Well Hello, it's been awhile. Life's been happening and I've been doing loads of reading of others blogs (missing your posts K), drawing inspiration from images on Pinterest and catching up with friends on, the much maligned by some, Facebook. That was when I haven't been baking, cleaning, laundering, vacuuming, gardening, pruning, which eats away at most of my days. I long for my Fri(ee)days and I've missed a few so they're being claimed back this week.

This was the state of the dining table last night at 11.30. It's the result of finding a collection of corks, saved from many a good occasion with friends. Then an idea springs from the grey matter, and the hunt is on for a piece of leftover customwood and blackboard paint from another creation, the hot glue gun and PVA. I enjoy working things out as you go along, and the discovery that you should have done something differently. Nevermind, next time, but I think this is a once off. Thank goodness for cast iron pans, very handy things for cooking, weighing things down and for dealing with philandering husbands, not that I have any personal experience of the latter.

 
And this is the result which, when I drag out the ladder and my favourite tool the power drill, will hang above the french doors in the kitchen. The previous occupier of the abode had MILK, and I did contemplate W(h)INE, but I think this suits the corks and me. There's many a memory contained within; the point on the G is a 1998 St Henri Shiraz which was particularly good, many Milltons corks,the 2002 vintage is well represented, perhaps because I took part in the 2003 which wasn't such a good year. Some years are good, some not so, isn't that life.

Lastly, our family has grown by five. This is Fluke, Dory and Fishy, the other two are hiding under a rock somewhere. I thought Goldfish were relatively low maintenence, keep their environment clean, feed them and Bob's your uncle, but not these guys. They will not come to the surface to eat so we have to hand feed them, because you can't let the food sink or it creates nitrogen, blah de blah, dead fish. We don't want that. I'm hoping that as the waterlillies grow and spread out they may relax a bit more. I live in hope.

xx

Christmas and New Years celebrations have been and gone, decorations packed away for another year, and we've been in our new home for a month. None of the traditional resolutions again for me, but there's been a lot of pondering and soul searching going on while up a ladder cleaning windows and removing spiderwebs. I don't know where to from here. Two goals that I had hoped to make happen this year have been put on hold because of the move so there's room for more. Smaller goals, baby steps.

My list so far…

1. Free Fridays, or Freedays as coined by a good friend(you know who you are). Started last year and it's a winner. No domestic duties to be undertaken, just a day for creating wonderful things and letting imagination take flight. Will have to wait until the children are back at school! 
2. Get to know the locals and the neighbourhood.
3. Plant a vege patch, and some fruit trees.
4. Sow some wildflowers in wild places.

...And that's it.

The boxes and stuff of life are finding new places to rest but I have a challenge with my magazines. I've subscribed to NZ House and Garden for years now and I've been a bit precious about them. They've been a bone of contention between my beloved and me over the last few moves as there's quite a few. I've started going through them, rereading as I go. The one above is from February 1997 and oh how times, and decor, have changed. Remember paint effect wallpaper with a floral frieze? But the recipes are still fantastic. So the older ones are going to be recycled into something else; papier mache perhaps. The recipes though are going to be saved and added to my recipe book started when in my teens. It should be a huge tome by now but in truth it has tonnes of cutout pieces of paper sandwiched in that occasionally fall over the floor, if someone else dares to pick it up. Oddly enough I can always find what I'm looking for.

On the last day of 2011 I made the pound cake recipe from the above mag and by evening it had almost been entirely devoured by my family, all but one piece that was hidden away for New Years morning for me, with coffee of course.

This was what it was meant to look like.

This was the reality, not as pretty as I wasn't patient enough to let it cool any longer before dripping it with lemony syrup, but it tasted divine. 

I tested out Mussel and Zucchini Fritters the other night as well. Delish. it will be a year of NZH&G revisited for dinner and the odd decadent dessert. 

So, as mentioned, cleaning windows and shooing spiders has been on the agenda. The tape measure came out the other day and the height of the ceiling is over 4 metres. That's a long way down when you're perched on a ladder. Determination is getting me through. We wondered what the pile of debris was that was lodged into the side of the main support beam that runs through the centre of the house. It was a birds nest overlooked by the previous owner, or perhaps kept for posterity. I love birds but didn't want them coming back to nest above the television.

The first of 3 venetian blinds came down the other day to be scrubbed clean. I loathe them but they're staying for the mean time. I was sure I'd plummet from the ladder when trying to manouevre it down, home alone as I was, but it was the concrete outside that got me. After propping up the blind on the clothesline I went to grab the hose to rinse it and walking backwards, stretching it out, I forgot about the concrete step, and ended up in a crumpled heap. Laying there cursing my stupidity I did the mental assessment to see if anything was broken. My darling dog came over, lay beside me and gave me a lick. In the year that she's been with me she's become firmly embedded in my heart. Anyway, nothing broken, a few bruises and one very sore wrist and shoulder. I should have stuck with the ladder. There's a lesson in this for me. Never walk backwards, look straight ahead so you can avoid the concrete steps. 

Looking forward to a year full of whatever life may bring, but aiming for more harmony and happiness, and more laughter.

xx