Patchwork Quilt

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Judy

I never tried to make a quilt because it looks like it is a lot of work and it will take ages to finish. I thought I’d lose interest and never finish it. Then there was the issue of where to start, there are lots of quilting clubs and courses around but then I would end up making something according to a pattern with fabrics that I might not like that much.

Easter weekend someone showed me a quilt she whipped up in a couple of days for her daughter with some fabrics she bought on special and some she had laying around, it looked awesome! When I started talking about maybe making a small quilt, lots of people around me loved the idea and gave me tips and idea’s. I just kept it simple, small squares with fabrics I already had lying around.

I liked making it and it didn’t take me very long at all. The bit that took up the most time was getting the tension of the sewing machine right. That took me an hour every time I changed a bobbin :-( .

I have been buying some fabrics now and downloaded some blocks I want to try, a little bit more challenging. I am not sure how to do the actual quilting part yet but I will worry about that when I get to that. I think most people do it by hand and with my sewing machine troubles that might be a better option for me too, less frustration.

The leftover bits from the quilt I kept to use while making my softies, nothing gets thrown away ;-) .

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Beekeeping Field day

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Judy

Last Sunday we had a field day at one of the beekeepers place. The turnout was fantastic, I think we had about 16 people there. We opened up some of the hives and looked through them from top to bottom. We were very lucky to have some very experienced people there who were more than happy to show us what to look for and advise us on what to do next.

The bees were very well behaved and looked like they were ready for winter, they had reduced the brood area and in some hives we couldn’t find any brood at all. We talked about different options for the hives with no brood, they might not have a queen at all, very interesting stuff.

We had coffee/tea and baking afterwards and talked bees like usual ;-) . A very successful day again and I learned heaps! Myron came along for the afternoon to take some photo’s and climb some avocado trees ;-) .

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Hanging out with the neighbours

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Judy

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Marty

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Judy

I finished another softy, his name is Marty. His legs are a bit funny I think but he is still really cute.

I haven’t made many softies lately, I’ve been working lots and I have started a quilt. Just some squares put together to see if I like quilting. I’ll post some photo’s when it is finished.

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Squash

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Judy

We have had a few different types of squash in the garden just like last year. Big ones, small ones, squash that look like pumpkins and squash that look like zucchini (courgette). I have made some soup of most of them and used the zucchini in all sorts of dishes.

Zucchini is great, you can use it for so many things and we love most of the recipes too. It is just a matter of finding the time to process them all since you end up with huge ones all at the same time at the end of the season.

A good friend of mine had a little old book in which he used to write all his favourite recipes back in the days when he used to work as a chef. He is retired now but I had the privilege to read his little book and I picked out 2 zucchini recipes that are real winners at our house. Zucchini pickle and zucchini bread.

I must admit I changed the zucchini bread recipe a little bit by swapping cinnamon with dutch “speculaas” spices. I still have some zucchini left so I will be making one more batch of pickle and quite a few loaves to go in the freezer this weekend.

The soup I make is different every time, just whatever I have in the garden or the fridge but it is usually pretty basic. My auntie told me to put some smoked salmon in just before you serve the zucchini soup, delicious!

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The Book Thief

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Judy

I loved this book. It is very different to any other book really. Like it suggests in one of the reviews, you have to read it a bit at a time, take it all in and read another little bit. It took me quite a while to finish this book and I must say, that was the best way to read it. The book thief is a young lady who never gets a chance to be a young lady, she has no time to grow up and shows us life as it was being a young girl in WWΙΙ, learning to read and discovering life, living with a Jew in your basement and all the secrets that come with it. Reading from stolen books to everyone in the street while hiding in a basement from possible bomb attacks. Absolutely amazingly written, gripping and yet written from a little girls point of view. It might sound strange but sometimes it reminded me of my favourite little story: “the little prince” with all its innocence but cleverness at the same time.

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Companionship

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Judy

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Great weekend @ the beach.

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Judy

To celebrate oma’s 60th birthday we went to the beach. We told her she had to pack a bag but didn’t tell her where we were going or what we were going to do. Saturday morning she arrived with her bag packed and Vince had put the bag with the tent in it and sleeping bags next to the car (she really doesn’t like camping). He told her they were going to pick me up from work to go to Mount Ruhapehu. I was at work all day but she did get nervous and realised she wasn’t dressed for camping in the snow…

Mount Ruhapehu

Anyway, they drove to Mount Maunganui and checked in at a nice hotel, a room with a nice view and the beach across the road. So much better then camping in the snow ;-) . They had a ball all day, beach, shopping, food and wine.

By the time I arrived at around 7pm everyone was well settled in to the apartment and we had some wine and Dutch salted herring with chopped onions before it was time for the birthday presents! Her dear family from the Netherlands had send me a little film with brothers and sisters congratulating her with her birthday, a very nice surprise. One of her sisters also send me some really old photo’s so I made a collage of old and new family photo’s, all in black and white. It is surprising how awesome everyone looked in black and white, a real success!

 

We had a home cooked meal, prepared by our won private chef ;-) . Outside is was still warm enough to hang out on the balcony so that is what we did before we all went to bed, exhausted.

The next day everyone was up early so after we all had bacon and eggs for breakfast and a nice coffee from the café next door, we went to the beach again. Because it was so early it was quiet and peaceful and there were plenty of birds around. Yvonne and Myron went looking for large mussel shells to use for flax weaving and I found something quite unusual while looking for shells:

After the beach, we visited the local farmers market and bought some enormous beetroot. Yvonne and I went on to Bayfair to do some shopping and Vince and Myron went home to unpack and walk the dogs. I ended up with new boots for winter and four new tops for just over $60, what a bargain!

The weekend was an enormous success and the presents were very well received. I couldn’t have made the collage and showed the family film without the help of one of Yvonne’s sisters. Thank you Solita, your contribution made it a weekend to remember.

 

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The Honey Thief

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Judy

Easter weekend I finished making the syrup feeder for my bee hive, I copied it from a feeder someone in our bee-group had made for his TBH. The feeder is attached to the outside of one of the follower boards so it doesn’t take up any room inside the brood area. Which is important during winter because the bees will most likely have some brood all through winter and this has to stay warm, at a temperature of 33-35°C. My bees are still building comb and storing honey so I have given them some space to do that but when it gets colder I’ll reduce the area as much as possible.

Talking about storing honey… After I had installed the feeder I went to have a look in the hive. I lifted some bars and shook the bees off back into the hive. The first 3 looked nice, lots of bees storing lots of nectar and making honey. The 4th bar I shook to hard and the whole comb fell off into the hive. This comb was very heavy with capped honey and had a bit of a kink on one end. Disaster! The comb was now on the bottom of the hive, leaning against the next one and there was honey dripping out, lots of bees (and me) panicking. At first I though I might be able to re-attach the comb to the bar with some wire but because of the odd shape of the comb I decided I should take it out altogether. I lifted the comb carefully out of the hive with my bread knife and my hive tool and put it in the first box I could grab from the kitchen. I brushed most of the bees off, closed the container and put it in the freezer. That way the bees can’t find it, the few bees still on and in the comb will die and I can have a think about what to do with it, after all this was their stored food for winter…

It is very tempting to extract the honey from the comb and eat it as it is our first honey but we could also feed it back to the hive at some stage. I still feel really bad and uncomfortable about stealing their food…

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Parked under the wrong tree!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Judy

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