Saturday Surprises

Was delighted to get a beautiful bouquet of flowers this morning as a result of a nomination by Tina and Warren, from Christchurch of late, now ensconced happily in Red Beach. I was really pleased and surprised. Fragrant lillies, roses, carnations, all sorts of beautiful pink flowers. Today has been a very special day. First my nephew and his wife came round for morning tea after returning from overseas this week after 2 years in Indonesia. Then we went up to see Eli's exhibition of paintings, Way of Sorrows, in the art school Graduate Exhibition - there are 12 portraits of Justin Bieber, portraits of the boy artist, his trials and tribulations as it were. I am biased but I do like them all.

Poppies

Good friend Carolyn M gave me these beautiful poppies from Bhana Brothers on Ponsonby Rd . We were marking my birthday belatedly by going for a walk. Bought goodies for lunch from Nosh - a specially delicious salmon mousse with capers in it, ham and ciabatta to go with the coffee and cheese I had at home already.

Seen in Silverdale

Spent a few days in Orewa this week and took in the Silverdale Market on Saturday morning , catching sight of these dear little alpacas huddled together for warmth and comfort. Could have done with one myself as it was cold and showery. Bought some old- fashioned chocolate fudge cake with biggish pieces of crushed wine biscuit from the stall outside the Bendon shop. The lady who proudly showed off her delicious looking home baking - date scones (minus the icing sugar and a decent height and texture) , anzac biscuits and the fudge cake, was proudly retro and one of the old- school bakers stuck in the 1960s time-warp. Purchased some Lindt chocolate and Buderim ginger from the next stand and rustled up a batch of ginger crispies from the Edmonds book for afternoon tea to which I invited elderly neighbour, Gladys, who does not see at all well and relies on the spoken word for news of the outside world. She knows all the local gossip so I am up-to-date on that front too. Later on I made a few little jars of the most delicious jam with some Central Otago dried apricots and some feijoas from the freezer. This is a recipe from the NZWW book of favourite recipes.

Bought a mandarin tree for $20 which is very good value. Just have to find a space in our rather crowded garden back in Auckland to plant it in. It is in flower so it will have to go in the garden soon, along with the butter beans, dill and sunflower seeds.