SPRING IS IN THE AIR

A lovely sunny day today and I have been in the garden weeding and generally getting ready to do some planting/sowing.  We have both done some weeding earlier but we have still been getting rain and wind and there are still showers in the forecast.  

Anyway, I am pleased with the weeding/clearing I have done today while Doug has been painting.

The trees in the park behind us are coming into leaf

The punga ferns that were self sown behind one of the fountains and moved are doing well.

The bees are enjoying the spring flowers

Still a lot to do but it is good to have made a start.

CELEBRATIONS

 On Doug's actual birthday we planned to stay home but our neighbour across the road didn't feel able to come over due to mobility problems so we took the birthday cake across to them.  We had not been home long when we got a surprise visit from Doug's Primary School friend whose birthday we attended at the end of June.  Stan has a neighbour who takes care of him (providing meals, driving him to appointments etc.) and in June youngest daughter had mentioned to him that it was Doug's 90th on 11 September.  He must have made a note of it and brought him here.  They live a fair distance out of town and had arrived while we were out but , luckily, returned to find us home.  Doug also had lots of cards and phone calls as well as other visitors.  

Yesterday, was the get-together.  We ended up with 20.  Daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a couple of first cousins.  The food was excellent. I didn't take photos but here are some from their website.

                                                                   Sandwiches

                                                                          Pies

                                                                       muffins

and some delicious desserts.  I opted for finger food and also ordered some gluten free sandwiches and desserts.  We were really impressed with the presentation and taste.

As well as this I made a birthday cake (actually 2 cakes) excuse the junk. 

Having not wanted any celebration Doug admitted that he really enjoyed himself.

Because I had made the cake/s as well as having the muffins we ended up with left over food, always preferable to not having enough.

BIRTHDAY

It is Doug's Birthday on Thursday  (9/11).  He originally said he didn't want any celebration i.e. party or anything else.  He eventually agreed to a get-together similar to the one we had for the family photoshoot recently.  That is taking place on Sunday and I think there will be 23 people - daughters, grandchildren, partners, great-grandchildren and four first cousins.

Yesterday, however, after a very pleasant walk to the Whangarei Falls, one of the ladies in the Walking Group made a cake and another a special card.  We had our coffee at our favourite restaurant where they are always most obliging.

Tomorrow, we have appointments in town and will go out for lunch and on the day itself some friends are coming here.

  

KAMO BUTCHER AND PEA AND HAM SOUP

 Yesterday we went to Omak Butchers in Kamo as I wanted to buy one of their bacon hocks to make soup.  They are so much nicer than the supermarket ones.  While I was there I bought some bacon, lambs fry and a small boned lamb leg roast.  I then noticed that their whole eye fillet steaks were on special and I knew we had very little left so bought one of them as well.

Today, after doing a couple of loads of washing and making a loaf of gf bread I sliced the fillet and packed it up getting enough for 13 meals for the two of us.  We had some for lunch and the rest went in the deep freeze. ( I was surprised to see that it is actually Australian beef.)

I also made a large pot of Pea and Ham Soup.  As well as the peas and bacon hock were lentils, carrots, kumara and celery.  When it was cooked I removed the meat from the bone and then used a stick mixer to puree the soup.  I will store the soup and meat separately and put some meat in each serving.  

It is delicious and we will have some for our meal tonight.  There are two large bowls of soup.

It was delicious. 

WAIMAHANGA TRACK WALK

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk along the Waimahanga Track.  The weather was fine but chilly (not as cold as at the weekend).  It was my first walk for three weeks as I have had a cough/cold that kept lingering so it was lovely to get out.  Walk was a bit shorter than usual as the leaders decided that the bridge we usually walk to had been moved and they had walked far enough (half an hour each way) and the cafe was calling.  

There is a large Puriri tree with little fairy houses.

and just past that a younger (but mature) Puriri 

The two "tail enders" apart from me taking photos.

Today I went to pick some Swiss Chard for lunch and was pleased to see how well my Romanesco cauliflowers are doing. There are six of them, luckily all in different stages.  My favourite.

The Pieris is doing well this year.  It seemed to take ages before it started to grow to any height.

SIXTY YEARS

 It is sixty years since I arrived in Auckland.  I was working in Knightsbridge and after talking to someone who was emigrating I booked my passage.  Didn't really think it through, just booked.  My mother came up to London with me to see me off and, in her usual fashion, encouraged me to keep buying things.  Polaroid cameras were the new thing and there were salespeople in the street taking photos and trying to persuade people to buy.  Of course, my mother wanted me to buy one as well as a cine camera.  I did buy the cine camera but stood up to her on the polaroid.  I was worried about arriving in New Zealand on my own with no money.  It didn't seem to worry her. 

My brother also came to see me off.  Somewhere I have one of the polaroid photos taken to tempt me and one of my father as I was leaving home in Worthing.  

We sailed to Bilbao, then through the Panama Canal stopping in Tahiti. After Tahiti we hit severe storms.  Every car on board was a write off and the bow had a great chunk of heavy steel ripped.  All entertainment and the final ball were cancelled and very few people were going to the Dining Room for meals.  Luckily I was fine.  I can remember you had to hold on to your meal to stop it sliding off the table.  Max could remember seeing it on the nightly News.

So it is sixty years since I arrived in Auckland and my new life began.  A pretty good life.

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

 A few weeks ago Doug suggested that we could do with a few of our kitchen cupboard doors replaced.  We looked up various companies and Kamo Kitchens came around.  They had the match for the board but we also asked for a quote to replace all the doors and decided this was the better option so they came back with colour samples.

This morning they were here at 8 a.m. and removed all the old doors taking them back to the workshop to drill the holes for the new ones.  It is now 1.35 p.m. and they have just come back and are installing the new doors.  Unfortunately,  they were not able to get enough of the new handles we chose so some of the old handles are going up. The new ones imported from Austria and should be here in September.

This morning after the cupboard doors had been taken away.

and now at 3 p.m. All finished and we are very pleased with the result.