Giraffe!

Zoos are so last millennium. Now they are wildlife sanctuaries, and wildlife parks.

When I was a kid, we went to Orana Park in Christchurch - you could drive your car into the lion enclosure, and the keepers would put part of a carcass on your car bonnet so the lions would jump up and growl at you through the windscreen.

Unsurprisingly, this is no longer done.

Orana Park continues though, and although it has one of the worst websites ever, it still has cool animals.


We went this morning, and got up close and personal with the giraffes.

When two carrots love each other very much...

Sometimes when you haven't had home grown vegetables for a while, you forget that not all carrots are perfect.


I was reminded when I dug some carrots for dinner the other night.

Finally, a completed project.

Since The Big Earthquake, I have had real difficulty finishing projects. I'm okay with baking - today I stewed some fruit, made salmon with cream chive sauce for Clem's lunch, then made a salmon quiche (I made the short pastry too), then a cod pie for our dinner, with an apple and black-boy peach pie for dessert - phew!

Anyway, my reading has all but ended (I read about two pages each night before falling into a deep sleep), and my sewing is suffering as my machine and fabric etc is all at our house (which we won't be living in for some months yet).

Which leaves me with knitting. I have been knitting a vest for Clem for the past six weeks or so. And I finally finished it the other day - it should have only taken a few days, but I have had trouble finding time (I'm not sure why - I have practically nothing on right now).

It took me so long in fact, that ir only just fits him, and I'm sure he will have outgrown it in another couple of weeks.


But it's warm, and looks pretty cute.


He has discovered the big windows at our temporary accommodation, and likes to smoosh his face up against them.

It may have been cruel of me to take these photos, but they sure are funny.

Weekend getaway..

When I booked tickets for a weekend in Auckland, it was before the earthquake, and I was going to be enjoying my first days away from my two boys. Then we had the quake, so it changed into a weekend to escape all the destruction and madness that was going on around here.

Then, twelve hours before I left, a catastrophic quake and tsunami hit Japan, and my weekend away became something of a weekend of feeling in awe of mother nature, and feeling very lucky.

Looking at my photos, I think it is safe to say I sought solace in food.




Seriously, all my photos were food photos. Except for these ones (sorry about the light) of what looked like a cute commercial building, but actually seems to be someone's house.

The tomatillos...

As promised, I used the tomatillos I bought at the market to make a salad. They are weird little things (fruit? vegetables?). A bit like a green tomato, but with a thin papery outer skin.


And the flesh is much more dense than a tomato, almost crunchy.


I mixed them with some heirloom cherry tomatoes, and a crazy variety of cucumber I picked up from the same stall.


Added a few salad leaves, and some balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and...voila!


Matt declared it delicious.

Trying to keep sane

There is a farmer's market at Riccarton Bush every Saturday, and a twilight market there on Wednesday evenings. Tonight I got on my bike, with Boo running behind, and went and checked it out.


There was an amazing selection of vegetables - I even bought my first tomatillos which are apparently great in a salsa.




I'm thinking steak and fries with a tomatillo and heirloom tomato salad. Yum.

Attempt at a date night

On Saturday we left the baby with my folks and attempted to bring back some normality by going out for dinner.

With the CBD still in lock-down and many inner suburban restaurants damaged or unopened due to water/sewerage issues, our options were limited. Turns out we weren't alone either - everyone on the "untouched" side of town seemed to want to leave their cares behind for an evening and head out for something to eat.

The result? Mayhem. All the restaurants in the outer suburbs (mainly Chinese or Vietnamese) were packed. We had to drive around a bit to find somewhere that could fit us in, and when we did we were squeezed into the corner of a Chinese place at Church Corner. For those who are unfamiliar with Christchurch, this is unheard of. These places usually tick along nicely, but never reach capacity. The staff were obviously totally overwhelmed. Orders were being screamed back and forth to the kitchen, dishes were coming out thick and fast. We sat down and prepared for a long wait.

And no sooner had we opened the menu (and I took the photo above) when a mother or an aftershock hit. Matt and I stared at each other, frozen as we usually are in these situations (you'd think after so much practice we'd get quite adept at leaping for cover, but no). Nothing broke, but there was a decent amount of movement, and someone screamed which was unnerving. Afterwards I saw a middle-aged woman outside the window crying and being hugged by a family member. Then both of our phones went as family checked to see we were ok.

Not exactly the date we'd hoped for. All part of the 'new normal' we have going on around here.