Red Dozer

2009-07-18T10:21:00.002+12:00

Our Kitchen reno in progress....

2009-04-18T19:14:00.004+12:00

Well, here I was thinking that I had nothing to write home about, but after looking through the camera, I came up with some stuff to share. These first few pics are from the Ellerslie Flower Show, which was held here in Christchurch a month or so ago. I had a good time checking out all the exhibits and plants, and am totally inspired to come up with some crazy garden plants for the garden over the winter, grow the plants from seed and watch it all come to life next summer. The globe in the picture below is covered in readylawn and rotates, so you can hide away inside it.
In March, went to observe some sites around Lake Ellesmere, which is a "shallow brackish coastal lake. It is Canterbury’s largest and New Zealand’s fifth largest lake - about 20,000 ha - with approximately 75 kilometres of shoreline." It is located just South of Christchurch and Banks Penninsula. I work with the folks that open the lake to the sea to moderate the lake levels and drain farmland. The lake levels have been managed for a really long time, there are photos of horse drawn carts doing the work, somehow, and before that the Tangata Whenua (people of the land) were out there digging the cut in the beach by hand. Nowadays, the guys get out there with bull dozers! During this visit, I was out there with Ngai Tahu folks observing specific locations for impacts that the management of the lake may be having on the sites. The following pics are from this trip to the lake.

Around the house, I have been working on sanding and painting the trim of the windows on the outside and Darrel has been fixing up the garage, he has made a cool entry way over the door and has replaced all the trim, he just started painting today, so after hours and hours of work, the end is almost near for the garage! I have cleaned out the summer garden in the raised bed, and planted winter veggies (celery, peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, leeks and beets). Not sure how much they will grow, the night temperatures have seriously dropped this week, but they will put on a bit of growth before the dark depths of winter. Part of the clean up included cutting back the New Zealand Spinach that is growing out of control. It is just like regular spinach but it is perrenial and grows long leafy stems. Jen, our fellow flattie, is picking the leaves off of the haul for dinner.
And here we are sporting the Birds Eye Building Co hats that they sent us last December. These wooly caps are going to be great this winter and we will think of the folks in the barn in Vermont when we wear them. Thanks!

2009-01-22T21:11:00.003+12:00

2009-01-06T19:54:00.003+12:00

Rhubarb Trifle

One day about a few weeks before Christmas, I was thinking about the yummy food of the upcoming season, and also about how not eating wheat and possibly cutting out processed sugar was really going to put a damper on things. It's not really a big deal, because I have become a master at replacing the nasties with good stuff. And I think that this dish is my crowning achievement. Like most of my cooking, it always turns out a bit different, but if you use the right ingredients- it always turns out great!

So hears the deal, the basic idea is that you make three different parts and layer them together, kind of like a sweet Lasagne. The three layers are the spongy cake part, the fruit part, and the goupy yum part!

For the sponge...
Ingredients
3 eggs
pinch of salt
3/4 cup of honey
1 cup spelt flour (or use any flour you like!)
1 tsp baking powder
50 g butter or oil

Beat together the eggs and salt, add the honey and beat together, mix together the flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Finally add the butter/oil. Put into a greased cake tin or two and bake in a hot oven for 25 to 30 min (not sure how hot, because our oven has no temperatures on it, but I think it'd be about 185 degrees Celsius) You know how to tell when its done!

Let it cool and set aside for the final step.

While that is cooking, put 3 cups of chopped rhubarb and 3/4 cup of honey in a saucepan and simmer away for 20 minutes (if you get a 500 g honey container you can just put half of it in the cake and half in with the rhubarb). It will turn a bit soupy, never fear, this is good.

Finally, make your sweet goupy stuff:
Option 1- yoghurt mixed with honey (about 2 cups)
Option 2- the traditional custard (mix 1/4 cup of milk with 4 tablespoons of custard powder and 3 tablespoons of honey over low heat, add 1 and 3/4 cups of milk and simmer stirring constantly 'till thick)
Option 3-Make both and put on each layer

Now for the assembly:

Get a nice big clear bowl (clear is very important, so you can admire all the layers!)
Put half of the cake in the bottom of the dish
Sprinkle with Sherry
Pour half of the rhubarb mixture on
Pour on half of the custard or yoghurt mixture
Lay out the rest of the sponge, and sprinkle with sherry again
Pour on the rest of the rhubarb mixture and then the rest of the custard or yoghurt mixture
Then whip up some heavy cream with a splash of vanilla and a bit more honey
Top with thin slices of strawberry or any other berry you have handy in the garden.

Alternatives:

Cut the cake pieces in half and slather with raspberry jam
Put fresh or frozen strawberries over the rhubarb mixture
Leave off the cream, but always top with some type of fresh berry

Refidgerate it until you are ready to serve. Make this at least 8 hours before you plan on eating it, and make sure you have enough for lefovers because it is always better the next day.

Hope you enjoy! I am not sure what is in custard, so if you know how to make it from scratch, please let me know.

A bit about the rhubarb I have been using: when I was brainstorming about my christImas desert, I was thinking about how back home everyone seems to have more rhubarb than they know what to do with in late spring, and since it was December (ie late spring/early summer in NZ), I figured that someone out there in Christchurch would have it coming out their ears. So I sent an email to my favourite list serve ever, Freecycle, and put the shout out that I was in need of some rhubarb. I got 10 responses in the same day, and they kept trickling in. I contacted the first person that emailed and scooted over to pick up the goods after work that day. When I arrived my friendly benefactor had a grocery back full of stalks all ready to go and three plants all potted up and ready for transplanting! Yeah for Freecycle!!!! You should check out freecycle in your neck of the woods, its a great way to get rid of stuff and get stuff! www.freecycle.org

2009-01-03T20:13:00.009+12:00

Our Christmas day was followed with a mad dash down south toTe Anau. We drove down to meet up with our friends Matt and Amanda who are visiting from the Northeastern United States. We had a fabulous time together tramping (ie backpacking), sightseeing, eating and drinking.

Photo of Aoraki/Mt Cook and Lake Pukaki from their flight to Queenstown

Sunset at Milford Sound

Sheep in the road (photo taken by tourists!)

We chose one of the great walks for our tramping adventure. The tramp started with a walk around Lake Te Anau, a hike up through a beech forest and above the bushline to the Luxmore Hut.

We made ourselves at home in the hut shared with 48 other trampers, including some olympic gold medalists, who gave us their leftover milk and bananas!

The weather was a bit unsettled on our second day of walking, we broke out the camera in between the bits of sideways rain. It was windy walking along the ridge line and the wet weather gear came in handy, but it all made for a great adventure and an authentic Fiordland experience.

Before the end of hiking on the second day, we went down... it was a bit painful, but well worth it to get out of the crazy weather for the night.

Back into the Beech forest!

A well deserved rest on the beach of Lake Manpouri before the final 1.5 hour push to the end of the hike.

And then we went to Wanaka. We ate, rested and the enjoyed the scenery of Lake Wanaka and the mountains of Mt Aspiring National Park for two days!!

Our camp at the Lake Outlet Holiday Park (Home Sweet Home)

We enjoyed New Years Eve with some new friends at the Holiday Park!

And then we drove home to Christchurch...

and visited Lord of the Rings filming sites along the way.

Aoraki/Mt Cook and Lake Poukaki from the ground.

While chilling in Wanaka, Amanda and Matt went canyoning, from these pics, it looks like they had a good time!

2008-12-25T13:51:00.000+12:00

2008-12-25T13:50:00.001+12:00

Hello ho ho! Happy Christmas everyone out there. What a great holiday! Thanks to all you family and friends for being so generous! We have been doing pretty well down here in NZ despite all the economic turmoil. Darrel and I have had some big changes lately on the jobs front, I just starteda new one and Darrel is exploring some entreprenurial ideas, including mushroom farming! We have been blessed with some amazing folks for flatmates over the last few months, Jen is off cruisng the north island for her summer holidays and her German friends, Connie and Christian, are staying here in her place. The last few days we have been cooking for each other, it's a great way to experience and share cultures. Better get packing we are heading to do some tramping and camping down south!

2008-11-03T20:49:00.005+12:00

Hi there, you may remember our old fence, as seen below from the inside of the yard...

and here is the new one!!!!

and I chopped down the ivy monster!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-06T14:40:00.000+12:00

Just thought I'd share a bit about my site visit to a dairy farm, I met up with the ladies on my way.

2008-10-02T21:21:00.002+12:00

The door project begins with a new few new tools, some beautifu recycled rimu from the building recycler and an old door

Some shots of my handy work, this project went on for a few weeks, and I had sawdust in my hair the whole entire time.

Darrel rocks the new table saw and makes a sill for the door frame

Ready for install, if only there was a hole in the wall for it to go...

2008-10-02T21:20:00.001+12:00

The first step was to take out the window, and the door fits right inside the window cavity, minus a few bricks

2008-10-02T21:17:00.001+12:00

Darrel described this tool as a chainsaw with a circular blade, um, I am pretty glad that we had to take it back to the rental place

Now for the fun part!

2008-10-02T21:16:00.001+12:00

Zoe immediatly discovered her new favorite spot in the house, and forgave us for another chaotic weekend of moving her bed around, moving her kennel, standing on it and growling at her for barking at the people walking by...

Then we were ready for the deck, Darrel took the Friday off work to start it with his friend Jamie (who just sold his decking company after four years)

This is what they accomplished on day one! They built the frame and letthe concrete set overnight.

2008-10-02T21:15:00.001+12:00

The Deck Weekend: End of Day 2

The Deck Weekend: Begining of Day 3

The Deck Weekend: End of Day 3
All done!!!!

2008-10-02T20:38:00.001+12:00

Hey there! These pics are from a fabulouse weeken of fun with cousin Sean, he has been strolling around NZ for the past month and we got two days of skiing in while he was visiting. Good spring conditions!

2008-10-02T20:36:00.001+12:00

um... yes Darrel tried skiing, and I think he likes it

2008-10-02T20:35:00.001+12:00

We visited the Hokitika Gorge on the Westcoast, it was just down the road from the farm we stayed at. Sean worked in California and Hawaii with New Zealanders, so he has heaps of contacts.

2008-10-02T20:21:00.001+12:00

The swing bridge over the HokitikaGorge

On the drive to the West Coast from Christchurch

2008-10-02T20:18:00.001+12:00

Ha, those curious Kea's

"Yum, Darrel's dirty shoes for lunch, this is better than the windshield wipers that I ate off your car last week" -screeched the Kea

2008-09-19T15:50:00.003+12:00

Darrel and I have been super busy since mum and dad left the nest. We have working on putting in a new door, and today Darrel is building a deck to walk out on through the door! I will pitch in tomorrow, luckily they are slugging all the concrete today without me, hee hee...

Other exciting news is that we have a flatmate. Her name is Jen and she is lovely to live with. We have all been getting along really well for two weeks now. My thoughts are with her today, because she had to have surgery on her knee. Hopefully she will be as good as new tomorrow when she gets home. I will post some pics soon of the door/deck work, I will have to show the whole projects from start to finish. Darrel is probably too busy today to take Pics. Our friend Jamie is helping because he owned a decking business. The project should take 2 full on days, if it was just Darrel and I scratching our heads over it, the timeline would have been measured in months- not days.

Other news, the gardens are bursting with fresh energy from some warm spring days! The daffodils are still blooming, and the magnolias, camellias and various fruit trees have burst for beautiful flowers. Ah, rebirth and renewal! Spring is here!!!! The deck is being built just in time!

2008-08-20T22:11:00.011+12:00

Here are some pics from our trip up to the North Island

Wellington from the Botanic Gardens at the Cable Car landing

The flat I lived in while studying at Victoria University back in 2000

"Do you like ice cream?"
"yes"
"Do you like chocolate?"
"oh, yes"
"Then you should order the Iced Chocolate"
I think mom made the right choice- this drink looked Yum!

Dad and Brian on the waterfront walkway in New Plymouth, we took off on a walk to the beach and ended up going on a 6 mile circuit along the beach, through the city and up through Pukekura Park, gorgeous way to spend the day.

Joy, mom and I

The wind wand in New Plymouth

Stone carvings on the waterfront

Dad's birthday Fish 'n Chips

and finally Mt Taranaki shows itself through the clouds

On the walk up to the ski field on Mt Taranaki

The path up to the ski field starts off as a nice wide path, then narrows to a goat track with railings and an avalanche path in the middle, this section is called the Manganui Gorge

Dad and I made it to the ski field, you can just barely see mom and Joy in this photo, they turned around when the path got snowy and are heading back to the parking lot

How many ski fields have such a warning on the walk from the car park to the lodge?

Sadly, the bottom lift (T-Bar) was lacking a bit of snow, the upper lift looked fantastic, we saw some skiers heading up the T-Bar, gliding over the grasses and dodging the rocks, the snowboarders we saw didn't have such an easy time

Some sweet runs further up the mountain

Some keen riders giving us the lowdown on the Ski Club, lifts, runs and the snowboarder run/hop up the hill

A coffee at the visitors centre after the mornings expedition

We checked out our New Plymouth relatives' farms

This photo was taken south of New Plymouth looking north at the Paratutu Rock and the two other remnant of volcanoes that were once as tall as Mt Taranaki

Dad and I, just before our hike up Paratutu Rock

While my folks were visiting, Zoe was well taken care of, Dad took her on heaps of walks around the neighbourhood

Fresh snow on the hills in southern Christchurch, it was sunny so we went up for a walk and a peek over the other side to the harbour

Zoe likes the snow!!!

The City from the Port Hills

And of course it wouldn't be New Zealand with out the sheep!

I had a fantastic time with my folks while they were here. Now they will know what the heck I am talking about when i call home. I hear they are still recovering from the Jet lag and 24 hours of traveling back home. Things have returned to normal around the house and I have returned to work. I think Zoe really misses them, I know I do.

2008-08-06T21:17:00.003+12:00

Ahoy from New Plymouth, New Zealand. Mom, dad and I traveled north on Monday, we flew to Wellington to check out the city I lived in when I came to New Zealand to study. We flew into Welly and went to visit our lovely friends Odie and Joel. They have a 180 degree view of the city from their house, which is perched high upon a hill above the city. We stayed in a backpackers in the city and the next day did a walking tour of the city, saw where I used to live and the university where I studied.

Then we drove north to visit with Craig (Darrel's Brother), Trudy, Kelsey and their wee kittens. Then we took off for New Plymouth to see Darrel's parents in New Plymouth.

The North Island was hit with a "Weather Bomb" last week, luckily we were far south and totally missed any effects of the storm, but we have seen some of the destruction that it left behind in our travels. Lots of slips (land slides), water logged fields and uprooted trees.

Today, we took off for a walk and saw the sites of the city. It was dad's day, since its his birthday, so we were at the whim of what he wanted to do and see. We saw the black sandy beach, and the beautiful ocean walkway. We had coffee at the museum and walked to Pukekura Park, found Tui birds in the trees and admired the large silver fern filled forest.

Then we had fish 'n chips for dinner!! That's what dad wanted and that's what he got. I even found the Beatles song "When I'm 64" on the iPod, since dad is now 64. More soon, going to check out Mt Taranaki tomorrow. Hopefully we get a clear view of it tomorrow. Going to see the ski area, but we didn't bring our skis north, so just going up for a nosey.

2008-08-03T21:34:00.009+12:00

Lots of photos of the last two weeks of hanging out in Canterbury and our tiki tour of the lower South Island

New Brighton Beach, just 15 min from the house and big fun for Zoe

and of course I had to put mom and dad to work...

they took a train trip over to the West Coast, had to pick a day that it was raining in Christchurch and sunny on the other side of the divide.

Trip to Mt Hutt for big day of skiing and fun on the access road...

You just never know what the weather is going to do, one minute it was sunny and beautiful, the next minute we couldn't see the tips of our skis and boards, it got so socked in you couldn't tell which way was down the hill, made for an uneasy feeling when your board started sliding the opposite direction than you thought it should be going

Lake Tekapo, on our way south to Queenstown, that is a famous stone chapel with a magnificent view of Mt Cook, New Zealand's tallest mountain and the training ground for Sir Edmund Hillary. We waited to the last minute to decide to go up to the Mt Cook village and the Alpine Centre and museum, it was well worth the extra time in the car, I had no idea how magnificent the view from the village would be and we didn't even see Mt Cook, it was hidden by clouds

The view from our apartment in Queenstown, that is a paraglider enjoying the morning sunshine!

Dad made sure we had a good lunch for our trip to the Remarkables ski field

and another fun access road, which was a bit sketchy on the way down, it was snowing by the end of the day

The road to Milford Sound, pictures do not do it justice...

The Milford Sound is on the West Coast of the South Island, we learned heaps about this magnificent place on our trip down to check it out. The region is a tropical rainforest, getting as much as 7 metres of rain per year. Th sound is actually a fiord, because it was carved by glaciation and not by rain and erosion. Mitre peak is a mile high from it's peak down to the water, it is the highest point in this region and greets you at the entrance to fiord. We took a boat trip to check out the fiord.

Milford Sound is a very unique place, the freshwater that flows of the mountains picks up tannins from the matt of tree roots and leaves that cling vicariously to the steep rocks without soil. The tannins darken the fresh water layer that sits on top of the salt water in the sound, this creates an environment just 10 metres deep that can support deep sea life like black coral and horse mussels, to check it out you visit the deep sea observatory, which is all totally floating, and walk down a spiral staircase to a viewing platform.

In the afternoon we took a hike through the rainforest...

tree ferns, so cool

From Milford, we drove up to Wanaka and spent two nights, it was rainy in the village, but snowing on the peaks. The best day of skiing yet, Treble Cone is fabulous, heaps of fresh snow and steep chutes, I think dad and I were in heaven- mom probably could have done without her trip down the blue square trail called "Cloud Nine", which would have been considered a black diamond in Vermont, but she made it down and found some great runs to finish off the day.

We were thinking of you Uncle Peter!

We all had a great time. Sadly Darrel will be going back to work tomorrow, but mom, dad and I will be heading up North to Wellington and New Plymouth tomorrow.

2008-07-29T08:53:00.002+12:00

Spent yesterday skiing/snowboarding at the Remarkables! It was great. Queenstown has been gorgeous. We have been staying at Darrel's friends apartment right downtown. Very fancy! Heading down to Milford today and the weather is fabulous. It is the rainiest part of this rainy country, but I think we are in luck. The only minor setbacks have been that I came down with a fluey/cold thing and dad lost his credit card for 24 hours. On the mend now!!! We will be coming back through Queenstown after we check out Fiordland. Mom might even take the opportunity to sky dive!

2008-07-26T22:07:00.003+12:00

Just a quick update... too tired to post photos... too much snow...

We went to Mt Hutt today, they got 90 cm of snow in 48 hours and couldn't open up until this morning, it was a mission to get to, but it was worth it. I even saw my new workmate in the parking lot that you stop at to put chains on your vehicle, we gave him a ride up the hill. Yes we have an All wheel drive vehicle, we had to put chains on, and we actually did really need them. The access road is a bit scary, I did the driving and by the time we got to the top I was all pumped up with adrenaline and ready to hit the slopes. The road has no guardrails and drops away on both sides at some points of the road. You just don't look down!

Tomorrow we head to Queenstown and then on to Milford Sound. Hopefully the weather is good for the trip.

Mom and dad have been here for over a week now, we have spent some time sightseeing around Christchurch, but I have also put them to work. Dad has been painting trim and Mom has been helping me make curtains, and of course I have not made it easy for her since all of my planning and measurements are in metric!!!! Regardless, the trim and the curtains look gorgeous!!!

Must get some sleep, long day driving and sightseeing tomorrow!! Will post pics when we get back!

-Josie