Time out at the Beach.

Lovely summer weather, sunrise over the ocean, sunsets over the hills behind, swims in the surf and surfing the net for a job. We've taken time out this week to get back to nature Coromandel style. Pip and Vicky created this delicious vivid dinner of chicken tagine and red cabbage slaw spiked with kaffir lime leaves.

Gathering shellfish is one of my favourite beach 'to do's'. While my friend and I dug for pipi's  at low tide, Pip swam across the harbour inlet to gather cockles (clams).

 Recipe for Feijoa Frangipane.

 For those who are not familiar with this fruit, feijoa taste a little bit like a guava or some say a cross between a guava and a pineapple.
Ingredients

• 225g sweet short crust pastry or about 8 sheets of filo buttered between every second layer
• 125 butter
• 125g castor sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 6-8 feijoas or 12 if you wish to add fresh slices after baking

Method

1. Prepare 6 individual loose bottom tart tins or one large tin by greasing them and then dusting them with flour.
2. Pre heat oven to 170°C
3. On a floured surface roll out pastry thinly to fit tart tin
4. Make the frangipane filling by creaming the butter & sugar together until light and fluffy.
5. Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time.
6. Fold in the ground almonds and spread the frangipane mixture over the tart base.
7. Peel and slice the feijoas and arrange over the frangipane mixture.
8. Sprinkle some castor sugar over the feijoas.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the frangipane is golden and risen slightly and is like sponge to touch. Smaller tarts will only require 25-35 minutes.
10. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream or mixture of whipped cream and greek yogurt.

House completed and on the market! Phew!

Entrance and courtyard on North side of House

At the end of a whirlwind seven weeks of making over the house our container of flotsam and jetsam arrived from Toronto and was quickly swallowed up by Piccadilly Place.

Pip was amazing taking on multiple roles from builder to electrician as the job evolved. We had professional help where needed and sweated through the hottest weeks of summer like a couple of labourers!

Sitting Room, Kitchen, Family Room with Eastern Deck area.

Bathroom, Loo on Main floor of House.

Master Bedroom.

Bedroom Three is west facing.

Bedroom Two on North side of house.

Stairwell and Laundry on lower level.

Media Room, Second Bathroom, Bedroom Four on lower level.

Garden and Driveway. 

You can find the link at Ray White Kohi. Auction date is April 19th at Kohi Cafe. 

The Pacific surges again.

Here's how I feel about whats going on.

We humans, in our arrogance, believe we are in control of our world. We expect our planet to be as we want it to be. Of course we do, what else can we believe. We love its natural beauty. We forget its a ball of molten fire covered by floating plates of rock!!

As I watch the shots on telly of Japan's northern seaboard states being devastated by quake and tsunami I can't help wondering what next for we Pacific Rim dwellers living along the pacific plate.

Map of World Tectonic Plates

Is our planet trying to shake us off it! Has it had enough of us mucking it up and sucking and digging out its guts??

This morning the waves will be relatively small when they reach us but enough for the NZ Civil Defence to raise their potential warning to a Marine Tsunami warning and coastal land warning for beaches and estuaries expecting 1 m waves and strong currents starting about now along our northern coasts.

Pip is at the beach in the north, Nick is at the beach in Coromandel.

I'll be glad when the waves have come and gone and we can get on.

God help those poor Japanese who have been swept away, their city burning and shattered. Its too close to home for many New Zealanders still struggling to cope with the aftermath of Christchurch quakes.

Our friends down there sent pictures of their home, all their belongings broken and strewn.

Last night dinner conversation was of survival kits and civil defence advice for the various natural disasters expected in NZ. I'm off to put mine together today as I have nothing, not even a torch. Though my suitcase does contain a Swiss army knife..like every good girl guide should!

Nothing is Permanent but Change!

Nothing is permanent but change.

Certainly true about houses. A few coats of white paint, a few weeks of sweat and toil and a budget conscious amount of judiciously spent moola et voila, our seemingly cramped and very tired house has been transformed into a tranquil open spacious home. Our container arrives this week and we are excited to be reunited with our furniture and bikes!The finishing touch will be decorating with our treasures from the States and Canada.

Almost finished and before in Bathroom

Almost finished in Kitchen and the blue before.

Old appliances ready for the tip, Painters underway in sitting room.

Pip gets stuck in to the deck and rotten beams or joists or whatever those wooden foundation things are called!.

Oddly too, the imminent arrival of our belongings cements the realisation that our comfortable home in Toronto and our life and times in North America really is no more (derrr....as of Dec 10!!) but weirdly that didnt seem real until now. We really wont walk ever down Isabella St, enjoying the squirrels skittering along tree branches and power lines, to the Rabba for 5 limes for a $1, a bottle of Motts classic Caesar mix,pomegranates,mangoes,Lindt sea salt choccy and $1.95 pack of chicken to BBQ for dinner or trot up Yonge to the Cookbook store to see Alison and Jennifer or meet Lori and Henry for a walk around the neighborhood or join up with Robert and Gerard for fab food and drinks or the Ballet or just wander with Mac through the streets of Yorkville window shopping at Holts,Chanel,Anthropology and Teatro Verde or walk through the golden fall beauty of High Park, Queens Park and the University. No more Chinese market, rides to the local farmers market or walks on Cherry Beach! Boo Hoo! No more road trips to Quebec to see Jill and the Boys and wonderful Price family.No more trips to NYC,walks with McGregor in Central Park, magical night time ferry rides on the Hudson, fun and food with Jennifer and Mac in Hoboken or Linda and Alan at the Jersey Shore,no more glorious crisp snowy weekends at the Poconos at Jim and Rowans cottage in the woods. 

The physical home is not a permanent thing either, changing address's has become too much a part of our lives. Home seems to be were we hang our hat these days. That said....we are ready to settle somewhere! We've been living out of a suitcase since Dec 10th!! with stuff here, there and rolling around in the boot of the car!

Dreams are not permanent and are forced to change by circumstance. Coming home had revolved around the idea of living in the north, by the beach. A new and alternative lifestyle. That isn't going to happen now and adjusting to the idea of returning to the city is suddenly quite exciting.

Changing hemispheres has sharpened our appreciation of this bottom half of the world, though Pip finds the rainy days very depressing. Me not so much! Cool air is swirling over New Zealand right now making the evenings and nights feel quite autumnal (for those in northern climes think that sudden change in September when fall comes early and the air is clear and fresh). It's still summer heat during the day but I have hauled out jeans for the first time this year to wear at night!

I've just finished a lovely book called 'The hundred foot journey' by Richard C Morais and this line resonated with me. 'There are many points in life when we cannot see what awaits us around the corner, but it is precisely at such times when our path forward is unclear, that we must bravely keep our nerve, resolutely putting one foot in front of the other as we march blindly into the dark.' (pg 297)

Yesterday I found a little book of inspirational sayings I'd made for Nicholas years ago. Funny how you open a cardboard box, put your hand in and come out with just what you needed to see. It came to me as I read the pages I'd written that the only little saying I had omitted from the book was 'That every action causes a reaction'. Life is that in a nutshell...Actions and reactions. Both create change.

So as the season signals change, our life is doing so again.

One really good change is that Pip is now the owner (proud owner!) of a very snazzy green and yellow John Deere tractor mower avec cute little trailer for hauling stuff around the beach property. (Moira and Paul took us for a road trip up to Dargaville Field Days to check it out) His first outing at the beach house was a huge success mowing the olive grove in under an hour...the whole property in about three....previously by weed-eater (weed whacker) and hand mower and very unreliable contract mower this entailed more work than you'd want to do in a weekend!. So he's a happy camper! (or I should day he's a happy mowing man!)

 

Dear John Deere!; The road to Dargaville; Moos and Baah's at the show.

 Meantime I've been scheming and planning furniture placement, cushions, fabrics, titivation's to make the house a home that some lucky buyer will fall in love with. To aid in my madness my Designer Gal Pals Chrissy and Sue rocketed into town for one night to celebrate Sue's birthday and do the shops. We had the most gorgeous breakfast at the Takapuna Beach Cafe...possibly the most scumbilumtious  spot to have brekkie in the world!! Sue's muslei was a vision of texture and colour, my Eggs benny was luscious with yolks the color of Spanish Oranges!!Chrissy's honey smoked salmon... Ole!

Brekkie at Takapuna Beach Cafe

Then a quick gallop through Department Store in Takapuna, I bumped in to Mobeen, Stephen Marr hairstylist to starlets and lucky gals (once was mine but I'll never get back onto his list unless I'm very lucky). Then we whisked off to Noo Marche (Newmarket) to Martha's fabric shop (well Roger Walls fabric shop really) to snip samples of linen and other goodies, Global Fabrics was next for stunning silks, gauzes, velvets and soo much more. OH how glad I am to find these wonderful fabric houses. I am dusting off the sewing machine (mentally) and sewing up a storm. Dived into Vida Flores for floral inspiration and saw cool installation of lotus pods and summer flowers. We ended the day dropping Sue off at Trelise Cooper for a private buying session. This girl really does have the most amazing wardrobe. (Jennifer you would go gaga for this stuff!)

Department Store in Takapuna

Vide Flores in Newmarket.

Back at Piccadilly Chrissy whipped around the house, shoving beds into different pozzies, telling me to do this and that and poof she was off in a cloud of smoke just like a fairy godmother. Back to Taupo and pastures fresh!

NewFlash.......Watch this space. Chrissy and I are going to cook up some Arty  weekend workshops later this year in Taupo with gorgeous food and fun.If you've always wanted to splash paint around but never had the time or gumption let me know.. this year of tightening our belts could be the year to create your own visual masterpiece.

And on that happy note I'll sign off. Aroha.