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.

Cruising Down the River

Well how about a canal. We have succumbed to temptation and decided to go on a cruise to get away from the chilly winter we are experiencing. The only warm place is bed at present.

Anyway at the end of August we are going on a 14 day European cruise from Copenhagen to Kiel via the canal that links the Baltic and North Sea , then along the coast to Amsterdam, 3 French ports, Viga in Spain, then Gibralter, Mallorca and finally Barcelona. Will follow this with a week in Germany. We are very excited about it. It is a luxury cruise on the Azamara complete with butlker service and other frivolities. The price is about half of the normal price - the recession and swine flu are probably combining to put some people off travelling.

Wintery Weekend

Not so much wet and windy as frosty cold with clear blue sky days. As usual we made the most of the weekend with a day trip to Orewa by car this time as the bus whizzed past us at Victoria Park. Anyway it was useful to have the car to bring back a boot full of firewood from the backyard up there. Over the years branches have fallen off our beautiful protected pohutukawa trees, oak and willow tree keeping us warm, sawn up as firewood, in deepest Ponsonby.

Imbibed the atmosphere of bach and beach, enjoyed a visit from our neighbour over the back hedge. Afternoon tea included the remaining half of D's birthday cake, a madeira cake with a filling of hazelnut macaroon.We then motored home in time for dinner, a special German dish once more, of beef olives, stuffed with bacon, onion, mustard and gherkin, served with red cabbage and potato.

Went to Mass at the cathedral this morning at 11am, packed as usual, with beautiful singing. Went to the Maritime Museum afterwards as it has free entry for June. Enjoyed looking at all the Pacific outrigger canoes and other sailing craft. Then there is the replica of the steerage cabin space where early emigrants spent a lot of time on their months-long voyage to NZ and the more comfortable but still rather spartan cabin of the 1950s emigrants , such as the many thousands of Dutch people.

Enjoyed some freshly made seafood sushi at St Pierre's Downtown before going home for a read and a rest.

Kaiaua

It was a warm sultry afternoon so took the chance to air the house after all the rain and damp of last week. Went into 11am mass at the cathedral - it was being televised for Asia Downunder - diversity in Auckland. The congregation is 80% Asian these days with many families and young people.
Yesterday we went on a bus trip to Kaiaua again - this time with a Grey Lynn group - nice to get out into the countryside. We had a show - a couple of older singers performing their kind of music in an old fancy theatre, then we had fish and chips and coleslaw in a renowned fish and chip restaurant down there. D and I had a short walk along the beach before it was turn around time and time to go home again. The godwits have well and truly gone now, leaving the beach to the local seabirds.

Sportswoman of the Minute

Tidy-Up Time at Orewa and E's Art in Motion assignment

We had a nice weekend, albeit busy . Had a good trip up by bus with Dieter and a friend of mine who came with us. Had a quick lunch of ciabatta, salami and cheese then a trip into the village to get some things from the op shops. We both got a nice Carltonware type small dish for $8 as we both liked them and that was all I bought - that I remember! Sorted out some other stuff to go back to a different op shop so haven't really gained much. I had to clear out the bedroom that the flatmate is going into and accomodate all the stuff, get rid of the dust of several seasons (it seemed). E arrived early evening but didn' t want to film us until the next day - ended up being round 12. She was pleased with our efforts and we were suitably impressed with her skills. I had been dreading it somewhat especially when she pulled out this bag of odd- looking clothes, but endured all for art's sake. We just had to mime the words to a plaintive little love song written and performed on CD by her friends, the Gladeyes.
Next weekend will be a weekend at home which I am looking forward to.
Today I went to the Y , not quite as energetic as the sports day I attended last Friday. It was several of the N2O groups from around Auckland playing volleyball and badminton. I had a go at both which was fun but rather hard as I had not played before.
Today lunchtime met D to look at the book sale at the library. Bought one book each which was very restrained then went to the staff cafetaria at the Council for our midday dinner which saves cooking this evening.
Had a first look at an interesting exhibition of NZ paintings, landscapes I think they are, in a new exhibition being hung at the City Art Gallery, so had a very satisfying day.

Not content to take it easy on a rainy Monday afternoon I made some feijoa jam and am in the throes of making another batch of guava jelly. Have only a small quantity of jam covers, sugar and small jars so will freeze some of the juice and make a third lot later on.

Easter and Afterwards

Spent Easter up at Orewa doing our usual things. Went to the Good Friday ceremony which along with the Easter Sunday Mass were meaningful occasions. E came up on Saturday evening to celebrate Easter with us, with D providing the usual easter eggs for us to find. The dahlias were in full bloom so picked some for the table. Had some lovely lamb shanks for our evening meal and fresh feijoas from neighbouring trees for dessert.

Have been busy on the domestic front making a pot or two of quince jelly with my good neighbour, Gladys's high-up quinces. She and her daughter made two batches of quince jam which looked beautiful but too much work for me, peeling and cutting up that hard fruit.

Our flatmate Gerard moves in up there on Anzac weekend so I have been busy making space in cupboards, pantry and on shelves for him to put his gear. This has been a good opportunity for me to prune back our possessions there and I have two big bags of stuff for the op shop.
Had some welcome light relief when the shops reopened on Saturday and made a foray to the Baptist op shop and replaced my old blue dressing gown with a nice bright cherry red one for $5 and my old black handbag for a new one for $4. So it's two steps forward and one step back in that direction.

Friend Frances came up with us for the weekend and took us on a jaunt to Wenderholm on Easter Sunday. Visited Coudrey House with its beautiful old architectural features and furnishings. Drove home with a detour to Waiwera where we reminisced about outings to the hot bathes there is the oldendays and vijsits to the Waiwera Hotel afterwards for dinner or drinks.

Weekend on Waiheke

Enjoyed lovely late summer weather on the island with a couple of swims, a visit to a country fair at the Steiner kindergarten and general lounging about. The bach is let for Easter so did a modicum of housework to make it spic and span for our guests.

D has a new camera so hopefully the images will be of better quality once he has mastered it. I have a new mobile and am concentrating on mastering that. There is a picture of the bach with feijoa tree and another spindly tree in the foreground, one of Blackpool , another of Oneroa Beach from the Little Oneroa walkway in front of the church and one taken at the country fair of childrenand adults enjoying very creative teepees.

There is an abundance of feijoas under our feijoa trees and we scooped out the flesh of a bucketful of them and froze it in containers for future use. Made guava jelly during the week , a perfect set for once, because it can be sometimes a bit runny.

Visitors from Germany

Had a delightful 10 days or so with D's nephew , Klaus and his friend Christiane who spent the last days of their 7 week Neuseeland OE in Auckland. Thankfully the weather was better and they enjoyed warm sunny weather at Waiheke and Orewa and also round Ponsonby with us. Had a couple of swims at the Herne Bay beaches, walked around to Westhaven and along Ponssonby Rd. It was very nice for D to have some family here for a change. His other nephew came about 22 years ago.

Sunny Saturday and Sunday

We had a pleasant day with Klaus and Christiane, showing them the sights and delights of our part of town - started off with a swim at Sentinel Rd beach , then on to Westhaven by foot and then to Sitting Duck cafe at Westhaven for lunch - lovely sandwiches, ginger crunch and a latte, then walked toVictoria Park Market. Home for afternoon tea with the nice linen and china and then dinner. E was here too for the latter two.

They took us out to an Italian restaurant in Herne Bay on Saturday night. We shared a lovely seafood platter for starters then a pasta dish with spinach and fetta for me. Earlier in the day we went to an arts andcrafts market up at the Ponsonby Community Centre. There was a great a great array of crafts and bric-a brack. D bought me a lovely shiny biscuit tin with the Fresh-Up advertising on it. E bought herself a brown phone shaped like a handbag, seventies style. She reckons it will go. There was a great display of Crown Lynn china - small plates $5, dinner plates $10. the domestic crafts are very much alive and well among the younger generation - there were some lovely knitted purses and crocheted badges as well as afternoon teas with yummy home baking. Dieters nephew arrived back fromtheir sojourn in Orewa while we worked witha beautiful hazelnut cake for Dieter, a rolled up shortcake strudel time roll with a delicious nut filling, just like his mother and aunt used to make. My aunt made a different nutcake - with the ground hazelnuts folded into the plain cake mixture, replacing an equal amount of flour, also delicious.

Waitemata Weekend

This was a jam-packed weekend from go to whoa. Klaus and Christiane had arrived Thursday evening, spent Friday sightseeing and getting their rental car back to Mangere, and were ready to start their Waiheke experience on Saturday. We got an earlier boat over than usual so we could take in the Ostend Market before noon, buying tamarind chutney and chunky marmelade from our favourite stall to take home to Germany. Had a long and hot walk back to Surfdale, lunched on the deck, then took off for a swim at Little O. At last just as the season winds down, the water is lovely and warm. Home for a quick cup of coffee and peanut brownies before D and I returned to Auckland, as we had our Historic Places Trust cruise to Ponui Island on Sunday.

This necessitated another early start as the boat left from Half Moon Bay. It was great seeing some new scenery and the water features from a different angle. Browns Island, Waiheke, Motuihe , Rotoroa, Paketoa and Ponui were all islands we saw from a completely different angle to what we usually see. We landed at Ponui which is farmed by decendants of the Chaamberlin family and others. There are 11 adults on the island owned by 2 Chamberlins, 2 others and John Spencer, who owns a piece of Waiheke, and another island near Coromandel. Ponui has an early breed of donkey, the Ponui donkey, descended from the first donkeys imported to New Zealand, the Akaroa donkeys. There was an idyllic bay ideal for swimming , which one of our number took advantage of. I stretched out on the beach and enjoyed the sun and tranquillity.
It was interestimg to see Pakatoa with buildings we remember from our youth. There was a beach resort there with motels and place where functions were held. It was a place where people went for a weekend, or had their honeymoons. There was a pool, and a hydrofoil which got people there and back.

Books and Baking

We are expecting visitors from Hamburg later today so I have spent a little time poring over a new recipe book - Robyn Martin bakes: quick and easy favourite recipes, which has all the old Kiwi classics given a new twist either with a new ingredient or prepared in a more simple way ie in a pot! Suits me. I made a Louise cake slice but couldn't find my slice tin (at first) so made it in a large Christmas cake tin) which was not quite big enough. The middle soggy bits, I have consigned to the freezer to be used in a trifle one of these other days.

Then I made some peanut brownies from the Edmonds book and called it a day after that. I remember the olden days making 4 or 5 things one after the other to fill up the tines. This was in my teenage years when I did a lot of baking for the family. My mother concentrated on hearty and healthy meals , followed always by a milk pudding - semolina and fruit, banana custard made in a fluted yellow bowl, baked macaroni or vermicelli pudding with sultanas and cinnamon, bread and butter pudding, not to mention all the fruit sponges, apple pies and crumbles. Makes me tired thinking about them.

Jigsaw

This 1500 piece jigsaw occupied our dining room table and a lot of our time for a couple of months but it was lovely to see it finally finished and now back in its box ready for the trip to the op shop where it came from originally.

Rangitoto Island and the Baches

I hadn't been to Rangitoto for at least 15 years when I half- killed myself keeping up with the Vermont St kids on a school trip to the summit. We didn't look at the baches that time as they are off to the side round the coast. But now the Dept. of Conservation has preserved one as a little museum - all the traditional bach furniture - old wirewoves made up with candlewick bedspreads, dressers, kitchenalia, aprons, oven cloths and the like, Crown Lynn and floral cups and saucers, old tins, all as the bach was when it was vacated on the death of the owner. Many of them were pulled down as that was the policy then to return the whole island to being a reserve. There are still a few owned by descendants of the first owners and their proud owners , bachelor men, showed us around their 1930s abodes with great pride. We were on a guided walk taken by Susan Yoffe, who did her MA thesis on the Rangitoto bach community some years ago. She was very knowledgable and informative about the history of the island, from the Maori inhabitants to the prisoners who lived and worked on the island making paths and roads, stone walls and fireplaces in the 1930s. The beautiful hardy kidney fern is found only on the island I think. After the walk inthe company of other members of the NZ Historic Places Trust we had tea outside accompanied by scones, jam and cream eaten off a great array of bach china, of the Crown Lynn or floral variety. The summit will have to wait for another occasion, as we were not suitable shod for such an expedition, having had to rise very early to get the ferry at 9.15 am and were not adequately equipped (or as it turned out inclined).

Ngatea Water Gardens, Kaiaua and Hunua Falls on a Very Rainy Day

Last Friday was the monthly day trip for March which we had booked for and I became increasingly worried about going on, in the course of the gale the previous two evenings and days. But then , the Historical Society goes on its trips, rain or shine, and rain it was this time. I layered myself in all sorts of unglamourous and ancient rainwear from the bach to get myself half-dry to the pick-up point round the corner in Elizabeth Street where another couple of drowned rats were waiting at Judith's place for the bus - which necessitated another dash when it stopped at the corner a little while later. However once on the motorway in our nice velvety upholstered bus all was semi-forgotten and before we knew where we were we were at Drury for our first pitstop as they call these coffee and loo breaks. McCafe was the cafe of choice for D and me and we got a nice big bran, carrot and walnut muffin to cheer us up (Wouldn't cheer everybody up !)

On to Ngatea through rolling countryside, all very sodden and green with very little other traffic on the back roads, arriving at Ngatea round 11 in time for the aptly named water gardens. I gave my fellow travellers a good head start of about 10 minutes so I could gallop round in about 3 minutes and not be impeded as I charged around. Which worked fine for the first 2 minutes, when I was left regretting I had not gone back for one of those riduculously big umbrellas and I got WET. There was a beautiful lily pond , a selection of rustic looking seats with corny signs on them, quaint mini-edifices , some bedraggled looking ducks and - a nice dry spotlessly clean beer can museum with nice soothing music in it. The only trouble was, it was the farthest place from the next driest place, the exit! However spent a few minutes longer than I would normally have had, just to show D what happens when collecting gets out of hand (and me too). It was a sobering sight seeing all those empty beer cans especially my favourite (fyi) Lion Red. (I prefer it in a glass out of a bottle actually).

On to the township of Ngatea for lunch at cafes of our choice, as disappointingly for some, we were not able to have the planned fish and chips outside at the world-famous Kaiaua Fish and Chip Shop because of the rain and they didn't have enough room inside for a busload of us. Not to worry - we will all probably live longer with less cholesterol. It didn't worry me. I am philosophical these days about most things, as most of us were.

Then we motored on down to the coast at Miranda to look at the godwits before they wing their way back to Siberia. Not that there were too many birds around - we did see a flock nestled down beside a pond which just could have been godwits, and did see some favourites - seabirds like pied stilts and seagulls.

Spent some time at the excellent visitor centre at Miranda and looked at the displays on the various birds and had time afterwards to walk along the beach a bit and pick up a few shells as a souvenir.

Our last stop was at the Hunua Falls which I been to in my student days. Camp Adair was there and I remember sleeping in very small 2 bed cabins and not getting much sleep . Needless to say the Falls rivalled Niagara Falls (when I first typed it with its typo it looked just like Viagra with an N ) with all the rain and gales we had had, and it was a raging muddy sight with a great volume and noise, all its own. At this point words fail me. But the sun did come out again and by the time we got back to Orewa the tide was in and it was 23 degrees and great swimming weather.

Ponsonby Posting

Spent the weekend at home , for a change. Our Hauraki Gulf trip had been cancelled due to heavy rain on Friday. As it left from Half Moon Bay I was not too disappointed but we did not do very much with the day apart from the usual meandering along Ponsonby Road looking at the shops in the morning and a visit to the food hall in the evening.

In between I made a second batch of peach chutney from a new NZ book from the library, Pick, preserve and serve by Chris Fortune - this recipe containing cinnamon , cloves and grated fresh ginger and tastes very delicious. Our Golden Queen peach tree is laden this year and so far the peaches have been spared brown rot and attacks from the birds.

Sunday we sallied forth to Newmarket to look at whiteware seeing our frig had leaked a trail of water across the kitchen floor during the night and by the time we had got from the Warehouse at one end of Broadway to Farmers at the other end we succumbed to a 10% discount offer on an already reduced price on a new stove and frig and ordered these to be delivered Tuesday.

Peaches

Spent the weekend at Waiheke where I passed a good part of each morning preserving these peaches. It involved a lot of peeling and eating and needless to say was I pleased when the morning's quota was done. Took a couple of kilos home to turn into peach chutney which I did this afternoon. It is rich fruity chutney with preserved ginger, raisins, spices and onion from the Edmonds Cookbook. The rest left on the tree next weekend will definitely be just for eating!

Once Upon a Time

Two exhibitions I enjoyed last week and today are the fairy tales and fantasies for children one in the library and the gardens in art exhibition, Enchanted Gardens, at the art gallery.

The fairy tales one spans the 19th-20th century mainly and it is very interesting to see the different ways different artists have illustrated the same book eg Peter Pan by Mabel Lucie Atwell and Arthur Rackham. The contemporary illustrators bring a new dimension to old favourites. A lot of these books are familiar to me from my own childhood - eg the Fairy books by Andrew Lang and the modern fantasies and animal fantasies from E's era.

The Enchanted Gardens exhibition was a treat - beautiful flower photographs by Ernst Haas, flower paintings by NZer Karl Maugham, garden sculpture, engravings, even a knitted tea cosy by Heather Nicholson, (knitting guru), shaped like a house with embroidered flowers climbing up the front of it.

Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Well not the mists, but the rest is apt. Went to Orewa on the weekend and my neighbour up there offered me some damsons from the high up branches of her tree so D picked some and I made a batch of delicious damson jam the next morning. Also made some damson chutney a couple of weeks ago with some of last year's (frozen) harvest.

Over at Waiheke I will be leaping into action and doing something with the peaches - bottling, chutney probably. we are going over for Waitangi weekend.