yesterday- made more cookies for Dieter - buttery Viennese crescents made with ground almonds. Went to Mass at St Bens at 11am then got ready slowly for our four afternoon tea guests. We had coffee and cookies, cake and stollen, and florentines which Ann had made followed by a drink and nibbles. Elisabeth came round at 6.00pm and we celebrated Christmas with a late meal of turkey roll, cheese potatoes and green vegetables, followed by trifle for dessert. Exchanged our presents after that - Dieter gave me a new hand-held phone and Elisabeth gave us a DVD player. My technological challenge for January will be to fathom how to use both of these. Elisabeth is home until late afternoon so we will have a peaceful day and have a couple of visits to and from friends after that. Off to Waiheke for a few days tomorrow.

Another picture

Dieter took this of our Advent stand and behold two pieces of my finished Stollen, made with apricots and raisins. It meets with Dieter's seal of approval and has a very nice texture I must say.

Christmas is Coming

Well another week closer to Christmas. Spent the weekend over at Waiheke. I went over on Friday with a friend, who hadn't seen the bach for a while. Went for a long walk round the coast to Oneroa via Blackpool, browsed the shops including op shops, where I managed to find a couple of nice Crown Lynn cups and saucers with an autumnal pattern, and a silver sugar bowl (with silver mark, I think). Had lunch at the deli and dinner at Bowlers in the evening. Sad to say the standard has slipped with new caterers but it was better than cooking and the drinks were cheap. Saturday we walked to the Ostend Market and I bought some preserves to give away as presents, in lieu of making my own. Seem to have run out of steam and have yet to make any Christmas goodies. Today just may be the day to make that Quark Stollen.