Happy Christmas

Spent  the day up in Orewa at our beach house on Saturday  and had our  first swim of the season as well as doing some last minute shopping at the Silverdale Market - things like strawberries for our Christmas dessert. The pohutukawas are in full bloom and add to the festive atmosphere.

Christmas Eve was spent at home as usual with the usual roast dinner folllowed by trifle.  Round 9pm we listened to some Christmas music and exchanged presents.

Attended Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral on Christmas morning and enjoyed the singing and organ music as usual.

Pre-Christmas

Went to a Knitterati gathering at a gallery out West this morning. We were to take a self-made ornament which would be part of a group window installation. They were to be white and filmy but I thought I would take along a red one I had made a while ago but it was too much the odd one out so two of us knitted a little white boot each which was included. Mine is the one on the right.

Waiheke weekend

Enjoyed a couple of days of respite over on the island recently and also a day trip to celebrate a longtime friend's retirement from the workaday world. The pohutukawas are in full bloom, heralding Christmas as they do in their scarlet splendour. The agapanthus provide a spectacular contrast, though on the island they are regarded as a weed as they do tend to smother native plants in time.

The delicate pale flower which I believe is a kind of lily, used to be quite prolific on the island and is hardly seen anymore. I was delighted to see this one on our walk in to Oneroa after Mass on Sunday.

The flax is flowering too and is particularly spectacular above Oneroa beach .

Baking

Finished my Christmas baking this afternoon with some Basler Leckerli- thin gingerbread laden with aromatic spices, honey and almonds.

Earlier in the month I made spicy Spekulatius biscuits from my old Dr Oetker recipe book which I have been using for over 40 years now.

Plump Vanilla Kipferl from Edible gifts by Claire Clifton and Martina Nichols complete the trio of biscuits we have been enjoying.

Marmalade Morning

Got up bright and early this morning to make some chunky grapefruit marmalade, a labour of love, as I am giving a jar of this to my dearest and nearest this Christmas. I get the grapefruit in winter from my neighbour, Gladys in Orewa, slice them finely in the food processor and leave the pulp in ice cream containers in the freezer until I am ready to make the actual marmalade whenever the whim or need overtakes me during the year. I take it for the trading table fundraiser at bowls and that means once a month I have needed some otherwise Nina is disappointed. Last week Alla from the gym gave me two empty jars so now they are full and ready to be given back to her. This time last year she was in hospital and I took her some there and now she is on my list too.

I use Alison Holst's metric marmalade recipe as a guideline but basically I barely cover the pulp with water , boil to soften the sliced peel for up to an hour, then add cup for cup of sugar and boil until setting point is reached. I like my marmalade chunky and so it does not take too long before it is ready to be poured into warm jars from the oven. Voila marmalade for breakfast!

Flowers at Rosenvale

Roses in the garden at Rosenvale where we stopped for a delicious lunch at the venue there, before exploring the beautiful garden.

Threadbear Cottage and Alphra Lavenders

Visited these two lovely places out in the country round Cambridge.  Julie does  sewing and makes fabulous pot pourri with dehydrated citrus slices, spices and herbs. She had an accident some years ago (fell out of a hammock and broke her neck) and her husband built her the cottage which is now crammed full of beautiful things to buy, made by herself or by other countrywomen of the district.

Her own home is a showcase for her various collections - teddy bears, vintage enamelware, kitchenware, china and luggage to name a few that appealed to me.

Alphra's Lavenders was a few kilometres away, a lavender farm and place where they distill lavender oil and make the most fragrant range of products from the small bottles of oil  from three different types of lavender, nice little sleep pillows, lotions, soaps, even sweets.  Bought a French lavender plant for near the front gate where hopefully I will be able to smell it as I go in and out.  The pictures were taken at Threadbear Cottage.

Highgate Gardens

At Highgate Gardens near Pirongia. This is also a B and  B in the most beautiful setting overlooking rolling countryside with Mt Pirongia in the distance.  The roses were in full flower as were flag irises in many colours, even an apricot coloured one. 

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Went to a meeting of the Goethe Society last night which was all about the non-existent fairies in the tales. Apparently they were there in the first edition but were edited out in later editions as the word for fairy in German is like the French word Fee and relations between the two countries were not exactly cordial at the time.

Of course some of the tales are a bit gruesome too which doesn't cause problems for children usually, just for their parents and librarians!

Got out my volumes of Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen which date back to my stay in Germany in the 1960s and am looking forward to rereading them along with the feminist fairy tales I found in my bookcase.

Patchwork and Quilts

Went to a wonderful display of quilts at North Harbour Stadium last week but unfortunately didn't take my iPad and had forgotten how to take photos with my mobile and felt too sheepish to admit it and ask someone. Suffice to say they were beautiful in all hues and arrangement . One of my favourites was of native birds and flowers.

Got out the book, Warm heritage, on the history of some of the old quilts in NZ museums that good friend Marlene had given me many years ago and am rereading it with great pleasure

I am filled with admiration for the women who created these beautiful works of art , my own Aunt Dorothy included, whose quilt of tumbling blocks graces the bed in my study. Not only the choice of materials pleases me but admiration for all that piecing and embellishment with fine ecru herringbone stitching around each piece.

She gave me the quilt before it was finished and I added patches of my own, returning it to her in Christchurch from Auckland via good friend Eileen for embroidering and from there to old friend Jill who made the calico lining for me.

Birthdays and weddings

This week has been an auspicious week of quiet celebration as it contained both my birthday and our wedding anniversary. Spent the morning with my Knitterati friends down at Mangere Arts Centre looking at an exhibition of  "objects"  using different materials to what we have been tradionallly used to with scarcely a precious stone to be seen  and not even normal art materials but plastic, bottle tops, even soft toys in the person of Basil Brush, dressed in Louis Vuitton cloth. 
In the afternooon good friends Frances and Pamela joined the 3 of us here at home for Kaffee and Kuchen, the Kuchen being a hazelnut cake as usual.  Eli made cupcakes too which went down well .
We followed all that with a glass of wine, dip and chips over a celebratory game of scrabble before repairing to the foodhall for a meal.

Hobbled through the park  (like "the cat from Norway" I had got stuck in the doorway - of the bus that morning and was feeling a bit sore) and Pam and I struck up a conversation with a little girl who was skillfully walking along along some narrow concrete edging which Pamela immediately recognized as a Montessori skill.  The little girl was indeed a Montessori child, very self-assured and we heard her comment to her father afterwards that she had been talking to "some nice old ladies" which really put the icing on the proverbial birthday cake for sure.

Today the 28th of October is our 34th wedding anniversary and we celebrated that quietly a deux .  Went to a lovely beachfront cafe on Takapuna Beach and enjoyed a delicious lunch of egg benedict with crispy bacon in my case and copious slices of salmon in Dieter's.

Outside St Patrick's Cathedral 25 October 1978.



My 8th birthday party.  I am second from left.



My Parents' wedding day 6 November 1942.

German Reunification Day

Today was the annual lunch at Sorrento to celebrate the reunification 22 years ago. Having just got back from spending time in both former East and West Germany I feel that apart from fewer people there is now very little difference between the various former east and west states, other than that which you would normally expect.

It was good to see old friends from as far back as the 1960s. First there was the welcome by the president of the German Club, then an interesting speech by one of the members on Weimar, a city famous for its cultural heritage and a great centre of classicism. She read a poem by Schiller and one by Goethe, two great men of Weimar though there are other important people who flourished in Weimar like Liszt and Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus. We were in Dessau last month where we saw Bauhaus buildings too and in Weimar many years ago in the 1990s. Then she touched on the more recent history of the Weimar Republic and later still the infamous concentration camp of Buchenwald. Our speaker finished her speech on a happier note speaking about the annual Onion Market which goes back to 1653 and which takes place every October.

There followed a toast to Germany , then a musical interlude during which German music was played and sung , then the delicious buffet lunch was served.

Meissen

Visiting the porcelain factory and museum  and the little town of Meissen was one of the highlights of the trip for me. When I first went to Germany I acquired 3 beautiful blue and white dinner plates which I still have.  They were from the 1920s or 30s I found out when we were at the factory this time.  I had a picture of them on my iPad  and  someone dated them from the backstamp. 

First we saw how the beautiful figurines are made - each piece is made separately then carefully attached painstakingly , painted  then finished off.  We saw 4 or 5 of the steps  involved in the making of an item.   No wonder they are so expensive they are so labour-intensive.

They had a shop which made it very hard to resist and in the end I succumbed and bought a small dish which I don't regret. It was not cheap needless to say.  However I like it and will use it and divest myself of some other china or porcelain I don't care for anymore. 

There was a pocelain museum with hundreds of items made over the centuries for the various European

and world markets with the subjects designed to appeal to the people of these countries.  Tastes vary.

After that thrilling experience we went on a walking tour of the town walking down from the high point down cobbled streets to the market square below.  

Hamburg

Travelled down from Berlin a week ago to stay with nephew Klaus and flatmates Hartmut and Matthias. All three made us very welcome. Klaus ensconced us in his room before taking off to Zagreb on business for a couple of days. The three of them have a big apartment which is really two flats in one and there was plenty of room for us all - 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining room, sitting room, kitchen and laundry.

It was good to spread out a bit after the week in a very small cabin on the Viking Theodor Fontane and do some washing.
Our first outing was out to cousin Marga's place out in a small country town, Trittau a couple of hours by train and bus away. We hadn't seen them for several years but both Marga and Friedhelm looked reassuringly the same. Son Hajo was also there.
Has a lovely meal of veal fricasse with beans and potatoes from their big garden followed by coffee and one of Dieter's favourite cakes, streuselkuchen.

The following day Klaus's friend Christiane showed us Hamburg, mainly the harbour and port area which we saw by ferry.but first we went from one side of the Elbe to the other by walking the hundred year Elbe tunnel, all beautifully tiled. Took a lift big enough for 113 people down to the tunnel. We shared it with a car going up again over the other side.

Had lunch at a riverside restaurant, a delicious seafood soup for me and matjes fillets and potato salad for the others. Had a long walk along the river before getting the ferry back to town, for a walk around the old brick storage buildings which they used for storing carpets, spices, coffee to name a few. Finished off the day with a lovely meal out at a local Portuguese restaurant, a huge pizza which we shared and some rose wine.

The next day we took a train trip to Wilhelmshaven to put flowers on Dieter's parent's graves. Also visited the Kustenmuseum where Dieter donated some of his memorabilia and artifacts from his big OE in the 1960s, his poisoned arrows from Malaya and a Balinese carving among other things. They were displayed in an exhibition a few years ago but are in storage now.

On the Friday we made a day trip by train to Schwerin which used to be in East Germany before. It has a lovely castle and a beautiful English garden which we walked around . Klaus invited us for coffee and torte in a comfortably old fashioned cafe - strawberry for me, gooseberry meringue for Klaus and cherry and elderberry for Dieter. Pictures to follow!!

We started our last day by going to the local farmers market where the guys stocked up on sausage, cheese, breads, fruit and veg for the following week. There was such an array to choose from. Enjoyed a tasty Bratwurst before going out to Harburg to visit Christiane.

First she showed us her Schrebergarten, her allotment garden complete with cottage which she is in the process of renovating. There was an abundance of flowers, apples, herbs, tomatoes and plums. A peaceful place where they go every couple of days to garden and relax, she and her mother, Christa and sister, Ulli.



Went back to the apartment she shares with her mother for coffee and a delicious apple and plum cake. Her mother looks after the books at the parish op shop and she kindly opened up for us to browse. Resisted the books ok but succumbed to a couple of tops and a comfortable pair of Hush Puppy sandals which are easy to do up.
And on that happy note I will end my tale of our stay in Hamburg.