Moments, Gifts and Who knows What's Around the Corner

Life is so uncertain, so untied down. 

What is here and good and dependable right this moment, may be gone or broken or different tomorrow. All we have is this moment, because we truly do not know what lies ahead of us in this life. 

Who would have thought that we would have had such a strange un-summer this year of 2012?

And that a weather bomb would deluge & tear at our little nation with such ferocity, yanking off roofs, uprooting trees & slashing at the land over the weekend?

I was completely taken aback that number 2 son having come & settled, quite suddenly departed in haste this week, for his own troubled reasons. I'm sure he'll get hungry for real food some week any time soon.

Fortunately the weather held off a little here yesterday morning, allowing just enough time for St Luke's to get through their Church Fair before everything got too miserable. I found this beautiful fishing creel in the antiques department. I wonder who it's belonged to? What adventures it's been carted about on? Perhaps the Willows chaps can shed some light on that one.

At St Vinnie's, on a quick visit, I found this adorable "dog" blanket. Even the label alone is just precious & the colour deeper blue than my pictures...a perfect wedgewood kinda blue.

 It was a pansy week this week..

 these two were forlornly waiting on a table side by side with the tacky riff raff..quite the wrong department for them; velvet backed & lovingly stitched.

 This little brooch was cheap & chipped & therefore so much more useful in it's life well lived-ness.
These darling foxgloves are embroidered in the corners of two serviettes & might be well incorporated in a future creation.

I do love the autumnal revival of pansies & heartsease, the heralding of summers end (as if we didn't know that for ourselves) not particularly fond of the heat, they perk up once more before the chill of days to come.

 Rob bought me these glorious dahlias as we were leaving the fair..so kind of him & the wonderfully generous people who strip their own garden's in order to make their contribution to the corporate endeavour.

 I have found a summer bolster in my own bookshelves. I do love the Brambly Hedge illustrations, so much astonishing attention to detail. This lovely wee book belonged to my Uncle Pete..he's been gone a year now.

 A perfect summer meadow wedding.

 I almost missed the autumn raspberries..

 There are still a few nectarines around. I thought that they matched my op shop scarf find extraordinarily well, don't you think?

 I have sent for more tumeric. I am thinking of new ways to preserve it & eek it out as it comes a kilo at a time. Neither we, nor the courier, suffer any identity confusion now when the parcel arrives addressed to "Keith" I guess that must be what my dear Indian friends hear when I say that it is "Catherine calling form Hastings." Fortunately the street address is always correct.

 I am learning to make apple cider vinegar. I wish someone had told me long ago how simple it was to make. This is it..organic apples..peel & cores, water, jar, time..presto!

 Have you ever seen a tomatillo? (pronounced tom o teo) They are mexican in origin & quite interesting. I like them roasted with peppers the best. Vege rather than a fruit & with faint hints of cape gooseberry flavours when cooked (not sweet though).

 Back to my unpredictability...the child suddenly departed or ill. The unexpected challenges to a marriage or friendship. The horrendous unexpected event...the crushing of my dearest friends husband in a logging accident a month just gone (he is still alive & the badly injured leg has been saved, but will be in hospital a long time yet)...& she who gave me the perfect unblemished journal at the year's beginning.

 And the card of true words & friendship..

 I am so grateful for her & truly blessed by you & your visiting & your reading & your conversation.
Thank you so much for being here..

Truly all we have are moments, this day...

MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥

The Queen Of Golden

and the green, green grass of summer!

Our paddocks & hillsides are still verdant, a most peculiar state of affairs.

 I do know that it is in fact late summer as the golden queen peaches have arrived, along with the omega plums & naked ladies in the garden. As I was contemplating these seasonal visitors, I wondered to myself just how long golden queens have been around for? As I recall, everyone used to bottle back in the day (when I was a child) 20lb or 40lb cases at a time.

 I made two discoveries through my pondering. The first, that we have a New Zealand encyclopedia called TeAra & the second that, 

"The Golden Queen is reputed to have first been grown in New Zealand in the garden of a Mrs Reeves in Tauranga. Velvety skinned peaches were once popular for bottling."
Now would you just look at that...and me being a Mrs Reeves & all!

 It is time to gather some firewood..well have delivered. Bit of splitting to do but it's lovely wood. Old man pine they call it.

 The cranberries are ripening up nicely but won't last long as they are right near my washing line & smell so enticing. They are known as the New Zealand cranberry on occasion & also "Mrytus Ugni"...not sure that is quite the right title for a successful marketing ploy, however.

 In my fossicking around this week I found this oil pouring can & the butter yellow handled knife or implement sharpener. The little chap was an excellent find considering we have a master sharpener in the house presently. What a huge difference it makes to have properly sharpened knives. Anyone fancy borrowing The Boy?
Rob discovered the wee green clock amidst the abundance & fluff of a stall at The Bazaar on saturday morning.

 Apparently our local SPCA is in dire financial strife & may not be able to continue past the end of the month so I am more than happy to support their new op shop just down the road..which is where I found the green teapot. I feel that my macadamia nut cracking hammer might like to reside along with other useful implements in the oil can.

 If you can find macadamia nuts in their shells they are fun to crack & so much cheaper to buy. Being a little skittery & on the fiddly side is a good thing...stops you eating too many at once.

 I thought that this was a perfect addition to the kids book shelf in the sunroom. I just can't help feeling a little queasy though looking at all those screeds of hose...rather reminded me of intestines, ok saghetti then!

 I love the look on the dog's face.

 Oh yes, found a Sanderson cushion at the Bazaar. The inner is filled with duck down.

 I have been making kefir for quite a few months now. No, I hadn't heard of it before either. It is the easiest thing in the world to make & I like it a lot more than yoghurt. Turkish in origin I believe..well not mine obviously. I began with a powdered starter from the organics shop, but now, just make the next batch from the last one.

 Just pour the milk in to the clean jar, add a tablespoon from the last jar, cover & leave on the bench till the next day...done! Pop in the fridge. Kefir is packed with really helpful bacteria & has a much softer, more digestible curd than yoghurt.

 When I bought some fish during the week I noticed a bag of very cheap fish heads & bits. I have never actually made fish stock before so I decided to follow the motto from the "Origin Earth " people at the Farmers' Market
"Try something that scares you everyday" & I bought the bag of fish...heads. Eeew eyeballs & all.
Next, I stopped in at the library to return some books, had a quick check through the just returned shelves & noticed "The River Cottage Fish Book." I opened to a page & what should I read , but how to make fish stock..only took half an hour & didn't smell too fishy either.
My other grand find was "Grow Your own Drugs...a year with James Wong."
David & I are plotting all kinds of concoctions from this wonderfully inspiring book.

 I have had so many people asking for more Luisa plums..never seen them before.. bit scary to some people. But once tried best loved.

 One old dear asked Rob, "What are they liked stewed?" He wasn't too sure on that one so I thought I'd better have a go...what astonishing colours. Quite unexpectedly tangy I must say, but wow what a plum for jam!

You might have noticed these little coconut balls peeking out of a little container a wee way back. I am learning to use organic coconut oil. In that journey I came across a great little recipe which you can find just here if you're interested.

 I have a sneaking suspicion that this isn't a children's book that I bought the other day. Perhaps best not read it to my nephew, but thought you might enjoy a couple of excerpts, even if you don't love cats.

  Have a wonderfully tiddily week.
Lovely to see you.
MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥

Wings and Ripped Sheets

Creativity is a funny old thing.
Especially free-flow, make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of creative.
I adore the atmosphere that bunting evokes
..the this is a celebration & a special kind of day feeling.
I have been inventing other forms of bunting & decided that a birthday bunting would be fun.
I got to here. I need to find some more velvet ribbon, I think to go in it.
It is a good start because I love it & you know how important that is when you are creating...you have to love it or else it goes in the back of the cupboard or out the door.
I am waiting on the next step...I'm sure it's coming any time soon...

Making stuff & giving new life & purpose to the work of others that comes from another time & era is a rewarding past time which has the happy side effect of making you extra appreciative of the workmanship of those other industrious dear souls.

It's probably a little demeaning really, to be able to buy some of this handworked linen so cheaply, but at least once it comes home to my house it is loved & admired a very great deal.

This beautiful pristine afternoon tea cloth with sooo much filet crochet was only $5 a little while back & the hand towel below is such a lovely texture & the crochet is amazingly fine...$1 from Connections today.

 I also found a big bag of carded wool..wonderful to pop into lavender blanket hearts & the such-like. There is way too much for me so please, if you would like some do let me know.

I needed to change the bed in the "Parlour" & decided on these sweet embroidered pillowcases & a striped sheet..the other one is softest pastel pink & wonderful old cotton.

We love cotton sheets so that's all that lives in our linen cupboard.

As a child I always loved the clean, crisp, white, ironed cotton sheets of my Nan's linen cupboard.

She probably starched them too..they were very crisp indeed & so wonderful to sleep between.

So, the other day when I was taking our sheets off our bed I was sad that I managed to tear one of those lovely old white sheets. When I told Rob, he said,

 "Oh that's a shame, why don't you find a doily to fix it!"

Which reminded me of the Hey Girl pictures that I have seen coming through Pinterest from time to time. Like this one. (Ryan Gosling played the young Noah in The Notebook...did you ever see that movie? It's lovely. I even read the book too! It's by Nicholas Sparks)

 so...

New & bright & shiny doesn't appeal to me very much.

So many things become better with age..that's good!

Like these girls in my garden...

 I am so pleased that I have managed to propagate this gorgeous double impatien. I have just taken another cutting now & it already has roots showing just sitting in water.

 I thought I'd have a go too at growing some micro-greens.
I bought a huge packet of bulls blood beetroot seed & have only used about a 10th of the packet to grow this tray full..which makes the cost per tray around 75 cents.

When I was out in Havelock North this week I went to the apiary & bought this divine liquid gold. This is Rewa Rewa my favourite flavour. I am trying to use more honey & less sugar. It's a lovely idea. 

 I found a lovely blue brie at half price just in time for Valentines day. In fact, I bought several, as cheese freezes amazingly well. (I overheard a cheesemaker at the checkout one day.) And it's true it's a marvelous trick. Defrosts very quickly too.

 I needed to use up some quark so I made these wee raspberry desserts. They were delicious...just raspberries, quark, honey & eggs...baked in a bain marie & then chilled.

I have been dying to tell you about Nettie..

 I feel sure that you'll love her.

You can find her here.

 Just the sweetest story.

 And darling pictures.

There's more to the story..I love reading it to children. That, of course, is  always helpful when you find yourself reading it for the 56th time.

Thank you so much for checking in on me..it means the world to me.

I hope you have a lovely week.

Hugs &

MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥