Spring is in the air

This week the trees started flowering and there was that smell of cut grass and the coming of summer as I walked to work.  I can't wait for spring - it's been 18 months since I've had my favourite season.


My winter veggie garden is just about finishing off now.  The broccoli, broccoletti, and cauliflower have all been eaten.  The spring onions and carrots are still going strong, as is the silverbeet.  The kale and leeks haven't really reached edible size, so I guess we'll leave them.  We had our first, delicious beetroots this week.  I boiled them with skins (to keep colour and flavour in) then peeled and roasted the segments for a little while.  They were yum in a goats cheese salad.
We're planning a much bigger patch for the many summer veggies, and I think we'll use my little raised bed for herbs or a seed bed.
Meanwhile, the veggies aren't the only thing that's growing.  Our littlest nephew is quite the charmer!

New house pics! and grapefruit marmalade recipe

It's been a while because (a) I've been rather busy moving house and (b) the new house didn't have internet immediately.  But here, finally, are pics of the new house.  We're enjoying having our own space and I'm really enjoying walking to work.  We're now looking for the right flatmates (why is it that everyone on the flatshare websites seems like a complete weirdo/tart/scrounger?) and after that we'll be a little more financially comfortable - since the house is quite large.

The best bit about the new place is that it's got a great kitchen, with a gas stove no less!  I'm in culinary heaven.  I've already baked cookies and made yummy grapefruit marmalade with all the grapefruit which are ripening at Sandspit.  I had a challenge finding a single clear recipe online, so I'm sharing mine with you.

In a nutshell it's (1) slice fruit, (2) 10 min simmer, (3) wait a day, (4) hard boil with sugar, (5) jar.

Ingredients:
6 grapefruit (mine weren't overly large)
2 lemons (but this recipe works for any citrus combination)
about a kilo of sugar - depends on your fruit
a square of muslin, or failing that, a thin sock or nylon knee high - not one that's been worn!

Day 1:
Put a saucer in the freezer. 
Scrub the fruit thoroughly with soap and rince.  Without peeling, cut the fruit into segments then thinly slide the segments.  Put the slices and juice in a very solid, heavy-based, large saucepan.  Try not to lose any juice (slide them on a plate to hold it). 
Chuck out the pips (make sure you get them all) and keep any seriously pithy or rind-only bits separate and put them in the muslin/sock.  The pith yields all the pectin to make the marmalade set and gives marmalade it's typical bitter taste.  Now tie up the muslin ball and dangle it into the fruit in the saucepan.  Tie it onto the handle of the pan so it hangs there, preferably not in contact with the base of the pan.
Bring the saucepan to a simmer and let it cook for 10 mins, then leave it to cool and wait a day. 

Day 2:
Squeeze out the muslin ball.  Don't open it, just squeeze as much whitish goo out as possible - this makes your marmalade set.
Measure the volume you have in the pan, and add the same volume of sugar (or a little less if your citrus is quite sweet) and enough water so your mixture is runny (I used about 500 ml).  Bring to a rolling boil (this is why you need a big pan!) and continue boiling as hard as you can for about 10-20 mins. 
You can test if your marmalade (which will still be quite liquid in the pan) is ready in two ways:
1) temperature.  It should be 218-220 F.
2) the saucer test.  Bring out your frozen saucer and drop a droplet of marmalade on it.  The droplet should quickly form a skin and be quite gelled in consistency.

Put in sterilised jars (i.e. jars you've boiled) while still hot.  If you don't have a jam funnel, a measuring jug is quite good for this.  Depending on the kind of jars you have, there are various ways of preserving the marmalade - read the instructions.

Then sit back and enjoy on toast, with peaches in a sponge, in bread and butter pudding.... :)

Flats and houses

I'm now quagmired in process of househunting.  I see about 200 listings per day - 90% of which are horrible 1970s creations.  It's got to the point that I do a double-take at some of the new listings - haven't I seen this one before?
I've even taken to plotting my best prospects on a map - along with zoning based on Ross's instructions of where I'm not allowed to consider.  Isn't Google wonderful.


View TradeMe flats in a larger map

I started out thinking I wasn't fussy.  I just wanted to be close to work.  Ross was very reluctant to live anywhere near my work, which I thought was a combination of not taking my hatred of commuting into account, and address snobbery.  It might have been a little of the latter, but I'm starting to think has a point.  There's a lot of ugly real estate surrounding my office.
So now I'm even fussier than when I just wanted a short commute... though not nearly as fussy as I might be somewhere with nice houses.
I want...

• A short commute, preferably by foot, bike or public transport
• A high street nearby, with a half-decent pub we can stumble home from
• A smidgen of charm, character or at the very least, something to take away from the plain white box
• A little room to cook and host

Asking a lot you say?
Well, I've said nothing about being north-facing to get some sun, having a patch of garden, coming with some furniture/appliances, or having some form of heating.  Who needs heating anyhow?  It doesn't seem to be planning on getting cold here.  Just wet.
I'd love to have a modern kitchen with a proper cooker... but the strange thing is, even the most moden kitchens seem to be let down by their stove.  In fact, I've come to the conclusion that only one model of cooker has been sold in NZ for the past 50 years.  Take a look - but you won't be able to spot the difference because there isn't one.

Veggie garden update for July

After a cold spell (well, cold for Auckland, i.e. 5-10 degrees) the veggies slowed down a bit, but now they seem to be shooting upward once more - especially the broccoli which is ready to eat, as are the spring onions.  We've eaten the baby carrots which we thinned out - tiny but yummy.  The leeks and cauliflower still have a long way to go.

In this pic you can see (clockwise from top left) broccoletti, broccoli, leeks, beetroot, spring onions, carrots.

Planning for the summer planting is progressing apace.  I had two fabulous helpers in with digging and pruning last weekend - Ross' nieces were visiting for the school holidays.  We had a fun time at the beach too.

Meanwhile work is going well, and I'm looking forward to visiting Wellington - the capital of New Zealand at the bottom of the South Island - to meet a client in a couple of weeks.  Probably just a short trip this time, but there will be others.

In italiano: i progressi di luglio nell'orto
Dopo un periodo freddo (beh, freddo per l'Auckland - cioe' fra 5 e 10 gradi), le verdure si sono rallentati un po'.  Ma addesso ricominciano - in particolare i broccoli, i quali sono pronti per mangiare, insieme ai cipollotti.
La progettazione per l'estate nell'orto va avanti.  Avevo due voluntari bravi al finesettimana - le nipoti di Ross c'erano per le vacanze invernali.  Ci siamo divertiti anche alla spiaggia.
Il mio lavoro va bene al momento, e non vedo l'ora di visitare il capitale, Wellington, al sud dell'isola del nord, per un cliente fra un paio di settimane.

Red-tailed hawk

I adore that every drive out of Auckland involves gorgeous birds. We see red-tailed hawks quite often, swooping and soaring. I managed to get quite close to this one - excuse the picture quality!

Melbourne - the Venice of the southern hemisphere

One of the perks of my job is the travel.  This week, I went to Melbourne to present to a client.  (Why were we doing work for an Australian client?  Because we're the best in the business, clearly.)

From Melbourne

Dawn on the Yarra river

Whilst I wasn't thrilled at the bureaucracy that accompanies getting into Oz, and then getting back in the Godzone once more, I really rather enjoyed the trip.  Melbourne is a proper city.  With a bit more population punch behind it, it has the hallmarks of a city:

iconic buildings...

public transport...





 

tourist attractions...
















...and quirky oddities like a street filled with hundreds of Italian restaurants.

I enjoyed the shopping centre with an ammo tower in it (they dropped molten lead off the tower to form gunshot back when Melbourne was fierce and violent place - I hear it hasn't changed much but they've moved on to automatic weapons).


I liked the daring architechture above all - bold polygons and embracing curves compete to create a dramatic skyline.

...............
In italiano: Melbourne, la Venezia del emisfero australe



Uno dei vantaggi del mio lavoro e il viaggiare. Questa settimana sono andata a Melbourne per dare una presentazione ad un cliente. (E perche' noi, neozelandesi, abbiamo dei clienti australiani? Perche' siamo i migliori, naturalmente!)


Nonostante la brutta burocrazia nell'entrare in Australia e poi tornare nel Godzone, mi e' piaciuto il viaggio. Melbourne e' una citta' vera. Con la forza economica di una popolazione un po' piu' grande di quella di Auckland, sembra di avere gli elementi giusti per essere una citta':

- edifici iconici (vedi foto)

- i mezzi publici

- cose da vedere per i turisti

- e persino le anomalita' come una strada intera di centinaia di ristoranti italiani.

Mi e' piaciuto il centro commerciale con la torre delle munizioni dentro. Una volta, si buttava dall'alto il piombo fuso per farsi i proiettili, quando la Melbourne era un posto feroce e violente... (Ho sentito che non si e' cambiata tanto, ma oggi si usa le arme automatiche.)

Sopratutto mi e' piaciuta l'architettura coraggiosa - poligoni dramatici e curve femminili si dimostrano contro il cielo.

God's own (rainy) country

New Zealanders have called their country God's own (or the Godzone) since the beginning of time.  That is, since the mid-1800s.  It was time to venture out of Auckland and see if it was true.

Broken Hills

Possibly going to the Coromandel peninsula, south east of Auckland, when there was a severe weather warning was a risky idea.  But the Queen's birthday weekend was the first bank holiday in ages, and it'll be the last one 'til August. 
The New Zealand clean-green thing might be supported by lots of rain, but it's hard to appreciate the landscape through torrential rain.  Our attempt to visit Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach only succeeded in making us cold and damp - we went back to our nice apartment and hung out.
But today the sun came out.  From time to time anyhow.  We finally got into some mountains.  I'd missed mountains a lot since leaving Abruzzo.  My calf muscles, on the other hand, are now telling me that mountains aren't all that nice.  Tomorrow might involve granny-style hobbling.  So here's the view from the top.  You tell me if it was worth it.

In italiano: la casa (piovosa) di Dio
I neozelandesi chiamano il loro paese "casa di dio" (oppure Dio-zona) dall'inizio del tempo - cioe' dall'ottocento.  Ora di venturare fuori della citta' a controllare.
Possibilmente e' stata un'idea rischiosa andare nella peninsola di Coromandel, sudest di Auckland, quando avevano emesso un avvertimento di tempo estremo.  Ma era il primo giorno di festa per tanto tempo, e non ci sara' un altro fino ad'agosto. 
L'essere pulita e verde fa parte dell'idea della Nuova Zelanda, e il paesaggio e' cosi' grazie a tanta pioggia.  Pero' e' difficile aprezzarlo fra la pioggia torrenziale.  Nel nostro tentativo a visitare il covo della cattedrale e la spiaggia di acqua calda siamo riusciti soltanto nel bagnarci e raffreddarci.  Siamo tornati alla camera ad aspettare.
Oggi, pero', il sole e' apparso.  Ogni tanto al meno.  Finalmente siamo andati nelle montagne.  Mi mancano parecchio da quando sono partita dall'Abruzzo.  Da un altro punto di visto, i miei muscoli si lamentano adesso.  Domani, cammino come una vecchietta.  Nella foto c'e' la vista da lassu'.  Dimmi tu se e' valsa la pena.