THIS WEEK

Even though it was a holiday Monday was still Parkinson walk day as usual.  We visited the Quarry Gardens after Doug and I had checked it out the previous week to make sure it would be suitable after Cyclone Gabrielle.

We were pleased to see that a lot of work had been done on the slip near the entrance, still a lot more to do but it was good to see the progress.  Eleven of us had a lovely walk around the gardens followed by our refreshments and Easter eggs at picnic tables under the trees. 

On Tuesday Doug didn't go to his painting class as we had visitors coming for lunch. His 2nd cousin, Jenny from Kaitaia and her brother, Doug, who has been living in Eastern France for about 20 years and is back on a short holiday.  We had met Jenny before but not her brother.  Their aunt Gwen also came (her sister was married to Doug's cousin).

Anyway, last week I made a batch of gf chocolate brownies from a packet mix and as they were so good decided to make some more to have with a cuppa after lunch.  I don't usually use packet mixes as I prefer cooking from scratch.

What a disaster.  I made the mixture exactly as I had previously but ended with a runny, lumpy mess.  Doug went out and bought a cake.  Once I had given up on the Brownies I turned the oven heat up and did a mixture of roast vegetables - Purple, white and orange fleshed kumara (sweet potato), aubergine, orange capsicum and some mushrooms.

We also had lettuce, watercress, tomatoes, cucumber, Camembert and sliced ham and home made bread.   After the disaster with the brownies it was a complete success.  Gwen had to leave straight after lunch as she had an appointment but Jennie and Doug didn't leave till 5.30 and would have stayed longer if they had not had a 2 hour trip home.  It was a wonderful afternoon of catching up, family history and lots of laughter.

Wednesday was quieter, catching up on washing etc. Yesterday, we headed to town.  The spare bedroom is quite dark now we have a solid roof on the deck so we went to Demolition Warehouse to buy a window.  Doug found one but only in black.  Luckily I had seen the same thing in white so we bought it.  As we left (presumably the boss) saw us and commented that we had bought the last one.  The window will go on the wall below and should make a big difference.

We also went to a pet shop and bought some pond plants and 3 goldfish.  The pond is still a work in progress.

Anyway, back to the disaster of the gf chocolate brownie.  I phoned the manufacturer Bakels at the time but was not happy with the response of "dump it" so emailed a photo which clearly showed the pale lumps and runny cake.  Today I got a phone call which was completely different, thanking me for emailing them.  The outcome is that I will get it  and a second packet I had bought replaced plus a variety of their gluten free baking products to try.  I was also asked to let them know what I think of them.