Tea for Two, and Two For Tea

Not long ago I wrote a post about my favourite tea, as part of my frugal ways. It was one that really did have totally biodegradable teabags and packaging, when so many don't. Almost as soon as that post left my fingertips they stopped making it! Since then I have been buying loose tea and making my own mix (of Earl Grey and green tea), and using a little metal plunger. But I can't find loose tea in biodegradable packaging except for one at $18 for a small bag. I'm not going back to work so that I can drink my favourite tea!
So my solution is...

Tea Plants - Camelia Sinesis 

I found a couple of these at the local garden centre.

So hopefully soon I will be able to produce the green tea portion of my brew, and just got a little more self sufficient in the process. Then I will just have to figure how to make Earl Grey tea. I have read that black tea comes from a different variety of tea plant (which is not what the label on my new tea plant says), and the bergamot flavouring is not from the herb bergamot, but from an orange. It might be a bit harder to perfect, but I love a good challenge.
Oh, and I found a coffee plant while I was there, which we have the ideal under-cover environment for.

Reducing the plastic in our lives is a constant. Can you believe how we have all embraced the use of this material without actually thinking about what happens to it in the end - that it never goes away.
If you have glass shower doors you probably have one of these to keep the glass looking good...

They don't last very long before they need replacing. No more replacing. We now use an old towel to wipe down the shower after use. It works perfectly well, saves money and is better for the environment.

And a good few hours of work yesterday saw me picking peaches from son and daughter-in-law's place and preserving them.

The peaches were just falling off the tree, unwanted. Amy wants me to teach her how to bottle fruit one day, but they are in the process of moving house, so not this year. 
I just love being able to help the younger generation learn these skills.

(Some Of) What I'm Not Making and What I Am Making.

In the past few years I have been trying to make more and buy less. This works well for some things, others I have discovered are better off bought. It's all a big experiment.
Yesterday I discovered yet another product that I will buy instead of make - sweet chilli sauce. Firstly, my chillies turned out to be smaller than I had hoped - and you know, the smaller the chilli, the hotter it is. Still determined to make my own chilli sauce I decided to use two red capsicums in there to reduce the heat, plus I barely used more than 6 chilli seeds in it. The seeds of course are the hottest part.

Well the chilli sauce turned out nice. Hot, but not too hot. The problem is, I think it cost more to make than it would have to buy, plus it took me ages to remove all those chilli seeds and prepare it all. Not to mention the burning fingers for hours afterwards, despite having worn gloves. 
So that goes onto the shopping list again, along with dishwasher powder(which I can refill into my own container), and currently I'm buying Eco Store coconut soap, after I ran out of my home made soap. It's cardboard packaged, is reasonably inexpensive and does as good a job, including hair and face washing as my own soap. And it smells yum. 
I find that making everything can be just a little exhausting at times, when added to garden upkeep and everything else, so I'm happy to find some items that meet my criteria to buy. 

Something that I have made recently - and it's just a bit of fun - from bits and pieces lying around that we have picked up.

My Junk Man

Something I will be making lots more of:
Market bags

My prototype market bag

I am working with a group to help our Farmer's Market become plastic bag free, starting with plastic carrier bags. We aim to have a supply of bags to give out to people entering the market who have forgotten their own bags. The District Council have donated a good quantity of "Love It Here" cloth bags for us to distribute. We also aim to make some (via SewGood, the community sewing group that is getting up and running), which hopefully we will be able to get small donations for, to support SewGood.
I was given a huge carton of the most fabulous curtain offcuts, just for having asked, from a local business.

I was so excited to be given this for our project

 I have made one up as a prototype - I hope this all works to plan - I'll let you know, eventually.   

Upcycled Letterboxes, Tapioca Coconut Pudding

We've been collecting photos of the ingenious letterboxes that New Zealanders create from upcycled materials. So here are a few more....

These letterbox owners were all neighbours - I think they must have been in competition.

Tapioca Coconut Pudding
While we were in Auckland recently, we popped into Rangoon Poon Restaurant for a dessert. Their sago pudding was so good that I had to try to recreate it when I got home.

The first thing is - it was misnamed, it wasn't actually sago, but tapioca that they had used. Their dessert had a palm sugar syrup on it, but it's really great with fresh fruit too.
What I love is that I can recreate this at home, and it's very easy, for probably three or four dollars for 5-6 servings, instead of the $13 that we paid for one.

1 cup of dry tapioca (or sago works well too)
2 cups of water
1&1/2 cans of coconut milk (that's about 600mls)
2 Tablespoons of palm sugar or sweetener of your choice

Rinse the tapioca and discard anything that floats up.
Soak the tapioca in the water for an hour or longer.
Drain in a sieve.
Place the tapioca in a large bowl and add the coconut milk (ratio should be 2:1 milk to tapioca)
Cover and microwave for 5 - 10 minutes (I find 6 minutes enough)
Stir and add sweetener.
Check that your tapioca is cooked through - it should be soft with no hard bits.
Spoon into small glasses and refrigerate for an hour or two before serving.

Yes, that's right, only 5+ minutes of cooking in there. Delicious tropical coconut creaminess.  How easy is that?!

Matakana, New Zealand

One of my Christmas presents was tickets to the Fat Freddy's Drop concert at Ascension Vineyards in Matakana, which happened just this weekend gone.

What a fine excuse to spend the weekend in the Matakana area where there are lots of galleries, vintage shops, markets, vineyards, cafes and beaches - what's not to love?!

Vintage baches at Sandspit - looks better when the tide's in.

The concert was great - despite a 20 minute downpour that just finished before the main act - one of New Zealand's best loved bands.

The sun's out just in time for the main act at Ascension Vineyard, Matakana

Fat Freddy's Drop. The trombone player obviously has a good sense of humour, and some great dance moves

We ambled home the next day, after staying at a lovely B&B, via the Sunday market in Matakana and several of the beaches. 

Matakana Sunday Market - plenty of vintage and upcycled goods - I bought some (new) stainless steel straws.

We didn't stop at the Goat Island marine sanctuary, where people can snorkel among large fish because being a long weekend there were crowds of people - a bit much for us.
Instead we found this unpopulated spot - Jones Beach. We just loved the beautiful smooth stones.

The Park Ranger's house at Jones Beach - a beautifully preserved Kiwi villa

Pakiri Beach has lifeguards because the surf is a bit wild, but the lagoon is a lovely safe spot for families with small children. There is beach horse trekking available there too.

Pakiri Beach

The lagoon, Pakiri Beach

Thanks to Derek for the great photos - he does a much better job than me!

Guitar Strings and Chandelier Crystals

My garden is a shambles right now. We went away for a week, then I had a sore back, and on top of it all the possums ate all of my first crop of corn cobs grrr!
As well as all that, it is hot and humid, so that by 9.30am I have to come inside and wait until about 5pm to carry on out there.

So, with having to be inside most of the day I am finding time to play. 
Today's post is just a little one, with some examples of what I have been up to.
I love making do with what I have. Fortunately for me, being in the band, I have great access to used guitar strings. The boys have to change these after every six gigs or so.

The chandelier crystals came from the shop Junk and Disorderly in Auckland, and were $10 for all of them.
I'm going to make drop earrings from the two smallest crystals - am thinking they might make nice Christmas presents for the end of the year (if I remember and can find them).

This pendant uses a vintage cuff button, a piece of driftwood and a chain from which I removed a tacky piece of costume jewelery, and the chandelier crystals.

This one uses a guitar string and a long wooden thing with a hole through it that I have carried from house to house in my stash for probably thirty years.
...And a guitar string bracelet.

Watch this space for more playtime productivity.

Omapere and Opononi - Small Coastal Settlements - New Zealand

Last weekend our band played at a wedding in Omapere, which is a small coastal settlement on the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, - not far from Rawene, which I included in earlier posts here and here.
There's not a lot more than a resort hotel, a takeaway shop and a petrol station there, but it buzzes with people at this time of year.

Looking down to Omapere (obscured) where the jetty is in the foreground, and Opononi in the distance

Not far along the road is another little settlement - Opononi where there are a lot of different types of accommodation, plus cafes, a pub and a grocery store .

This house would be about 100 years old or more, central Opononi

Opononi hit world news in the 50's with a friendly bottlenose dolphin named "Opo" by the locals, which would come in regularly and play with swimmers.

The bronze statue in Opononi, in memory of Opo

Both settlements are blessed with spectacular scenery.

A classic Kiwi bach in Omapere, with the dunes in the background

The sand dunes on the far side of the harbour are a popular attraction for riding down the steep slopes on a boogie board - right into the water. 
The harbour entrance can be dangerous, becoming suddenly extremely rough, and has been the site of numerous shipwrecks in New Zealand's history.

At the Hokianga Harbour entrance

Locals - Opononi Jetty

and a local sign... 

Ripples From A Pebble Cast

Oh, two weeks have scurried by since my last post, just busy times mid summer, and we have been away (found a few glorious junk shops too, throwing in a picture or three here).

I just love this unfinished paint-by-numbers that I found in a charity shop, and I bought the book just for the cover really.

If you are ever in Auckland and you are a bibliophile, you would love this bookshop on two floors packed floor to ceiling with second hand books. We lost a couple of hours in here.

The Hard To Find Bookshop, Onehunga, Auckland

The place to go for those second hand books that you can't find anywhere else

The Pebbles

One of the things I decided to use my time on last year was writing letters (emails), to support things I care about. Interesting isn't it, what sometimes comes from the small ripple in the pond when one casts a pebble.
One such email was to Transition Towns Whangarei, suggesting we could maybe make a register of all places locally where people could feel supported in shopping in an eco-friendly, no-packaging manner. This idea gained support, and triggered another group who are working on reducing plastic bag use, which they invited me to join.
From that group I have volunteered to work with Sew Good - a community sewing place, with materials and machines provided for anyone from the community to use. The group had wound down, but will be up and running again soon.
Another email I sent was to a government department inquiring about who might be in charge of banning plastic microbeads, so I am happy to see in the news that banning microbeads in NZ is now being seriously considered. Obviously I wasn't the only one there, but every little bit helps.

Onward 2016!

Another group I joined last year was Facebook No New Clothes For A Year, so for the past few months I have been back to buying no clothing items at all, as opposed to the in-between years, when I will buy second hand. In this group you make your own rules. It is interesting, and the number of members is climbing daily.
I needed to repair a pair of shoes, as these ones are one of the few with a little height that I can stand in for 4 hours while I am playing in the band. They had started to split around the top of foot at the edge.

Typical of me, I forgot to take a before photo so I have included one of a similar pair. I put a few stitches in there to help hold it all together, then used E6000 glue to glue on a few "gems" that I had saved from something else. Now if only they last for the rest of the year.
I think there could be more mending and refashioning coming up this year. I enjoy the creative side of all that.