200 Days of Summer

This year has been spectacularly warm, right through April and most of May.  Now then, as we perch on the fringe of another seasonal change, there have been no gentle hints of the colder weather to come, nor a gradual decline in degrees Celsius, but rather a sudden shove into frosty days accompanied by the bite that comes with winter, which one can only remedy with gloves and scarves.

Yet last Sunday we were blessed to have enjoyed one last day of beautiful warm weather, perfect for a walk by the river.

The perfect way to end a summery day, steaming Thai Pumpkin Soup with a crisp Caesar Salad, enjoyed with family.

The (Gentle) Art of Wall Busting

With Mrs B's dad recent visit we had the urge *ahem* guts, to tackle the almighty-kitchen-living-room-open-plan-conversion that has been on our minds since we first saw our house. What was initially imagined in my head as being a swing-the-sledgehammer-and-knock-it-down type of activity, was much more painstakingly slow due to the cautiousness and thriftiness of the male help, Mr B and Dad. They decided to try to save as much of the skirting//moulding/gib-board as possible, which isn't a bad idea, in case we need matching moulding elsewhere in one of the other many projects we have in mind.

To give you a bit of background, our kitchen is a rather narrow room, galley style and shares part of a wall with our living/dining. The idea was to bust down the wall that would open into the living/dining room and allow easier access, as we currently have to walk back out into the hallway and around into the living.

Here is the house plan so you can see for yourselves, the wall-that-is-not-to-be is in red:

 View from hallway looking into Lounge...

The men rearranging the kitchen furniture to make room for the demolishing that is to come...

The wall from the kitchen side.

Having said that, there was some minor hammer-busting involved.as you see from the following photo:  

An unpleasant surprise.... must have happened at the same time as our leaky roof drama. Hopefully insurance will cover this too?

 A sweet treat from the night markets to celebrate a step forward. (Top to bottom: banoffee, lemon creme, watermelon creme). Yummo.

It has begun....

Calm after the storm

After two days of torrential downpours the heavens clear and a beautiful blue sky is revealed beneath.

The weather has been wrecking havoc all weekend across the North Island. We managed to escape the flooding that happened in some parts but we didn't come out unscathed... Sunday night we arrived home after a lovely weekend away, to find our living room floor sodding wet!

Uh oh... Luckily nothing was really damaged and Mr B promptly lit the fire to dry the room out. What appears to have happened is the roof tiles must have shifted in the storm and the roof leaked through to the ceiling.

 

Will definitely need to get that looked at ASAP before the next bout of bad weather sets in...  

 

EDIT: Glancing at our blog I see that skyline photos are rather frequent. Well I'm sorry, but after living in an apartment with only a view of the library wall (which, in the library's defense, is a lovely shade of bluey-green), one just can't help it when you see such a marvellous sight! :)

Life lately, according to my Android

(1) Another incredible sunset from our porch. Can't get enough of these! (2) An experimental omelette breakfast pizza. (3) The most pretty shade of pink in our back yard. Any ideas what variety might be? (4) A lovely surprise to behold on my way to work. (5) Preparing for the cold weather. (6) The fence that I *ahem* we built. (7) Making koeksisters. (8) Our church service at Raglan. (9) A quick rush of adrenaline every so often keeps me going.

A thing of beauty

"The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises." (Ecclesiastes 1:5)

One of the many beautiful sunsets we are blessed to behold.

Ladies + Toddler's Weekend Out

The weekend before last, Mr B packed his camping gear and set off to the annual Rails Camp, down in Wellington. Meanwhile my lovely mother-in-law had a conference in Auckland to attend and invited me along for a Girl's weekend, acommpanied with my sister-in-law and her (almost) three-year-old. Here are a few photos from our adventures:

Snapdragon's braised short-rib on the bone with bourbon and prune glaze. Much smaller than it appears in the photo, but incredibly moreish.

... after 4 hours of shopping, who can blame him? :P

Photos taken at the Auckland Arts Festival at Aotea Square. The colourful flags were 'peace flags' which kids were invited to decorate and hang.

Great weather, fine company and fun memories to be had.

Homemade Pizzas

We like pizza a lot, in our household. Why buy it when you can make your own, and top with all your favourite extras? :)

PS: For these particular pizzas we made a scone base, mainly because we were hungry and couldn't wait for yeast to rise. Usually, if we are organised and plan ahead, we would use the Edmond's pizza base recipe, which is just as easy but takes a little more time. Well worth the extra preparation, though!

The Backyard Blitz

When we first moved into our house last November, our back porch looked like this:




A beautifully lush, albeit overgrown, view to gaze out upon, however the deck was rather looking rather sad, suffering from years of neglect.

Then arrived a day when Mrs B's Dad and Grandparents came, bringing with them a waterblaster, chainsaw and six helping hands. Mr B tackled the deck while Grandpa and Dad hacked away at our overgrown giant of a plum tree. The ladies flitted about pruning and snipping, tidying and clearing. It was a marvellous day; three generations all working towards the same goal, cooking together, gardening together and fellowshipping.

Then five hours of good ol' fashioned toil later....

...And I had thought the wood was darkened due to age!

So we went from from this...



...to THIS!



Mrs B and Gran cut down all the bamboo that had been growing along the side of the deck and we later pulled down the grotty matchstick blind-type things that were stapled on the side, (they were beyond rescue anyway but we have decided we kind of like the look without them).

We then went out and bought ourselves some Resene 'Natural' waterbased stain... Two weeks and two coats later, we have ourselves a brand spanking new deck! Ain't she gorgeous?


Thanks to Dad, Gran & Grandpa for sharing your expertise and giving this young couple the push we needed :)