Living life as an expat upside down plays havoc with your senses, most notably because seasons back to front . Take strawberries for example. To a Brit strawberries are synonymous with tennis at Wimbledon in June. From my teens to my thirties, I was an avid tennis fan glued to the sofa for a fortnight [...]
There’s been a loud ticking sound around the place in the last week. No, it’s not the cicadas arriving early but the sound of jobs being ticked off the list. Well, I confess, it’s actually writing being smudged off the chalk board but I like the notion of a tick which is a cleaner and [...]
There was a most indignant look on the basset’s faces when they were woken from their slumbers this morning at an ungodly hour. After much stretching, scratching and yawning they succumbed to the early rising, but purely on the grounds that breakfast was being served. They soon crawled back into bed pulled their ears over [...]
With a taste that can be as sharp as their thorns gooseberries are not to everyone’s liking. I love the crisp bite and piquant flavour that livens the palette whether you eat them straight from the bush or wrap them in a luxurious blanket of cream and sugar. Last year the birds raided our pickings [...]
As my bones creak and muscles ache I can only imagine this is how Sisyphus would have felt on his quest to push a boulder up a hill. Whilst much of the rest of New Zealand heads to the beach, the lakes or the mountains we stay at home and make our annual effort to [...]
I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a little short changed by 2011. It’s been a good year in so many ways but it has passed in a flash and I don’t feel I’m done with it yet. But that’s time for you, running away at its own pace. As we end 2011 under a large [...]
Some time ago ham and cheese croissants became a Christmas Breakfast tradition. For years I used croissant pastry you could buy from the supermarket fridge and on the occasions that we couldn’t get hold of the dough we’d fill shop bought croissants but they were never as good as the freshly baked. Last year I [...]
New Zealand has been bathed in sunlight for Christmas allowing the perfect indoor:outdoor flow for the traditional festivities. There is nothing better than being able to eat your Christmas dinner in the evening light with the surround mountains providing a breathtaking view. The only downside of such glorious sunshine is that basset hounds and hot [...]
Christmas is the one time in the year where indulgence is encouraged. Time to treat yourself and others. To give thanks and celebrate. To offer extra kindness to others and give generously. But against the backdrop of fun and festivities life goes on with other indulgences that bring misery, sadness and grief. Yesterday Christchurch was [...]
Today is the longest day marking mid way in the food gardening season. For once I feel that I may be about on track with all my crops having got seedlings and seeds into the ground in record time compared to other years. That is apart from my garlic which was about a month late [...]
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