Winter Woes

We have been hunkering down trying to keep warm with heaters on a lot of the time, and warm clothes. I suffer from cold hands and feet and it makes me quite miserable. Today my normal routine started again with the Y for tai chi and then knitting at Art Station. I am knitting a little tea cosy shaped house but bigger than a teapot. It is for our next group exhibition in 2010. It was nice seeing the "ladies" again.

Went to the op shop beforehand and bought myself a pair of navy shoes for $4,a black shiny cardigan for $1 to wear in the evenings on the cruise and a book Tis byFrank McCourt. I have read it before but will reread it . He died yesterday.

Bought some ciabatta rolls for our lunch then Dieter and I went round to Salisbury St so we could do some pruning back, always very satisfying. Got a bunch of orange and yellow flowers for the vase - red hot pokers, some hibiscus and other flowers. Bought some daffodils yesterday while out and about.

Met friend Janet for lunch in St Heliers, overlooking the beach and Rangitoto. It was a glorious day and I enjoyed the bus trip there and back after my morning at the gym.

Have been selling the odd thing on Trademe and making three or four sales a week. Prices are about half or less of what they used to be so there are bargains for buyers. I will press on in this vein and keep on giving a bag of stuff to the op shop each time I buy something. Friend Frances has offered to help me clear out and up which I will cautiously agree to one of these days.

Well off I go and get the dinner out of the oven. A tasty vegetable casserole with rice. Made some marmelade this afternoon. Found some pulp in the freezer. Got some more grapefruit from Orewa last weekend so will slice it up in the food processor and make some more to give away another day. I don't put too much water with it and it turns out nice and chunky the way I like it.

The picture was taken way back in 1978 or 1979 at the library . I am in the middle!

Monday Excursion

We had a little jaunt today over to Waiheke seeing it had been raining all weekend. It was lovely as usual - just had 4 hours there - went in to Oneroa and had lunch at a cafe then walked back home along the beach and through the bush. It was lovely. Only bummer was that Dieter left his bag with his new digital camera on the Link bus this morning. It was an expensive German one. Our next big holiday, the cruise will be fun, but I had been hoping to see my Aunt Anne-Marie but she died suddenly last week. She was 91. She was my mother's sister and lived all her life in Germany , except for a spell in France during the war before she was married. She was always very good to me, especially when I went to Germany the first couple of times and used to get a bit homesick from time to time, really only the first time I went. I used to go to their place for Christmas and Easter and some of my friends visited me there to0. I learned how to bake and cook German specialities - a delicious hazelnut cake, I made in her memory and for Dieter this weekend, and a nice chocolate and hazelnut cake. She was a typical German Hausfrau with very high standards and didn't approve of my shortcuts or slapdash approach to some things!
Her daughter lived with her the last four or five years and looked after her as well as holding down a part-time job lecturing in theology at the University of Saarbrucken. It will be sad going back to the village this year.