Week 3

It has been a surreal week for me. the loss of G hit me hard, but life goes on and we tuck our grief away, as many thousands of people are having to do all over the world.  It was only today, that I realized that we have already completed 3 weeks of lockdown, there is talk of of coming out of it after week 4 as over the last week new cases have been in their teens.  But there is a fear that the virus is lurking and will hit hard when we come out of isolation.  Fear is paralyzing the world, we  are looking sideways at people wondering whether they will infect us.  I think the psychological effect of this pandemic is going to be more damaging than the physical in the long run.   And I don't even want to think about the world economy.  Anyways on to brighter things, I really believe we have to take pleasure little things of life - cooking, cleaning, the garden, family connections, the birds singing, the antics of our pets and  of course U Tube, lol!

Over the last week I have been in preserving mode, I picked most of the grapes, leaving the rest for the birds and made 4 jars of grape jelly and 2 large bottles of grape cordial.

grape harvest

I have started on the apples, freezing them  an I think I will make some apple jelly from the Golden Delicious variety as it comes out a beautiful peach colour, the biggest apple tree is the Fuji , they store really well and so do the Grannie Smiths.  I am toying idea of making some mint jelly to have with lamb. The mint needs cutting back as it is getting out of hand, especially under the fig tree.

loaded fuji apple tree

 End of last year a new was fence erected in place of an old ivy covered fence that was falling down.  I making  a rock garden  along part of it as the soil is very stony, these stones I found on the property, I need some bigger ones and perhaps when we can move about again I will get some from the river.

 I am also thinking of growing some star jasmine around the posts and perhaps a clematis of some kind.

With three weeks completed in the lockdown I have been able to see how my stores are going.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I organized my groceries into 2 week lots, Well, I overestimated and each lot will last 3 weeks, so that is another 5 weeks of stores, I will be good to end of June.  The thing I am thinking of now is whether to continue using them when the lockdown ends or keep my level of stores at its current rate or even to increase the amount that I have stored away.  I would love to know what you consider an acceptable amount of stores without becoming a hoarder!  I know that they say for financial security to have 3 months out outgoings saved up is ideal.  I am thinking that in future there will be food shortages.  On a side note, my neighbour is an essential worker in the local bread factory, and he told me that the flour shortage here wasn't the lack of flour but that the manufacturers ran out of retail bags, so they had to get them printed.  I am thinking why bother, flour is flour!  Nobody is going to worry whether it is Champion or Pams etc., they just want flour!

On Sunday, I treated myself to some waffles, I had a craving for chocolate, and debated cook, muffins, biscuits and so on, I procrastinated all afternoon and fin ally after supper, I decided to make waffles but with chocolate bits in. I just used my usual waffle mix which is really a thick pancake mix and added chocolate chips,  Absolutely divine!

 I used butter to grease the waffle pan and it made them so crispy and crunchy. I will definitely be making them again.

I have been having a break from crochet, and have made this tunic for a little girl I know, Just need to go through my stash of buttons for the yoke.

Well that's it for today you all have a blessed day. 

Sharon and the kitties

 

Day 1

Another attempt to resurrect my blog!  New Zealand has gone into lockdown for 4 weeks initially due to the grow of cases of covid19. I have been wanting to start blogging again as I find that Instagram  doesn't quite cut it with me. So, I decided that the lockdown and self isolation would be a great chance to create the habit of blogging.  My intention is to post daily for the duration.

The first thing I noticed is the quiet, no cars! I live in a quiet street but we have a bit of traffic as many use our small street as a shortcut.  It was strange to see cars parked in the driveways on a weekday.Watching the news it seems that NZers on the whole are following the rules, but then its only day 1. I am not sure what will happen when people start to get stir-crazy, as I am a solitary sort of person I think I will be okay, but 4 weeks?  

As I have severe asthma I have been advised that I have to self isolate and so even trips to the supermarket are out.  But I am okay as when it started to get bad in Italy I decided that it would eventually hit NZ and I gradually built up my supplies every week, so I have enough supplies for 6 weeks.  I will be a low on the fresh food, but as I have 2 apples trees, a fig tree and the grape vine producing fruit at the moment and feijoas will be ready soon.  as for veges I have silverbeet (chard), kale, the last of the tomatoes, pumpkins and butternut squash, beetroot, cabbage and celery.  So I will be good.

Today I did household chores - laundry, cleaned the oven and went through one of my food cupboards and threw out out of date food.  I am ashamed to say I had some dried fruit with a best before date of 2017!  I guess I don't eat a lot of dried fruit,lol. For lunch (which is my main meal) I had crumbed fish (hoki) potato and peas with tin peaches for desert.  In the afternoon I made some scones and treated myself to one with strawberry jam and cream. I finished reading a book on my kindle - Book 3 of  The Survivor Chronicles by Erica Stevens. There is the final book, but I am not sure that I want to read it in this present scary world. A bit too close to home! I quite like the Cozy mysteries books as pure escapism, I have several on my kindle that I haven't read yet. They will do when I want to escape the news.

For supper I had a sachet of Thai chicken soup with some bread and a nectarine, then I sat in front of the TV and a couple of programmes. That is more or less it, the first day of lockdowm done and dusted.

 

I couldn't find Lucy but eventually discovered her hiding in my stash behind the sofa!

A mishmash!

Looking back on the last week, I am hard pushed to say what stood out, it was an 'itty bitty' week, lol.

Budget
 My grocery shopping was going to be just a few basics as I didn't really need anything.  However, going the rounds in  the supermarket while buying breads, milk and teabags, I noticed they had some real good deals on meat, especially the chicken  breasts and lamb shoulder chops.  I also saw that there were the white corm tortillas, which are hard to get here, so they also popped into my trolley, along with some tins of chilli beans and sour cream.  With these extras my budget for the week was exceeded.  But I am not worrying as  now I have a freezer fill of meat and the makings for some easy Mexican meals.

Tonight I had tortillas filled with chilli beans  rolled up and grated cheddar over the top and grilled til the top was nice and crunchy with side serves of sour cream and guacamole, yum!  Oh there was a small side salad, and a couple of figs for dessert.

Garden
It was such a lovely weekend weather wise that I got some gardening done mainly chopping back some bushes that were overgrown and cutting the grass, an never ending chore.  The next bit to attack will be the back of the house where I grow my pumpkins this year. I harvested them a week or so ago and they are hardening off in a sunny spot near the back door. Another week an d they can be stored for the winter.

Crafts
I finally got back to doing some crochet this weekend, a cotton afghan that has taken me months to do, I am so close to the finish 6 more rounds to go.

Instagram
I have an Instagram account which I use for keeping up with my family and following fellow crochet addicts.  In an idle moment I clicked on a picture that I really liked and found myself in a world of bohemian decor and a another thread with houseplants which I am crazy  about.  Last night I was thinking about what I saw and have decided to make some changes in that direction albeit slowly and much more restrained.  I have decided I want to create an oasis of peace in my lounge!  So watch this space as they say, no rush.

Plans for tomorrow
Put rubbish and recycling out early.
Go to Mitre 10 and buy an tarpaulin so I can drag the hedge clippings etc to the back where I burn a lot of my garden rubbish that cant be composted.
Washing
A round of my Liliana afghan
Bake a cake for Wednesday - it a public holiday  Anzac Day and I have visitors in the afternoon.

I leave you with a picture of Ambrose  snugging up to the Liliana afghan. Have a good week all
Sharon