Remake/Remodel

I wanted to make morning tea for the team I'm leaving behind at work. I made them orange and sultana scones, and chocolate brownie. If you read the KitchenMaid blog, you'll see that her recipe is based on some legendary scones around town. I'd not heard of them until I read her post.

Then I had dinner with a bunch of gals, most of whom were locals to the cafes where these scones come from, and there was much murmuring around the table about their greatness. I don't like dates at all, though. I figured it'd be a dealbreaker.

Anyhoo, I ventured out on a walk that landed me in Lyall Bay a few days later. Sitting on the beach, watching the morning kick in, drinking a delicious coffee and feeling apprehensive about eating something with dates in. Here's a really silly photo of it:

Reader, I married that scone. Or near as dammit. Go get one. As soon as you can. I figure they must soak the dates, so they bake up like ribbons of date-tasting goodness, without that gritty texture that puts my teeth on edge.

Because, as nicely as my interpretation - I substituted stewed apple for an egg - of Lucy's version of these scones turned out, it wasn't anything like so splendid as what they're knocking out at Queen Sally's.

And the brownie?? I went vegan on it because we were out of eggs, and it needed a fully ripe banana, which suited very well.

In other news, it's Hallowe'en party time. I went to a little shindig after work last night, and snaffled a beautifully cut jack-o-lantern to take home. Sweeney and Harper loved it in their room with a tea light.

We took it to Bela's party this afternoon. It performed very well. Note special, festive horns.

 Then I took some photos of it in action, along with the special, festive horns. The tea light had extinguished, and the only other candle short enough was a bit of a whopper, so it's fairly blazing here ...

Then we went back downstairs and about three seconds passed before the smoke detector went off. As a result of all of this, Sweeney really likes Hallowe'en now. And he doesn't even know about trick or treating yet.

C is for Cookie

Sweeney's packed in a swag of preschool-grade goofing off into his last weekend as a four-year-old:

• ran and jumped and clambered with Bela;
• played something noisy and shouty and very, very active with Aariz;
• went to a climbing wall with Joe and Kimberley;
• helped me make sourdough, and fish and leek pie;
• took about three years to tidy his room. By which I mean, empty most of what was in his room into the hallway;
• watched Sesame Street and loved it;
• having watched Sesame Street, understood who Cookie Monster is and went nutty over a Cookie Monster storybook he's previously scorned;
• insisted on having his Cookie Monster stories read to him over and over and over;
• watched Ahhh!! Real Monsters and Angry Beavers, and clearly found them a big, fat yawn;
• ate roti and butter chicken at Aariz's house, kind of sort of almost in the manner that Aariz and his family eat it; and
• chatted, sang, danced, played the piano for a bit, made stuff up, did some drawing, co-operated, refused to co-operate, fed the cat, built things, hung up the towels.

You know, the usual ...

The Pancake Song

-remember all the good times we had together?

-what times?
-the time we had those pancakes?
-pancakes?

eggs, milk and flour, pancake power,

look at his milky yellow sunshine face

flip it now flip it good oo

flip it now flip it good oo

some are salt
some are sweet
some are fruit
some are meat

the time we used the chive

it really came alive!

edible frisbies
springtime tuesday

i like to boogie.

Yes, indeed. Thanks, Mighty Boosh, I can't put it any better than your Pancake Song. If there's been a theme to this weekend, it's probably something to do with the utter joy that comes from snorkelling up a pancake.

I was given some of that pancake stuff that you mix with water, and - what ho!! - actual pancakes emerge, for Mother's Day, but it's languished in the fridge. Until yesterday. Turns out it's rather good stuff.

So inspiring was that experience, that I delved into the bookshelf for a Nigella-endorsed version. Cue even bigger, fatter pancakes. We've eaten a swag of these babies ...

In other news, we went swimming with Bela yesterday, which was splendid fun, and we enjoyed an extended session of otters at the zoo with Blessing today. We took in an extended session of the hind quarters of a sleeping cheetah. Then we had an extended session at the park next to the zoo. Lovely.

In other, other news, I went to Ancestral on Friday night for a tiny bit and reacquainted myself with Dubonnet-based drinks. It's a lovely setting - the outside area is semi-enclosed, like at the Matterhorn, and the concrete seats on the perimeter are heated. Yes. Heated. As in, warm. Which is fab on a chilly night like Friday night was.

Keen to go back there to try out about a million other delicious-sounding drinks that I read about while slugging back my Candied Apple.

I Love the Dough

My friend Paul is a bit of a clever clogs when it comes to making bread. He gave me a sourdough starter of my own. Then he gave me another one when I killed that first one. And he didn't make a single unkind comment about my neglectful ways, or anything. He's that nice.

Dagnabbit if I don't learn a lesson every once in a while. I've not only kept it alive, but I've also actually produced a loaf from it. 

So, here's evidence of the live, active and fed starter ...

Add water, flour and give it a bit of welly ...

Pop the dough into an oiled bowl and leave to sit quietly for a few hours. Seven, in fact. Longer isn't worser ...

I can hardly remember how I got to this point. Actually, it was at this point that I realised I had to leave it to sit for another hour. Which was a shame, as I had to leave for work in thirty minutes. So it sat in this state for nine-and-a-half hours ...  

... but it didn't seem to do it any harm - there were air bubbles, and it was a nice loaf-shaped shape, which bodes rather well for bread, I think. So it went into a searing-hot dutch oven-type of arrangement, and emerged looking rather splendid, if I say so myself ...

... and got rather a good review ...

I'm regretting that I cut down the quantities because I thought that putting out three loaves all at once would be silly. I think I've got the timings straight now, so that I can get through the whole process in an evening, rather than the nearly 24 hours it took to get here.

So, thanks Paul!! Your instructions are excellent. Obviously, I'm not letting any of my sourdough near you until I've practiced a bit. Because I'm smitten with this whole business, now, you know ... 

In other news, Sweeney's school visits are done. The girls in the class boss him around about tidying up, the boys boss him around about how to play with things. His teacher seems the least bossy person on the scene, and, perversely, he takes total notice of her. He's crazy about reading - now that he's had a wee taste of it with his first couple of school books, he's mad for it anywhere. The manual for the new remote control is especially compelling right now.

(His) Favourite Things

What a mission this week was ...

• Sweeney's preschool was flooded out and stayed closed for three days;
• Sweeney's grandad spent three nights in hospital with severe bellyache;
• Sweeney popped into work with me for 11.4 minutes and provided us all with visual confirmation of what Running Rampant actually means. Also Gleeful Shrieking and Telling Your Mother's Boss Secret Things About Her;
• Consequently, the next day, Sweeney had a heap of quality-face-time with Joe and Harper;
• We said to goodbye to John from No.20. The quality of street gossip is never going to recover;
• Paths were swept and hosed;
• Frank from No.21 popped over for a visit;
• Rubbish was taken to the dump;
• Delicious stroganoff was concocted and snorkelled down with delicious noodles. Take that, you annoying quantity of crisper-dwelling mushrooms and half-cups of wine left over from Sunday night dinners ...;
• My hair kind of did what I wanted it to, most days;
• Which was just as well, because a photo of me ended up in the paper. Turns out that more important than the Important Social Message I was imparting was the fact that I have an actual age, and semi-Vulcan eyebrows;
• Lamb shanks as big as Sweeney's face, along with some awesome cauliflower curry and other stuff that didn't really match but still tasted amaaaaaazing, were served up for dinner with the W-Ds and M-Zs; and
• The sun shone, the birds sang, the wind blew in rather a pleasant way, there was some insanely lovely full moon action ...

Sweeney scored a boogie board at the Dump Shop today, and a Spiderman toy. At that point, I noticed that he was wearing his full Spiderman outfit, and had been all day. Top marks for eyes, Ange.

Harper and Kimberley came for dinner, and, out of nowhere, Sweeney gave Harper custody of Pooh.

Just like that. His favourite, favourite of All the Favourites since he was ten weeks old. We even prop him up with us to let him enjoy us reading Winnie the Pooh at night better. Sweeney uses him as a pillow, half the time. Last night, when we got home at the ungodly hour of 9:45pm, and he was about three feet beyond knackered, the look of relief on his face as I plopped him into bed and he buried his head into Pooh's soft fur was just magic.

Spiderman is the New Favourite. I know this because he's taken his boogie board to bed, and is lying asleep on it, using Spiderman as his pillow.
*Note that the boys kindly selected Bert for Kimberley to play with, so she could feel all included and stop giving her own child The Rabbit ...

Sometimes It Rains In April

See ya, April!! You were a pretty good month, not that I can remember terribly much in detail about you. Highlights include, but are not limited to:

• kicked off the month with a fab weekend with ladies;
• finished the month with two of those ladies, another one of my fave ladies, and their fine families;
• saw Sweeney's grandad off for a sojourn in hippie paradise;
• went to a party in an enormous, posh house in Khandallah. There was a pool table that kept Sweeney enthralled, and a table straining under the weight of its delicious drinks that kept me enthralled. And of course, the company ...;
• got through Easter with only one truly horrific sugar frenzy. I blame Sweeney's Uncle Ben and Grandad O'Neill;
• took a day off from the world;
• Sweeney had two sleepovers at Harper's. I spent one of them watching Poirot and knitting. The other I spent oozing in and out of consciousness on the couch, notably missing both the Royal Wedding and the party I was supposed to be at to watch it. I blame the fully-enjoyable-but-fast-getting-out-of-control drinks frenzy I went to first;
• encountered one of my more hilarious cousins and hung out with him and his ravishing wee girl. I particularly enjoyed how she got Sweeney's measure superfast - belting out his name whenever he removed himself from view, running everywhere with him;
• turned out a bread and butter pudding in the slow cooker. I come from a bloodline of strenuously delicious bread and butter puddings. It was my first bread and butter pudding. Next time, I'll be sure to add some flavour;
• watched (1) Exit Through the Gift Shop, (2) District 9 and (3) Baghead. (1) Loved it, (2) surprised myself by loving it, (3) surprised myself by hardly hating it at all;
• spent not nearly enough time with pals, swam, went to the beach, ran and ran and ran, built lego, read stories, constructed a stunt car ramp out of toilet rolls;
• made awesome dinners. Replaced some of them with baked beans, for my shorter, more philistine dinner companion's benefit; and
• made some real inroads with my yoga and my running. Then went backwards for a bit. Am resolved to go forward some more ...

Taking the Rest of the Day Off

Sweeney and I cut school and work today - a mixture of horrendous cough-sounds, torrential rain, freaky coldness and the delightful prospect of a day spent just cruising at home all combined to make that decision this morning.

• We made biscuits. They were delicious;
• We discussed what each half of an oval is called when you cut an oval in half;
• Sweeney learnt a tough lesson about what happens when you play with the pliers, even after you've been told to leave them alone, and you trap a bit of your palm in them when you close them;
• I made some pita bread for our lunch, and Kitchen's pork noodle soup for our dinner;

• We watched G Force. I learnt a tough lesson about pre-judging films about guinea pigs saving the world;
• Sweeney played with his new favourite Hot Wheel for what seemed like hours. I bought it for him last night to celebrate his fabulous helpfulness and co-operativeness of the last few days;
• We discussed Batman's awesome powers vs Superman's awesome powers. It all leads me to think that Sweeney really doesn't know anything about Superman's awesome powers and I must remedy that immediately;
• I safety pinned a tea towel around his neck, and he ran the length of the house and back several times shouting "Batman!!";
• We read the next chapter of Winnie the Pooh - the one about the Woozle. We've been reading a chapter a night this week;
• I read some of my book and watched an episode of Marple while Sweeney stared out the window at the rain. He insisted he wasn't sleepy, despite lying on the sunroom couch under a blanket without moving for ninety minutes;
• We discussed how handy your fingers come in when you want to add four and five; and
• KimberleyJoeHarper came for dinner. We ate pork noodle soup. It was pretty tasty.

Best day off ever.

Hot 'n' Cold

Cold:

• Sweeney not having nearly enough sleep last night, refusing to eat his breakfast, not listening to what I say yada yada yada all day;
• me not being in the mood for patience with any of that stuff today;
• finding that Hataitai's fabulous fish and chip shop has burnt down;
• finding that Newtown's fabulous fish and chip shop doesn't open on Sundays;
• forgetting my gluten free-ness when Maria brought around her mum's apple slice at work the other day;
• my dad breaking up a catfight in the sunroom and getting bitten and ending up in hospital for a night; and
• finding that those packages of salad leaves don't actually last until the Best By date. Ick.

Hot:

• the weather. Just the right hotness for an Ange;
• Supergroove and Crowded House at Alana Estate yesterday, with Bela and Liisa;
• Liisa for spiriting up the tickets for Supergroove and Crowded House at Alana Estate yesterday;
• Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, from Kitchen, using the mountain of garlic donated by the neighbours. Although no-one else liked it. So I ate everyone's;
• harvesting three tomatoes from the garden this week;
• Monday night class at yoga;
• having dinner with the O'Neills for Grandad O'Neill's birthday;
• seeing our friend Jackson at his birthday party today - Happy birthday, Jackson!!;
• catching up with KimberleyJoeHarper after their holiday;
• remembering my gluten free-ness every morning and eating rice porridge for breakfast; and
• finally washing the kitchen floor today. The mice left me a note complaining that it was too filthy by half ...

Pizza Pie

Check out Sweeney and Blessing giving their lunch two thumbs up today. Albeit in a non-committal kind of way. Actually, more of a could've-done-without-it kind of way. What's with them??

It's a crustless pizza, from Kitchen. I think it's delicious, and it's easy, and it was ready within 45 minutes of me cracking the first egg. Three thumbs up, in my book.

I doubled the quantity, used some delicious ham I found in the fridge, instead of chorizo, and bunged it all into a flan dish. It lends itself to accommodating all manner of vege as well.

The leftovers are in the fridge, and they're calling me for a scoff right now, rather than waiting to schlep them to work for tomorrow's lunch .

In other news, I'm going gluten free for two weeks, as a little experiment. Firstly, to see if I can stick to it. Secondly, to see if it makes any kind of difference to my body. Thirdly, because I was dairy-free for ages, years ago, and the ice cream I ate at the end of that phase of my life was the best thing I've ever eaten. I'll never forget that ice cream. After two weeks, I expect a piece of Vogel's to blow my head off.

They Say It's Your Birthday (Next Week)

Sunday morning. Woke up, got up, made coffee and toast, shlepped around the kitchen and garden for a bit. Watched a Psychedelic Furs video from about a million years ago. 

Mixed this up and bunged it in the oven. It turned out brown. Just right for a chocolate cake. After breakfast, Sweeney helped me knock out some ninjabread men from this healthsome recipe. They turned out brown, too. Just right for baked assassins.

Why the baking hubbub?? Harper's birthday party was on, that's why. He's three any day now.

 

Here's the star of the day, looking rather splendid in his new t-shirt. Note the entirely adequate cake in the foreground ...

You're a rather lovely chap, Harper, and I'm chuffed to know you. I love the way you call me "auntyange", and how you call Sweeney "Seeney".

I love that you and Sweeney can't get enough of each other, yet you're happy enough, each of you, when the other is gone. You're so similar and so different. You're lucky boys, to have each other.

And here are two beautiful, fine women who breached the perimeter yesterday. Bela, who we've known forever, and Coco-Inez, who we've only just met.
Anyhoo, Happy-Birthday-for-Saturday, Harpoon!!

She's In Parties

First up, Happy Birthday to my mum, Sweeney's Nana!! And to the several hundred other members of our extended family who share her birthday with her. It's the same day as Al Capone's birthday, but that's another story ...

Kimberley, the lads and myself went down to see her for a few days this week. The garden looks great - lots of fuschias for the boys to pop, red dahlias for me to covet, and a vege garden that manages to be functional and pretty.

We had lunch at the Curator's House, in the Botanic Gardens. There's a beautiful kitchen garden there, and the bees were keeping busy in amongst it all. Sweeney even picked up his first ever bee sting, which earned him a tea towel filled with ice cubes and full attention from The Italian - one of the waiters - for a bit.

I made a devil's food cake from Kitchen - yes, I travel with it - which was pretty flaming splendid, if I say so myself. Two chocolate sponges, layered with icing made of butter, sugar and a cake of dark chocolate. Then the whole external mass slathered with more of that same icing. The boys carefully positioned chocolate buttons on the dark surface, we plonked on some candles, and we were away.

It was rich enough that none of us ate much. There was a round on the birthday itself, then morning tea the next day, a slab was packed up for some neighbours, and there was still enough to seriously dent anyone's resolve to calorie count. Look at it, it took three people to cut the thing ...

Monster

Things I didn't know this time last week:

• Sweeney likes coleslaw;


• I can feel more tired than I did at the end of last year;


• Sweeney is mysteriously familiar with KFC and its range of products;


• You should lightly oil the pan that you're baking your pie in;


• Eta lite mayonnaise is actually rather acceptable.

Okay, it's not much of a list. It's been a slow week. Or maybe I've forgotten a bunch of stuff I picked up on along the way.

I've identified the main culprits of food that just sits forever in the kitchen and goes nowhere until rubbish day. The ones at the top of the list right now are the jar of wholegrain oats that were deemed unpalatable as porridge, and the last four bananas. Every week, it's four bananas that defy No Food Left Behind. I caught on that you can freeze them, and I do that, but I'm old school enough that it still gives me the greatest pleasure to use them straight from the bowl on the bench.

Yesterday, the planets aligned and I turned out a batch of banana-oat biscuits. The name says it all, really. I chopped up some almonds and threw them in with some raisins and they turned out okay. The recipe calls for 2tsp of sugar, but I didn't put any in. I reckon next time I make them, which will be tonight, I'll put in more banana. We've got some gosh-darned ripe ones here that could do with being converted into something more appetising.

In other news, I picked this up for Sweeney for Christmas. Mo Willems is just lovely. Sweeney's got some others of his, and Harper has, too. The ideas in Leonardo the Terrible Monster are really quite big and hard for little, little kids, but Sweeney's getting the hang of more difficult/complex feelings and behaviours now. That sounds deep, doesn't it, but what I mean is that there are decisions to be made about how you act towards people, you can choose to be at odds with the world, or you can enjoy being in amongst it.

You can be mean or you can be kind. You can be grumpy or you can be chirpy.

At least, that's how I read it.

Take A Picture

I see from a quick look at other people's blogs this evening, that there's a bit of summing up of Awesome Craft Behaviour from 2010. I'm not doing that. It'd be showing the same knitting pattern made repeatedly, sometimes not even in different wool, and even I, with my high threshold for boredom, recognise that that's not so interesting. And I just can't quite get the hang of how to make my photos into a nifty mosaic yet.
But that's another story ...

Sweeney and I celebrated last day of hols by going up to Waikanae Beach and hanging out with the neighbours for the afternoon. Our little boys helped some bigger boys to build a dam, then we mucked around in the waves. That was splendid, but Sweeney was a little iffy on it. So we headed to the park, and the boys swung on a big rope swing.

I didn't take any photos.

Then delicious nachos in the sun, and off home to tell each other what our favourite bits of the day were. Sweeney's were the ice cream sandwich and the dam. Mine were the ice cream sandwich and when it turned out that he didn't actually have bluebottle stings on his legs.

Well, we were back at school and work this morning. A little bit shellshocked (me), a little bit overwhelmed (Sweeney). And a little bit SWIPED (Sweeney's scooter, left at preschool from Christmas Eve, and now disparu ...). That was disappointing.

I was disappointed in myself to find that I don't have any photos of Sweeney on his scooter. He's had a lot of good scootering on that scooter, even if he never really believed in the power of its brake. So, here's a picture of me when I was two (I think), with my favourite toy at the time. I think that was the last time I really rocked an above-the-knee hemline. I still love a good maryjane shoe, though.

Aww, bless.

But I digress from what I actually set out to blog about. I meant to trumpet to the world how much I'm loving my Kitchen book. I've made something from it most days since Christmas, with the following highlights:

- chocolate banana muffins to take out to Auntie Thelma with the boys and their Nana;

- ham and broad bean salad, using Kimberley's Christmas ham and broad beans grown at our house, and Craig and Dorothy's down the road;

- blondies - a white version of the brownie, to take to Waikanae Beach. Seventeen forms of sugar can't be wrong ...;

- ham and leek pie - leeks cooked off in cider, then added to a white sauce with ham, mushrooms and more cider in it. Best accompanied by cider, and some amazing little purple potatoes from Craig and Dorothy's garden down the road. Then, when you're doing the washing up, have another cider; and

- toad in the hole. Yes. Toad. In. The. Hole. Actually, this really came into its own when the leftovers were fried off in bacon fat when we were camping. Haaaaaaapppy New Year, indeed ...

No, I don't have any photos of those, either. My challenge for myself is to find my camera, and empty the fridge and cupboards using this book. The mantra for 2011 is "no food left behind!!" ... or maybe something equally Lawrence of Arabia-ish, but less crazy-sounding.

How Sweet It Is

I've been busy. Bizz-ay. Sorry for not being in touch.

Here's something delicious that came out of the garden. Well, I think it's delicious, and so did Sweeney once he engaged with it. Broccoli, you are the shizz ...

I also harvested what turned out to be 50grams of broad beans, gave them a wee boil, then fried them off with some bacon for a minute or so. River Cottage book called for chorizo, but there's none in the fridge right now. Turned out delish, as it happens. Turns out I like broad beans.

Here are Sweeney and Harper experiencing the shizz that is sparklers. Guy Fawkes night was a minor triumph. We got all our cracker action done before the southerly proper rounded on Wellington, and we got to take in the show in the harbour on our way back into town. I thought the chap in the car in front of me was sent from Hades to drive me insane with his slow driving, but no, he was part of a long, 30kph convoy on the motorway, doing us the lovely favour of letting us take in the show without crashing the car.

In other news, I'm going on holiday on Monday. I'm packing the car with Sweeney and Harper, and we're heading down to spend oodles of time - two weeks - with their Nana. A road trip with two fine-looking young men with all their own teeth. Every crone's dream ...

But in the meantime, I've got about three years of work to do before we head off, and there's a million things to do around the house this weekend. So tonight Kimberley and I went to see The Social Network. Turns out we were wearing matching outfits, sort of. The film was very fine. Go see it now. Even the music is great. And no-one does cold, blue cinematography like David Fincher.

And it was our dad, Sweeney and Harper's Grandad's birthday yesterday. In honour of the great event, Sweeney gave him a card with Lightning McQueen on the front and the sound of racing cars when you open it. That card is so much the shizz ...

Tonight I made lasagne from the Edmonds Cookbook. I think the last time I made it was in 1985, and my friend Lee and I made it together from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook that she had. It seemed complicated, which is why we made it together.

Tomato-mincey goodness, cheesey cheese sauce, pasta. What could be better?? I thought if I added in some broccoli and mushrooms, that'd make it better. Sweeney disagrees. He's taken a dislike to the mushrooms he sees in his food. The ones he doesn't see slip down just fine.

In other news, it's been a busy weekend. Today Sweeney went for a jaunt with Regan and Susan today. Sounds like they did a bunch of things, including some time at Te Papa, and encounters with Regan and Susan's cat.

Then he and I headed up to Helen's to wish her some Happy Birthday tidings. Sitting around with a bunch of fab gals and a table of cakes. Sweeney played trains and drove the older kids a bit mad with being only four years old. They're such great kids and put up with a lot from him.

And I found this blog. I'm thinking some comfort reading is right up my alley right now. I finished Everything is Illuminated a few nights ago, and am ploughing through Butterfield 8 right now. It's tremendously uncomfortable reading, to be honest, and I'm tired and just want nice things to read now. So next up is Julie & Julia. Food and fluff. Ace.

Oooh!! And I got to check out our second-newest neighbour today. Wee Lily's three weeks old and looking gorgeous. Her mum and dad are knackered. Lily sleeps most of the day, then parties all night. She looks good on it, though.

And the newest neighbour?? Strangely enough, another addition to the street popped into the world a week after Lily. I haven't caught up with her yet. Knitting up a storm's worth of little boots in the meantime ...

Om(mmmm)a Rapeti

I've been getting a lot out of yoga classes over the last month. I'm especially trying to make the most of the relaxation stuff at the beginning and end of each class, but I meet with varying success. The meandering thoughts are one thing, but today I couldn't even keep physically still. Here's how it went:

Teacher: "Focus on the breath. See where the breath takes you."

My mind: "Man, I'm loving marmalade right now. Funny how you go off things for a bit, then rediscover them and ... oh, breathing. Brea.thing. Oooh, breathing feels nice. I can sooo take longer to exhale than that person next to me. No, no, no, that's not why you're here, is it? It's all about ... no, it's just not about competition. But still, heh, what an amateur she is. I am soooo excellent at exhalation."

Teacher, who has clearly been issuing instructions to the class for some time: " .... and that's the pivotal part of the body, so concentrate, focus everything on this part of the body ..."

My mind: "What the?? What part of the body?? Good grief. Oh well, no-one can see that I have no clue as to what the most important part of my body is. I'll just keep breathing. Breeeeeeathingggggg. Did I put the washing on before I came out?? Did I check Sweeney's bag for dirty clothes?? Oh, back to breathing. Breathing."

Okay, it's not as bad as the day I dropped off during the relaxation and awoke to find people doing actual moves. I love yoga so.

The picture above comes from this blog. I've been reading it this week - genius.

In other news, I made delicious spuds to go with our dinner tonight. Lemons and anchovies, vege stock. Awesome. One day I'm going to go the whole hog and do a vast fish to go with them, as the recipe says. Tonight, we found them enormously satisfactory with steak and salad.

And then I happened to be in the car when Peter Fry's show came on National Radio. He played an absolutely charming 1939 recording of Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen singing Run Rabbit. I went home the long way, so I could hear it all the way through. Gorgeous.

What's Going On

In no particular order, here are some highlights of the past week around here ...

• Blessing and Michael's last day at preschool. Here's Sweeney and Blessing doing what they do best - playing at being wild cats and being a little bit unruly ...
• KimberleyJoeHarper moved into their new house. It's got a basement and offstreet parking. For two cars. Also there appears to be a kitchen and bathroom, and some bedrooms, I didn't really notice. But really - two cars!! Anyway, here are Kimberley and Joe, sitting on their very own patio. Check out the bright sunlight, and the window that actually opens ...

• As a result, Harper stayed the weekend with us while his parents got things organised. He was somewhat delightful. Here he is, posing calmly for a photo with his cousin at his new house ...

• I planted out some beetroot and leek seedlings, as well as a sage plant. I love sage. It tastes good with chicken and pumpkin and all sorts of things. I'm rather enjoying the vege garden these days. Arranging my working life so that I actually get to see the garden most evenings has made a big impact.
• Craft has fallen by the way this week. Been reading my book. Yes, reading an actual book. Reading an actually terrible book, actually. Rebecca, the Daphne du Maurier classic. Classic pants, it turns out.

I saw the Laurence Olivier film years ago, and I figured it was just an overwrought film version. But no, the source material is also overwrought and frankly, terrible. I kept reading it because it's a lovely old Penguin edition and I just couldn't quite bring myself to believe that it was as bad as it was seeming to be. Yes, I know that makes no sense. Whatever, I read it and I feel dirty inside about it. So, to make myself feel better, here's a picture of Laurence Olivier, looking good and foxy.

• Sweeney's loving Pinocchio this week, and the dvd Fantastic Mr Fox. I'm looking forward to him being able to read the story for himself when he's older. He's been able to identify letters for a while now, just getting his head around sounding letters out and putting them together.
• In other news, I bought some truly vile chorizo sausage last week. These were something else. Indeed, they were something entirely else from any other chorizo I've ever eaten. They taste ok, chopped up little in macaroni cheese, though.
• Signing off to watch my new favourite thing on the telly - Generation Kill. Surprises me as much as anyone else who's surprised, that I'd fall in love with a show about a bunch of idiots in a stupid and illegal war. But I have ...

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Top Fab Fave Five

Top five for this week:

1. Top escape attempt. I can't even see where his tiny little fingers could go to haul himself up this wall, but he found a way. Then shimmied down on his bottom. And repeat. Honestly, the photo makes the wall look shorter and less freaky than it really is ...
2. Top hosiery. I rather fancy myself in these, don't you know ... You can't see the purple houndstooth action properly. I think you can see that my shoes need polishing, though. Just look away ...

3. Top meaty goodness. This week's stewy fiesta from Hugh F-W involves a lot of rubbishy chops, fried off for a little, then simmered in stock, lemon juice and thyme. I used commercial stock and I think that's really what informs the resulting flavour more than anything. Next time I'll use much more juice and thyme, and fry off some onions with the chops at the start. But it's still flipping delish!!

4. Top outing with Sweeney. Girded my loins - is that the term?? - and took Sweeney for a jaunt on his scooter to the Sunday market at Waitangi Park. He was so great about traffic, other people on the foothpath, stopping when he was supposed to. So chuffed. And then he was mostly co-operative about following instructions when we got there. Okay, we wouldn't have fruit this week if Kimberley hadn't arrived and taken over wrangling him for a bit, but details, shmetails ...

5. Top 3.5 hours I had all to myself to do whatever I wanted to, while Sweeney was at Harper's and I wasn't at work. Sunday afternoon. I did some washing, cooked a few meals for the week, tidied the deck, knitted a little and watched a bit of afternoon telly with no-one campaigning for the 10 millionth playing of Cars instead. Blissful. Thanks, KimberleyJoe Harper!!

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Fab Five

Fave Five for this weeks are ...

1. Best parcel - Nana's parcel for her Precious Boys, crammed with chocolate treats, and best of all, a torch each!! Sweeney fell asleep last night with his torch still on, snuggled under his armpit. There was a sweet little glow when I went in to check on him before I turned in. Thanks, Nana!! ;

2. Best Dinner - from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's newish book, a chicken casserole. The recipe calls for cider, but I used fizzy wine and it turned out ... awesome. I'm totally in love with this book. Hugh is now the new Nigella in my life. Sorry, Nigella ... ;

3. Best Dinner Guests - Sweeney's Grandad O'Neill and Uncle Ben came over for dinner. We had chicken casserole - see above. Sweeney ate an outrageous amount of broccoli. That's how much he wanted to get to the chocolate payoff at the end of dinner, I guess. I so love Easter;

4. Best Park - Karori Park, at the end of Karori Road, in Karori. You want me to go into my theory of Parks and how they're pitched at different types and ages of kids and whatnot?? You do?? Really?? Well, that's a whole other post. Whatever age your child or dog is, or you are, you should check out Karori Park, at the end of Karori Road, in Karori;

5. Best Fence Removal - Joe, Dad, Denis, Geoff and apparently strangers passing in the street pitched in and removed the rotting fence that divides our property from Geoff's. Brushes with tetanus, spider attack and hernia explosion were narrowly avoided. Sweeney and Harper supervised.

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Big Hair Gets You Closer to God

I didn't make it up. Read this.

In other news, this is what we had for dinner tonight. Photo by Sweeney.

Here's a ripping yarn I found for Sweeney today, plus his artwork from preschool. He made that picture especially for me. That's a first. Photo by me.

And this is what I look like tonight. Photo by Sweeney.