A couple of days in Akaroa.

We have just got back from a couple of full on days in Akaroa. Lots to eat, lots to drink, but not much sleep.





Boo and Digby met up for a bit of a romp.




...which reminded me of two years back when they played in the same spot - look how cute and tiny Digby was!

Guess what I got for Christmas?

Here's some clues:





I got a fancy pants new camera!! The standard of photography around here is about to take a huge leap...

The result of a howling 'Norwester temperatures above 30 degrees outside...

Clean house:


Clean washing:


Clean dog:


Clean baby:

This is becoming a regular thing...

I seem to be having something of a music revival. After being out of touch for so long I am starting to feel like I know what is going on out there.

Continuing on the New Zealand music theme, I bring you this - not so much for the track (which is a bit contagious) but for the awesome video. Enjoy.

Boo cools off..

It may look lovely and clean, but that pond smells like fifty years worth of duck poo, and now so does Boo.

Mince Pie Madness

My mum made the mincemeat, I made the pastry and this morning I put together 80 Christmas mince pies.








And the temperature is 27 degrees and rising...sheesh.

Lazy Legs.

More men's shirts.

After trying so hard to rid myself of Matt's old shirts by making bunting, bibs and quilts, now that they are gone I actually miss having them there to grab for their lovely worn feel.

I couldn't help but pull into a St Vinnies store on my way home the other day, and walked out with a shopping bag full of more men's shirts:





(obviously I still don't have a new camera - I'm thinking I'll hit the post-Christmas sales and hopefully get something half decent).

More music on my mind..

Yet another New Zealand artist that has passed me by - Miles McDougall aka Pikachunes. He was interviewed on the radio sometime over the weekend and they played a few tracks and I was kind of blown away.

Check out the video - how old are these kids?

Sweet pea?

It is difficult to post when I have no photos, I have resorted to the iPhone to capture these little lovelies from our 'garden'. We haven't quite been here a whole year, and despite our neglect and the unsavoury weather conditions this year, not to mention a fair amount of excavation, occasionally little flower are popping up here and there.


These seemed to come up overnight. I'm not sure what they are, but they look a little like sweet peas..






I am going to be cruel and pick them and see how they fare indoors.

*Thanks Hopflower for pointing out that these are perennial sweet peas...you learn something every day!

Hip young things...

Okay, I haven't felt this old and out of touch in a while. I came across this free download of a Christmas Album through a blog on my reader (I can't remember which one....eek!)...I've never really gotten into the whole Christmas Album thing, although I do like the idea of one. Anyways I downloaded this and have been listening to it all morning.

It is very nicely produced, with a great indie kind of sound (or maybe we have moved on from 'indie' and it is referred to as something else now, I wouldn't know as I am stuck back in 2006 which is when I last felt I had my finger on some sort of music pulse), although I hadn't heard of even one of the artists involved. So I went and checked out the site where it came from, then it dawned on me...they are all young, hip New Zealand bands or artists...

(nb: it has been drawn to my attention that the following video doesn't really make any sense, and just looks like a group of random musicians making a lot of random noise - to clarify, it is a series of short clips taken during the making of the above album....it doesn't represent the music very accurately..in fact, it makes it look like it might be a bit of a shit album. Sorry for the confusion)



Where have I been? How come I don't know any of these guys - presumably too much time listening to Radio National....and not enough listening to RDU or KiwiFm.

Then I delved further and found this great cover by band Artisan Guns:



If you watch this you will not only be impressed with New Zealand music right now, but you will also realise that these kids are......kids. Seriously, I think there may be some pubertal acne there. And they don't look like even need to shave yet.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is awesome. It is just a little depressing for me. I used to feel so young, and cool, and .....sigh.

Our New Hangover Cure

Yum cha at Foo San Restaurant in Ilam.

My camera broke!

That's right - broke, kaput, no more. So suddenly. So sad. Anyway, so I took some snaps with my iPhone this morning - a poor substitute I know. And when I uploaded them I realised that they are printing the date on the corner, which wasn't intended, but hey. I'll sort that out.

So, this morning we took Boo and Digby to the beach for a glorious run:













And on the way home I picked up the first fresh apricots of the season, and stewed them for The Kid to try..


A pretty lovely morning on all counts.

The easy way out...

I try not to re-blog other peoples posts, but I just can't stop staring at this amazing installation. So simple, but so cool:


From here.

Exciting new feature!!

Some time ago I wrote a post about how I like reading and I wanted to catalogue the books I read (as I already keep a list, I wanted something more formal). Anyways, Matt came up with the idea of setting up a tumblr account where I can keep a record of the books I read and even write a few words both for myself and for anyone who's interested (because I know there must be thousands of peeps out there who are desperately wondering what I read).

So without further ado, I bring you Books I Read.


If you are so inclined, you can pop over and have a look - it is up to date, but there are holes, so if, say, you wanted to know what I was reading at this time of year in 2007 you would probably be out of luck. To find out more about a book just click on the picture. You can even add it to your reader.

And because he is amazing, Matt made a bright red button which you can see over to the right of this post for a quick and easy link. Awesome.

Enjoy! Or ignore! Your choice!

Jeepers

Where did the last two weeks go? I can't believe it's been that long since I posted... we are re-doing our bathroom, and so things have been a bit full-on around here and I guess I just haven't been up to much that's worthy of posting about...

How about these peonies? Are they worthy? They are definitely pretty...


...and although they're lame, they'll have to do...I haven't even baked anything in the last few weeks. Oh man, I have to get a more exciting life!

Bonus public holiday...

Today's public holiday snuck up on us...so we had no plans, the weather was amazing and we went round to visit friends (and check on a poor dog's sore paw).

I baked French sable biscuits, and we sat on a blanket in the sun and had a few cups of tea...



..before moving on to some wine...


The highlight of day however, was the generous offer of a full pedicure (including massaging foot spa) and polish, which I graciously accepted (I am a foot maniac - I love having my feet pampered). We went for barbie pink polish, and boy do they look special. I took a photo but my feet are actually too fugly to post out in the blogosphere for everyone to see...

Apple sauce..

I used the same blog title last month when talking about the applesauce cake I made. But this is different applesauce. This is actual proper apple sauce.

I have made this a couple of times before - in actual fact it's an apple and garlic ketchup. It's really strongly flavoured and good with sausages, or quiches or other savoury things.

In the past I got the apples from the garden out at Sefton, I never knew what variety they were, but they were green and they weren't Granny Smith.

This year I drove out to Marshlands Rd and found a place selling some green apples that weren't Granny Smith, but looked kind of home grown and heirloom-y (unlike the shiny bright ones you see in the supermarket) so I picked up some of them.




It has never been a very thick sauce - more like a Worcester Sauce, but for some reason (was it the different apples?) this year it is extra runny. Tastes good, but far too watery. I may have to cook it a second time and see if I can thicken it with something.

Anyway, it made the house smell like vinegar and kept me occupied on a rainy afternoon this weekend.

Orchid loveliness

This orchid is from a plant of my mother's. She has had the plant for something like 25 years and it has only flowered twice.




Orchids are crazy beautiful.

Okay, I'm going out now (they're about to feature Elton John's Yellow Brick Road on the radio, but I must. tear. myself. away)...