Snippets of Paradise

I just love where we live, from our own little patch of 1 acre paradise to our beaches and small towns of Northland. 
Today I am posting a few artworks that people have made and put out for the enjoyment of others.
The Green Man - as we have labelled him, appeared one day about 2 years ago on the end of a sawn branch by the side of the road. I'm not sure what he is made of. He is the subject of debate between Derek and I. I get annoyed by the things people adorn him with - and he nearly always has cap and sunglasses, and at Christmas a Santa hat and tinsel. Derek thinks that is all ok, that it makes him interactive. So, I'm sorry, at present he is adorned.

 The next two are side of road finds

KERIKERI

We took a little trip to Kerikeri yesterday, which is a pretty, small town with a lot of horticulture, antiques and art in the area. 

The shopkeepers we came across were friendly and the proprietor of the music shop was super helpful. Some nice cafes there too.

On the way we stopped to take photos of the Towai Hotel, where our band played last night. I love these old character pubs, and they usually have some real good local characters inside too. It was a great night.

Icecream in Winter

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out"

Dr Seuss

On my mission to live slow, I have been making lots of things from scratch, but I still like to find the easiest ways of doing this. There are better things to do than spend all day in the kitchen.

Yesterday I made Ginger Icecream, which is my own interpretation of Annabel Langbein's icecream recipe here. This is a great recipe, that doesn't require extra stirring once it has gone into the freezer, nor do you need an icecream machine. In fact when I started making it, I didn't even have an electric mixer, and it wasn't too bad to make with a hand beater. I just make the base recipe, then add whatever I feel like, but keeping to the quantity guidelines.

For the alcohol in the recipe I add Stone's Green Ginger wine, plus I stir through some finely chopped or grated fresh ginger, about the size of a thumb.

Ingredients for ginger icecream

One of the good things about making your own food is control of what you eat. I like to lower the sugar content of the icecream by using half quantity of Dentasweet, which is like sugar in consistency, but is Xylitol, a product made from plant extracts, with half the energy of sugar. It tastes no different to using sugar.

What You Give Out...

The cookbook mentioned above is a bit special...apart from that it is good (you should also check out her Busy People's Bread ).

This is a bit of a story...

A while back I met Derek's great nephew, aged about 11 at the time. He was so enthusiastic about cooking - with plans to become a chef - that I was really impressed by his passion. Wanting to encourage him, I posted him a couple of magazine type cookbooks that I had, along with an encouraging letter, and thought no more of it.

Later in the week, I received in the mail a prize for having a letter published in a magazine..a cookbook. Then another day or two later a courier arrived with a parcel. It was a thank you present from a young Christchurch couple who had come to stay with us, with their two little ones, just after the second earthquake. It was Annabel Langbein's Free Range Cook book. 

Sent two cookbooks out ...got two straight back!

Some projects completed

In an earlier post I alluded to my habit of starting lots of things, being full of ideas and enthusiasm, well I managed to finish a couple.

"Before" junk shop find

"After" - just need to add a few more succulents. In a month it will be ready to hang on a wall

"Before" - although I just remembered to take pic after I had started painting the rims

"After" - must say it has a nice pinkish glow when the lamp is on!

 On our way home yesterday, I didn't mention that we had stopped at Huanui Orchards and got a 5kg bag of Granny Smith Apples for $1/ kg. So today I got my whizzy apple peeler and corer out and made light work of most of the bag into bottled stewed apples (no added sugar) and an apple crumble. If I go back I might get enough to try making cider, watch this space.

Woohoo - good hourly rate today!
As well as a bunch of other chores I cleaned my oven today. Of course it was an environmentally friendly clean, just baking soda and white vinegar. I used to really hate cleaning the oven - in the days when I didn't know any better and used nasty toxic products, the ones that would burn you if they got on your skin, and smelled dreadful.
Yesterday I saw an magazine advert for a company that cleaned ovens in an environmentally friendly way, so I went to check out their website to see how much they charge (because I'm nosey). $95! Am thinking of setting up my own business haha.

Beautiful Sunday

It has been a lovely weekend, and with no band gigs or kids we have pleased ourselves.

Yesterday we attended a 3 hour workshop run by the Northland Regional Council's Sara Brill on "Weeds". I wasn't sure it would hold my interest for 3 hours, but Sara has a wealth of knowledge on the subject and it was good. The only downside is that when we are out now, we just see so many noxious plants. At least we recognize a lot more now and know how best to get rid of them. There was a pretty good attendance too, it's great seeing others who care.

As we were up early on a Saturday we took the opportunity to go to the Whangarei Growers Market.

It is a bustling place if you get there early, and great to see so many people supporting local growers, buying fresh, local food. There's all sorts, from fish, cheese, chutneys, flowers etc. Plus some buskers. The photo I took really doesn't do it justice.

Today we ventured over to Tutukaka, as we had heard there is now a fresh fish seller there - legally selling off a fishing boat. We bought some filleted snapper for dinner, which wasn't much cheaper than in the supermarket, but it is really fresh.

Tutukaka marina

While there we had a browse around in Eclectic Culture Co. which is a cool little shop selling recycled clothing, vintage and upcycled and new goods and gourmet. Somehow it works really well.

After a little hunt on the beach with the metal detector (at which I found my first gold coins), and a little seaweed gathering for the garden, we popped in to Schnappa Rock for lunch.

We just love the atmosphere there - it's decorated with tapa cloths, big round rustic posts and recycled timber etc. The food is pretty good too.

That's me

On the way home we picked up a bootload of bottles and cans etc from the roadside that have been bothering us every time we drive to town.

I took photos of some fly tipping which I will email to the nice man at the council who said to let him know if he needed to send someone out to clean up...that would be great, thanks.

Really slow living

"Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no-one could find fault with it."

Cardinal Newman

I like that quote. When I have people come up to me when I'm playing in the band, they usually say -"I just love the saxophone - is it hard to learn to play?"

I tell them that I didn't even pick one up until I was 42, and it has been a fabulous journey. Then I give them some tips on how to get started, and a version of the above quote. 

I used to be anxious about making mistakes while playing, until I noticed that all the boys make mistakes too..and they have been playing a lot longer. They just shrug them off and say "you get that with live music". And the audience still seem to love it.

I even had one fellow musician from Australia come up and tell me I had made his weekend with one song I had played - and I'd missed a couple of notes on the solo! He hadn't noticed, and I wasn't going to tell him. 

The Beer Traps

In an earlier blog I raised my doubts about the effectiveness of beer traps. Well today I went down to the garden and emptied and reset them. From 2 cans of (out of date) beer I got the following catch...

Of great interest to the kingfisher who perches in my garden

Fridge Food Covers

A family member asked me, when I brought out one of these little beauties, if I had raided my grandmother's kitchen drawers. I told him, no that I had made it myself. After a little silence, he mentioned "did you know you can buy those?"

Yes, I do know - but I can make them for nothing, using up scraps of material, odd coloured thread and scrappy bits of elastic...and they are unique.

Rather than worrying about where I can get food grade plastic, I just use the inners of cereal packets - they've got to be food grade, right? 

I've found that using netting or lace fabric means they dry quickly when washed, and they don't fray.

I pull the elastic tight as I stitch it on with a zigzag stitch, on the plastic side with both layers together. I don't cut a piece first, rather just snip it off when I've completed the circle.

Sewing Machine

I mentioned in an earlier blog that my sewing machine started to smoke...well sadly it is unfixable. I put the first payment on that machine with my first pay..in 1976, a Bernina 807. The ladies in the sewing machine shop were hoping I would be buying one of their nice new electronic machines, but I've put a (free) ad in our local paper to try to get another one just the same.

Meanwhile Derek's daughter has loaned me hers (which is the same model), which was given to her by her grandmother. I am very grateful for the loan.

Mojo

It has worried me that if I stopped working, I might lose my mojo and become lazy. For the last few days I have been alarmed that all I have wanted to do is sit around watching tv quiz shows and the like. Admittedly it is the middle of Winter, the weather has been cold and wet, and I have had achy bones and bronchitis and have been up nights coughing. Today I took an official sick day and have just got up at 1.30pm. It has been immensely enjoyable, and I have been busy doing a little sewing and watching telly without feeling guilty.

This organza flower brooch I finally finished while sitting in bed

I made these coffee sack canvases a while back, but started adding the stitched adornment today. I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet. Am still planning the second one.

Driftwood boats awaiting flags

Wooden postcards (found while junk shopping, see earlier post Small Town New Zealand)- awaiting finishing touches

Also bought while junk shopping for $3, I was going to  cover it with a coffee sack - but I don't have enough left, then thought an old sea chart, but the one's I have aren't just right, so will probably go with vintage book pages.

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This first year of my "retirement" is to try out all of the ideas that are running amok in my head. There are a lot of them, as I see inspiration everywhere. 
I'm just great at starting things, and have oodles of unfinished projects. Hopefully putting them up here will make me finish some.

Bits and Bobs

I was chuffed. On my way to town today I saw two grey haired ladies out walking, and when I got closer I could see they were clearing up rubbish as they walked along. Yay, good for them. They got the big thumbs up.

LOW SUGAR MARMALADE

I've been doing research to try to find a good recipe for low sugar marmalade as the commercial one isn't that nice. 
The sugar helps the marmalade set, and also stops it going off quickly, so I would need to take that into account. Well I couldn't find a recipe that I was happy with, but found suggestions, like boiling the fruit longer, say 3 hours, to get it to set better, or using low sugar pectin. Some jams used chopped apples because the pectin in them helped the setting, and some used gelatin.
I thought that I would just give a combination of ideas a go - and it worked!

1 grapefruit
1 lemon
1 Granny Smith apple
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
stevia to taste - I used about 1/2 teaspoon

Grate the skins of the citrus, then slice thinly and chop fruit, removing pips.
Peel, core and chop apple finely. Place fruit and water in a large saucepan and boil gently. I only boiled mine for an hour, by which time it was starting to thicken. At this stage add the sugar and sweetener - tasting as you go until you are happy with it. Boil for a further 20-30mins and bottle in sterilized jars. Makes about 5 cups. Keep it in the fridge.

It probably wouldn't win any prizes at the Women's Institute, as it is a bit cloudy, thanks to the apple, but it saves me having to buy it for Derek.

A beautiful Northland Winters' day. The Cabbage Tree is approx 100 years old, and  half has died off, hope the other half hangs on - it wouldn't be the same without it.