The CeleBRation Choir and Me

I agreed to be interviewed  in order to publicize the research that is going on to see whether singing in a choir is beneficial for people with Parkinson's and people who have had a stroke.  In the case of Parkinson's people's voices may get a little indistinct and quieter, and their faces may lack expression as the condition progresses.  The main benefit in my case is the enjoyment of being part of a choir and the pleasure to be gained from singing with others and sometimes for others.  Yesterday we went to the Elizabeth Knox Home, where two of our choir members live,  to sing for the people there .
Interview in the Harbour News on the joys of singing with the CeleBRation Choir.

Crown Lynn

I found these two Kelston Nirvana plates for a dollar each in an op shop recently.   Can't remember ever having seen the delicate pohutukawa flower pattern in its heyday but it suits my desire for a change away from my usual china and former penchant for blue and white.  

The vase which belonged to my Christchurch aunt  has one of the fractionated marks,  used to indicate the type of glaze and firing method.   Our front garden is a riot of dahlia and hibiscus flower and foliage and this vase suits both.

The cat ornament belonged to Aunt Dorothy too .  Our cat Malkovich would not tolerate a red bow around his neck. 

Flowers and Fruit

Hydrangeas from my mother's garden in Orewa and bottled peaches from our Waiheke garden, not as nice as the Golden Queen peaches I have been bottling at home in Ponsonby.  I decided this year to get rid of my various collections of preserving jars  firstly as there seemed to be a market for them on Trademe and secondly those big jars of fruit  are too big for two people.   However have kept about a dozen of various sizes and colour - a couple of brown Agee Specials, the Agee Utility pint and quart size and even a couple of 2 quart ones.  Decided to use them as storage jars  for baking ingredients so their contents are more visible in my pantry.  People bought my jars but not to preserve fruit in but to use them as table decorations and vases for their vintage weddings!    

Orewa Outing

Had a social weekend with good friends Frances and Carolyn E. up at Orewa, enjoying the sun, beach and surf for a change. It has a liberating relaxing effect,I find, just hearing the sounds of nature - the waves, the crunch of shells underfoot, the screech of seagulls, not to mention the stunning visual beauty of the Eaves Bush area at the northern end of Orewa where Dieter, Carolyn and I went for a walk among spendid kauri, kahikatea and puriri trees. The main reason for the trip up north was to join other members of the Silverdale Historical Society to the small village of Mauku which I had not even heard of before. It is in the lush market garden area of Patumahoe and Pukekohe, an area I am not all that familiar with. The church is a small Selwyn Church in beautiful condition, dating back to 1862 and is situated on a small knoll, overlooking the area and has a small churchyard cemetery. It is called St Bride's and is a sister church to another St Bride's in Fleet St London whose flock of parishioners some of the original settlers in the area came from. We had an interesting talk on the church from the sexton and his wife. Nowadays the church has a congregation of 25 and is also used as a wedding venue. I was telling my neighbour in Orewa, who came from Pukekohe originally, all about the trip and the visit to the church, and she remembered her husband taking wedding photos on many occasions for bridal parties. Aftr lunch at a garden cafe we motored on to the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa to look at the sculpture exhibition, which was rather spread out over the whole gardens. Although there was a little train taking people around I had the misfortune to be sitting above a flat tyre and had to vacate my seat, so walked around in the heat and saw what I could without getting too hot and bothered. Back in Orewa in the early evening I indulged in the first of several long swims over the next 3 days to revive my drooping spirit. Later on we enjoyed a takeaway roast dinner at a picnic table overlooking the beach. Bliss.

Scrapbooks

I went to an interesting exhibition of scrapbooks, mainly old but some new, at the Central Library recently and was prompted to get out some in my own little collection. The first one is a recipe scrapbook I compiled in the 1960s using recipes in the Herald and Star and the Woman's weekly by such foodies of the day as Mary Anne and Tui Flower. I remember making the hot potato salad with frankfurters for a party with university friends, I took the same dish to a work do in the 1990s and made it again recently for a birthday buffet. In the 70s I added some new recipes and stuck in recipes I had enjoyed at friends' houses in the days when entertaining meant a dinner party. There is beetroot and apple salad, Syrian fruit salad and glazed ham (serves 10-12!!). I never made that I must admit, not feeling up to catering for the multitudes. The next little book down is mainly handwritten recipes in 2 different handwriting. The book belonged to my aunt Dorothy but I think my grandmother wrote in most of the recipes for staples such as shortbread, orange tea cake, ginger crunch and blackcurrant jam which includes raspberries as well. Sounds delicious and I am sorry that my blackcurrant jam always comes out of a jar from the supermarket. Although the little book has sections for fish, vegetables, entrees etc only recipes for cakes and biscuits were written in. That's what women used recipes for - for the other things they would have used their imagination to a large extent. I know my mother did. Here again I have appropriated the unused pages for my own recipes and stuck in a few from magazines. I was delighted to find a recipe for apricot and bran loaf which I made in 1974 when I was living in Hamilton. I will make it again soon with some plump bright orange dried apricots from Central Otago, I have in the cupboard. The next scrapbook is one I made in the 1980s or 1990s after a bookmaking course at Art Station. At this time I had saved all Eli's initial artwork from the time she was a toddler. At the same time motherhood had sparked my own creative juices and I was making things which complemented hers. So I interleaved pages of her art with blank pages for photos, woven or dyed samples, strands of coloured handspun yarn and the like. The page I have open shows some of the yarn and part of a painting by E. The last scrapbook is a travel one from the early 1970s. The trip was by car to Scandinavia right up to Finland. I bought some of this lovely cutlery which I still use, in Copenhagen. I loved the natural scenery in Scandinavia, especialy the trees and lakes but also the decorative arts, the architecture, folk music and food, frightfully expensive I remember. The book is handmade and bound in red cloth by Karin, a librarian in Wolfsburg with whom I worked. She was a very creative person and made beautiful things over the years some of which I ws lucky to receive as presents - a batik angel which goes up on the wall at Christmas time and cane coasters, a polished wood paperknife are some that spring to mind. But I digress. I will stop here as the paragraphing is not working on this post so I apologize for the mass of text .

Holiday Mode

January has come and gone and with it a most memorable trip to the Bay of Islands with old friends Marlene and Eileen, visitor from Western Australia! We motored up with Marle at the wheel, stopping for refreshments at Orewa at the Gabb abode. After a short walk along the beach for old time's sake in the case of the other two we carried on to Whangarei stopping there at the

harbour area for a picnic lunch and look at the art work in the gallery close by, housed in a lovely old villa. Browsed the craft shops without succumbing this time, as far as I remember. Our destination was the stunning holiday house of the Brown's , high above Opua Harbour with a tranquil view below, ferry plying its way to the Russell side of the harbour every half hour or so, yachts and boats sailing in and out or moored there, creating a wonderful mesmerizing scene to relish and remember. Collapsed in a heap with a cup of tea then helped with (or not) with the meal preparation, before enjoying the evening in luxury accomodation.