Tag Archives: Friends

It’s probably a bad thing to be this proud of yourself

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but look at my table!

I’m so pleased with how it turned out!  It still needs to be varnished (probably not this weekend, because it’s raining so I can’t do it outside, and I don’t feel like stinking out the house with polyurethane), and like the other one, I need to figure out something for the base, but it looks so good, and exactly how I envisioned it.  I keep walking past it and smiling :-)   I just hope we have a dry weekend sometime soon so I can get it finished, and start actually using it!

In other news, I’m getting a visitor tonight – Fuzzle is coming down for a few days.  I haven’t seen her for ages, and because she lives off the grid our only communication is via extremely rare texts when she can get her phone charged, so I’m so looking forward to seeing her again and having a proper catch up.

Of course, that means I should be cleaning the house and cooking and all those other things you do for impending visitors.  So I’ve so far spent the morning sewing :-)

I finished my paper piecing square though:

It’s not perfectly aligned, but I’m pretty happy with it for a first try.  Now I’ve just got to decide what I’m going to turn it into (only another 20-odd and I could make a quilt… yeah, probably not.  I think it’ll end up as a cushion).

The almost alignment of the cats was completely accidental, by the way – I just cut the two pieces of fabric so that a cat was roughly centred in each – I didn’t realise when I sewed them together they’d match up like that!

Of course, being me, now that I’ve learnt the basics of a new skill, I want to jump straight into the deep end with it.  Tartankiwi has a few other patterns on her blog, and one of them struck me as having the potential to be turned into a present for someone, so I’m going to give it a go.  It’s a wee bit more complicated than the heart pattern, though.

This is the pattern for the heart:

and this is the pattern for my new project:

Over-ambitious? Moi???

Beautiful things

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Look what was waiting for me in my letterbox when I got home tonight:

 

Yep, the wonderful Yetzirah sent me a copy of her watercolour cat! And a bonus little bird! Thanks Yetzirah – they’re just as gorgeous in person as they were on the screen. I’ll have to go in search of a suitable frame at the weekend – they’re definitely going on my wall of art.

And talking of pretty things, lookit what I made myself last night:

There’s a new craft shop in Church Corner (with attached cafe – perfect!) which offers classes, and they’re are almost all in the evenings or weekends, so I can actually go to some of them (unlike the classes at Hands, which all seem to be held during the day on weekdays – I suspect their proximity to Merivale means they cater mostly to the ‘ladies who lunch’ types who don’t have to do anything as menial as work).

So last night I went to a class on making a charm bracelet, and the above prettiness was the result.  It was a really fun class, too – there were only three of us enrolled, so we all just sat round a small table with the tutor.  And although she’d made up little kits with the components we needed to make the bracelet, she had a huge collection of other beads and charms with her, and let us swap out anything from our kits so we could create exactly the bracelet we wanted. So we all ended up with completely different bracelets despite starting from the same basic components.  Don’t know if I’ll ever take up jewellery making as a hobby (it looks like it could get very expensive fast, plus there’s the whole too many hobbies already thing), but it was fun giving it a go.

Oh, and tea and cake was included in the price of the class, so it was all very civilised!

Wet stuff falling from the sky

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I think our drought has officially broken.  After a long dry summer when we’d all forgotten what rain is, two days of pouring rain (with several more to come, by the look of it) have reminded us.  It’s a bit of a shock, suddenly being all cold and miserable like this – I’m definitely not ready for winter yet!

Neither is the house, it seems.  I discovered yesterday that although I’d diligently cleared the gutters ready for winter, it was completely in vain, because some thirsty plant has grown its roots down the drain the downspout empties into, totally blocking the drain and the downspout.  So although the gutter is beautifully clear, the water can’t get out of it, so it’s backing up and some has flowed into the ceiling, producing a lovely wee leak in the corner of the sunroom.  Yay.

My attempts to clear the drain have been completely unsuccessful, so it looks like I’m going to have to call a professional of some sort tomorrow morning.  Wonder how much that will cost me?  And then of course I’ll have to see how much damage it’s done to the ceiling – hopefully it won’t be *too* bad, because it’s only a tiny drip coming through – most of the water luckily is flowing over the outside edge of the gutter rather than the inside edge, so it looks like not that much is getting into the ceiling (though of course any at all is a bad thing).

Apart from the leak (and clambering around on the roof in the rain making sure it wasn’t a broken tile causing it), I had a great day yesterday.  Jenny and I had been talking about an expedition to Hands for ages – she because she’d never been, and I because I had a voucher from Lytteltonwitch burning a hole in my pocket – so we finally got round to it yesterday.  We went for lunch first at a cafe nearby (which had an open fire – perfect in this weather!), and then spent a very pleasant hour or so wandering around Hands.  I ended up buying some materials for an experimental project I’ve got in mind – might try and make a start on it next weekend, in which case there’ll be some work in progress pictures coming soon (unless it all goes horribly wrong, of course – like I said, it’s a bit experimental… it’s something I’ve read about that I know is technically possible, but I’ve never actually tried it, and I’m a little vague on the details…)

Afterwards we went back to Jenny’s place out in Sumner to visit the tiny kittens she’s fostering for Cat Rescue.  They’re very young (about a month old, I think?), and still a bit unsteady on their feet, and incredibly cute – little bundles of fluffy silver tabbyness.  At one point I ended up with all four of them piled up on my lap, tangled up together in one big ball of fluff and all purring incredibly loudly.  I was sooooo tempted to sneak one into my pocket and take it home, but I don’t think Parsnips and Pushkin would have appreciated it (besides, I’m already breaking the “don’t have more cats than you have laps” rule with two of them!).

Later we got takeaways for dinner and watched Forgotten Silver (Peter Jackson’s hoax documentary, which I’d never seen because it aired when I was living in the UK).  Jenny and MrJenny are both very knowledgeable about cinema history, so it was really interesting watching it with them – they saw a lot that I completely missed (and vice versa – there was a lot of NZ stuff that they were oblivious to, having only been here a few years).  Really cool film, anyway, and I could see why so many people were taken in by it – he was very clever in the way he made it just plausible enough and intermingled the hoax with a lot of genuine history and local legend to create a story that it was guaranteed people would want to believe.  Of course, knowing in advance it was a hoax I was easily able to spot the clues he’d put in (the frequent references to bulls (as in, a load of…) for a start), but I think if I’d seen it when it first screened I would have been totally fooled.

Cobblers

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Mojosmom’s suggestion of a peach cobbler sent me off to Google.  I’d only ever encountered cobblers in fiction, but Google quickly turned up a plethora of recipes, all completely different.  In the end I found one that seemed to resemble what she’d described, so (after a bit of tweaking to adapt it to metric measurements, halve the size (the original recipe served 8!!!) and replace the self-raising flour (which I hate the taste of so always use real flour plus baking powder instead)) I gave it a go.  The ingredient list is pretty similar to the muffins, actually:

2-3 cups sliced peaches
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
50g butter
3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
cinnamon

Make up a syrup with the water and half the sugar, and boil the peaches in it for 10 minutes. Mix flour, baking powder, remaining sugar, and milk to make a thin batter. Melt butter in a baking dish, and pour the batter over the top, without mixing. Spoon fruit and syrup over the top, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 180C for 25-30 minutes.

The batter rises up around the fruit, and you end up with a sweet, slightly chewy, doughy fruity mixture. Delicious, but very heavy – I had to share it with friends to be able to get through it all.

I’m having a very enjoyable long Easter weekend so far. On Friday Harvestbird and I went to see a Chilean film at Alice’s, preceded by a walk through the wide open spaces of the ex-CBD. After the movie we went for a very late lunch, sitting outside in the sun and discussing literary theory and the application of narrative to everyday life – a very pleasant afternoon, and it gave me some very helpful new ways to look at the world.

Then on Saturday night I went out for dinner with Jenny and MrJenny – another lovely meal and great conversation. They’re off on holiday to Dunedin this week, so I was sharing my (rather out of date) local knowledge of the best things to do and see (I made sure to direct them to the beach where Skyring nearly tripped over a seal, so they can have their own wildlife close encounter).

Yesterday it was bottling day. Despite my best efforts at muffins and cobblers and eating a huge amount fresh, I still had a large pile of fruit left.

So I set to work making nectarine chutney.

That only used up half the fruit though. I thought about making a second batch, but I didn’t have enough of the other ingredients left, and it being Easter Sunday, the supermarket would have been closed. So I decided to be very brave and attempt some bottling.

I used to help Mum and Dad with bottling fruit all the time when I was a kid, but generally only with the preparing the fruit part – once it got to boiling hot sugar syrup being poured around, I kept out of the way. And my memories of it being a very arcane and esoteric process meant I never tried it for myself as an adult. But here I was with a pile of fruit and plenty of jars and lids I’d already sterilised. So there was only one thing for it – consult the trusty Edmonds book, turn my big stock pot into a water bath, and dive in (metaphorically, that is – literally diving into the stock pot would have been quite painful… and a bit difficult, seeing as it’s only big enough for my head).

Not many photos this time – there was way too much sugar syrup getting spilt around the kitchen for me to want my camera anywhere near!

End result, 11 jars of chutney, and 10 of bottled peaches and nectarines (and only 3 jars that failed to seal, which I’ll have to use up first). That should keep me going for the winter!

The long weekend was rounded off quite nicely (though it’s not actually over yet for me – I’ve got tomorrow off as well) by breakfast with Dad and Stepmother, who were on their way back from Australia. They were staying at a motel just up the road, so we went to a nearby cafe for breakfast, then they dropped me off in Riccarton on their way out of town. After a quick dash into the mall to get a couple of things, I headed to Deans Bush to play with my camera in the gardens.

Mysterious marmite

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A mysterious gift of marmite just appeared in our hallway (at least, I assume it just arrived – I’m pretty certain it wasn’t there last time I walked past).  Neither of us heard it arrive, but it’s a lovely day so the front door is wide open, so whoever it was obviously just popped it inside in without knocking.

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I’ve got no idea who was the mysterious donor (I’ve complained to a *lot* of people about the marmite drought), but the Elmo lunch bag narrows it down a bit.  MrPloppy reckons it was Tam, who would be likely to just drop it and run without announcing her presence, but Rarsberry also mentioned a while back that she had some unwanted marmite lurking in her cupboard, so maybe it was her.

Anyway, whoever it was, if you’re reading this, thank you!

Hmm, it’s nearly lunchtime – I think I will indulge in a lovely cheese and marmite sandwich…

Busy doing nothing

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Time is rapidly running out on my holidays, but I’m kind of looking forward to going back to work – this year is going to be full of all sorts of interesting challenges which I want to get stuck into.  I could very easily get used to this leisurely lifestyle though :-)

Not that the last few days have been that leisurely – we decided it was finally time to face down the monster that is cleaning the garage.  As you may know, we don’t own a car.  Our garage then, not needing a vehicular space to be kept clear, has become the all purpose storage space for things that might come in handy one day, broken stuff that might be repairable so it seems silly to throw it out, useful boxes, leftover building material from various projects, furniture I’ve been meaning to Freecycle, stuff the previous owners left behind… you get the idea.  Plus it doubles as a wood shed, and houses the usual tools and stuff of any garage.  Yeah, basically a room-sized junk drawer.

It was getting to the stage where we couldn’t actually find any of the tools, and getting to the woodpile in winter was work for a skilled mountaineer (ok, so maybe not that bad, but it was a bit tricky squeezing past the lawnmower).  So all year I’ve been saying that when we had a few free days we should clean it out.

So having quite a few free days, with no excuses left, we finally tackled the job.  We hired a skip and filled it with everything of the “might come in handy some day”, “don’t even know what this is” and “outright rubbish” categories, restacked the wood pile to limit its gradual spread across the floor, sorted out the Freecyclables ready to post offers, cleaned and organised everything that was left, and we now have a perfectly usable garage.

Yeah, I give it about a month before it’s back to chaos again, but in the meantime I can feel proud of our efforts :-)

Progress hasn’t been as steady on craft projects, but that’s because it’s been so hot – it’s hovered around 30o most days this month, accompanied by Christchurch’s famous hot and dusty nor’wester.  And hot and sweaty really doesn’t go well with keeping crafty things clean.

But yesterday the weather finally broke and it rained and was nice and cool.  Which coincided nicely with Jenny having a free day, so she came round and we had a sewing circle – or sewing line, really – it’s hard to have a circle of two… and actually it was more of a knitting and embroidery line – she was finishing off a jersey she’s knitting, and I was working on my cross-stitch. But we called it a sewing circle anyway ;-) and it accomplished the same goal: company and conversation while working on crafty things.

So I did make a small amount of progress:

160113embr

And I have added a bit more to my knitting experiment.  I’ve just been playing with different patterns and using up some of the random odds and ends of wool Jenny gave me, and just picking up stitches off the sides of existing squares to start each new one, so it’s developing very organically*.

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*Translation: messily

In bookcrossing news, I got a catch which was definitely a record for me, and may even (according to Gorydetails) be a site-wide record, for longest time between release and catch.  I released Ossian’s Ride in April 2003, and it’s finally been caught almost 10 years later.  Just goes to show you should never give up on a book!

Other, less notable, recent catches:

Currently reading:

  • Napoleon’s Buttons by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson
  • Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety by Daniel B Smith (audiobook)

This could be dangerous

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Jenny is a serious knitter.  She knits vastly complicated patterns that actually turn into wearable clothing, using the sorts of fancy expensive wool that you have to be pretty confident about your ability to spend that much money on.  And she’s been trying to tempt me for ages to pick up some needles – a temptation I’ve been womanfully resisting, because I really really don’t need another hobby, especially one that has potential for buying All The Things (witness my very expensive return to photography…).  Also, there’s the not insignificant factor that it’s been about 20 years since I last knitted, and I wasn’t all that good at it back then either.

Yeah, you can see where this is going, can’t you?  She finally broke through my defences by offering me a huge bag of left-over wool she was clearing out.  And I’m not very good at turning down craft supplies….

wool

So after a quick refresher lesson in casting on, and how purl works (amazingly, my fingers could still remember knit, even if my brain couldn’t, but they were a bit wobbly on the other stuff), I have made a thing:

291212knitting1

Not sure what the thing is going to be yet. I have visions of a patchworky sort of lap blanket thingy, but if I get bored or frustrated, it may be a patchworky sort of small cushion cover thingy instead ;-)

In other news, there isn’t much other news.  Not even any more pretty pictures to show you, because the last few days have been drizzly and dreary and not at all conducive to wandering around with a camera.  So they’ve been spent mostly in a curled up lazily indoors sort of way, with either book, movies or computer games.  Very nice to be properly lazy for a change, really.

I did venture into Riccarton briefly on Boxing Day, in case the sales held anything interesting.  But the crowds and noise were so horrible that apart from grabbing a few clothes for work I just gave up and went home again.

Yesterday was a bit more social – as well as the knitting lesson, I went out for lunch with Jenny and MrJenny, and then Harvestbird and Harvestbaby came round in the afternoon (I think we’d all reached hermit saturation point at the same time :-) ) – a very pleasant day all round.

Pallets and pop-up tearooms

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The “Pallet Pavillion” on the site of the old Park Royal was opened today.  It’s another Gap Filler project, a venue for music or community events, or pretty much anything really.  It’s an amazing space, made almost entirely out of old packing pallets, complete with tables and chairs (made out of vege bins) and a pallet stage. It’s open-air, but the walls are high, and curve in interesting ways, so it kind of feels like being inside – quite a cosy space, really.

Pallet Pavillion

Pallet Pavillion

Pallet Pavillion

The main reason I was there, though, was because it was my friend Jan’s first outing in her new guise of a pop-up tearoom (she’s the blonde one on the right).

Popup Tearoom

I didn’t stay very long (just long enough to be Jan’s first paying customer, and to wish her well in her new venture) because I needed to get home by 1 pm, but first I wanted to have a wee walk through the CBD on my way to the bus exchange, because they’ve opened a few more areas up since I was last in town. I took hundreds of photos, of course, but I won’t bore you with them all, just a few points of interest.

Victoria Square is open now, and looks almost back to normal – if you ignore the cordon fencing in the background, that is:23 12 12 CBD

The view across the river to the Town Hall isn’t so pretty:23 12 12 CBD

For those of you who were at the Christchurch convention, you might remember our hangers-on dinner at the Oxford on Avon (that weird buffet place that turned off the lights before we’d finished eating). A parking place for demolition equipment is all that remains:23 12 12 CBD

Decorations from two Christmases ago on Colombo Street (plus a truck for carting demolition rubble):.

There’s so many buildings gone now you keep coming across unexpected views. This one is from the Gloucester Street bridge, from where you can now see the Cathedral:.

Talking of the Cathedral, they’ve opened up a walkway into the Square again, so I got to see it from a different angle:.

One for Lytteltonwitch – they’ve started demolishing the ANZ building:.

Kate Shepherd is still behind bars:23 12 12 CBD

but Punting on the Avon is back in business:23 12 12 CBD

Christmas decorations in the container mall:23 12 12 CBD

There was also a market on there, and this guy was doing a roaring trade in bagels and breadsticks:
23 12 12 CBD

I made it home in time to meet Jenny and Christian, who we’d arranged to go and see The Hobbit with.  I wasn’t all that sure about seeing it, after reading so many reviews, but it wasn’t as bad as I was dreading.  The first half drags on a bit, and the whole 3D 48 fps thing was horrible (3D gives me a headache anyway, and the 48 fps made everything way too real for a fantasy movie – very jarring.  Plus it made the fight scenes look totally chaotic – I had no idea what was going on for most of them.), but once the story got going it was quite fun.  Of course, it might help that it’s been quite a few years since I last read the book, so the departures from it weren’t as obvious as they could have been.

I’m on holiday!

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Well, it’s the 22nd, and we’re still here.  And more importantly, I’m on holiday for the next 4 weeks! (Yes, I know I already took a 4-week holiday in April, but due to the weird way HR calculated my leave over the two jobs I’ve been doing, I’m still owed a tonne of leave).  We’re not planning on doing anything or going anywhere, just relaxing and making the most of a much-needed break.

Started the break on a high note last night with a bookcrossing Christmas party that turned into a not-bookcrossing Christmas party.  Bruce & co had told me they were already juggling two events so wouldn’t be able to make it, and I hadn’t heard from any of the other regulars (I’m not even sure if the Gwilks are still in Christchurch – Gwilk used to pass me as I was walking to work in the mornings, but I haven’t seen him for months), but I thought Rarsberry and Otakuu were coming, but mysteriously neither showed up (Rars had mentioned she was trying to figure out transport, so I assume that’s why she didn’t make it).  However, the non-bookcrossing part of the party (Harvestbird, Jenny, and their respective partners) did turn up, so it was still a most enjoyable evening – in fact, probably better than if everyone else had been there, because it was a small enough group that conversation flowed easily.

I don’t know if I’ll bother trying to organise a bookcrossing party next year, though.  I’m getting a bit tired of the paucity of RSVPs from the local group – it’s bad enough trying to organise meetups when I never know how many people to book a table for, much worse trying to organise parties.

Still, a great evening, the experimental vegetarian pizza worked (at least, it disappeared very fast, so I assume everyone enjoyed it), the house looked pretty, and the company was good.  And that’s all that matters really.

And now, I’m off to curl up in a corner with a book.