A bit of a juggling act...

Earlier in the week my weekend was looking all full, exciting and well-planned out (including a fun workshop with a friend, the kids to my mum's for the afternoon and overnight, a night out for Simon and me, and a day-visit on the Sunday to catch up with a friend I haven't seen in a while). Then came an email with a job for me to do. Only problem was that it wasn't going to arrive in  my email inbox until Saturday morning and was required back first thing Monday morning ... and I estimated was going to take at least 12hrs to do! So, after arranging for my mum to take the kids all day today, and putting off plans that I had made, I welcomed the challenge.

Fortunately, the job was sent through a few days ago; so I could plug away at it during school hours. After dropping the kids to my mum's I was still able to get out for an African drumming class held at our local community hall this morning (not the same workshop I originally was going to go on, but this was a bit shorter and sounded like fun too), then carried on with my work all afternoon, and it still looks like I'll manage a night out with Simon. 

Now I want to get myself a big djembe drum (my little one really pales in comparison) - and somehow find a way to go to the other five classes.

Off to visit a lost penguin

This was one of those mixed blessing kind of situations.

On Monday, a juvenile emperor penguin was found far from home (it came from Antarctica, and had travelled about 4000kms) on one of our local beaches. Initially it was reported that the penguin was healthy and seemed to be doing well.

On Thursday evening he was still there, so we decided to take the kids for an early morning visit before school on the Friday. We woke the kids up while it was still dark (6.45 - not that early really lol), didn't tell them what kind of adventure we were going on, but to be dressed and ready to leave in 20mins. We made lunches for school bags, had toast and tea ready for consuming in the car on the way there, and were off. It's only a 20min drive up the coast to where the penguin was, so we had loads of time before we needed to be back for school, and to drop Simon at work.

Upon arriving, the light was still low, but there were plenty of other people with the same idea as us! Off we went for a short wander to find it (how convenient it decided to come in right near the beach access).

When we got there the penguin was sleeping and it wasn't looking too hopeful that we would get to see him stand up.

But, after about 10mins he stood up, had a shake and started stretching his neck and mouth. He looked a bit uncomfortable and like he had something stuck in his throat.

We got some neat photos (there was a makeshift barrier set up by this stage to give it a bit of space from people), then about 3-4mins later he lay back down again. We headed off to drop the kids to school.


Due to the low-light, and not wanting to use my flash, my photos weren't the best. However, I took a short video and was able to capture a shot from it as it came out much clearer.

 

As the day went on, I saw news reports that the penguin had declined in health from the previous days, and the zoo were brought in and took him away. I guess, being out of its natural habitat, and it not being that cold here, he couldn't really survive for long in the situation that he was (and had been eating sand and sticks). The latest report was that he has had some of the sand pumped from his stomach and will be going for surgery today). Hopefully the poor fella survives!

 Who can resist a bit of a play at the beach - even if it is 8am on a chilly winter's day!

Lantern Festival

Last night we joined up with some friends and went along to their Steiner school Lantern Festival.

It was a magical evening out (after having rained all day, we were fortunate it stayed away for the hour we were there). We were prepared for anything though, and were weather-proofed in our coats, hats and gumboots.

Winter Solstice part 2

This evening we had our family winter solstice celebration. I invited my parents over to join in our feast (they came last year as well) and we had a lovely relaxing time.

After school the kids and I gathered together some fresh greenery for part of the table display. We found all our candles and had them set up around the house to provide all the lighting we would need.

As we all sat down at the table in the dark, I lit our centre candle that represented our "family/sun". We then each shared special things that we appreciate about winter and what we love best. Then I lit my own candle using the centre candle, I lit Danielle's, she lit Simons, he lit Grampies, who then lit Nathan's, who then lit Nannie's.

We then ate our feast!

Oh, and I planted another 20 or so garlic cloves this morning as well!

The week that was...

Last week went vey slowly - it felt quite strange having no commitments or catch ups with friends planned, no taking my Nan out shopping, no school parent-help required, it wasn't grocery shopping week, I had library books out...so I just cruised. The garden is doing it's own thing and there were no outstanding jobs I needed to do. Very ho-hum actually and not such a nice feeling really. Right at the end of the week things started to pick up pace!

~ Thursday night we all went down for our teacher-parent interviews at school. Was great to see that unschooling hasn't hindered them in any way lol, and both have been finalised for their year levels for next year (when we started I said I'd leave it up to the teachers and their professional opinions since I had no idea where either of them were at). Agewise, both are on the cusp with going either direction for year levels because of where their birthdays are - they are both in composite classes currently and will be again next year, so easy enough to shift around and work at their own level as needed.

~ I've sped through the 2nd Clan of the Cave Bear books - The Valley of the Horses. I've also started to read Nineteen Eighty Four as a break between starting the next in the series (The Mammoth Hunters). I've been wanting to read some of the classics for a while now, so that is my mission. Woohoo on picking a gloomy one to start with lol.

~ On Friday a friend invited me to her Steiner school shared assembly that morning. That was fun, and I got to catch up with and say hello to some of the women from our women's group.

~ We then went to the tip shop (haven' t done that for quite a while), and found myself a very cool, retro chair for in front of my fire - for $5. The green Queen Anne bedroom chair I had in front of the fire has returned to my little bedroom corner so I can enjoy the winter sun that streams in there at the moment. Unfortunately Simon sat on the new chair and one of the underneath springs went *sproing* (yes, sound effects and all - thanks Pippa lol). But looks like it can be fixed easily enough.

~ On Saturday a friend called up to see if I wanted to go to her place for a girl's DVD night, so that was fun. It had been a bit of a full-on day with getting Nathan sorted to go to a birthday party (including putting together a plate of gluten free food for him to take along) and needing to clean the Cub hall as per the roster.

~ Sunday saw us catching up with my parents for lunch before heading off for my winter solstice evening - looks like my mum will be heading off to Bourgainville in the Solomon Islands/Papua New Guinea on a volunteer job placement for 2yrs (business development and project management). She just needs to get the final signing off by the powers that be and a medical done and then she'll be off. I think it's very exciting for her to go off on an adventure like that at 60!

~ Today a friend came over so I could be her "student" as part of her yoga-teacher-training course. That was a pleasant way to spend my morning. Since I have a tickly cough still lingering from my flu, and she had a bit of a cold, I started off by making us both a cup of healing "hot lemonade" as per one of my winter lurgies recipes using lemon rind/juice, thyme, sage and honey - Yum!

Winter Solstice

This evening our women's group had its winter solstice celebration. I helped organise it with a friend, so it felt extra special being a part of planning my first celebration to share with others.

We had a lovely gathering, followed by a shared meal. We brought along some greenery as decoration (symbolises continual, year-round, health and wellbeing), candles to welcome the longer days and return of light and warmth, and a little music, singing and drumming.

We'll have our own little family winter solstice on the 21st as well (the eve of the winter solstice) which we all look forward to.

Brrrrrr

Well, last night we had our first frost of winter! It pretty much felt like it came out of nowhere (aside from the fact that it was so clear and still last night, it was a given I think). We've had such mild weather so far, mostly beautiful, calm days that warm the house, so I only need to light the fire about 4pm when the sun goes down behind the hill in front of our house. The full moon last night was also a stunner.

I might actually need to light the fire today, I also had to crack the ice on the chicken's water bowl and the car window took a bit of defrosting before heading off to school.

The kids went to school with extra layers and woolly hats, and I noticed Danielle enjoying "making smoke" with her breath as she wandered along the road to the school gates at drop off.

I really LOVE these types of winter days. So invigorating. I do look forward to the winter solstice though and the gradual return of the longer days. Now to light that fire...

Appreciating those sunny winter days...

Yesterday was one of those gorgeous, blue-sky days, but where the breeze was a quite chilly if you were in it.

The day started off with Simon walking the kids to school, and I stayed home and wiped the dripping condensation from the windows. I think one of those moisture systems would be quite nice at times like this! When I was younger I didn't realise that windows/houses benefited from being wiped down in the morning (I thought people did it to look good lol). Since we've had some heavy rain for days on end, I was needing to set up the drying racks inside the house to get our clothes dry - adding to the moisture in the morning! One benefit of wiping down the windows in the morning is that my windows remain clean throughout winter haha.

We then got out in the garden for further cleaning up, and then caught up on airing out, folding and hanging out more washing.

The afternoon was one of relaxation on my part (lying on my bed in the sun with a cuppa and a book), while Simon felt a bit more energetic and went out for a training ride for 1.5hrs.

While Simon picked the kids up from school, I thought I'd have a little afternoon tea all prepared for them on their return. It's not often that can happen since I'm the one collecting them!

I was sad to hear that our poor old Christchurch was hit with another 2 large aftershocks that had more buildings collapsing, streets seeping liquifaction, and people injured. :( When will it end?

The garden over the weekend...

I felt inspired to get out into my herb garden yesterday (before the rain came). It's looking really good, and fillling out nicely now, so minimal weeding is required. The borage, calendula and yarrow that seeded over late summer have really filled in a lot of the gaps. The bright colour from the calendulas, violets, feverfew, borage and rainbow chard continue to brighten things up.

I took these photos this morning - it's started off as a sparkling, shining one with a gorgeous blue sky!

I also gave the chicken coop a much needed clean out. We've had a LOT of rain, and things have gotten really soggy and gross in there. So, once all that poopy-straw  (with masses of lovely wormies in it) was shovelled out and added to the winter garden beds (with blue lupin in them), Simon went down and laid down some fresh straw.

 The far bed on the right of the path has the garlic, the middle is where my vege seedlings are going, and the front bed has some onions. The beds on the left have the blue lupin.

The wild strawberries I was given a few weeks ago and coming along well. In fact, all my strawberry plants are looking fantastic and filled with flowers and growing fruit.

My hanging basket in my front porch has some lovely bright colour draping over the sides now. Love the vibrant colours of the lobelia and the pansies together.

Banana Boats and hot chocolate

After dinner I noticed that the fire had died down a bit and that it had some lovely hot embers glowing. I thought it would be neat to wrap up some bananas in foil and pop them in to cook. I sliced them open and dropped in some drinking chocolate (recipe below), wrapped them up and put them on the hot embers for about 5mins.

Mmmmm....

I've never made these before - mostly due to the absence of tinfoil. I don't usually buy foil, but for some reason got some a few weeks ago, so it was nice to do this as a wee treat.

I have been making our own drinking chocolate for about 6 years now. When Nathan could no longer drink most of the store-bought drinking chocolates due to the gluten in them, I searched around the net for recipes.

This is a fairly standard one, and is good because the kids can make it up themselves very quickly.

Into a jar I fill 1/3 with cocoa, and 2/3 with milk powder (gives it a creamier taste adding powder rather than just relying on the milk in the drink). This mixture doesn't have sugar, so isn't very nice when it's made as a hot chocolate (but the kids don't mind it when they drink it cold), so we add sugar to taste if needed. If premixing and wanting to use sugar, I make it as 1/4 sugar, 1/4 cocoa, and 1/2 milk powder.

There are other blends that alter the flavour a bit - the addition of vanilla pods, or other spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg, and even chili for a Mexican hot chocolate.

One of those throw-together meals...

The cupboards were beginning to appear bare (my fortnightly shopping day is due today). Although I knew that that were plenty of meals to be cooked from what we had, I was feeling less than inspired with what I saw. After going through the freezer I found a container with half a tin of coconut cream, another with frozen tomatoes, and a chicken breast and thought I would be able to throw together a tasty and nutritious curry. So, out came a tin of chickpeas, an onion, a potato, the rice and the spices - and I had my meal.

A trip out to the garden for a large handful of silverbeet and we were good to go.

The seven stars...

I've been wanting to make a set of cute candle holders with the kids to represent the coming winter solstice and the return of the light and longer days. I proposed 5 as a number, but then Nathan suggested that we make 7 to represent the 7 stars of Matariki - the Maori New Year.

We made the holders using salt dough, and then baked them till hard (removed the candles and left the holders in place while they baked). Apparently though, while sitting on the table that night (before decorating), the dog thought they would make a tasty treat...fortunately I was able to fix up the one chewed holder with a little left over dough (and replaced the munted candle/foil holder!).

We then decorated them with water paints, sequens and paua pieces.

All scarfed up

Once I was on the better side of being sick I was able to power away through my scarf (and had memorised the pattern by that time, so could sit in front of the fire completing it and not rely on the computer for seeing what I had to do). Unfortunately I ran out of wool and not too much chance of finding anymore. So, I decided to call it a scarfette or neck wrap and for now have a kilt-pin to hold it all together until I come up with some other idea.

The week of nothing much...

Hmmm, well  I haven't really been up to much aside from resting and regaining energy.

I've been reading a few books though...Walking to Mercury by Starhawk (lent to me by a friend) and I'm halfway through Clan of the Cave Bear.

My seedlings from a few months back are looking awesome and ready to be transplanted into the garden. My 2nd lot of seedlings are now ready to repot and I have put another lot of seeds up. Feels good to be back into a routine of successional planting.

Most of the garlics are up and looking good, and I'll then put another lot in on the winter solstice.

The kids have been busy with a variety of things - Danielle's class went off and did plantings for Arbor Day during the week. Nathan's Cubs group have been working on emergency preparedness. Over the weekend, Simon took the kids out for a walk in one of the local public farmland reserve areas and got completely soaked from a downpour, but they had a great time nonetheless.

I enjoyed watching the Sherlock Holmes series on TV.

Yummy salads

Now that I've fully recovered from the flu I had (aside from the lingering cough), my appetite seems to have returned after a week of not really eating. Yesterday I had a sudden craving for good, fresh, raw and cold vegetables to go with the rest of my dinner. I had seen a recipe for a 'tri-colour salad' in one of my new cookbooks, and planned to get what I needed with my weekly vege shop.

Beetroot and homemade mayo salad (very nice!)

Carrot and toasted spices (not bad, but will cut back the salt required)
Watercress salad (nice too, only I didn't want to pay $4 for watercress so used my own lettuce from the garden). I do have some packets of watercress seeds though that I have been meaning to grow.