I tried to do something cheesy...

It was Valentine's Day today. Of course. I wasn't going to do anything to celebrate, then I saw this recipe and decided I'd give it a go... I'd never heard of a red velvet cake before, but it's a pretty well-known cake.

Several hours later (excuse the poor photos):






The cake itself was actually red, but not as lovely and bright red as I had hoped. It was pretty yum, but there's far too much for just us kids, so I will have to send it in to Matt's work tomorrow. Hmm. Hopefully the boys will really dig a red valentine's cake with a love heart on the top.

Christchurch's best kept secret?

Yesterday I took Clem to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens - bypassing the gaggles of mothers with pushchairs who flocked to the playground, we headed straight for the glasshouses. It was quiet and almost empty, but the displays of plants was phenomenal. These photos from the flowering room really don't do it justice.



There is also a huge two storied glasshouse full of tropical plants and another small detached fernery. So awesome. The kid and I both loved it.

Then we hung on the lawn with the ducks.



He was impressed. But not that impressed. He prefers cats.

Sigh.

The leaves on our maples are starting to turn, and the Northern hemisphere blogs are talking about warming temperatures and spring fashion collections... it's that time of year again. I'm sure we'll still get some lovely late summer days, but there's definitely a chill in the air in the mornings and I'm considering some new knitting.

One hour a day..

I am trying to allow one hour every day for me to sit in the study and get some sewing or knitting done. Yesterday was my first morning, and boy did the time fly by. I felt like I got a lot done though (I'm making another dress from this book), and if I could do it every day then I would definitely start achieving things.

A dog post..

It was a scorcher here today. The official temperature was 36 degrees, but unofficially it got up to 40 degrees on many thermometers. We took the dogs to the beach.






Then I spent the afternoon wallowing inside, with a cold face cloth on my neck. It's 9.30pm now and still just under 30 degrees outside. Not looking forward to tonight's sleep at all.

So healthy it hurts..

Something I resolved to do this year was to eat a bit less animal protein - last year we got into the habit of having a large piece of steak or chicken or fish with dinner at least six times per week - not only was it pretty expensive, but somehow I just don't think it's that healthy either. So I am trying to cook more fish and vegetarian dishes this year.

I made a variation of this lemony chickpea and tofu salad a few weeks ago, using lots of cucumber, spinach and cabbage. Sounds so healthy it would be yuck, but was actually pretty good, especially with mung beans and crushed peanuts on top.














Also along the lines of being more healthy I have started 'proper' yoga again (for the past eighteen months I have been doing either pre-natal yoga, post-natal yoga, stuffed-knee yoga, or post-surgery-on-my-knee yoga). I had my first class on Thursday night - yikes, it was super challenging, but great to be back into it. Apparently we will be doing headstands later this term...um...yeah.

Then and now

Matt and his Dad - 1976:


Clem and his Dad - 2011: