You can never have enough...

[Jan]

A bit of creative opinion would be appreciated- because this blanket is a secret project can’t involve my usual creative sounding board so what do you think
I am about to start the rising sun half and had an idea I might introduce some rainbow colour - mauve pinkish bluish into the picture - just thin lines maybe on the very outer edge - not big blocks of rainbow colour just hints of colour
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https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/...122526.jpg
This is the photo that caused the epiphany
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/...126679.jpg

[kiwimade64]

hahaha did anyone else find themselves singing 'we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun...'  showing my age here lol.  Yesss... a few subtle rainbow colours would be lovely (I think) as the theme is 'seasons' and rainbows to me, signify the end of the rain or the tough times.  And besides, I'm all in when it comes to changing designs

The pathlab ladies are on strike.  We rocked up for MrK's blood test to find them closed today, tomorrow (Waitangi Day) and Friday.  I hope they have a fab five days off and get whatever they are striking for.  They deserve it.

Our lovely neighbour saw me weeding and has offered to weed wack the weeds along the main road for me.  She'll wack the heck out of it, I'll spray and kill it all off and then have another go at planting.  The hydrangea idea didn't work out  so I'll plant the salvias.  By the time it is ready for planting, the salvias will be ready for dividing.  And yes, I know there are some who don't spray weeds and as a rule I don't.  But needs must with this heart stuff.  I have to find easier ways to do things for a while.

[Lilith7]

A bit of creative opinion would be appreciated- because this blanket is a secret project can’t involve my usual creative sounding board so what do you think
I am about to start the rising sun half and had an idea I might introduce some rainbow colour - mauve pinkish bluish into the picture - just thin lines maybe on the very outer edge - not big blocks of rainbow colour just hints of colour
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/...120152.jpg
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/...122526.jpg
This is the photo that caused the epiphany
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/...126679.jpg

I think it could work quite well, perhaps try putting the colours you want to use just on the blanket to see how it looks, but imo they'd look brilliant.

Went hunting this morning, Whitcoulls had buy two books, get 20% off so managed to get four books for great grandkids birthdays later in the year...had only intended to get two but so many good books, couldn't resist.


Madame le Cat is in disgrace - she was brawling in the street this morning with a stange black & white cat & a car had to slow right down for them at which point they legged it pretty quickly. She was in time out for a while but doesn't seem at all repentant & came & supervised me trimmuing the Jasmine...

[Mica]

Jan I think your idea would work well.

Lilith feline just keeping the riff raff  away 

Taking a break from quilting  trying to be good  the timer always makes me jump  when it goes off.

[popeye333]

I too think the colours will work well. Good for it Jan.

Typically I had miss read Davids text and it was just the two of us. It was soo hot... Mum was confused and saying she will die soon and wants to be cremated. I said Ok Ill pass that onto the girls, but now we will talk about Happy stuff.

I did her hair, found her glasses, put some lip balm on, still looked different cos she didnt want her teeth. But in the end we got her Royal Wave.

One thing Mum will be remembered for is her Royal wave, which is a good impression on the Queens, but she does the fingers at the end .. Shes soo cheeky lol. but at nearly 99 we encourage it. And as I said to Dianne we know she is in there when she can remember to do that.

Dianne is taking the confusion hard, she said she broke down today. I said just remember Mum is in there, this confusion is the infection.

I Updated the girls when I got back home.

And Talking of Pheasant's a Beautiful Male one ran across the road in front of us on the way home. I said to David that we had been talking about them.

I will head your warning Hunni. I will forever remember the stink of the goose. The meat was yummy tho. Wisely I cooked the goose at my sister in laws lol Putting it in a pan with approx. an inch of milk, salt and pepper and covered. Slow cooked.

Dam we women are smart cookies, Dianne and I both thought David was Diabetic and he admitted it today. For a bloke that drinks far too much wine, he has big changes to make. He will probably have the leg troubles forever if he doesn't heed the warnings.

[harm_less]

Ah, cooking geese. back in my flatting days one of the flatmates arrived home with a goose he'd got from somewhere. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer so instructions were given on cooking including using an over bag to help steam it and off we went for a swim and left him to it.

Couple of hours later we get back and check on how dinner is coming along. 

"We told you to use an oven bag"

"I did"

"There's no oven bag here.... but what are these strange blobs on the goose skin?"

Answer: the remains of a 'plastic' bag!

I think we had Fish & chips that night.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Third pot of peaches on the stove for the freezer. I bring them to the boil in the juicy liquor of previous cooks, then turn the fruit over, and the heat off, and they are perfect, poached but holding their shape. I tested a few leftovers with cereal and yoghurt and oh I will enjoy these in mid winter! They taste wonderful. I am having to resist making a peach shortcake...

Maybe tomorrow. To celebrate te tiriti.

[popeye333]

Third pot of peaches on the stove for the freezer. I bring them to the boil in the juicy liquor of previous cooks, then turn the fruit over, and the heat off, and they are perfect, poached but holding their shape. I tested a few leftovers with cereal and yoghurt and

oh I will enjoy these in mid winter! They taste wonderful. I am having to resist making a peach shortcake...

Maybe tomorrow. To celebrate te tiriti.

My mother liked bottling fruit. She also used to use the same cooking brew. And when done she would make ice blocks for us. 

Have brought Dianne up to date with her Mum. She said she broke today. I told her I know how her mental state is confused but thats the Infection talking Not mum. 

They will see her tomorrow, not sure who will be next. but I hope Di's brother shows his face. He hasnt seen mum for ages.   
I havent looked at the tv Guide so not sure what Ill be watching. 

If its cool enough and dry Ill do some of the back lawn in the morning.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I save the liquor, chill it and use it as a base with sparkling water on those hot days when I need to hydrate. It is very cooling, like an ice block without the brain freeze, lol...

[kiwimade64]

morning ladies and happy Waitangi Day. Do we say that, is it a thing? The fog is back, typical after a hot day yesterday.

I used to bottle fruit when the kids were small and would mix up apricots, peaches and nectarines when there was only a few of each left. And put a small stick of cinnamon in some. Yesterday I bought a bag of pickling onions, we love them and MrK makes really good pickled onions.

Another quiet day for us, I think. We're planning a day away to Tairua. When I first met MrK he owned a piece of bare land there, way up in the hills. We wish we hadn't sold it now and had built there instead of buying. Oh well, it is what it is. MrK wants to see the changes in Tairua from over the years.

I'll work a bt more on the embroidery today.

Happy crafting

[Roma]

Good morning.

Overcast and we've obviously had some rain. Expecting another hot day though. 

Same here with bottling done "back in the day" when my family were young. It was good to be able to preserve surplus or free produce. I have vivid memories of my own mum preserving fruit in mass quantities ... jars and jars of preserves. We kids used to enjoy getting the last out of the peach stones as they were discarded. These days we just eat fresh seasonal fruit.

Speaking of fruit, I discovered I've been sacrificing my blueberries to a very large blackbird ... wondered why the large crop was no longer   It has found its way in (and out) a V in the netting where it goes around feijoa trees. Hopefully I can salvage the rest now it's blocked off. I need a guard cat!

No particular plan today. 

Have a good Waitangi Day.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The first year here I grew tomatoes under netting and a big blackbird got in, but couldn't get out. It was great fun, first I gave it a stern lecture about nicking fruit without asking, and then went in bare handed and pulled it out to release it. It didn't even peck me!

I think it was ashamed, lol. To get itself trapped!

These days I have a couple, Mr and Mrs who follow me round as I garden, and who wait patiently for me to fill the old bowl I have sitting on a big fence post as a bath for them. They are such a lovely part of our extended garden. We are so lucky with our birds, thievery included.

[popeye333]

Good morning everyone. Happy Waitangi Day.

Overcast again but we end up with really hot afternoons.

I used to preserve heaps. There were good orchards in Rotorua and Galatea. Did all mine on the coal range.. We had a sleep out lined with shelves. Our neighbour asked why I did it when you can buy cans. I just looked at him and said Ill show you why. He admitted mine was much nicer. MrP always helped with peeling. We did most of our preserving together and he often spoke about doing it with his mum.

I DONT miss pickling onions lol..

Haven't been to Tairua in many years. I bet it has changed massively Kiwimade. One of my school friends and her hubby brought land in Pauanui when young. They profited well.

I need to get a few groceries this morning, and I Need to do some lawn. Ill make sure there is plenty to drink for after.

I Kitted up for my next picture. A clear glass vase of Tulips. Ive had it for a while. I think I will take a few into the home to show the ladies on Friday. Photos dont do them justice.

Have a wonderful day everyone

[kiwimade64]

lol roma, I don't mind sharing the grapes but the one and only blueberry bush is off limits to the birds! MrK has even conceded some tomatoes to the blackbirds. We also have a Mr & Mrs and love them. The other day we saw a fledgling thrush for the first time. We see the adults in the garden but have never, in all our years here, seen one of their fledglings. A lovely treat to see. It's very satisfying to see the bird life, we feel we must be doing something 'right' to have so many.

[Mica]

Morning all 
Another fine day

Remember bottling peaches and apricots hot work when weather was also hot.
I always remember my BIL presenting a sack of peas - all podded for my SIL to blanch and freeze I could see she was not best pleased and had appointments that day. So I said to BIL come on you and I will get this done he was of the opinion it wasn't much work. Ha after few hours in a steamy hot kitchen mid summer in Hawkes Bay he changed his mind 
SIL was very grateful 

Sitting down after a flurry of vacuuming , emptying rubbish, renewing felines litterbox, running a clean cyle on coffee machine I am having a rest. I am currently person non grata for the feline as I finally remembered to apply her flea treatment that has been sitting on bench for past 2 weeks. 

More quilting today 

Enjoy your day

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I loved bottling. I was raised with the whole ritual of it, from growing, to trekking out to the orchards to lug wooden crates of fruit home to the newspaper spread table to prep. Then building the shelves along the back of the kitchen bench, bricks and planks, set at the right spacing to take the small jars for cherries and mandarins - and later trout fillets, and the tall jars for fruit and beans and tomatoes. Jams, pickles, sauces, we got competitive my Mum and I. We sought out new recipes, found more jars, and finally each had a wall of jewel coloured glassed deliciousness going in to winter.

For all the work, all the mess, I really miss those days. Maybe that is why my pantry consisters of bare wood planks bearing big red and green lidded Mansion House coffee jars with all my sugars and flours and tea bags and pasta and cereals and all the rest. And I love them. I cannot to this day resist a big glass jar...

And if it has a red lid? All the more tempting.

[Olive]

I'm the opposite when it comes to bottling.   When I was a child we had a big section filled with fruit trees and every summer my poor mother spent weeks bottling Golden Queen peaches and Peacherines, surrounded by wasps.  Nobody helped her.  To this day I have never bottled fruit, although I used to love making jams and jellies and marmalades.   These days I use the freezer; yesterday I dealt with the week's tomato mountain and now have nine Jimbo's pots of tomato and onion pulp in the new freezer.  To be repeated every couple of days for the next month, with added tomatillos soon.

We do our best to cheat the blackbirds by netting, then harvesting the tomatoes as soon as they show the faintest colour and ripening them inside.   We also keep enough figs for ourselves by covering each fig with a little plastic bag (bags are recycled every year) when it reaches full size but before it colours.   It's quite laborious but worth it for the figs, which otherwise get completely demolished.

[popeye333]

I too Love Jars Hunni.

My baking ingredients are in tupperware tho.

I missed preserving when living in the bus.. And now since I dont generally do puddings. I dont do the preserves.. but then I do have peaches on my breakfast.

Im having a fruity lunch today. Colleen didn't realise what stuff she had in the fridge. So insisted we bring stuff home. So I have Cherries and Blueberries from Colleen, I got apricots and bananas yesterday and have the oranges Dianne gave me. So Ill do a grazing platter and enjoy.

But I've had a totally lazy morning doing my games.

I need to go pick up a few groceries, then Ill paint.

David is going to see his mum despite his sister telling him not to. So we wont see him for a few days. Dianne is up seeing Mum.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Snap popeye, I did a grazing platter for dinner last night and it was yummy...

The bees have moved on. In the warm air this morning the swarm rose out of the hedge and danced across the grass and into the big trees. A temporary stop I suspect, those trees are all deciduous so they won't stay there for long. Sad to see them go, but also relieved because I don't have to worry about some awful pest controlling landlord arriving to sort them out.

I did wish them godspeed and good luck, it was lovely having them for those few days.

[Jan]

Beautiful day in the bay - last year I had a preserving flurry made lots and lots of Kiwimaids plum sauce and lots of pasta sauce for the flatting grandchildren but that lot have jumped the ditch so the remaining grandchildren are younger and still under their respective mothers care .I have a bowl of apricots ,peaches and nectarines that I am sick of so when it cools down later going to boil it all up and make a fruit salad jam will only make a couple of pots but better than wasting it .Was given some greengages absolutely beautiful- ripe really early this year my DIL tells me and the best they have been for ages - so the weird weather has suited some varieties
Hunni wasn’t bottled trout spectacular - but I stopped doing it because it was evidently risky - my Mum then my siblings and I continued doing it but I listened to the experts and stopped .Now smoke them when we go to Kinloch
I am going to do some shading with the rainbow colours - one good thing about crochet you don’t have to just have blocks of colour and it’s so easy to unpick - not sure if I put up a photo of Dr Sueus but instead of just being a solid cat outline the shading was supposed to mimic a pencil drawing - so thought I will do a rainbow haze like down the cats side

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