Asparagus and Hollandaise - a homegrown lunch

Ooh what a lovely lunch I have just eaten.  Egg from the chooks, laid this morning. Hollandaise made from butter and another chook egg. Oh it was delicious.

 

Asparagus from the garden (yes in spite of the patch being years old and me nurturing it and adding more plants I just can't seem to grow much - so this is the sum total of the stuff from my garden bed). 

  Egg from the chooks, laid this morning. Hollandaise made from butter and another chook egg. Oh it was delicious.

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The first strawberry

Here I was rejoicing over the first strawberry of the season. I photographed it, I picked it and I lost it. Where did it go? I searched all the usual places that I could put things but did not find it. Then this weekend I was telling Aaron and Ruth about it and Eli pipes up and says "I ate it", then instantly denied it and said he had been joking. Hmmm hard to tell.

Finishing a Fascinator

My not quite finished fascinator. Just need to do a bit of curling and the centre

Last night I joined several other like minded souls and learnt how to make a fascinator. I learnt that it takes a while and you need quite a lot of stuff!!!

Some of the amazing bits and pieces

Lots of material and hard work.

It was at the Make Cafe in Christchurch, always a good place to be. My fascinator is by no means finished as there are several steps and it took a while, but it looks good on the hat that I am going to wear to Kerryn and Barry's wedding.

Next time though I will make it with smaller petals.

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Have you ever been bitten by an Octopus?

The Octopus before it bit him.

Well Jakob did and it was NOT a good look. We were in Dunedin for the long weekend and canoeing at Purakaunui Inlet. A man was floundering and his Mum knew Ruth. So when they found a baby octopus they brought it down for us to see. It crawled over everyone's hands and then when Jakob got it, it was obviously too much, it bit him!! It was a little baby, half the size of Jakob's hand but you could not get it off and Jakob was screaming. So I rushed him to the seawater and he put his hand in and the Octopus swam away. It made a huge puncture mark and then the finger it had attached to started swelling, and swelling and looking red. So soaking a hand in seawater and using the cold milk bottle as ice and pressure, the pain took about 45mins to stop and the swelling about 1.5 hours. Far out.....do not let an octopus bite you!!

Apart from that we climbed up Signal Hill, using a very graduated track so I could do it.

Interesting face painting

We spent a couple of hours hydrosliding at Moana Pool. Watched a movie, ate good food and had a busy time. Visited a Fete at the Lady Thorn Rhododendron Dell. Where the boys got free face painting.

On the ridge on Signal Hill

On the way home we stopped at Riverstone Kitchen and had a lunch/dinner at 2.30pm. Oh it was sooo good. We were so busy eating that we forgot to take food photos. But enjoyed wandering the grounds and the kids loved the huge adventure playground.

The amazing Riverstone Kitchen Gardens

More of the gardens

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The boys loved the Karts

A treat in a milk bottle

Today was hot after school and the boys were grumpy. So I pulled out the little 300ml glass cream bottles that I bought when I was on my trip last weekend. Made a gorgeous milkshake with icecream in it. Served it up a little retro. Refreshing.

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It may not represent much to you....

But this vinyl down in the hall cupboard and our wardrobe represents lots to me:

The hall cupboard

• It means the the floor cracks are finally fixed. 3 years after the first earthquake, so finally the end of waiting to get things done.
• 4 hours hard slog. I am sitting here feeling quite trashed. I had to sand the floor first then measure and cut the tiles to fit, then glue them down. A lot of the tiling is in under fixed shelving and so this has been hands and knees and getting into tight corners.
• Money saving - by doing it myself it means we save money
• I will get some of my room back - I can now get some of the clothes and shoes that are all over the place back into the wardrobe.
• A marked improvement in my DIY skills, a lot more accurate than other tasks I have undertaken

So onward and upward as I wait to be able to paint the bathroom. Maybe I will soon be able to get the carpet layer in to do the hall and our bedroom. Wow - we wont know ourselves.

Our bedroom wardrobe

On top of Mt Fyfe at 8.50am

Well yesterday the boys and Aaron set off in the morning to tramp up to Mt Fyfe hut in the seaward Kaikoura Range. Then on Sunday they were to be met by a group of our friends for the return trip.

In the morning the boys were both excited. It was the first time they have carried all their own gear and they felt and looked like real trampers. I got many calls during the day updating where they were. If you go to Aaron's blog

you can see the view from the hut.

By the last call at night the hut was overflowing. DOC replaced a big old hut with a little one! Typical. Sleeps 8. But 16 were there last night. Many camping outside (with no tents). So to give someone a bunk the boys topped and tailed.

This morning I get a call at 8.50am as they are on the summit. They woke up to watch the sunrise, had breakfast and tramped!!