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

On a roll

I've had bit of luck the last couple of days. Firstly I entered a photo of my youngest girl in a competition for an NZ eco friendly cleaning and beauty products company "Ecostore". Today on my facebook page I see that I am their big final winner and the photo of my darling girl is on their website. I'm absolutely rapt, I love their products anyway so it's exciting to get a wee reward for that (I think the prize is a few hundred dollars worth of goodies).

Check out www.ecostore.co.nz

And then the next bit of good luck is that I am now a published writer.....well, kind of. I wrote into one of my favourite magazines (Good magazine - see below) with a couple of handy home hints (eco friendly ones) and they published both of them. A big hamper of Soapnut products arrived on my doorstep (I've blogged about my love for them before here ) so that's pretty exciting for me as well. I've shared the love and given my workmates a sample of them to try to convert someone else to the soapnut love.

 

Not a very clear photo I know, but this is the issue they are published in ;)

I found a new art and crafty type shop in town the other day, with beautiful possum and merino yarns (guess where I will be heading next winter to stock up) and they had a sale rack with the most amazing Kiwiana tea towels. Naturally I had to grab a few for the caravan. Thinking that they will make great cushions for Towby - what do you think??

Anyway, it's the last day of winter here today. I'm so ready for warmer weather. We have been in t-shirts this week so it's not that bad here but still. Getting those jandals ready! The spring bulbs have erupted, the trees are starting to bloom and the nesting Kereru/Kukupa (wood pigeons) are getting tipsy on Loquats again so we have to be careful walking through the garden that we don't get knocked out by low flying (big) birds!

Bye for now xxx K

An addition

We have a new member of our household.... a beautiful Tortie female cat. She's 2 years old called "Tootu" (pronounced Tut-tu - it's a Maori term for touching with everything or into everything). She is very aptly named so far as she is very mischievous. I think the correct spelling should be Tutu but we adopted her from the SPCA and they'd named her there. 

We lost our beautiful Burmese boy Jack back in December due to a massive infection that he couldn't recover from and we were hesitant to get another cat as we didn't want to "replace" him. BUT we live in the country and really need a cat to keep the mice at bay, and they are lovely company on these winter nights. We went into the SPCA and told them that we wanted a slightly older cat and it must be robust. A dear friend once told me that "You don't pick a cat, it picks you" and this is so true as Tootu jumped up and put her paws out to us. We knew we had to take her home right then and there.

My youngest girl is loving her already - the oldest is away at a sleepover so she hasn't seen her yet (except for in the car when I got her out of her class for a few minutes to take a sneak peak on our way home).

For anyone who has room in their homes (and hearts) for a new cat or dog the SPCA (we are in Whangarei, but all other branches as well) are desperate, as ever for homes for their temporary residents. They are full to the brim, and desperately need cat and dog food as well if you can spare any. The staff (mainly volunteers) do such an amazing job in sometimes very difficult situations.

Tootu is fast asleep at the moment, so I'll take this chance to get the crochet hook out as I can't get much done around her - she thinks its a great chasing game.

I took this shoot between rainshowers today - a stunning Koru (fern). Love them, NZ nature at it's best.

I just had to add a couple of photos of my girls - the little one on a daycare farm trip and the big one as an alien at school for "Space Day" yesterday. We had to provide a plate of space themed food for a shared lunch so I did green caramel popcorn in individual bags - "Alien Power Food". The kids seemed to love them!

And we went walking

We took the children walking on Sunday, before a promised lunch treat. You often miss the beauty of your own town and take it for granted all too often.  Granted the weather wasn't too clear but it still made for the most lovely family day in a long time.

I had fun shopping for a friend's birthday present the other day - I found exactly what I was looking for (see below) and filled it with chocolate. It was the last one in the shop, now I'm on a hunt for another one for me!
 

Vintage style glass jar

What's your favourite household product? Odd question I know, but I have been meaning to share mine. I love Soapnuts for the laundry. I have extremely sensitive skin and commercial washing powder really causes a reaction, so about 18 months ago I discovered Soapnuts and I was won over by how great they are. Completely natural, great for the our septic tank system (which can't cope with too many chemicals) and fab for our Skin. about 4 soapnuts in a calico bag in with the wash (which lasts about 8 washes) and a drop of essential oil (if desired) in the rinse cycle. A $20 bag of soapnuts lasts about 9 months for us, which is certainly cheaper than powders/liquids ever were.

It's not so warm here today, so I'm off to think about winter warmers for dinner.

x Kylie

Creepy Crawlies

I don't know about you, but my children are kind of obsessed with all the creepy crawlie bug like creatures in our garden.  I'm not really so fond of them myself (the critters that is, not the children).

They especially love Praying Mantises

But the Wasps nest that we found up in the guttering was pretty exciting (for them) the other day..... Imagine how fast we had to shut the windows and hide inside once we had brought a premature end to the life of the nest - eek!!!

No time to spare

Life is a bit busy busy right now, no time to craft much, and on a deadline to get a hat finished for The Chief - he's off to the cold for a week soon so needs a warm hat. He would of course choose a rib hat, which takes me twice the time, so I am spending every spare moment doing that when I'd rather be granny square making or crochet flower making ;)

I had a wonderful weekend away with some dear friends this weekend and it was just bliss. No kids, no husbands, just loads of laughter and plenty of relaxation. Stayed in a beautiful spot at Lake Taupo called Acacia Bay. I love this moody shot, earlyish Sunday morning after a ton of rain.

 Have a wonderful week xxx

Fun filled days

What a beautiful weekend, busy but fruitful. Little bit of Knitting, a little bit of crochet, loads of baking and cooking, and lots of time for fun with the children.

My granny squares are progressing, I'm making a blanket for the caravan which is retro green, so I'm having a bit of colour alternating with the green of the caravan. I'm loving the mix!

 I also made some body butter that Leah from whydidntanyonetellme makes. She made some for me recently and I've been loving it so much that I decided to make some for friends that I'm heading off on a girly weekend with in a few days.

 Last nights sunset was one of the most amazing ones ever. I love living in the country on days like this so I can gaze up at the sky with nothing blocking the view. Gorgeous - don't you love the colours?





This weekends baking/cooking efforts:

Raspberry and Apple Loaf
Rocky Road (with our own Macadamia nuts in it)
Homemade pasta - courtesy of The Chief and the girls while I was at work.
Chocolate Chip Slice

Wood Pigeons

I love Wood Pigeons or Kereru/Kukupa. They've been getting a bit *tipsy* on some fruit around the farm recently, and we duck every time they fly overhead as they only just miss us and the house.  Love this shot - shame it was on my old camera, but still pretty cool

Majestic

The beauty of this giant never ceases to amaze me. Tane Mahuta on a drizzly summers day.

Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) is New Zealand’s largest known living kauri tree. According to Maori mythology Tāne is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. Tāne was the child that tore his parent’s parental embrace and once done set about clothing his mother in the forest we have today. All living creatures of the forest are regarded as Tāne’s children and he his thought to be around 2000 years old.

There are other big Kauris around this area, but none quite as big as this one. With a girth of 13.8 metres and height of 51.5 metres, Tane Mahuta dominates Waipuoa Forest in the Hokianga region of Northland. This is just under 2 hours from our home.