Ripple & Recreation

I'm finally making progress on the Ripple Blanket. It's growing quickly now that I'm over halfway (I put it away over the summer and have just pulled it out again). My big girl is happy to see that she may actually get it on her bed this winter. I've just started getting a couple of requests for hats though, and since I get paid for them the Ripple will have to be put aside for a few days.

  A couple of weeks ago I went on a most gorgeous garden tour, ending in a Sculpture Display at the Whangarei Quarry Gardens. If you've never been to the gardens it's well worth a visit if you are ever in my neck of the woods - a tropical oasis hidden away at the side of town. The girls loved the sculptures too! Aren't the gardens amazing?

My girls loved this table!

Loved this one!

Coolest Poached Eggs and Salt & Pepper sculptures

 

We had a warning of a big storm coming just over a week ago, so I made a mad dash to collect loads of seeds, fruit and flowers from my garden before the bad weather destroyed them. The weather ended up being a bit of a non-event, but at least it go me motivated to collect flower seeds for next year.

Scabosia seed pods

Cleome Seeds

Pretty Dahlias

 I also picked Elderberries - as I only had a couple of bunches I made a small amount of Elderberry Tonic. This tonic, diluted with Hot Water, is an excellent winter tonic for colds and sore throats.

Elderberry Tonic

Pick fruit on a dry day, rinse well and drain. Pull fruit from stems and put in pan, adding just enough water to cover. Simmer for around 30 mins, strain and measure juice. Add 450g sugar to each pint of juice (you could also add 10 cloves for each pint). Heat gently stirring in sugar gradually until dissolved. Boil 10 mins and leave to cool. Pour into sterilised jars or freeze in small portions (ice cube trays would work). Dilute 2 Tablespoons to a cup of hot water (and a squeeze of lemon) for the sniffles.







 We spent this weekend away in our Caravan Towbee, and despite the little bit of rain, we had a wonderful time. Quality family time, just enjoying the moment.

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Towbee is in the distance, the campground was fairly empty so it was incredibly peaceful. Loved the 1967 Zephyr Caravan at the front of this pic - it was being towed by the teeniest car - adorable!

What else can you do on a wet afternoon in the caravan?

Well that's about all for now, busy week at work ahead so must get organised now.

Have a great week - Kylie xxx

Just peachy!

 

I love late summer flowers. Dahlias and Gladiolis are popping up all over the garden, I'm so pleased as I have a new found love for them. They remind me of my Nan who loved Dahlias. I, for some strange reason, did pull up a whole heap of bulbs and tossed them away when we first moved in here. I have no idea why but I'm so pleased most of them still thrive out there.

Rat damage

There has been an invader in the orchard. Pesky rats have been chewing their way through the start of our summer crop of peaches. I'm not putting up with that at all - we have hardly any fruit this summer (codling moth has got just about our whole apple crop) so I got out there on the ladder, a big deal for height-a-phobic me, and put plastic bags (with lots of holes cut for air and moisture to escape) around each and every ripening peach. I'm happy to say that we are now enjoying beautiful big juicy peaches, and the rats are no longer beating us to them!

 

I'm loving the water lillies that have graced our pond as well, it must be a fairly healthy environment at the moment as we have some baby goldfish to go with our other six guppies in there at the moment. Obviously when a school friend of my big girl dropped off a couple more goldfish for us one must have been a boy! The girls are loving seeing these baby fish and really enjoy feeding them.

You can even see one of the baby fish (little brown thing) if you look closely enough.

The husband has always liked to drink Lemon & Barley water as a thirst quencher, but at $5 a bottle when we go through it quickly it seems a bit pricey. So he googled a recipe the other day and made some. About 50c worth of barley, a bit of sugar, water, lemon and there you go. Plus the chooks loved the left over barley once it was strained off. Homemade Lemon & Barley - much better for us too as sugar isn't the main ingredient anymore.

Recipe here

It's been a weekend of getting ready for school again. After 7 weeks finally school is going back tomorrow.  I've loved most of the holidays but being a working parent means that the last two weeks have been a bit of a juggle. Bags are almost all packed and baking has been done.

Have a lovely week xxx Kylie

Rain, Rain Go Away......

We are experiencing a very unusual Summer. Since the week before Christmas it has done little but rain, and the temperatures are lower than normal. Great for the Garden (I've never seen it look so lush) but not so good for people who desperately want to be at the beach!

But the garden, oh my garden, is amazing.  It's humid and wet here so we have huge plant growth, but big weeds also.

So to keep the little and big people amused, there has been a LOT of baking. Not so great for the post-Xmas waistline mind you.

The good part of the bad weather is that I've had plenty of time with the Hooks out. Not much to show for it though as they are mostly on going projects but I love the wee cotton facecloths (Ravelry link here) I made over the New Year.

Just before I go, don't you just love these beautiful Calla Lillies that grow in my garden at this time of year?

Keep your fingers crossed for us that we get a few fine days soon so we can make the most of the school holidays.

In all my years of baking....

It suddenly struck me on Saturday that in all my years of baking I had never made a sponge cake. What?? I hear you cry, but it's true. So this was my very first attempt.

We have a slight oversupply of eggs right now, thanks to our 7 lovely laying ladies (well 6 - one is in retirement and we can't bear to do away with her) so anything that uses up eggs is on the menu.

I had no cream, and the youngest one can't have dairy anyway, so I made a mock cream filling but added some yummy fresh strawberries to get that summery feeling going.

 I really don't think I did too badly at all.

The garden is in full spring bloom - the Bees seem happy this year which is a great thing, somewhat helped with all the blossomy goodness around.

 

The vegetable garden is also growing nicely, if those chooks will stop escaping from the orchard!

It's school holidays so we took a quick day trip down the road to Auckland to soak up the fabulous Rugby World Cup atmosphere. And what a fabulous atmosphere it is. So many happy faces, so many nationalities. It's a really wonderful thing for the children to experience.

We did the touristy thing and headed up the Sky Tower as well. The girls loved it - and I don't think I was quite as queasy as I was last time I was up there (it is rather high and I am very afraid of heights). My girls have no fear and the eldest now wants to bungy jump. She is only seven though, so another eleven years and she may be able to ;) )

Oh I must share the wee remedy I made for my lovely husband. He had really cracked skin on his knees so I made a "Healing Salve" with Almond oil, beeswax, Calendula, St Johns Wort and Tea Tree. It's completely fixed the problem. I love making these remedies that really do work!

It's been a really busy few weeks. Crochet and watching the Rugby World Cup has occupied most of my evenings. Only a few more days and I should be able to do a big reveal of the Giant Granny Square blanket....

Have a lovely week  xxx Kylie

Hits and Misses

It’s been an interesting week or so. A few good things, a few more not so great things. I won’t dwell on the bad stuff (except for a heavy cold I currently have – splutter, sniff, sniff seems to be my day at the moment), but I have been enjoying this early spring weather and have made the most of it out in the garden the last few days. Spring has just blown a gentle wave over the garden and there is so much new life – really quite magical. I can sit out there for hours and enjoy the sweet smells and the prettiness (well, as long as the children let me sit!).

The Vege garden in looking in great shape, Fennel, Kale, crazy cabbages that never "cabbaged" but just grew huge, and the biggest abundance of Broccoli EVER. We are eating it with every meal (no lie). Any Broccoli recipes gladly welcomed.

 

The spring bulbs are just stunning. One I am loving in my little Peony Tulip (the Peony is my favourite flower but unfortunately I can’t grow them in this warmer part of NZ – I used to have success further South in NZ) so this is a little pretend Peony.

 

I have loads and loads of seedlings growing as well, my sweet peas and coriander are ready to harden off out, and I'm bound to have a heap more ready shortly. Better make some spaces in the garden for all of these delights!                                              

 

Baking has been definitely full of hits and misses this week. I've made some fabulous biscuits.....

And some I’d rather never try again. I didn't photograph those ones though..... Even the girls won’t eat them (chooks didn’t mind though).

I have a great recipe book from the library “The Aunt Daisy Baking Book”  which has some great old fashioned recipes. Aunt Daisy was a NZ radio host back in the 1930s, well known for her handy home hints (Aunt Daisy's home hints) and Baking secrets.  Her recipes are interesting though. Most of her techniques assumed that baking was second nature to all with instructions such as “Bake in the usual way”, and never stated oven temperatures. This book has been adapted to fit more a more modern style of baking.  The Afghan Biscuits were the best I have ever made (although the recipe only made a very small batch – obviously they were more rationed back in the 30’s than we are with baked goods now.

 Afghans
170g butter
85g Sugar
170g Flour
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon Cocoa
60g Cornflakes
Cream butter and sugar. Add dry ingredients. Roll into small balls (heaped teaspoon sized amounts) and cook on a cold oven tray in a moderate over (180C) for about 15 minutes.

I also have a new lush early evening weekend treat drink. “Tangelo Gin & Tonic” that I found here. Divine!!

And the blanket – it’s been decided by daughter number one that daughter number two will have it (as she wants more “blues” in her colours – is coming along nicely. And I’m sewing in the ends as I go now. Much better!

 

Have a wonderful week xxx Kylie

P.S if you are quick you can enter a fabulous giveaway on my my very dear friends blog whydidntanyonetellme