The best redcurrants ever

Eli doing the finishing touch, sugar on top

Picking the currants, Aaron and Jakob 

The currants themselves.

The red currant bushes have been incredibly abundant this year. Rain may rot the bean seeds and stunt the growth of the tomatoe but it has made incredibly plump rich red gorgeous currants. We have given a lot away as well as freezing them. Having viewed Donna Hay making blueberry muffins we reused that to make redcurrant muffins, they have been a hit with everyone. Ruth and Warren have visited and had them. Dawn and the girls have come to collect currents and they helped me make some. It has been great.

What I've been making this week for a treat

My cousin Amanda's ice cream. It is absolutely gorgeous, half or under the price of the supermarket icecream (but soo much better). Lovely vanilla using real vanilla pods is what is being made and consumed at the moment.

Amanda is raising a house cow so even the cream for her will be from the land. For me only the eggs are. But a few eggs, a cup of caster sugar, some real vanilla and some whipped cream and you get 1.5 litres of deliciousness.

Gorgeous brassica's now being eaten

Currently harvesting lovely white, fantastic tasting cauliflower. Also what is meant to be purple sprouting broccoli. The only thing about the broccoli is that it is forming a proper sized head and no sprouts later on. Eratic weather has meant that nearly all the beans I have sown have rotted but today I picked the first tomatoe - Yippee.

Sensational summer dinner

All home grown...even the meat.  Deconstructed pesto salad, jersey benne potatoes, gorgeous just picked peas, the last of the ribeye steak.  Absolutely fresh and fantastic out on our new covered deck.

A Gingerbread house

Kerryn came to Christchurch just before Xmas and the boys and I caught up with her on Tuesday. She had a great activity planned. The making of a gingerbread house. Lots of lollies, royal icing and laughter later (and a couple of house collapses) it was all up. The house survived the two big earthquakes on the 23rd so I declared it well engineered!!

School holidays - mosaic tiles

Sorting all the pieces into colours

Starting to pick up all the fragments

Still smashing it

Well last Monday the holidays started. Jorja and Spencer came for the day. A busy day we had too. One of things we did was to make mosaic tiles in the garden. But first all the broken crockery had to be smashed into smaller pieces. I think the kids had more fun smashing the crockery than doing the tiles. It was a great outside time.

The craft project I have not been able to blog about

Now that the Christmas presents have all been opened I can reveal what I have been busy at lately. This is the piecing of a quilt I was making for my Mother-in-law. We all drew just one name out of a hat and I got her. I finished it on the 22nd Dec, which is just as well as everything stopped again on the 23rd with more significant earthquakes happening.

The material was picked to go with their lounge suite and the colours in their new house. But was all by memory. My Mother-in-law called later today to say that it was on her couch and a great match. Can't wait to see it. I will also get a photo of it all quilted and finished to put on here.

A School Day at Orana Park

The keeper gave all the kids a few pellets to feed the Llama

plotting and planning what they want to see

We saw Lions

and tigers

Yes it was end of term and the school trips all started happening. I took six year 3and4 children in my car (along with a convoy of other parents) to Orana Park for the day. We saw Lions, Tigers, native birds, fed Llama's, fed Giraffes, watched someone in with Cheetah's (actually stroking them like a domestic cat!!). A very excited but tired bunch of kids came home.

Jakob's term 4 award

The genius

Congratulations to Jakob who recieved one of only two awards for his class. He was awarded a certificate for excellence in Reading Comprehension and Maths. Woo hoo.. I clapped and cheered my little heart out. ( I do think I could have been the noisiest parent there).

A bit blurry but there are the syndicate award winners

What do normal people do on a Saturday night?

I think of myself as highly normally usually but tonight I am not so sure. I have spent the last 1.5 hours making jam. Yes it is now 10.25pm and I have just finished and bottled up the second batch of jam for the night. Even I think that is a bit strange!! But the fruit wont stay fresh through willpower. So there are 3 jars of Strawberry jam and 8 jars of Blackcurrant jam all made. Yummy yum yum.

Oh my goodness see what I found

The most amazing restyling reusing of jerseys etc ever!!! This one for Mieke I think
http://www.etsy.com/people/EnlightenedPlatypus