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

Some celebrations

Sitiveni turned 4 last weekend. It was a time to celebrate with his family and some of his little kindy friends. He had a Spiderman theme and mum made and decorated the cake for him. We just sent some cash up and mum took him shopping so he could pick out something himself. He bought himself a Spiderman glove that squirts water :) What else would a 4 year old boy buy :)

 

A week or so earlier Arlo turned 6 and he also had a party with his school friends. He likes to read so we gave him a fun book about a farmer who blew up the cowshed. And a card. A 5 year old card! I received a message from his grandmother "please message 

Great Granma and tell her I am 6, not 5." Oh dear. I knew he was turning 6, how did I make that mistake? But all is forgiven and we sent him another card with the correct age on it :) 

And I was celebrating getting my new specs, until I got them. Everything is beautiful and clear but nothing is sharp. So they need to go back but I need to see the optometrist again before they can be adjusted and can't get in until next week. Which also means I have to cancel an afternoon tea engagement as well as they're both at the same time. But I do need the specs adjusted so I'll grin and bear it. Otherwise wait another week. 

Tomorrow is a holiday for Matariki, the Maori New Year, so I thought I'd go and take a photo of our towns' matariki star cluster in the dark but it didn't turn out as I'd hoped as there are too many lights around it. A shame as I think it would be quite striking otherwise. 

A short explanation of Matariki taken from the internet.

 Matariki, also known as the Māori New Year, is a time of celebration, remembrance, and looking forward, marked by the rising of the Matariki star cluster (Pleiades) in the winter sky. It's a time for communities to gather, share stories, reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and plan for the future.

Alice and Sitiveni are all dressed up in their Tongan national dress tonight to go to Alice's school celebration for Matariki. Sitiveni took part in his kindy kapa haka presentation earlier in the week. 

And just because I can - eldest daughter Jacqui sent me this photo of a feijoa she had sliced in half and captioned it

'It looks so happy. I don't want to eat it...😥'

And I'll leave you there.

Enjoy your week wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Until next time

Diana

A blah day

  It's been a cold, wet and miserable day.  My GKB Bob had an early appointment so he was up earlier than normal. When he left home the temp was -2° C. That's 3° warmer than when he got out of bed. I think our high for the day has been 2°. So a good day for inside stuff. And today I had plenty to keep myself occupied. 

When Bob left the sun was shining and although it was cold I thought I might get a load of washing out and, maybe, even dry. Didn't happen. Just as the washing finished the clouds came over, not from the south which is normal, but from the east. Low, grey clouds. They looked like snow clouds to me and the breeze coming ahead of it was bitter. With the clouds came drizzly, sleety rain which has continued all day. So the washing is draped on the clothes horse, in line with the heat pump, and will hopefully be dry by morning.

I've also spent part of the day preparing a one pot meal for Friday Light, an outreach group which meets at one of the local churches once a week. It's so much easier to prepare these days, when they first started we prepared meat, potatoes and veges and it was quite labour intensive. I only cook once every couple of months now so it's no hardship. 

There's also a jigsaw on the go so I got some of that put together. Still a way to go but getting there. 

And I finished my book. I'm sure I've read this one before but I quite enjoy Donna Andrews' books, they're light, easy to read and humorous. Good for giving the brain a bit of a rest if you've been studying or just reading something a bit intense or challenging.

Did I say I was planning on stewing more feijoas today? Well that didn't happen. By the time I'd cooked the meal and done a few chores I just wanted to relax for a bit. But I'm sick of them covering my bench so I think I'll need to get into it tomorrow and as the forecast is for more of the same what else will I do?  I picked up about four dozen today so took some down to Friday Light, hopefully someone there will enjoy them.

And so I think I'll finish there.

Keep warm if you're in my part of the world

 and whatever else you do look after yourself.

Diana

Its been windy.

 We were forecast for high winds today. It started blowing through the night but being deaf I never heard a thing. Sometimes being deaf is good but I would also sleep through a civil defense alert on my phone - not so good. Anyway, when I went out into the kitchen I checked the driveway for feijoas. The wind brings them down. There was a good smattering of them.

 The smattering continued throughout the day. The wind didn't let up and was quite strong at times, it almost blew me over at one point when I was gathering the feijoas this evening. There are so many of them I don't really know what to do with them. I've taken a large bag to one of the local rest homes this afternoon and stewed some to freeze. I think I'll bag some up to go into the community pantry at church tomorrow. And hopefully the girls will come over and take some off my hands. If its a nice day tomorrow any left over can go in a bucket outside the gate for people to help themselves.

Enough of the feijoas 😄

My GKB Bob came through for breakfast and said 'it must have been a good wind overnight, the swing seat's been blown over'. So it had. The wind must have caught it under the awning, it was definitely not in the position we'd last seen it, up against the fence. Instead it was looking a bit skewiff in the middle of the lawn. I'm just pleased it was a swing and not a trampoline or goodness knows where it may have ended up.

Once the wind dropped a bit GKB Bob went out and put things to rights, removed the awning and put it in the shed and the swing is once again in its rightful place by the fence.

The wind's still blowing this evening, hopefully it'll blow itself out by morning.

And that's as exciting as it's got this week. 

Take care, keep well and enjoy your week.

Diana

Winter time

We've had a lot of cold, wet, windy weather of late. In fact just what we would expect at this time of year. Winter. At least it hasn't snowed. I've probably told you before that I don't really enjoy the cold wintery weather but we live in the south of the south, so that's what happens. And Dunedin is a nice wee city, I enjoy living here. Except in the winter!  :)

We have had the occasional break in the clouds and one day were rewarded with this hint of a rainbow.

So in the mornings I've been cooking up a small pot of feijoas and then putting them in the freezer. Why a small pot? Because it's quite a time consuming job. So far I've done up a bucketful and have about half a bucket on the bench waiting. These ones are too small to give away except to family if they want them. 

They're falling off the tree before they are properly ripe and we don't always bother to pick them all up at this point of the season.

Today was one of my days for volunteering at the bookshop so was  my GKB's turn to make tea. When I started volunteering I suggested that he could get tea on the nights I was working. He hadn't thought of it but he is happy to do so, especially when I said I didn't care if it was sardines on toast as long as I didn't have to come home and start preparing a meal. So tonight it was 'greasies' or curry rice rolls and chips. Nice and easy, warm and filling and no dishes. What more could you want?

Have a good week, keep warm, or cool, 

whichever the case may be, 

and we'll catch up again another day.

Diana

The end of autumn

The feijoa tree is absolutely laden with fruit and with the recent winds the fruit has been falling all over the drive. I stewed the little ones this morning after sorting out some of the larger ones to go to Daniel, youngest grandson, who loves them.

Then after I'd kept some for ourselves I put a bucketful at the gate for people to help themselves. They didn't last long and the lady who took them came back and gave us a jar of jam she'd made previously and a couple of kid's wheatbags, which can go to a couple of the great grands.  :)

It was such a beautiful autumn day I decided to go for a walk down the Silverstream after lunch. The sun was shining and so I didn't need a jacket but wore the vest my daughter had given me for Mother's Day. It was just the right weight for the day.  :)

 

It's the last day of autumn tomorrow although you wouldn't be blamed if you thought it had ended several weeks ago. Anyway the wildlife was staying out of sight, maybe it was still a bit early in the day for ducks (that's as wild as the wildlife gets). There were quite a few dogs out walking their people but I never got any snaps of them.

The trees were in different stages of losing their leaves, this one has almost none but the walnut tree further back in the picture still has a lot on the branches. I think there are a couple of dogs with their walker under it.

There were still some red summer roses in bloom on the fence.

 And a nice seat to rest and just enjoy the view if you feel so inclined.

An apple tree in someone's yard with a wonderful crop on it. The birds were certainly enjoying them.

And a tiny solitary pansy along the fenceline. (Ignore the rubbish).

Isn't it pretty and really an old fashioned colour.

And now I need to go and get tea on.

So enjoy your week and I'll see you next time.

Diana

It's Friday - gym day.

I decided last night that if it was a grey cold day when I woke up this morning I wasn't going to the gym. I don't do cold if it can be avoided. The forecast was for -3C overnight so there was a definite possibility of a bleak, grey day today. But I woke up and the sun was trying to shine and there wasn't any wind. So I toddled off and about halfway to my daughter's house I remembered I was meeting her at the gym not at home as usual. 😏

When I arrived my daughter was there with Theo and his mother. 

He's been going with his mother ever since he was an even smaller dot than he is now and the noise and bustle doesn't seem to bother him at all. I thought the noise might upset him, but no. Why are gyms so noisy I wonder?

 

After we were finished our session we kidnapped Theo and took him for a walk around the block while his mother finished off. 

Then I remembered that my other daughter was coming for a visit with Arlo after lunch so I headed home without the usual after gym hot drink with the others.

Arlo was happy, great grandad had set up his construction set and got the big lego blocks out. Later he got out some of the board games and he and his grandmother played a couple of games of snakes and ladders. He starts school on 4th June, five already, I don't know where that time has gone.

My daughter also gave me this burgundy 

jacket for Mother's Day. I love the colour. 

When she left she took three bags of feijoas with her to give to family and friends. They have just started to fall and the tree is absolutely laden. The apples in the other bowl are from my son's tree, so that is a good saving on fruit - I like my daily fruit fix :)

And that's it for today.

Until next time, keep well, keep warm.

Diana