Wet as..

First we had the crazy snows and now the crazy "weather bomb"...at first we thought it was just hype - something to keep the media busy, but then we woke up this morning to nothing short of a flood:

I borrowed this photo off the New Zealand Herald website but it was taken somewhere just around the corner:

But ignoring the warnings we both still set off for work, but soon after I became a little uneasy, what with the water reaching higher than my car doors and the lack of any other vehicle except for civil defence trucks, fire engines and police. But things seemed to be getting worse and so the decision was made to close the clinic and get everybody home.

It's a strange feeling being home in the middle of the day when you would usually be working, at first I was a little restless, especially seeing as I have finished my "Preggie Ladies Project" (which I will get back to soon when I have a decent photo). So I decided to begin my next knitting project - a little top made out of the most lovely green yarn from Jo Sharp.


And what would a posting be without at least one photo of some baking, this time it's my At-Home-Cos-It's-Too-Flooded-To-Work sultana scones:


Lil.

Bicycles

Matt and I recently decided to start looking for somewhere to live in the big smoke. Petrols prices and time spent commuting is finally getting the better of us. It does get me down a little, but there will be lots of good things about living in town. Like being able to travel by bike this summer! And as if they read my thoughts my favourite fashion label - Comptoir des Cotonniers - has released it's very own bicycle:

Now if only we were moving to a cobblestoned village in France.

Winter's not so bad after all.

I had a long lunch today - 2 hours off, the perfect amount of time to bake a cake. I chose the Continental Apple Cake from Edmund's - I had to take it out of the oven before I dashed back to work, but I had time to take this quick snap - you can even see the steam rising from the cake if you look closely. I spent all afternoon looking froward to trying it out when I got home from work, but alas, I had managed to burn the bottom half which tasted stale and was crumbly. Oh dear.

And although I have been a bit down about winter, last weekend we visited our friends' winery - Black Estate. It was such a stunning day, and the view was amazing:

Brrrrrr...

Ok, we have definitely had enough of the cold. Last week our fire actually broke. I didn't realise a fire could break, but apparently if you don't get it maintained by a chimney sweep for over 5 years it can effectively break. It just stopped working. Plenty of smoke but no fire and therefore no heat. It came to breaking point on Saturday when it started snowing. Even with the fire blazing our house isn't quite warm, but with nothing at all it is truly freezing (literally). So we were very relieved when friendly and agile Adam (he clambered up on to the roof even) showed on Monday to clear things up.

But really, the cold is only enjoyable if you are warm. At this time of year it really starts to get us down. I am working on an awesome winter project though which involves 5 gifts for the 5 women I know who have either just had a baby or are due in the next 2 months... I wanted to make a few before I published a photo, so keep posted.

Brrrr.

Sundays

I have never had two consecutive Sundays be so different. This Sunday (today) I woke with a horrendous hangover and vague recollections of singing The Carpenter's "Top of the World" at Christchurch's best karaoke venue - "Christchurch Idol". The whole day has been dark and queasy, and focussed around my favourite hangover cure: Nourish the Nausea - basically eat as much as you can. I had 2 pieces of toast, scrambled eggs with toast and salmon, 1 flat white, 1 pain au chocolat, 1 jumbo vanilla milkshake with ice cream and I still have a steak pie and a cookie time to come. 

Compare with last Sunday when it poured and poured with rain. I awoke fresh and energetic and accomplished so much...

1. I finished off the quilt I had been working on for the most part of two years....

2. I baked some gingernuts for the boys at the office (they only lasted 3 days).. note the jerusalem artichokes and rosemary on the left of the photo - they went in with the roast chicken that I cooked for dinner....

3. I made yet another cushion for our lovely Hans Wegner couch. I have had to ban myself from making any more cushions for the house unless we buy more furniture...

I was going to end there, but then Boo ran up and asked if I would please put up the picture of her in her coat - it snowed (again!!) in Christchurch yesterday so she posed for this (slightly fuzzy) pic: