Home alone follies.....

I must be insane- in fact I am convinced of it. I am home alone - Rosie in the UK and Tom now away flatting - and so what do I do - I buy 5 kg of apricots and make jars and jars of chutney and then more bottles of apricot sauce than anyone person can use.

Those January habits of pickle making are hard to break. I tell myself that pickle is just as worth making for myself to enjoy as for others but still it seemed absurd even to me to make that much - as delicious as it is. This is a recipe from the Stewart Island cook book. Easy and yielding good results.
Here it is if you care to try it.

2 kg apricots
360 g raisins
560 ml vinegar ( 1 pint)
2 tsp curry powder
500 g onions
2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger.

make in usual way - simmer one and a half hours. Bottle.  ( enjoy - all year long if you are by yourself and perhaps for a month or two if there's more of you.)

Ah well - becoming accustomed to whatever stage of life you are at  takes a little getting used to and Im sure a little foolishness along the way does no harm.

Here's to week of summer fruits.

Marg

To market to market to buy a fat pig......

... home again, home again, jiggety jig. That is the start of the rhyme and an apt one for travelling cattle class in turbulence. Not pleasant but flying for me is always about the destination and never the journey.  And so it was we arrived in Los Angeles with no destination in mind but a whole journey ahead of us.

On our first night we walked along Hollywood boulevard

just out of Santa Monica on the way to Santa Barbara and already we needed a walk along the beach ... same ocean as the one back home but different beach. A strange feeling !

I really liked this place for no special reason. Monterey Bay. We had Christmas here

Dougs enthusiasm for Redwood trees took us to the tiny town of Felton 

from memory this tree is about 2000 years old - maybe older

a glimpse of a cable car in San Francisco

the grand canyon left me almost but not quite speechless

homeward bound. Our 3rd last day was spent in Palm Springs.  Holiday resort of many of the famous. 

Its hard to capture a holiday in words. Any attempts to explain the experience either seem lame or boring or both. So I wont try. Enough to say it was an amazing time in a country of great extremes. Good company, good fun, bad food, good bye. Here's to great holiday memories. Have a good week Marg

up, up and away in my beautiful balloon.

Last week it was Chloe's last day.  She went home to Carterton and wont be back till February when her course starts. Between us we made a special dinner - got out the good china, a tablecloth  and had a mini celebration. So many things to be pleased about!!  

• Chloe got into her early childhood course, 

• Tom successfully completed the semester at Polytech and as soon as we're back from holiday moves into his flat. 

• And me- well I got through a year of the surprises, challenges and changes all in one piece and surprisingly in good spirits.

Chloe has become quite the baker since she has been here. Ta da - look at the Christmas cake. What a beauty. It's the Allison Holst no fail  Christmas cake.

  When Chloe arrived here I assured her that she was coming to a house where she would have to fend for herself and where she could be certain to be neglected. There would be few domestic pleasures such as a cleaning, washing or cooking service coming her way and as you can see the strategy has worked.  Baking has become a hobby, she can now successfully work the washing machine and I'm pleased to say prepare a meal that is more than tuna on toast.  I am confident that Tom has been similarly prepared and so will excel in flatting life.

Tomorrow we fly to the states to see Rosie and hopefully Doug if he can get out of the UK. Destination L.A - itinerary beyond that is anyone's guess but we are hoping to get to San Francisco, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park among other places.  I am not packed but have our tickets , some US dollars, and our passports ready. 

The neighbor will feed the cat and the oven has had it's once in a lifetime clean.  I cleaned the oven to take my mind off the thought of flying. I think that's why Im procrastinating on the packing.

So here's to hellos and goodbyes and irrational fears!! Have a great Christmas.


Marg

For you Rosie ........

It's hot today.  We're not used to this so much in Dunedin but it's true. This is the first quiet weekend I've had for ages and I'm lolling about inside the house - all manner of activity clamours for my attention but as a colleague said to me recently " I'm concentrating on being a human being not a human doing."  So it's shaping up to be a delightfully idle day. These photos are for you Rosie.  Even though we're going to see you in a couple of weeks it will be a long time till you come home so here's some shots of the garden in all it's unkempt glory.  The first photo is the only one I managed to take while I was away in Tekapo the other weekend.

 We've had the nativity set out for a few weeks already. 

So in the true spirit of doing not much I'll leave it here before I turn it into work. 

Have a lazy week everyone if you possibly can. 

Cheers Marg  

Parenting Crimes .......

The week has given me cause for reflection - in the photo above you can see my lovely Tom.( He is going flatting in January). This week he reminded me again how one of the hardest things to do as a parent  is to stand back and let your kid sort it out.  This week he had to find a work placement as part of his Polytech course. The work placement was due to start Monday and by Monday he still had not had any luck in finding someone to take him on. Getting into fix it mode I started thinking of favours I could call in. When none of them turned up trumps I got mad. Haven't I done so many favours for so many kids in the course of my work?? Look - I have Chloe here as proof of that. I was indignant that the universe had not complied with my request.  Fool that I am - the necessary learning was for Tom to persevere and find his own placement. At the 11th hour he did! And is now having a great time and a well earned sense of satisfaction that he made this happen without the help of his mother!!


A parcel a week has morphed into a phone call a week in  my house. Postage to the USA is horrendous and to send Rosies birthday presents cost an outrageous $52!!  What was even worse was the entire contents of the parcel were only worth about $20. The star attraction - a new bottle of perfume had been sniffed out as a prohibited item by the shrewd post office attendant. The box was cut open the offending item removed and the rest sent off. Still by all accounts the birthday passed very well and marked a new milestone in our house - that is not being home for the birthday. The first ever!!  Instead of making a birthday cake I made instead some homemade bread. It is the no knead recipe from Anabel Langbein.  Delicious.

Here's to a week of  trusting that our kids have all the qualities they need to figure it out. The trick is to to  know when.

Cheers Marg

Chloe and her Cake .....

Meet Chloe - here she is. Chloe as it turns out has been boarding with us for coming into the fourth month now. When Chloe first came my way I thought she was going to stay four days. But when she got off the plane with 2 enormous suitcases I knew that my ideas were mistaken. It is typical of the attention I pay at times to detail - which as you can see is very little- however somehow it opens up for a more interesting life. '

It has been a real treat having Chloe here. Among other things she loves to think about baking. Recently she bought a book with 500 cake recipes. At the rate of one a week that would take nearly 10 years to make all of those. As luck would have it a friends daughter had a birthdy recently so Cloe pulled out all the stops and tried her hand at one of the recipes.

The little girl was really happy with the cake and Chloe got such a buzz out of making it. It reminded me of all the little things in life that make a person happy - like making a cake for example and being really pleased with your efforts.

I've just finished my 4 week stint of travelling for work. I've had a week in Alexandra, a week in Cromwell, a week based in Wanaka and finally a week in Queenstown.  I bet you're feeling really sorry for me having to be in such a beautiful part of the country. You know I was worried about being away, worried about being alone in a motel room, worried about being worried but it was fine. even this last week when my lack of organisation got the better of me and I had no battery charger for by ipod or my cellphone so both went flat and my computer froze so I couldn't work on it and I hadn't packed enough of the right clothes and then permanently stained my one respectable top with ink from my pen and still had to look as if I knew what I was doing and you know what I was fine. Fine but tired so last night I did the unthinkable. I went to bed at 9.00PM. This morning when I was talking to Rosie on the phone and I told her that I felt like a real old lady going to bed so early she laughed and said - you are an old lady!! OF course how could I forget myself. IN the eyes of a nearly 22 year old I am ancient indeed.

So things to look forward to this week are
- staying home for the whole week
- going to book club and not talking about books
- cooking in my own kitchen
- sleeping in my own bed
- going to bed early if I feel like it.

Heres to a week of all the small things that make a person happy- no matter how old they are.

Cheers Marg ( 48 years old)

Knock, knock.....

Knock knock

who's there?

Walter

Walter Who?

Walt to wall carpet!!!

Remember those silly knock knock jokes?

You know the ones you used to find hilarious and maybe still do a tiny bit? 

Well I thought I'd put this one up today as an entre to the guided tour of my house which is now complete with wall to wall carpet.  Murray the carpet layer who is saving for his daughters wedding was more than happy to do this cash job over the long weekend. He was fast , efficient and friendly. What 's more he took all the old carpet off to the dump for me and for that I'm most grateful. 

So have a look and see what he did 

So hows that for the ultimate in recycling?  A whole house of carpet that came from a bank and was off to the tip had it not been for my friend who sent it my way. 

So to go the full circle I also took a load of rubbish to to the dump today and the dump shop came up trumps yet again. Look at my finds all for the outrageous price of $3.

 So to leave you with a wise saying ... waste not want not.

Here's to week of excellent bargains.

cheers Marg