Cyclone Gita, the tree, and yet another birthday

You may have heard that we got a fair walloping by Cyclone Gita  (or is it ex-Cyclone Gita now?) last week.  The South Island was hit far worse than we were, but we still did not escape unscathed.

At our place the beautiful liquidambar in the front yard, with several terrifying cracks, lost a huge limb on Tuesday afternoon as we watched.  Miraculously it missed the fence, the powerline, the house, and even most of my plants.  It basically rolled onto the lawn.  If it had to fall it really couldn't have gone any better.

Luckily, we had also invested in a chainsaw literally the day before.  And even more unbelievably luckily, the chainsaw shop had left a few drops of fuel in it.  B set to work chopping up the tree so we can dry it out for firewood.

That was the worst that we copped at our place.  Unfortunately for our local town though, a very big tree fell on a very big water pipe which cut off the water supply.  We - luckily (the most overused word in this post I feel) - have a tank so no water shortage for us, although since we have a trickle feed from the town supply we have to boil our water for drinking, cooking, and tooth-brushing, and will do for another week or so.

The chopping up of the tree was excellent entertainment for the little girls.  Looking at the photo of A above I can see how much her stance has improved even in the past week or two.  She's still not walking a lot, and absolutely refuses to do so outside which is really tiresome, but the improvement is there.

And check out the bonfire we're going to be having in spring!

And check out the extra firewood that'll be keeping us warm in a couple of years' time.

The scene of the crime below.  You'd hardly know it happened.

And look at all the extra light streaming into the living room!

The wind also brought down a literal windfall of apples and pears.  There's only so much stewed fruit we want so I've been searching for recipes.  I found one for a Danish apple cake which sounds delicious and very simple.  Problem is, we're kind of over cake right now.  Remember how I said it was birthday season in our family right now?

My sweet little J turned three.  Or nine.  Or two.  Depending on the day that you ask her.

I used a >gasp< cake mix to make her a unicorn (which she pronounces as "warnicorn") cake, which turned out exactly as I'd hoped.  Food colouring for all!

At three, J is verbose, funny, and affectionate.  She loves her bunny, Rainbow Dash ("Wainbow Dash") from My Little Pony, Rubble ("Wubble") from Paw Patrol ("Paw Tratrol"), playing mummies and babies with A where A is the mummy and J is the baby, changing her clothes (upwards of four times a day), jigsaw puzzles, baking with me, helping B in his shed, peas, tater tots, roast pork, and marshmallows.

Dislikes...  I've sat here for a couple of minutes and can't think of a single thing she dislikes.  She's not super keen on dogs, I guess.  She doesn't really like having her hair tied back, even though it's wild and flyaway and gets in her eyes.

She is such a sunny little girl.  She goes to bed between 6.30 and 7pm, usually reads a book or two.  She stays in bed until one of us gets her up around 7am.  She still has milk in a bottle morning and night.  She still naps for two hours on the days she's at home with me, but has never napped at kindy.  She sucks her thumb when she's tired or bored.  She's been toilet trained for several months but is going through a stage of wearing a pull-up when at home.  She's obsessed with clothes and on the very rare occasion that I'm allowed to assist with selecting her outfit, her first question is always "Does it match?".

For some reason, turning three feels big, for me.  She's able to express herself verbally more than ever before, the toilet training, the beginning of truly independent play, it's all the start of childhood and the end of babyhood.  I'm glad I've got those dimpled knuckles recorded above because I doubt they'll be there much longer.

Birthdays, baby dolls, and a controversial sauce

If you've been following along closely you'd know that our tomatoes have started ripening which can mean only one thing.  Tomato sauce!  

I should have skinned these but I was too keen to get them cooking and even with the skins on the sauce is delicious.  The secret is to melt a couple of anchovies in the bottom of the pan with the onions and garlic.  Controversial I know, but it leaves no fishy flavour, just a wonderful subtle salty depth to the sauce.  Trust me.  Do it.

It's officially birthday season in our family!

Before I joined B's family, I used to have my birthday month all to myself.  Every other member of my immediate family is born in June, while my birthday is in February.  In B's family, however, it's February and March that are birthday season and as it turns out I really love having all of our birthdays close together.  It's good fun celebrating a different person each week.  Not to mention: CAKE.

Some of these photos are a bit dingy, my camera is not playing nicely at the moment for some reason.

My two girls are deep in baby-doll obsessed mode.  We had one very ugly hard plastic baby which if I recall correctly B and I bought for J the morning A was booked to arrive.  For the past month or two that damn plastic baby has been fought over every day.  Finally I took the plunge and ordered TWO baby dolls from a very talented kindy mum who makes them.  They are so sweet and soft and have been instantly adored.

I quite often find A lying on the floor with hers having a cuddle.  And J carries hers around and tucks her into the dolly cradle so gently.

Now to smuggle Hard Plastic Baby into the bin...

It was the most beautiful morning here this morning.  The girls and I were on our way to let the chooks out and I actually had to turn back to get my camera.  It seems that the sun has shifted all of a sudden.  Autumn is on its way and I can't wait!

Last winter was incredibly wet of course but I am so looking forward to crisp cool air, lighting the first fire of the year, flannel pyjamas on little girls and big downy quilts on the bed.  With any luck A might be sleeping through the night by then and I won't even have to get out of that big warm bed!  Imagine that!

In fact the biggest news this week is all about my sweet little non-sleeper.  She walks!  She really walks!  She still knee-walks a lot of the time and she's quite unsteady on her feet, but she wants to walk and today it really seemed to click for her.  I remember the same happening with J - a couple of wobbly steps here and there, and then one day she woke up and just started.

A's very first steps were earlier this week, the morning of her long-awaited specialist appointment... to see why she wasn't walking.

You might remember me talking about the troubles with her ankles and feet a few weeks ago.  Last week we finally saw the paediatrician.  Talk about an anti-climax.  She's perfectly well and healthy, but she has severe pronation (flat feet basically) which causes her ankles to roll inwards.  The more she walks the better it'll get.  We may see another specialist in a month or two but basically we just have to wait it out, and get her to practise walking at every opportunity.

If she hadn't taken those first steps the morning of the appointment I would have felt quite frustrated with the "wait and see" diagnosis, but now that she's on her way I feel quite positive about the whole thing.

The trouble with a late walker (she's 17 months) is that the usual activities for a child of that age are out of reach.  The park is a waste of time, playgroup is exhausting for me and frustrating for both of us, and even outdoor playdates can be a pain when she either has to be carried or put in the pram, which she despises.

But at last it seems we're coming to the end of this very tiresome stage.  Babyhood is over.  She's a real toddler now.  Bring on the walking, and - dare I say it - the running!


Remind me I said that in six months' time...

Craft projects update

I'm fighting the urge to preface this post with an apology.  While I understand that knitting and sewing are pretty boring for a lot of people, they're some of my favourite things to do and I don't really want to apologise for that.  But I do want to acknowledge that this stuff is not everyone's cup of tea.  So.... consider yourselves warned.

My craft basket is currently at capacity.  I can't squeeze another WIP (work-in-progress, for those unfamiliar with the lingo) in there.

I seem to be in the midst of a creating frenzy with no signs of it abating.  I keep seeing cute things for the kids, and for B, and for myself - even after I swore off adult-sized projects after the Great Raglan Epic of 2017.

Firstly let's start on a high and talk about something I've actually finished - the very creatively named T165 Cardigan.  

To be honest, this was probably way above my skill level.  I had to rip out and start over so many times.  It took me ages to figure out how the holey pattern worked.  And because it was all worked flat and then sewn together, there were approximately eleventy billion ends to weave in.  I still haven't blocked it.  

Oh and J, its intended recipient, won't even try it on.

Luckily there's always A, who will try it on, but as you can see will then immediately start to tear it off.  

In spite of all that, I love it.  I love the yarn, which is a 4 ply cotton from Bendigo Woollen Mills.  I loved the knitting up and the figuring it all out.  I didn't love ripping out my mistakes, that's true.  I didn't enjoy weaving in all the ends.  But I adore the end product and how much I learned, and I will keep it forever even if neither of my kids will wear it.

Ravelry details here.

So that's something I've finished.  Let's move onto the unfinished projects taking up space in my basket...

Don't get excited, I didn't knit this amazing blanket.  It's the work of B's Auntie J, who J is named after.  That made a lot of sense, didn't it.

Anyway, she knitted the most beautiful blankets for both girls, and this is A's.  I rashly promised to crochet a border and it has sat waiting for me to get around to it ever since.  This is one I really need to work on when we sit down in the front of the tv at night.  It's mindless easy work, boring as hell, and makes me feel guilty every time I reach past it for something more fun to work on.

In the vein of easy projects, I have it in mind to make some pillowcases using these quilting cottons.  We have king size pillows to go with our king size bed (or, in NZ I think it's a super king because why would all countries have the same bed sizes?) which is great except it's almost impossible to get king size pillowcases.  So I thought, how hard can it be?  And bought some fabric to make some.  ...And there the fabric has sat ever since.

This is a cardigan for J, which I'm thoroughly enjoying.  I definitely had some false starts with the lacework around the yoke, and there are a couple of mistakes irrevocably knitted into it, but it's been such a fun knit.  J has picked out the sweetest little red love heart buttons for it too.  Can't wait to get it done for this winter.  And she has already tried it on more than once!

This here is a vest for me and it's going to be a looong project.  Being adult sized there's a whole lot more knitting required, and - what's worse - it's all moss stitch.  Moss stitch is where you knit 1, purl 1, over and over which means that you move your yarn from front to back and vice versa between every.single.stitch.  Means nothing to a non-knitter I know but trust me when I say it's tedious.

The pattern called for 4ply yarn but I couldn't face an entire garment of that so I've gone with an 8ply which will hopefully not be too voluminous but at least works up a bit more quickly.

I keep forcing myself to do several rows every few days.  It'll be totally worth it (I hope).  I figure if I write about it here I have to get it finished so I can tell you about it when it's done.

I'm dying to cast on another project for myself in an amazing soft tweedy yarn I got extremely cheaply at Spotlight the other day.  And I want to make some skirts for the girls and for me to get rid of my stash of fabric that is wasting space in the garage.

I also think I'm sufficiently fond of knitting now that I want to start buying some decent needles.  I have a few cheap aluminium ones from Spotlight.  They're fine but I recently discovered that I'm wearing the tips clean away.  I know!  Hardcore!  So I think I'm ready to take the plunge for a full set of good quality wooden ones.  Partly because the soft tweedy yarn project mentioned above requires a size needle I don't have in my collection.

But!  I've given myself a stern talking-to and there will be no new projects or new needles until at least one of these ones here is done.

Probably.

Tomatoes, chooks, etc

The tomatoes have started at last!  Shall we go picking?

I keep saying that next year I'm going to be way more organised and I'm going to stake or trellis the plants right from the start and I'm going to pinch out the new growth.  I'm definitely not going to end up with the tomato jungle situation we have here now.

It makes the harvesting into quite a treasure hunt.  You have to keep your eyes peeled, because the chooks and the bugs will happily get stuck into any that you miss.

No trip to the vegetable garden would be complete without one or several chooks turning up and standing between your feet.  They're just so content to be together.  And to check repeatedly that your toes aren't especially fat grubs.

Unfortunately the cherry tomatoes are in bad shape, aren't they.  The plants are blackened and all the stems are growing these grotesque worm-like tumours all over them.  The fruit is pale and split.  We'd better take them out before they infect the rest of the plants.

But look at this perfect imperfection all lined up on the fence.  Let's take them straight inside for dinner.  Spaghetti bolognese it is.

Before we go back inside, lets have a quick look at what else is going on.

The pumpkin vine is still trying to take over the vegetable garden and I've given up trying to keep track of all the pumpkins.

Do pumpkin vines make you itchy?  I have to garden in gloves, not just because I'm a bit squeamish about creepy-crawlies, but because the pumpkin, the zucchini, and the tomato plants all make me infernally itchy.  Just me?

Oh look here comes B, back from checking the cray pots.  Maybe it'll be crayfish and tomato spaghetti tonight instead.

My mother, my birthday, and things to do in Taranaki

As I write this, a plane is winging its way to Auckland with my mum onboard.  We've just had the most blissful two weeks together.

I had a big blub at the airport as we said goodbye and now I'm stuffing my face with leftover birthday schnitzel and potato bake.  And a can of coke.

Speaking of my birthday (I turned 37, and no I don't mind you asking), I had exactly the day I wanted.  My favourite part was in the evening, little girls in bed, everyone else in the kitchen helping to prepare the food.  Cooking, chopping, stirring, laughing, drinking, ducking around each other, and talking all the while.

I was wishing I'd taken some photos of the joyful chaos but actually now I think it was better to just live in it instead of always trying to capture it.  I might forget the specifics but I won't soon forget that feeling of utter contentment.  And then eating the food we'd all prepared, and second helpings, followed by the failed pavlova the most fabulous - I refuse to say scrumptious - Eton mess.

But what have we been doing for the past two weeks, you ask?  Lots of eating, lots of talking, plenty of driving around, and a good amount of sightseeing.

Mum, being the person she is, also weeded the vegetable garden (with one enthusiastic helper), and did load after load of washing.  She helped prepare dinner every night.



We read books.





One night, once the girls were in bed, she and I went to Pukekura Park to visit the Festival of Lights, which is free to all.

We visited the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, also known as the Len Lye Centre, which was truly stunning.  And also free.

There were three fascinating exhibitions when we visited, but even the building itself was worth the visit.

We also saw the Maori history exhibit at Puke Ariki, the museum, which was absorbing and seriously depressing all rolled into one.  And - you guessed it - free.

Not pictured, we went to Pukeiti, which is a rhododendron garden on the slopes of Mount Taranaki, which is free.  We also visited Brooklands Zoo, which is free.  We went up the mountain, free.

We went out for coffee.  Not free, but worth every cent.

We all put on several kilos.

We experienced the full range of Taranaki weather from stifling heat (well, we thought it was hot.  Mum came from Adelaide where it was 45C so she kept her jumper on all day) and humidity, to driving rain, lashing wind, and a number of beautiful cool sunny days.

We shopped in town sans children which was a revelation, and I feel happy every time I glance out the window to see my new hanging basket.

On my birthday we attempted to go up the mountain since it was one of those stunning crystal clear days I mentioned.  Unfortunately everyone else had had the same idea and we were turned back as the carpark was full.

So instead we went to Lake Mangamahoe, which was completely breathtaking anyway.

In case you can't guess, it's been a wonderful two weeks (actually only 12 days).  I can't believe it was only two weeks (12 days) ago that the girls and I raced down to the airport before breakfast that wet morning to pick Mum up.

>sob<