Old Surfdale houses and toi toi

Waiheke once again

Had a wonderful weekend at Waiheke our first for 3 months. Great hearing the birds and seeing all that lush greenness, seeing the sea and hearing the waves, walking along the beach and going to the Art Gallery up there. Am about to succomb to a painting, what the hell. More about that another day as I have to ring up tomorrow and hopefully it is still there. It will give me a lot of pleasure. Walked to the market on Saturday and then in other direction as far as the library in the other direction in the afternoon. 7km at least over the day. Mass the next morning at the ungodly hour of 9.15 but good for coffeeing afterwards. Home on the 4 pm boat after a modicum of gardening and a walk along Surfdale beach. Viva Waiheke!

The pictures are of boats on Surfdale Beach on Sunday afternoon, the view of the bach is from the neighbours place and that is our kitchen window. Our neighbour Mike sold and moved to the Mainland a couple of weeks ago, so we will have a new neighbour soon.

Shelter Exhibition

The Shelter installation was set up last Monday and Tuesday at Art Station. They assembled some scaffolding and then draped the blankets over the top and round each side just leaving a narrow entrance into the cavernous structure. The effect is magical. I went to the opening on Wednesday evening after work and caught sight of some of the blankets through the windows from the street. They look terrific. There was a big crowd at the opening, coming and going and exclaiming over the beauty of the blankets. There was a short speech by one of the Knitterati group outlining the progress of the project over the last year and then the women from the Red Cross spoke about how refugees appreciate such gifts, especially if they go to colder places like Hamilton where one of the women was from. Imbibed a couple of glasses of wine with the traditional cheesey accompaniements, to celebrate the occasion.

Today 6 days later was the first school visit, a group from a Mt Albert Kura Kaupapa, a Maori immersion school. It was a large group of about 30 with a few adults. They had a good look at the installation then had a short talk on the project and knitting, then were shown how to knit. I was helping do this and it was very rewarding when they finally got the knack of it. We are doing the same on Thursday, Saturday and next Tuesday and Thursday.

Mother's Day

I had a very pleasant Mothers Day - went to Mass at St Benedict's - a nice family Mass with all the mothers going up to the front at the end to get a special blessing with everybody in the congregation stretching out one arm in solidarity.
From there we went to the museum. Wandered through the Wintergarden, first looked at the exotic eggplants in shades of yellow and white , beautiful chrysanthemums, bromeliads and ferns. At the museum there was an interesting and moving exhibition of paintings by the present war artist, Matt Gauldie, realistic looking paintings and portraits of soldiers in Afghanistan, the Solomons and several depicting aspects of the trip of the Unknown warrior back to New Zealand and the ceremonies back here.
Home for lunch with some delicious flatbread from an Italian bakery off Ponsonby Road to go with the minestrone I made during the week. Time for a game of scrabble online before we headed off to a recorder recital in the Baptist Church in Jervois Road, not a church I recall being in before, a lovely old wooden church with blue columns flanking the altar. The music was great - Baroque mainly - Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and others.
Elisabeth joined us for afternoon coffee and scones I made. Didn't get round to making the cake or biscuits I was planning but hey, there will be another occasion, Dieter's birthday to be precise, in a couple of weeks.
Didn't feel like cooking either so we all went off to the Food Hall where we had the Coco lamb, a Vietnamese lamb and pumpkin dish with coconut cream, not as nice as the Beef curry we had there last time.
So it has been an enjoyable day and hope you all had a Happy Mothers' Day too, one way or another.

More Photos from Matakana Trip

The hearts are decoupaged, many using old postage stamps.

The vessels on ther top sshelf of the next picture are decoupage on glass by Joy Bell from the Warkworth area. She rinses out them out with gold paint on the inside to create rather an opulent effect.

My new Morrison and James planter. I am standing with June Evans, my tenant and dressmaker extraordinaire from the front house at Orewa. She was been in Orewa for 10 years - 5 years in the little flat and 5 in the house.

Visit to Matakana and Weekend in Orewa

Friday was the Silverdale Historical Society trip to Matakana. Met up on the bus with a nice lady Dorothy, whom I met on the Bay of Islands trip last year. Her name reminded me that it is the anniversary of my Aunt Dorothy's death a few years ago.
It was a lovely day and not very much traffic on the road. Our first stop was the Honey Centre before you turn off to Warkworth. It was a little early in the morning to sample too many things but we did try the ginger honey . My favourite is still the plain old clover honey as it was, is and hopefully ever will be - nice and creamy and pale. They have a great variety of soaps and other confectionery too. From there we drove straight to Matakana in time for our visit to the new cinema with its ceiling of 30 000 paper roses. It does look rather nice. The film was Made of Honour all about the romance and very imminent wedding of an American girl to a Scotsman. It is averted by the "Maid" of Honour, the former playboy boyfriend of the bride-to-be, who is whisked away from the castle just in time to live happily ever after in America again. Lovely Scottish scenery which was the highlight for me.
From there it was across the road to one of the several eateries for lunch - a fetta and spinach quiche and a hot cup of coffee at one of the outdoor tables, very nice until a sudden shower sent everyone scurrying for hard-to-find cover. I found it in the general store where I bought a bottle of my current favourite wine - Lothlorien sparkling feijoa wine which we will enjoy on Mother's Day. Bought some lovely chicken and satay parcels for our evening meal at the wonderful deli with its succulent-looking meat cuts all on display in the window. Took in the op shop (no finds in its rather cramped interior, though they did have big white bowls outside for 50c each so things were priced right to sell) and galleries with beautiful glass, pottery and jewellery.
From there we went to another Country Market with crafts and art galleries and other activities, designed to appeal to children. There is also a weekly Farmers Market in the village on a Saturday which is very popular. Once back on the bus we continued on to Port Wells and Omaha to have a look around, then on to Morris and James Pottery for afternoon tea - a glass of feijoa and apple juice with a slice of yummy spicy apple and walnut cake with cream. Had a browse around the showroom where I bought a nice blue planter, which I have always wanted and will put one of my orchids in it.
Saturday we spent in Orewa visiting the Rotary Book Sale where I picked up a couple of Fiona Kidman books - one of her first novels, Mandarin summer set in Kerikeri where she grew up, and short stories, Mrs Dixon and friends. I am looking forward to reading them once I have read another book of hers I am reading, Ricochet baby.
Spent part of the late afternoon doing some pruning of the hydrangea bushes rescuing a few last blooms for a vase, and removing cape gooseberry bushes and spent dahlias from the driveway.
Reviewed the trip and day's activities over afternoon tea with my neighbour, Gladys before collapsing in a heap in front of the tv in the afternoon.

Home today to a wet miserable Auckland and a cold house. Escaped to the confines of St Lukes for a bout of retail therapy - 2 new blouses - and exchanged 10 jars of old outdated spices and herbs from my pantry for new ones at the Greggs mobile spice centre there this weekend. They have some tasy combinations which I chose - chilli and lime, dill and lemon to name a couple. Elisabeth will no doubt want some of them which she is welcome to have of course.

Called in to see good friend Marlene, seeing we were in the area and enjoyed a chat over tea and anzac biscuits . A visit to King's Plant Barn to get some orchid mix for this year's plants and some mesclun lettuce salad seed mix. I heard on a radio programme recently that Kings seed mix is one of the best and their mesclun is grown widely in Vietnam for the hotel and restaurant trade .

Still two more days of leisure which we will enjoy before the work-a-day world beckons on Wednesday. Arohanui!