Letters from Wetville

So very soon I start my new job, a job which I anticipate is going to involve 60 hour weeks with startling regularity. Beforehand, I'm all about the kind of nesting which prepares us for the long hours of me away by making food which cannot be bought, and planting food which cannot be bought at the same quality and freshness.  Last night I made another batch of muesli and put a chicken on the slow cooker to make stock.  This morning I made eggy courgette muffins from The Edible Journey Cookbook and then strained the stock and chopped up the chicken meat.  The kids and I did errands in town and then bought punnets of silverbeet and cavolo nero seedlings.  While Brighid danced, I took bags of things we have grown out of to A, the very wonderful leader of our local Tongan community.  After our town lost a mother and teenage son in a car accident before Christmas, my eyes were opened to need I had been far too oblivious to beforehand.  I weeded and water...

Useful skills or knowledge from the past few years, in action today: 1.  sewing presents.  Brighid went to two sixth birthday parties today, and each little girl got a pink knit circle skirt which I made last night and this morning. 2.  more sewing.  I altered the waistband of one skirt this morning, and am part way through altering another now.  Inwards not outwards. 3.  gardening with compost.  The tumble composter we bought two years ago is made of plastic, which turns out not to be strong enough for the job when the compost is heavily wet in the West Coast spring.  It refused to rotate for me this week.  I emptied some of it out onto the garden today.  Favourite Handyman cleared the chook coop out and put fresh wood shavings in it.  I made two spots in the garden for piling up the wood shavings/chook poo mixture and put a big dollop of compost/worms in it to get it going.  I'm thinking about how to disassemble the compos...

To the people who want all foods made from scratch and like great grandma would have eaten (shame if Great Grandma was poor and had to make do on awful food, huh?) and have as their third hobby to find a new food travesty to uncover or read about every fortnight, I want to say... It's not all KFC and health disaster if I reach for the pre-prepared curry mix.  I may not be at home to make everything from scratch and nothing was certified organic, but we're rocking along in good food land nevertheless.  Detailed breakdown: 1. Before bed, Monday night : pull frozen chicken pieces out of large bag of chicken pieces which was on special two months ago and put in slow cooker to thaw (slow cooker off). 2. Tuesday morning, 6.15am: spoon chicken stock and fat left over from last roast chicken over the pieces.  Spread spoonfuls of shop-bought red curry paste over chicken pieces.  Scrub and slice potatoes, peel and chop garlic and shallots and carrots, peel and finely chop...

You know when people say "I don't know how you do it?"  Whether it's having a child at all, or having more children, or studying while working, or working and parenting, or living on a very tight budget or [insert your permutation]....? I haven't always chosen to share the first thought that used to come into my mind, which was "I simply don't do housework."  Sometimes my children wanted to play with the children of the speaker, and I didn't want to scare everyone off. Anyways, I made the decision to pay for two hours cleaning each week this year and it has been brilliant.  I almost never mention it in conversations though - some sense that it isn't quite the thing to mention.  But now that we have that support from the wonderful H each week, I realise that of all the women I've wondered "how does she do it?" at work, they probably all have a cleaner, and nearly all keep silent, just like me.  Over the years, I have gotten b...

One head of garlic planted.  Not all of this year's garlic bed is ready for planting - some of my buried bokashi hasn't broken down completely.  Though the many and large worms are testament to the goodness of the bokashi. Hopefully the rest will be ready later this month. One only slightly forlorn gooseberry bush found in the sad and cheap section at the far end of Mitre 10 and planted.  I've had no success with my first gooseberry bush, but gooseberries taste so good and are rarely available outside of home gardens, so it's worth persisting. Six celery plants and six soldier poppy plants planted.  I helped the celery along with some sheep dag and wool mix I found in the shed.  The soldier/ANZAC poppies should be flowering for Lou's birthday in October.  Lou was a Prisoner of War in WW2 and a very wonderful man and we like to particularly honour him on ANZAC day and his birthday. Two full bins of bokashi buried, and much weeding done beforehand....

It's a kitchen post!  Not had one of those in a long time... Blueberry kefir smoothie Whizz together: milk kefir  blueberries (mine are from frozen) chia seeds chocolate Drink.  I'm drinking it every night. I'm still reading about copper, and haemochromatosis, and zinc absorption and how it all fits together.  So much to learn, but it's worth it.  Every time I've had a major illness, it's turned out to be linked to immune function, and I've learnt a lot as I regain control over my life and health.  Copper is my current biggest learning curve.

It's easy to forget other lives.  Even my own.  I can rationally recall life in Auckland when I had no kids.  But I can't really understand how I was so busy.  I only had myself to look after, for goodness sake! It's not that long ago that I did less paid work and spent far more time at home.  I can't really remember it properly, though I remember I was busy and tired a lot.  But this week some of it is coming back to me.  Fionn has asthma and I found myself making a steam bath at 4.15am on Monday morning, just so he could breath well enough to sleep.  I rang work at 7.30, drove in to make arrangements for the work someone else would have to take over and then came home and was more tired and had less energy than Mr Asthma Man.  Out.  Of.  Practice.  Today he was actually worse, but I was better.  He came to work with me for a chunk of this morning, and then went to our lovely childminder after school so I could do a wor...

Things I've been doing: Good : fantastic actually.  I had a weekend in Nelson with three wonderful friends and got back yesterday.  Being a tourist in Nelson is fun. Good: Morelands Fabrics in Nelson had 50% off all of their fabric last weekend.  Pictures to follow - I did well. Bad: crap really.  Heart palpitations/racing heart/breathlessness/scary irritability.  Then worse: the medical people, who I saw as soon as I got back after my weekend away, decided it was all in my head.  Stress, apparently.  I've had the cruisiest holiday since I became a parent this summer (I've been a parent for 10 years).  So there is more to be done on that score, as I would seriously like to get rid of these symptoms.  They are not as bad as a few days ago, but they are still there.  Progress: getting ready for going back to work.  I've put the word out that I'm looking for a cleaner.  I took three bags of rubbish to the dump, a yoghurt ...

This year I put blue irises in the punga raised bed, and now that they are out, I love the look of them against the red fence. Back in the term time groove, I think I'm doing okay on the extra-curricular front, an aspect of parenting which I try to support, but frequently do so only with poor grace.  Yesterday both kids went to kung fu with FH, and today we started back on swimming lessons.  Ballet is going okay now I can leave Brighid there and not get told off for talking to other parents during the lesson.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a trial run at cubs.  There were tears at the dinner table tonight.  Fionn's best buddy moves to Auckland at the end of the school year.  I felt for my boy, and didn't say out loud that there might be several more.  Spring Creek indirectly paid a lot of school fees where my children go to school. I need inspiration for meal planning.  I used to be better than I currently am.  I think this is for two re...

Prudent and sensible lost. The mechanic's bill arrived and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared and I went ahead and booked a weekend in a rainforest.  I like being married.  It means I get to organise birthday presents which involve great pleasure for myself. I still want to write like Deborah Challinor.  I lay awake at night plotting a West Coast historical drama, one with a strong and likeable female protagonist whose main aspect is not sexual gorgeousness.  I feel like I'm swimming upstream a bit on this, even just thinking about it.  Last time I wrote more than five pages, I was in Santa Marina de Valdeon, a tiny hamlet in the Picos de Europa in Spain.  My obsession at the time was the marriage of my Irish great great grandparents in Canterbury in 1880.  They lived in two quite separate parts of Canterbury, one in Lincoln and the other in Chertsey (which is near Ashburton).  I was sure that the travelling Catholic priest had arranged their meet...

Turmeric.  It relieves inflammation and it chelates iron and there are plenty of high quality scientific studies showing this.  As a magical substance, it sure beats rain dancing, and is more useful.  This afternoon I was in whipping up a storm in the kitchen in preparation for term time (storms in my kitchen often look more like mess than completed food items).  I'd made some chocolate brownie and was contemplating pumpkin muffins.  Then it occurred to me that I could slip some turmeric in.  This, with approximate measures for the spices as I simply tipped them from the packet, is what I made: 2 C self raising flour 3/4 C sugar 75g butter, melted 3/4 C milk 1 egg 3 small-medium pieces of roast pumpkin (which I didn't think to weigh) 1 Tablespoon cream cheese 1 teaspoon each of powdered ginger, cumin, turmeric & cinnamon black pepper Mix flour, spices and sugar into a bowl.  Melt butter.  Beat egg.  Mix egg, butter and milk....

When everyone is home and it is term time, I crave silence in the evenings.  I've been immersed in noise all day.  Having no television suits me fine as in the evening I prefer to read, sew, knit or read or write online.  Tonight, after a quiet day to myself, I have a different set up.  I have set FH's computer up to stream Radio Four live while I knit/read/write online.  Just fifteen more minutes to Womans Hour. Today: 1. I thought I would sew all through these solo days, but it turns out I want to read and think. 2. I went to see Laksmi, my treasured complementary therapist.  She did some visceral manipulation work while we talked at length about haemochromatosis, food, symptoms and next steps.  She strongly encouraged me to be more assertive with my doctor. 3. Inspired by Laksmi's pep talk, I made another attempt to get an appointment with a locum who FH recommended.  Wonder of all magical wonders, I got an appointment today.  TODAY...

Today was the birthday party for the youngest of Brighid's wee friends from our coffee group.  Despite the rain, we all had a great time.  I spent no less than seven hours at work this weekend, and wondered how on earth I would work full time and ever see my family.  Food things: 1. Fast food chicken cooked slowly: bung one whole chicken in the slow cooker with a tablespoon of red Thai curry paste and a tin of coconut cream and some pieces of pumpkin (no need to peel them).  Cook all day.  Eat with boiled frozen peas. 2. I made vegetable and meat bones soup for dinner.  The mere addition of pearl barley and split yellow peas makes me feel all the hearty economical country cooker.  When my Mum did this, she did it properly.  She didn't squander the food budget on drinking red wine while she cooked.  The sun is supposed to shine on Wetville on Tuesday.  On Tuesday I plan to plant my garlic for the year.  If the ballet teacher wo...

The girl is out of sicky danger zone. She is eating and laughing and I'm sure she will come back to full strength tomorrow. While she was ill, we cancelled swimming lessons, ballet rehearsal and martial arts. Not just for her but for everybody. Fionn walked home from school instead of me collecting them both and the zen was wonderful. Today, as Brighid started to eat, I could concentrate on her health, popping aloe vera, vitamin C, probiotics and cod liver oil down her throat. This afternoon she was up for some sunshine and helped me plant daffodils and pansies. She lay on the trampoline soaking up the sun while I went on to sow rocket and violas and plant freesias, perpetual spinach and red poppies. I wore my navy crossover top today. It is lovely and soft to wear. I've been reading up a little and examining the pattern (Simplicity 1945) some more and I see where I made some of my mistakes. Those mistakes led to wonkiness and a strange unflattering cosiness down the bo...

Last night we went to a beautiful hangi at our children's school. The food, the weather and the lovely combination of lots and lots of families who are part of our school community was very special. Today I dealt with the lovely bag of tomatoes my visiting aunty left for me earlier this week. I roasted them all like the first picture below. The I froze some of the roast tomato and red onion mixture and turned the rest into home made pizza, which the kids have been asking for for weeks. Brighid ate nothing because she has broken her excellent record of not being sick all term by coming down with multiple tummy complaints today. Still, it has meant I had a sleep this afternoon laying with her and I've been reading The Weissmans of Westport while keeping her company. I got a little weeding done when she put herself to sleep on the floor of her bedroom. And I'm planning a road trip with my sister. Very exciting - we've never done such a thing before. We're taki...

We are now the proud owners of a small chest freezer, about one third of the size of the massive chest freezer my parents have. When I was a child they had two massive chest freezers. My new freezing machine comes from Mary K, who no longer needs it now she is living in a rest home. Perhaps this new capacity for frozen goods will transform my life and grant me unforeseen efficiencies in the kitchen. Right now I'm mighty pleased if I can cobble dinner together of a late afternoon, let alone cooking in advance and freezing goodly sized amounts. I have bought some pastry and extra bread and butter and put in the basket. Don't talk to me about trans fats and bought pastry. I wear my blinkers for my own mental safety. I also have a box of daffodil bulbs that I dug from Mary K's front garden/lawn. These bulbs are over sixty years old and come from the garden of Mary's late in laws. I'm looking forward to dividing and growing them on in Wetville soil and enjoying ...

Once upon a time I was really very interested in the slow movement. Slow food, sustainable practises to look after the earth, smelling the roses, child-led home learning, walking instead of driving, cloth nappies and food cooked from scratch. I stopped short of a few fascinating innovations like hayboxes, but I was all for it. As I dug up lawn to turn it into vege garden, washed cloth nappies and tried out home made cleaners, I assumed that I (and my household) was moving in a forward, progressive, somewhat linear fashion towards a slower and greener life. But in the midst of these things I enjoyed pursuing, I liked my job. The one I had before Fionn and in between Fionn and Brighid. The one I chose to go back to very part time when Brighid was a year old and the one I am doing more of this year. The one I still like. Which has something to do with the shift in the way we live. Today's finest achievement: 2.35pm: leave work and head to supermarket. See free range chicken pr...

The blue cardigan is done. Notice how in the photograph the light is bad, the cardigan looks green and the background appears to be a slovenly mess of unmade bed? The only part which is an illusion is that the cardigan is blue in real life. I read and adore some truly gorgeous blogs where people wait days and even weeks to get good light and someone to take good photographs of them modelling their creations. This is not a gorgeous blog; it is the blog of impatient woman who is learning to sew. Anyways, I am quite pleased with the cardigan. There is a little bit of puckering but I figure it is only by sewing more that I will get any better at that bit. I actually still sew quite wonky seams and I may never ever sew contrasting thread topstitching. But a little wonky puckeringness is way better than cardies which stop half way over my bosom, which is the only kind shops sell. I do like how the sleeves aren't too long as well. Will I make it again? Maybe. Possibly in a sligh...

Nigella Lawson's "Failsafe Chocolate Cake" wasn't entirely safe from failing in my hands. The children and I have opted to return to our trusted Danish chocolate brownie recipe for the actual birthday party cake on Tuesday. As you can see from the photo, the result was almost obscene. After making a chocolate cake flop this afternoon, we went swimming, taking Brighid for her first ever go on the hydroslide, and then on to the park to have fish and chips and play on the playground with our friends. I gave the girls their matching blue twirling skirts which they expressed great enthusiasm for. The weather has gone cold and wet again which effectively stopped me from beginning a fanciful summer dress out of curtains and redirected me to making a winter skirt from the same Simplicity 2451 pattern which I made last week and have decided I like. I need to buy a zip for it tomorrow and it should be finished and ready for photographing, in a couple of days, or a bit more ...

In which the sun mostly shines, so often I am even watering the garden, and I haven't had to make a school lunch for weeks . It's definitely a happy life. Leeks taste quite good, but left alone, they are beautiful gone to seed. Behind the seed head, that is not fancy solar panels on the house roof. Rather, it is where the finish on the coloursteel roof has worn off. Which is why tonight Favourite Handyman and Fionn assembled this: In honour of all this roof painting and window painting and the general observation that FH is working very hard, I made myself clean and tidy quite a bit of the house today. I also played nurse to Brighid who has a minor lurgy and planted more basil and made some pesto. This year's basil harvest is my best yet, possibly making up for the dismal state of the tomatoes. I know the diy gurus all seem to freeze basil for the rest of the year, but I find it too yummy to have any left to save. Yesterday I started making a skirt: I thought it woul...