An old colleague and friend of mine Gilly Cooper is here at the moment with her husband and friends on a two week trip so at least she is getting good weather (it's raining in the North Island for the Rugby 7's in Wellington!). We are hoping to meet up on Tuesday and it will be so nice to see a friend from home. So looking forward to it Gilly.
So .... it's been a nice week - we have been out walking most days before the sun gets too hot but no change in our weight yet and we have been good. Even though I am preserving all this fruit, we are not eating it yet and having peaches, apricots and nectarines instead of chocolate. And only very small scoops of home made ice cream honest and not every day! I wouldn't mind if we ate tons of cream cakes and fried food, we don't and we are quite active so why is it such a long haul when you get older to loose a few pounds. It only takes me a day to put it back on again!!!!!!!!!
As it has been so hot (sorry for people in the northern hemisphere with either freezing cold and snow or heavy rain and storms) that I have spent more time in doors doing other things except for yesterday when I spent six hours in the garden digging in sheep manure and splitting plants, taking cuttings etc. and talking to the neighbours.
We bought some plants on our way to Alexandra the other day from a road side sale -
We had a great trip to Alexandra on Waitangi Day. There weren't a lot of shops open but we got what we needed and drove a different way home through the Earncleuth Valley which is so pretty. It is full of wineries and huge fruit orchards and I spotted a lookout point so up we went. I wouldn't be without our 4WD here as we can go almost anywhere, great fun off road!
Derek did some panoramic shots from up here and was supposed to send me some but hunk he forgot. He has had a fairly busy week get his presentations finely honed and also went in to Qtown on Wednesday to do a presentation to some Americans for Vantage travel which he does from time to time. He said Qtown was very busy but there is a Blues Festival on there this weekend so I'm not surprised really as it is great weather and the 'serious' holiday makers are in the region now. |
Julie shared a card design with me on Tuesday so I set to and made some, much nicer than painting, five in fact, and they look like this:-
We also picked the first of this years lemons this week so I made something yummy with them, a big jar of lemon curd. If you have never made it, have a go as it is much better than shop bought, cheaper and very delicious.
You need 3 for the recipe but as these were quite large ones, I made a batch of lemon biscuits too with some of the rind.
All you do is zest 3 lemons and juice them, put the juice in a pan with the zest plus 6ozs of sugar and 4ozs of butter and heat gently. Whisk two whole eggs and one yolk then add to the pan over a low heat stirring until it is thick enough to coat the back of the wooden spoon (ames about ten minutes. Don't rush it or it will split. Then put in to a sterilised jar. |
We had the good news of an addition to our family this week too, a baby girl for Verity and Joe and they have called her Phoebe. Aaah, our Phoebe was very pleased (so lovely to put you to bed this morning poppet and congratulations and a big hug from us both for doing so well and getting an award at school xx)
Right I had better sort something out for dinner. We ate out last night at the Thai restaurant in Town which was very nice, walked there and back too and no starter or pud!! I'm trying!! I made a big batch of veggie soup yesterday so we had the last of that for lunch so need to think of something quick and see if anything inspirational jumps out at me from the freezer!
Take care everyone of yourselves and each other. Love and missing you very much xx
TTFNx