Matt's new stage

Matt's work has a polished concrete floor which in winter is freezing cold. So they came up with the idea of building a wooden stage to elevate their tootsies and keep them warm...then they decided to paint it bright yellow:


It actually looks pretty cool. And is apparently a lot warmer than the floor.


Boo likes it too.

Random Monday bits and pieces.

When we last spoke, I was off to have a gin and make a courgette (zucchini) and rice gratin for dinner... here's the result:

It was okay. Only okay mind you, I've decided that courgettes are best eaten in small quantities - a whole gratin was taking things a bit far..

In other kitchen news, I've been making a fair bit of my own toasted muesli:


It has been very yummy - with lots of almonds, coconut and dried cranberries (and much cheaper than what you can buy in the shops these days).

We had a fairly sedate weekend - Matt was a bit sickly on Saturday (oh no! the attack of swine flu!), but Sunday was reasonably productive - we looked at two houses which were for sale (I don't think we've ever looked at two in one day that were actually on the market) and found a couple more which aren't for sale but look promising. I am now well and truly over the country life, the social isolation is becoming unbearable and driving our old cars over 500km per week is definitely not cool. There are a couple of absolute gems in Christchurch (house wise), but we just can't convince the people who own them to sell them to us! AAAarrrghh!! It is starting to do my head in.

My five week stint of work is drawing to a close as well, but I've got a couple more weeks lined up after that, taking me to the middle of July. Then hopefully I will pop up to Auckland for a visit and then maybe even over to Melbourne for a few days - Ikea is calling to me.

Righto, time to walk Boo again (her third walk for the day). Ciao.

Christchurch morning

I had a mammoth 11.5 hours day working yesterday during which I was tending a very sick rat and a very scared Labrador amongst other things. Somehow I managed to stab a steel tooth extractor through my thumbnail and into my thumb while I was trying to take a dog's tooth out too which was pretty silly and now very sore...

Anyway, we stayed in town last night which meant Boo got to have a walk in Hagley Park this morning - there was frost on the ground and it was very chilly but the sunshine made it all seem not too bad...

We followed it up with a coffee at Underground where she bumped into her new best friend - I think her name is Winona, and her favourite phrase right now is "I love you Boo".

Now I'm back on the farm enjoying a sunny Friday afternoon, I'm going to crack out the gin soon, but before I go I thought I'd share a photo of some winter garden action:

A broad bean shoot. Yay! The garden has been dormant for a few weeks and I thought these little guys woud never stick their heads up but they're all growing well.

I'm off to make a courgette and rice gratin for dinner now (while enjoying a gin). We really know how to party on a Friday night in Sefton.

Update

No photos today just an update on the car - thankfully it was only a radiator hose, so the beast is back on the road again. Yay!

Back with more later potater....

So much for our picnic....

We got about half way to our picnic destination when the car blew up...lots of steam and lots of fluid dribbling out on to the road...

Then the AA stuffed up, and sent a tow truck to the wrong place amongst other things and we ended up having to wait THREE HOURS on the side of the road in Belfast.

Boo didn't mind too much, and we ate our sandwiches and drank our tea and watched the cold southerly slowly approaching:

Then Boo got to ride in the car while it was on the back of a tow truck which she found quite confusing.

After all that it was freezing cold, we were grumpy and we didn't have a car to take on a picnic. I gave the fruit loaf to the tow truck driver and we made our way home.

Saturday morning goodtimes

It's a glorious morning outside so I've packed a picnic and Matt, Boo and I are off the enjoy the sunny winter goodness outside. No idea where we're going yet...


Roast beef sandwiches (with beef from the property and lashings of peach chutney), fruit cake (the old Coast to Coast recipe), fruit and a persimmon. I've never eaten one and I'm not even sure if you're supposed to just eat them raw, but I've popped one in and we'll give it a go.

And to top it off we get to listen to this cd while we drive....some lovely lovely person seems to have sent it to me! Quelle surprise! It has seriously been about nine months since I've been wealthy enough to include cds on my shopping list so it was such a joyous thing to find in the mailbox. Thank you whoever you are.

Winter doughnut-y goodness.

It was such a cold and wintery weekend - we had rain and wind and snow and woke on Sunday to the sound of heavy hail. The sky stayed dark almost all weekend and when it wasn't raining it was threatening to.


On Monday (a public holiday - yay!) we went and met Mr Shepard Kelleher and went for a drive up the hill while we were in the hood, the view was far more dramatic and bleak than my photos convey, but you get the general idea.




You may be wondering why I care about public holidays when I don't even work hardly at all anymore but truth is that I've committed to five weeks work in town.... crazy. Such a shock to the system, but I'm getting used to it. Fortunately we have our Citroen back bright and new so at least I don't have to get up at sparrow's fart to drop Matt at work first.

To farewell the long weekend and say hello to the working week, last night I ventured into the previously unchartered waters of deep fried doughnuts. Apple and lemon to be specific. With cinnamon and sugar coating.

They were so delicious. And so very very bad for us.