Saturday 31 December 2011

Old Year's Eve 2011

This is going to be a short post.  I have been cooking up a storm of salads to see me through the next few days.

I developed an interest in Bulgar wheat, so corrupted a really nice recipe for Tabouleh Salad.  I will include the basic recipe that I used on the recipes page.  I added some dried apricots, raisins and a little honey.  It is now languishing in the fridge to get nice and cold.  Tomorrow I will add the tomatoes, cucumber and add some salad corn.  What makes it especially nice is that the spring onion and parsley came out of the garden, and the tomatoes that I add tomorrow will also be from the garden.  Very satisfying indeed...

Then I bought some fresh beetroot, which I have cooked up and is cooling before skinning and cutting up.  I plan to serve this with tinnned mandarin slices, baby spinach, feta, and some yummy dressing.  Now that I think about it, some pine nuts might be good.  

So no piccies today.  Just warm wishes to everyone who reads this as they witness the close of 2011, and the dawning of 2012.

Thursday 29 December 2011

Happy Box!

I last posted on Christmas Eve.  Today I am celebrating what I regard as a successful gardening effort.  Here is one of my square foot gardens, absolutely burgeoning with goodies:
The tomatoes at the back, parsley in the middle and gemmies in the front were all grown from seed.  I am getting about 10 small tomatoes a day with simply loads of green ones and still many more tiny yellow flowers.  The parsley is like a bed of moss and seems to supply a never-ending amount of fresh sprigs for salads.  In the front, the gemmies are becoming quite voracious.  They have twined themselves around the string, so I have put up stakes and hope to train them up before they consume the entire box.

I cheated today.  On my way home from Kommetjie, I stopped off at Goemans and got punnets of green pepper, butternut, some rocket, and an interesting annual basil shrub that I have not seen before.  I did take piccies of the other box.  They didn't turn out so well, so that is going to have to wait for another post.

And, just to make my heart happy, I bought some pretties for one of the pots:
I have posted several photographs on Project 365, starting on 25th December through to today, with today's being my Happy Box :).  One is of a lovely hike through Newlands Forest.  Here is another one:

To celebrate my heart being full of happiness, here is a shot of some happy hearts:
These simple pleasure, that bring so much joy.... where would I be without them?

Here is an addendum to this blog:
Trust me to forget the absolute best news.... Do you recall, way back when I started my garden, I planted some ginger in a milk crate lined with a plastic bag and filled with soil?  Ok, so during the winter it died.  The lowly little milk crate has been sitting abandoned in my back garden, waiting for me to get round to doing something with it.  Well, guess what?  The ginger is growing again!  I am ever so pleased about this.  More lessons learnt... Don't be in too much of a hurry to write something off, and when growing ginger, expect it to stay dormant until the end of the year.  Ok, so next year I'll be better at growing ginger....

Saturday 24 December 2011

Awakening my inner kitchen goddess

Those of you who know me well would not, perhaps, list culinary skill as a major attribute in my life.  Most of you would say....'Reine, keep your day job', when I offer valiantly to produce a meal.  Well, those of you who know me well are simply going to have to change your tune.


In my last post on Thursday, I described Helen's and my adventure to Epping market, and my initial preserving efforts.  I spared you all a round of seeing yet more of my preserving efforts yesterday, and am now going to show you the result so far:
Erm, yes, there are quiet a few.  In fact, there are 60 all told:
I started to run out of jars, so towards the end, the jars got a bit eclectic.  In the collection are the following:
a)  Butternut, Apricot and Almond Chutney;
b)  Apricot Jam;
c) Onion Marmalade;
d) Yellow Cling Peaches and Onion Atchar.
I have added the above recipes to the Recipe page offered as a menu option on the right.


And I promise you, they all look rather yummy!  My forays into the pot scrapings bear witness to that.  All of them set, which is something of a relief.  Except for the onion marmalade which is ready immediately, the rest have to cure for a month before consumption.


I still have about half of the peaches to go, but will have to come up with more jars before getting stuck into those.


And, just in case you are not already impressed:  whilst all of this was going on, I managed to contribute to tomorrow's Christmas lunch with some roasted pork with sweet moroccan dukkah which I will serve with an apricot and apple gravy, and a roasted deboned leg of lamb, stuffed with garlic, and roasted on a bed of fresh rosemary.  I can't really provide links to these recipes as I made them up along the way.  Besides, there is always Google :).


I have decided that perhaps I should revert to hiking.  Otherwise I might have to move out of the cottage in order to accommodate all those preserves.


Here's to a wonderful festive season to all of you.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Tricky Business, Sticky Business

I think I've done it again.  Back in March, when I first started this blog, I did a post on preserving.  It was cause for much mirth, because I hopelessly overbought.  I suspect that I have done it again.


Let's start at the beginning.  Helen called this morning to suggest that we go to Epping Market.  On the way we stopped at the natural spring in Newlands to collect water:
Here is Helen with some of the bottles that we filled.  There were several other people doing the same thing.  It appears to be quite a popular past time with people far and near.


We then went on to the market:
Here is Helen choosing fruit.  Below is what I walked away with:
Apricots
Yellow Cling Peaches

Onions, Butternut and, tucked behind, potatoes
The pictures taken above are after having made the following preserves:
At the back, Peach Atchar, in the front, Apricot Jam
And this is after having offered some fruit to Walter when he came round to drop off the slide show of the moonlight walk.  As you can see from the piccies above, I have hardly made any inroads into the fruit at all!  
That means several more blogs on my preserving adventures over the next few days.  The trick now will be to find space in the cupboard to store it until it is ready for use.


I must admit to having had a lot of fun doing this.  Thanks, Helen, for suggesting it.  It turned into a simply wonderful day.

The joke is on me

People who know me are aware of my rather interesting relationship with synchronicity and co-incidence.  I know most of the time they kind of laugh it off as me being me.  And I keep trying to explain that it is true.  


Those who were around me during the cyberstalk experience that I had wrote it off as some form of mental break down.  I even discussed it with a psychologist, who assured me it was a figment of an over-active imagination.  I swear to you, it is not.


Take today for example.
On 18th December, in an idle moment of bored curiosity, I stumbled across a post which is offered by The Fun Elf.  I did the test, which is to come up with a meaning for your name.  Here is the result:


Being somewhat sheepish about this, I posted it to my soul sister as a joke.  It was an arbitrary, spur of the moment, whim.


Ok, so last night, I was watering my little veggie patch, and noticed what looked like a black plastic bag lying on the pavement.  This irritates me, as I spend half my life cleaning up the pavement outside my house.  I ignored it and went inside.  Today is rubbish day.  When I went out to put out the rubbish, the black thing was still lying there.  So I picked it up.  Here it is:
I mean, what are the chances of a silly, bored moment materialising in the above form with only a few days in between?  It is not even Halloween, and please tell me how many of you have arbitrarily stumbled over a witches hat on your pavement in the last decade?

How 'co-incidental' is it that I spent Saturday 17th December as described in The magic of memories?

This is NOT FUNNY!  What makes it a million times worse, is that my fortune cookie for today says:


I simply refuse to tell you what my street address is.
So dear friends, when I burble on endlessly about the fact that I seem to be a capricious, freaky whim in the greater meaning of life, don't fob me off as a basket case.


This is an addendum to this blog:
Ok, so my soul sister also took the test, and this is her result:
Whilst giggling happily and laughing over the 'synchronicity' of her American Indian name, and my birth name, we agree that we are both a little nuts, and I make reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest.  At which point she explains that she is busy listening to it as an audio book.  This movie was produced in 1975 from a book written in 1962.... What are the chances that I would reference it whilst she is reading it?  No wonder I so often say that she and I share a brain.  Which means, of course, that she, like me, is another one of life's capricious, freaky whims... poor soul :).  Life would truly be a Lonely Planet for me without the almost daily share of happy laughter even though we are literally thousands of kilometres apart.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Fried Green Tomatoes?

Ok, ok - these piccies are not going to make it into National Geographic, at least, not this year :).  As gardener, though I am rather chuffed.  Here are some tomatoes not yet ripe:
And here are some that are ripening up:
And here is my first gem squash flower:
I fully and completely realise that my little gardening efforts are not going to bedeck my table with home grown veg daily.  What has been a revelation to me is that the simple process of growing veg has given me new perspective, on time, on the cycle of nature, on the joy of providing for oneself.  Little lessons every day.  Works for me:)

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Historical Walk through Kalk Bay

Today we walked through Kalk Bay, looking out for historical landmarks dating back through the last 200 years or so.  Probably my best moment was stumbling across this:
This is the poster from Dani's first play, proudly displayed in a theatre in Kalk Bay.  Dani, girl, you are part of the history of the peninsula :).

As always, I posted my best piccie as Dance Everlasting on Project 365.

Other lovely scenes from today's walk are:
One of the tiled murals of historical Kalk Bay which adorn walls in strategic places
Fellow hikers
Kalk Bay Harbour Wall
Fisherman - some real, some not so real :)
I took this picture from half way up the stair case - not bad for someone with vertigo :)

Monday 19 December 2011

Stopping to smell the roses

Today we hiked in Tokai.  There were about 14 of us.  I posted Cropping on Project 365.  What I particularly like about Monday walks is that there is time to chat with fellow hikers, and to make new friends.  The group changes from week to week, with familiar faces and new faces intermingled into a patina of fellowship.  This sign, stuck against one of the trees, caused much amusement amongst the group:
I mean, I know we live in Africa and all that, but sometimes there are limits :).
Today I want to celebrate eight months of blogging and six months of Project 365.  In terms of this blog, it is now read, albeit in small numbers, in the following countries:  South Africa, United States, Russia, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Australia and Netherlands.  It sometimes feels strange that people that I will perhaps never meet, take an interest in this funny little blog which I beaver away on in the wee hours of the morning.

And on Project 365, there is nothing quite as stimulating as getting a 'Fav' on a photograph!  To have someone out there like it enough out of the millions that are posted daily to give it a special mention gives one a heart-swell of note.  

So thanks to those of you who pop onto my blog every now and then, and take time to look at my photographs.  I enjoy doing it.  I enjoy it even more when I know that people appreciate it.

Saturday 17 December 2011

The magic of memories

This morning I tooke Bolle down to the beach really early and managed to capture The Sunrise posted on Project 365.  It was early enough to experience the beach with few footprints, and to watch the sun rise from behind the mountains across the bay:

Later, when I went shopping, I purchased Eric Clapton's Clapton Chronicles.  On this CD is Tears In Heaven.  I went home, dug out the residue of my Heksenketel Tea from les Jardins de la Grange, dug out my photographs from L'Ezelles, and spent some happy time dwelling on so many happy moments from 2010.

I might just have to go through to Noordhoek to watch the sun set, just to round out a happy day of remembering some of the special moments that I have shared with my soul sister :).

Friday 16 December 2011

Update on square foot gardens

The original purpose of this blog was to explore organic gardening, permaculture, vermiculture, and all things wonderful in growing one's own vegetables.  As life has it, learning about abundance most certainly did not stop there.  I discovered hiking, and have found more abundance, albeit inedible, than I could possibly have foreseen back in April when my small blog adventure began.

I have had several queries about my little garden, from long term friends, new friends and from Dani.  So here are some pictures of how they look now:
The above box currently contains tomatoes, flowering, fruiting and just starting to ripen, in the forefront two gem squashes, and in the middle some very healthy, happy parsley.  In the pots in the background there are garlic chives.
In this box there is swiss chard, baby spinach [gone to seed], green and red lettuce, more parsley, radishes [gone to seed], broad beans, marigolds and a chilli plant.  As a first time gardener, I have let the baby spinach and radish go to seed as I am interested in the process of harvesting seed.  The radishes have loads of small pods, like very small fat beans, which presumably are seed pods.  I now need to learn how to harvest the seed so that I can become self-perpetuating in this regard.  Likewise for the baby spinach, which, incidentally, is very, very prickly.  It looks a titch tatty at the moment.  At least it has purpose.

Not photographed, in the back garden, I have spring onions, carrots, strawberries, more swiss chard and a random selection of herbs in pots.  The strawberries have proved to be much easier than I originally anticipated.  Although their first fruiting season, they have produced enough fruit for me to munch happily whilst I water.  I doubt that they will ever produce enough for the table.  Whatever, it has been a fun experiment.

Another perfect day in Paradise

Today, a breathless, almost cloudless, sunny day in Cape Town, four of us - well five, if one includes Harry, the dog - went up to just past the Table Mountain Cable Car and commenced a walk which took us to the Block House and onwards and upwards onto the contour path heading towards Woodstock Cave.  For various reasons, we chose not to go up to the cave, but did experience the sheer wonder of walking on what is now one of the official new seven wonders of nature as declared on 11th November this year.

What is so astounding is that along this walk, one looks out across Table Bay Harbour, the Green Point stadium which was built to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, and Robben Island, renowned for the incarceration of Nelson Mandela prior to his release in preparation for becoming the President of South Africa in 1994.  How is it that one can stand before all of this immensity, and take it all in in a single moment!  Laid out before us, lay the City of Cape Town, a place which fills so many Capetonians with pride.

As always, my best photograph of the day is posted as Looking out over Robben Island on Project 365.  This photograph by no means stands alone.  Here are others:
Looking over Table Bay Harbour

Looking up over a waterfall and on up to a mountain peak

Before us the path we were to follow

Cork trees dating back to earlier forestation

A canon below the block house overlooking the route to the Northern Suburbs
Last, but by no means least, is the fellowship of fellow hikers - the banter, the sharing of ideas, and a light tea.  This is, regrettably, the last Friday walk of 2011.  No better choice for a venue could have been made for this event.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

The Warrior Toy Museum in Simonstown

I was in Simonstown this morning and the Toy Museum was open.  I often wander past and it isn't.  I was a bit short of time, but simply could not resist a peek.  They have over 15 000 matchbox car toys in there!  Most of the toys are behind glass, obviously, to protect them from atmospheric wear and tear, and from little hands sneaking them into pockets.  The Curator of the museum was kind enough to help me by removing some of the items from display so that I could get a better picture.  My favourite, of course, is on Project 365.  

Others include one taken whilst watching the trains run around their track:
And another, a Mobil Tanker:
And in the girlie section, some kewpie dolls, smiling down from a top shelf:

I could have gone on for ages, as the curator and I were having quite a lot of fun.  Sadly all good things must end, and I reverted from a few minutes of five year old fun back into something vaguely resembling a responsible adult.  

I did ask whether there were any Smurfs or Spirots or Lucky Lukes.  Sadly there were not.  That's ok.  I have my own collection of these, strategically placed, so that I can spot them easily, and remember the wonderful times that I have shared with my Bee :).

I then dropped last night's piccies off at Olive's Menage, and we shared a good giggle over the Christmas party last night. 

And, thanks to kind Mother Nature, I don't have to water the garden.  I figure, maybe, pulling a pile of weeds would be a good investment in time.  Well, maybe....

Tuesday 13 December 2011

The joy of laughter

Some days are gifts.  I woke up really early this morning, gearing for a day of sweaty gardening.  Poor garden.  It didn't even get a soaking.

Dani came on line.  Her lunch time is my breakfast time.  We spent that lunch time discussing Myers and Briggs profiles and the impact that the various personalities have on each other.  Dani and I are very similar in many ways.  I won't share what profile I am on this blog, as that would be too much information!  However, she explored with me some of the impacts that we have on others.  By the time we had finished almost an hour of exploration, I was rolling on the floor laughing.  The situations that she described are so typical of some of the interactions that I have with others.

Late this afternoon I went up to Knitting Club.  As the last club meeting of the year, it got to be a Christmas party.  Here is the start-up scene:
Through the evening there were many moments of joyful play:
with another on Project 365 as Girls being girls.
And there was time for tears - tears of joy - too:


Afterwards, I came home and shared a lovely long chat with Idgy - my soul sister.  During the chat, she received some wonderful news about one of her sons.  It was a gift that I got to share that with her.

What a lovely day, filled with unexpected moments of love and joy.  I am a very blessed person.
  Maybe I am learning that every day is a gift, if one opens oneself to the opportunities that abound within it.


This is an addendum to this post.....  Dani ALWAYS wins hands down on scrabble.  I figure I'm lucky if I get somewhere around 100 points behind her.  And today, a wonderful, gorgeous, sublimely happy day.... Yup... you got it... I WON!  This may well be my most precious gift for the next decade.  I will wallow in it happily for months, whilst she reverts to whipping my butt :)

Monday 12 December 2011

Sunrise Circle Beach Walk

Today entailed a walk from Sunrise Circle car park, along the beach to the river and back.  Afterwards, we were invited to an end of year braai, as from now on, people start to drift to other parts of the world for their festive season.

This is a shot of us in the car park, readying for the walk:
Just look that that blue, blue, cloudless sky!  It was a simply perfect day.  The tide was low, there was no wind, and the sun burnt hot against the light, hard compacted sand.  As we walked, people wandered from group to group hooking up and then breaking away to start a new conversation elsewhere.  Just what a walk should be.

Along the way we bumped into a lady walking a host of dogs:
This is exactly what a beach should be.... water, sand, sun, people and dogs.... lots and lots of dogs :).

Here is a little fella eagerly watching his bigger brothers playing ball:

And the piccie of the day goes to Kite Dance, published on Project 365.

Thereafter, we gathered for our braai.  Here is a shot of one of the group preparing chicken kebabs:
Additional photographs will be submitted to hike leaders for dissemination at their discretion.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Hiking by the light of the moon

This was a first for me.  Eight of us collected near Just Nuisance's grave on the Red Hill road down to Scarborough, for a moonlight hike.  I think mostly everyone else had some experience at this, but not me.

The way up was sublime.  The pace was somewhat snappier than the pace that my hiking groups usually set, which did mean a fair wack of huffing and puffing on my part.  There was time along the way for some photographs.  Here are examples:
And another:
These were taken when we stopped for tea on the way up to the beacon:
And then on and up to the beacon from which we would watch the sun set:
 And the moon rise:
Here are some of my fellow hikers preparing supper and a toast to the last full moon of 2011:
I don't have photographs of us on the way down.  It was quite dark, as the moon spent a fair amount of time hiding behind clouds.  So there was me, with my rucksack, clutching a torch [fortunately not with my teeth], and my vertigo, doing an amazing amount of 'bum' work as we scrabbled down fairly rocky terrain back to the cars.  At one point, our hike leader, Walter, asked if we were okay.  My response was 'I am on the verge of hysteria and I'm crying, but actually, I'm fine :)'.  Mostly that was me, being my normal over-the-top self, but it was actually quite scary.  I was quite relieved to get back to the car intact.

One learns ever so much about people on these hikes, particularly as one of the weaker ones.  Two of the more experienced lady hikers set themselves up, one in front of me and one behind, just to make sure I was okay.  Wow, the kindness of people simply shines through on occasions like this.

Sitting here, the following morning, sipping coffee and reminiscing, I figure I'm up for the next 'easy' one, not that I'm masochistic or anything :).  The views were worth every scratch and stain, and the fellowship of others was worth every vow inside me that somehow I would get down without being too whingy.  Yup, I'd do it again...