Sometimes you just HAVE to have your fish and chips by candle-light. They taste much better, don't you think?
And, after the rain and general dullness that can be winter days - we will get this! The wonderful cheery Kowhai blooms. I know I'm posting this photo (from our own garden) early but on the way home from work last night I swear I saw some pink blossoms on a few trees and that means spring is coming! Oh yeah, I love spring. Actually, I enjoy having four seasons, even tho' I have whinged about the cold before now, I do love having the chance to sweat, shiver, and all the bits inbetween.
What's it like at your house now, is it summer or winter? Which do you prefer?
At this time of year it's easy to run on empty, the promise of spring almost at the door keeps me going!
Hey Matty, this one is for you! The rest of you will have to be creative and mix in the plonk of your choice to jazz it up a bit.
Passion
1 banana (curved or straight, it's all the same to me) 60ml pineapple juice 60ml orange and mango juice 3 teaspoons passionfruit pulp ice
Pour all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth then pour into a serving glass, garnished with pineapple and banana pieces. I'd use one of those footed tall glasses that you can steal from nightclubs if you're quick!
And just for fun, lets skip down memory lane to this....
I took the above photo round the back of a small lake on the way home from the West Coast the other week. Yes, have played with it to be in black and white but it was raining very hard, bucketing down (as only it can on the 'coast) and the result has been a moody, sulky tree scene! I love it, what do you think? If I can find the original photo I will post that so you can decide for your very grwon-up-selves which one you like best.
Further back along the road, and before the heavens opned up, we were passing by an old petrol station, these vehicles look like they may have given up all hope of having their tanks filled. I resisted the urge to black n white them, the rustic (see what I did there? LOL) colouring somehow adds to their abject misery methinks! About 10 feet on the other side of these cars is another long line of elderly gentlemen vehciles, all lined up with nowhere to go, which I'll post next if you're all good kids and play nicely.
I'm in a champagne mood today - just for something different! Usually it's a champagne mood with a beer budget, however I'm going to splash out today to honour you all (and to save your livers I will drink it for you too).
Ritz Fizz
dash amaretto dash strained fresh lemon juice dash blue curacao chilled champagne (is there any other kind??)
Pour the amaretto, juice and blue curacao into serving glass and top with chilled champers. You can float a rose petal on the surface as decoration if you want - do not confuse rose petal with bicycle pedal.
Above, another grave at Stillwater. I admit to tinkering with it to be in black and white..... This is rather a cheeky KEA. They eat anything, usually they go for the bits of rubber seal on your car! This one was content to have his photo taken in exchange for some Kiwi fruit. This is the site of the Brunner mine disaster where the locals have created a memorial of information and education.
Well, as you may have guessed I have been away travelling for work. It's a bummer but someone has to do it! Actually, being out and about is one of the great bits of my job and I get to see our wonderful country and meet the people who live here so really I'm not complaining. This time I was back to the West Coast of the South Island (you can see how imaginative we are with our place names already!)
On the way there I had to stop and take this photo, I got even closer to the Southern Alps but it was warmer to take this photo here. Isn't it breathtaking! Click on it to make it bigger, and no those sheep aren't the only ones we have. We have loads of them.
I also took the occasion to call into a wee cemetary that for years I have only ever driven past. The Stillwater cemetary is one of the resting places for 65 miners killed in the Brunnerton mining disaster of 1896.
The photos below show (hopefully) the memorial grave where 33 miners are buried, many others are buried in family plots at the cemetary. I was really taken with the grave featuring red roses, it was rather a grey day by the time we got there and that splash of colour was striking. Considering the grave was over one hundred years old, it made me wonder who had placed the flowers there. I guess that those dead miners have family still in that part of the Coast. The graves were really in bad states of repair, and many were unmarked other than by rocks outlining them. Sad to see.
It was a stark reminder of how much our history and indeed our working history has been shaped by the blood, sweat and tears of those who went before.
Well, it's actually Wednesday here but I have been working away from home so today is my first chance to regale your livers with naughty stuff!
I thought I would go for something easy...and yummy of course.
SALTY DOG
45ml of vodka (feel free to test the vodka to make sure it hasn't gone off in the bottle!) 120ml fresh grapefruit juice ice
Rub the rim of the glass with lemon slice and then dip into salt to coat (margarita-style). Pour all ingredients one after the other into the salted glass filled with ice.
Park yourself somewhere nice and cosy and sip away....
Sometimes you just HAVE to have your fish and chips by candle-light. They taste much better, don't you think?
And, after the rain and general dullness that can be winter days - we will get this! The wonderful cheery Kowhai blooms. I know I'm posting this photo (from our own garden) early but on the way home from work last night I swear I saw some pink blossoms on a few trees and that means spring is coming! Oh yeah, I love spring. Actually, I enjoy having four seasons, even tho' I have whinged about the cold before now, I do love having the chance to sweat, shiver, and all the bits inbetween.
