Catching up after a busy week or two

 

Winter has really arrived now that the shortest day is over :) We knew it was winter but it has been fairly mild. Then came the shortest day followed by snow just over the hill from us. A couple of mornings ago it was -8C degrees in Middlemarch, which is just 64kms away and we could certainly feel it. There has been a cold wind blowing since and not a lot of sun. So we just need to rug up and get on with things. (but ya feel it in ya bones).

So, apart from my usual stints in the bookshop, what have I been up to?

Over the last couple of weeks I seem to have spent a lot of time at the eye clinic in at the hospital. I've had to have laser surgery for high eye pressure and that required an eye check followed a few days later by the actual surgery. I had to sit myself down and have a chat to myself as no one had told me anything and I was imagining all sorts of silly things happening. Then I was told I needed cataract surgery as well and that required another visit for pre op. I made sure I asked questions this time. But the silly thing is that each time I went in, even on the surgery day, I was given all the same tests. In fact the nurse and I were on first name terms, she was a lovely smiling Rachel. I'm still awaiting a date for the cataract surgery, probably up to three months away. Enough! Except to say getting older is not for the faint hearted :) 

This coming week will be busy as well. Bob has his birthday on Monday and we're going out for lunch with the girls. Just up to Kades Restaurant at the local tavern, so not too far to go. But we're looking forward to it :) Apart from anything else it's always good to catch up with family.

Then I am cooking for Friday Light again this week as well but that is an easy one pot meal. Sausages or mince depending on what is in their freezer and I decide what to make with it. So that is not too onerous.

Saturday is our church midwinter Christmas dinner and outreach. We have six interns from our mother church doing evangelistic work in the community this week and it will end with the dinner. As I've invited two people who are gluten intolerant I thought I should volunteer to make a gf dessert. I'll make a banoffee trifle which I've only made once before so I hope it'll be okay. I've still to bake the cake for the base but will do that about Tuesday. That's the plan anyway :)

Then when we are at home there is all the sport on telly. I'm never sure what we'll be watching, if I leave the room and the football (soccer) is on I could come back to the cricket or the darts or even the netball. Never a dull moment :)

That's all from me.

See you next time,

blessings, 

Diana

Tuesday 4 - Our Town

Did I mention the word dull in my last post? Well remind me not to say it again! On Sunday after church I went to visit my friend Bon in the resthome. Backed into the gate I'd forgotten to open while distracted with other things. Needless to say I was not popular. And to make things worse I collected the gatepost while turning back into the drive on the way home. The car is going to need a trip to the panel beater but at least is still drivable. I think I'll let Bob do the driving until after my cataract op which is about a month away. I have the pre-op visit on Monday.

And for those who wondered - the feijoa loaf was successful. Nice and moist.

And with that lets get into Tuesday 4, for which I am a little late.

 OUR TOWN

Hello! This is Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we ask just 4 questions each week in an effort to get you blogging, thinking and learning about others.

Maybe we can discuss the town you live in. It might be nice to find out more about where you live and why you live there. Sometimes we just fall into a place and other times we \choose. 

Here's a chance to sing the praises of your town or uncover it's faults. have at it!

Michelle Byrne painting

1. What are the good points to living in your town? Could you interest us in moving there?

Good points? Hmm, heaps of them. It's flat. Ten minutes' drive on the motorway to the city. We have parks and gardens. Adequate shopping. A choice of supermarkets. Twenty minutes' drive to a boating and swimming lake. Ten or fifteen to the beach. A couple of hours to the mountains and a short drive to the bush if that's your preference. And a reasonably good climate, (sometimes) too warm in summer and (always) too cold for me in winter. Gyms, sports clubs, other clubs and churches. Four primary schools, an intermediate and a high school. It's all here. 

2. Are the things you need convenient to your home? (shopping, library, schools, entertainment?)

It's ten or fifteen minutes' walk to the town centre which is where all the amenities are. The ones I use anyway. The kids all walked or biked to school, today the roads around the high school are full of the kids parked cars. How things have changed. 

Unfortunately the only picture theatre we had has closed but there is an amateur drama group who put on a good show once a year. Other than that it's head into the city to be entertained.

If you need to get into the city and don't drive there's a good bus service.

3. Did you choose your town or did you just end up there? 

Bob applied for a job here and so here we are. Bob knew it slightly as he had an aunt, uncle and cousins here when he was young. By the time we moved here they had all gone elsewhere.

4. Is your town known for any special foods, activities, places or people? 

Peter Johnston. He was an All Black, a member of the New Zealand national Rugby team from 1949 - 1951 and captained the side in his final year. That's quite a feat. The local rugby ground is named after him. Back in that era every boy's dream was to become an All Black.

All Black insignia - the Silver Fern

And if you would like to join in here is the link:  Tuesday 4

Keep well,

blessings, 

Diana :)

A busy day

I've had quite a productive day, even if has all involved feijoas. I promise not to go on about them too much in the future but decided that I may as well show you what I've been up to today.

First of all a bucketful went outside the gate, this photo was after half of them were taken. I leave a notice on the local fb fruit and vege swap page and let people just take them. It seems to work. 

After I'd done the usual daily chores like bedmaking and dishes and such I decided to get cracking on the fruit sitting around the kitchen. So I ended up stewing about two and a half kilo less one chopped cupful. I know, it doesn't look very appetising in this state does it :)

The cupful of chopped fruit was made into a feijoa loaf. I have a pot luck lunch after church tomorrow so thought I'd try it out on the congregation :)

It looks okay. Bob and I might try a slice each for supper and if it's not okay I'll duck into the supermarket on the way and pick up a pottle of cherry tomatoes. 

And for the two and a half kilo and all the work it takes to prepare them I ended up with these two small containers. As I've said before they are very labour intensive for little return - but I hate seeing food go to waste. 

I don't intend to repeat the day tomorrow :) but seeing as we're only a couple of weeks into a six week season I'll have to keep on top of them. Bob's taken them down to his audiologist and Vanessa, youngest daughter, took a big grocery bagful around her clients and gave them all some. They've also been put in a couple of workplace staff rooms. 

That's about as exciting as life has been lately but that's okay, I'm not complaining. Dull is good occasionally.

And on that note I'll finish.

Until next time,

Diana

Tuesday 4 - On Holiday

 On Holiday

 Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...

Summertime means travel time for many people.

Let's talk about travel and holidays.

1. Will you be traveling this summer at all?

We rarely go away in summer now the kids are grown up and have their own families. Christmas happens in summer here and the grandkids tend to go to their parents homes and so that's where we go. And they mostly live in Dunedin just a few minutes away. In the past we did tenting and then caravan holidays at camping grounds with the kids. They were a lot of fun.

2. Will there be day trips in store for you? visits to the beach, evenings out:?

Maybe, who knows, it's still a wee way off. I'm hoping we might head north for a few days about the end of July or beginning of August though but that's still to be decided. And it will still be quite cool but lately their temperatures have been averaging 7 or 8 degrees warmer than us so we'd enjoy that.

3. Do you eat out more in summer... do you go for ice cream or treats more?

We go for day trips occasionally, often go out for an ice cream, Outram is a favourite place for that as it is only about 10 to 15 minute's drive away. We sit there and eat it and then take a leisurely trip home around the plain. We don't eat out a lot, we sometimes go to a cafe for lunch and probably yes, more so in summer.

4. What is your favorite place to visit and what is the most exotic place you've been to?

My favourite place to visit is wherever the kids are, big ones and little ones. Even my brothers and sisters are kids, they're all younger than me :) I love visiting family. We've been to Australia, which is like us but not the same :) I've been to Fiji when I was a teenager and loved it. Bob and I thought we might go over several years ago only to wake up the day after we'd decided to discover there had been a military coup! And we went to Japan for Aaron's wedding. That was probably the most exotic place we've been. The culture was so totally different to anything we were used to, the cities were so clean, no graffiti, the people were very friendly and we felt very welcome wherever we went.

But it's winter here so summer holidays are just a dream at the moment. Instead we're eating stodgy comfort food and hunkering down and keeping warm. 

And here's the link if you'd like to join in. Tuesday 4

Keep well until next time,

blessings,

Diana

A day in the life of a feijoa

Some of you have asked about feijoas and how I use them so I thought I'd do  silly little post and show you 'a day in the life' of any feijoa that is silly enough to land on my side of the boundary fence :)

Here is a bunch of feijoa hanging over our side of the fence. Not quite ready to drop yet but with a little bit of wind some of them will soon go.

We collect and bring them in and they go in the fruit bowl, on the bench and in icecream pottles while they wait to be sorted. The very small ones go straight into the green recycling bin. I can't be bothered with trying to do  anything with them.

The large ones we distribute around family and friends and wherever else they are wanted. I'll probably leave some in a community roadside pantry or two as well. These ones are cut and ready to eat. I never grew up eating them and so I think they are an acquired taste. People tend to love or hate them. Bob is not a fan.

The smaller ones I stew and freeze and pull them out to use with my cereal or in warm winter puddings. I have made a feijoa loaf once or twice as well which is quite nice. Someone asked me last season how I cooked them and I don't think I replied so here you are. I cut them in half as above and scoop out the flesh, put in a saucepan and cover with water. Sweeten if you like, I do. Bring to boiling point, remove immediately  from heat and leave to stew in their own juice. And that's it. Nothing complicated. Nothing added except sweetner of your own liking.

And into a container to freeze once they are cool.

When I've finished what I need, they are quite labour intensive when you have a lot to process, and when family and friends start refusing them I put them out by the gate in a bucket for people to take. I've already had one young fellow ask at the gate if they were going out this year. He's coming back this week sometime to check :)

*****

A little bit of information about the feijoa courtesy of Wikipedia.

Feijoa sellowiana (or pineapple guava),. It is the only species in the genus Feijoa. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina.^{[5][6]: 114} It is known as quirina (lusitanized from the Kaingang: kanê kriyne^[a])^[6]: 111 or as feijoa, pronounced fay-ho-uh^[b] in Spanish-speaking countries of South America, ^[7][8] and fee-jo-uh^[c] in the United States and New Zealand.^[9][10] The Kaingang are a tribe indigenous to southern Brazil.

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres (3.3–23.0 ft) in height.^[11] The oblong leaves are about 5 cm (2.0 in) long, dark green on the upper side and white underneath. The flowers have five whitish petals which are puffy, possibly filled with some gas. There are about 25 dark red stamens projecting from the centre.^[12]

*****

And that is all for the moment. I hope you enjoyed this wee post :)

Keep well, 

blessings,

Diana

Tuesday 4

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...

Let's talk about your week okay?

1. Is anything interesting on TV this week?  What will you be watching?

We quite enjoy The Brokenwood Mysteries. A New Zealand  programme so we understand the humour, it's a comedy/drama and now into it's tenth year. Each episode usually features a well known New Zealand actor as a guest star. Other than that I enjoy Thursday night when Jacqui and I chat on the phone while watching The Great British Sewing Bee. We try to pick the winner in each catergory and critique the outfits :) Friday nights is also relaxing with The Repair Shop. I love some of the stories that go with the items brought in and find myself grinning widely when the owner sees it restored. 

2. Any books on your horizon right now? What will you be reading?

I'm reading a couple of books at the moment. One is by Jonathan Cahn - The Dragon's Prophecy. Very thought provoking and I'm only able to read small sections at a time. The other book is Gaylene's Take by Gaylene Preston. I went to school with Gaylene and she was the principal speaker at the dinner when I went over to our school reunion. She is a film maker and her book is interesting. Her style is very chatty which makes it an easy read. And it helps to know some of the places and names she mentions. I'm enjoying it.

3. What's been on the menu lately?  Any new recipes caught your eye?

I've seen a couple on YouTube that I like the look of. I liked the look of some easy bread and berry puddings, comfort food because it is winter. But I'm not a cook and so simple and quick are what I like. Last night we had mince pie with potatoes and mixed vegetables. More comfort food :)

4. Who will you spend time with this week?

Later today I'm going to visit my friend in the rest home. Jacqui has been doing some clothing repairs for her so I'll take them in. And I'll deliver a parcel for our newest addition to the family to his grandmother.

Earlier in the weekend we went to see Arlo who turned seven. He's into all things army at the moment so we gave him a little tank with toy soldiers. And later in the day he went to the circus. Lucky boy, the circus arriving in time for his birthday. Here he is with his Dad.

Here is the link if you would like to join us this week.  Tuesday 4

 

And that is about all for this week.

blessings to all,

Diana

A drive through history

Kay messaged me while I was on holiday and I never picked her message up. I guess I was preoccupied with reunion stuff. So she repeated it when I got home, sure I'd get it this time. She was inviting me on a bus tour of the Taieri Plain. When she never got a reply a second time she invited another friend instead. About five minutes later, she said, I replied that yes I'd love to come. Oh, was there going to be enough seats? She checked and yes, happily we were all able to go.

And so on Saturday afternoon we embarked on 'A Historical Tour of the Taieri Plain'. The bus was full and we had Chris commentating. No time for small talk, her commentary was comprehensive.

Basically the tour was a history of the Presbyterian presence in the area, and really quite interesting, even for those of a different persuasion like me. Otago was settled in the main by Scottish Presbyterians. We saw quite a few of the old homes and churches, or sites, that had been built way back in the 1800's. One of the homes was Woodside Manor, first known as The Poplars. Built in 1848 originally it had large gardens in front of the house but now it is just a grassed area. I was sitting on the aisle so couldn't get decent photo's but the Poplars is below.

A bit further around the plain we stopped at the North Taieri Presbyterian church for a comfort stop and to have a walk around. Built in 1867 it is the oldest surviving church on the Taieri Plain. It is a small plain church and to be honest I find it quite boring. I suppose that is good, nothing to detract from worship :) But it does have a lovely (fairly modern) stained glass window. We were given a short talk by the caretaker and then were able to have a walk around the grounds and manse garden. Services are still held every Sunday and because it is rural it is often used for day retreats.

Just as the talk ended my hearing aid batteries decided to die! And just to make matters worse I'd changed handbags over that morning so I could put my gloves and woolly hat in but forgot to change over the spare batteries. Luckily for me this was about 20 minutes from the end of the tour so not too bad. The tour was finished off with a soup and scone tea. I was just going to go home but Kay decided she would drive me over to get new batteries so that I could join everyone in further fellowship over tea. So that's what we did.

At tea Chris gave us all a little booklet of the tour, with photo's of most of the historic buildings we'd seen, that she'd taken the trouble to make up. The tour was in aid of the East Taieri Presbyterian church building renovation fundraiser. 

An interesting fun fact about the ET church is that when it was built the weight of the roof started pushing the walls out. The walls were strengthened with buttresses on the outside and tie rods on the inside. So today, 120 years later, it is still above current earthquake requirements.

It was a pleasant way to spend what was not a very nice day, overcast and a bit cool. We were all in our winter woollies.

With that I'll finish.

Keep well,

blessings,

Diana