lately

buying a house has my head full to bursting with ideas, none of them cohesive enough to warrant any kind of action yet, but i am flicking back and forth through country living’s modern rustic magazine and drooling over almost every image.

there’s been a few recipes made out of a new cookery book (on loan from the library). being a vegetarian cookery book, its very heavy on recipes that contain grains and/or beans, neither of which we eat a lot of, so i won’t be rushing out to buy my own copy. there are, however, some great salad & veg recipes that change based on the four seasons that i will use as a starting point for my own creations.

i don’t know about you, but i could watch rick steins india over and over again (and have been). i finally got the recipe book that accompanies the show and made a superbly flavoured fish curry for dinner the other night. even with substituting the curry leaves in the recipe (they are impossible to find on our tiny island), it was divinely good.

molly yeh’s rye challah recipe sounded so good i had to try it, and i’m not disappointed at all with the results. it makes for a seriously good base for smoked salmon & cream cheese as well as open-faced reubens and is quite fancy enough to enjoy on its own too.

3191 quarterly issue 14 turned up in my mailbox the other day. i always open the envelope right away, then leave it sitting somewhere by a comfy seat until i have time to stop and savour it.

there was a three week trip to the uk and france, including the wedding of some friends and a catch up with so many other uk friends. it was harder to say goodbye this time as i have no idea when i will see some of those people again.

but it was nice to come home and get some things underway… like clearing some space in a little patch of the garden and planting winter greens, and arranging a visit from a local expert on water tanks – coming up with a plan for installing a new (larger) one to make the most of any winter rainfall we get.

i found some beautiful french linen sheets on etsy that i turned into curtains. my first ever foray into curtain making and i messed the first one up, having to unpick it because i had made it too short! thankfully i didn’t mess it up on the second attempt and we now have some lovely light curtains in our bedroom for a fraction of the cost of having anyone else make them for us.

a while ago i found a rimu cabinet for sale on nz’s version of ebay and i am halfway through stripping the paint off it. once finished, sanded and sealed, it will be hung in our bathroom above the sink providing some much needed storage space.

this week i collected six photos i’ve had professionally printed and framed and they are all ready for delivery to the napier photographer’s gallery later in the month. this will be my first ever exhibition in a photo gallery and i am equal parts excited and terrified about it.

rather than coming straight home after dropping Nic at the ferry, i’ve been taking myself to one of the local beaches and going for a morning walk. i have discovered that this small practise sets me up for a calmer and more peaceful day. this practise was born after a particularly gnarly few days involving an existential crisis – one in which i’m glad Nic was away. it’s best to bear witness and offer support to me from a safe distance when crisis moments occur!

what have y’all been up to?