Raspberry jam

Hot summer days may not lend themselves to domestic pursuits but the results of jam making are worth it.

I use Alison Holst’s recipe:

500g raspberries & 500g sugar.

Bring raspsberries to boil in large pan.

Add sugar immediately and stir over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves.

(The recipe says to put on rubber gloves and beat to break up the fruit but I never do that).

Let jam boil briskly for 3 minutes then turn off heat.

(The recipe says to beat several times over the next 5 mintues but I’ve never done that either).

Pour in to hot jars and seal.

Electronic transactions down

The value of electronic transactions was 2.8%  lower in November than in October.

It was the largest monthly drop since records began in October 2002 and was mainly a result of a fall in the price of fuel.

That could mean people had more money to spend on other things but anecdotal reports from retailers suggest that the volume and value of sales is down.

Although things may not yet be as desperate as this:

12th day

It’s the 12th day after Christmas when you’re supposed to take down all the festive decorations to ensure good luck for the coming year.

I’m not superstitious and usually have had enough of pine needles dropping from the tree before January 5th so generally clear the tree and other signs of Christmas away before now.

We left the country half way through December and hadn’t bothered with a tree or other decorations so the post-Christmas clean-up was simply a matter of scooping up the cards.

Cherries ripe

The sour taste left by the unripe unripe stone fruit I posted on yesterday has been vanquished by delicious cherries from Totara Lowlands.

They taste sun-ripened and are sweet and juicy.

Totara Lowlands is 400 metres off State Highway 1 about three kilometres north of the Brydone memorial and Totara Estate, and a couple of kilometres south of the war memorial at Alma.

They also grow and sell hazelnuts – whole, shelled raw and roasted – a variety of nut and cherry products (made on-site) and a range of good quality gifts.

Picnic at Elephant Rocks

Elephant Rocks, a few kilometres south eastish of Duntroon,  was the setting for the battle scenes in Chronicles of Narnia, it’s also part of the Vanished World trail and today provided the perfect place for a sunny Sunday picnic.

This shouldn’t be news

It should always have been policy.

Some of the country’s worst criminals will no longer be appearing before the Parole board instead, they will get their own hearing at the Extended Parole Board.

It is an effort to save time and better scrutinise dangerous prisoners.

It will be smaller board with three judges, three lay members and a psychiatrist.

Parole Board spokesman Alistair Spealing hopes the move will better protect the community.

This move is especially welcome in the wake of this story about a convicted rapist and killer about to be released from prison who stabbed a cell mate.

It needed pruning anyway

False advertising

We stopped at Roxburgh for fruit on the way home from Millers Flat yesterday but sadly it didn’t live up to the promises on the boxes.

 

The peaches are only just ripening, the nectarines and apricots are rock hard  and none of the fruit is tasty, yummy or sweet.

It’s particularly disappointing because for the last two weeks we’ve been enjoying stone fruit in Argentina which looked good and tasted even better – sweet and juicy just as it should be.

Going down . . .

 Diesel was $1.16 a litre when we left New Zealand on December 14, it was down to $1.03 when we returned on Thursday.

That the latest fall came in the wake of a press release from Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee suggesting it was time oil companies dropped their prices may well have been more of a happy coincidence than a sign that they listened to him, but I still like Garrick Tremain’s take on it:

 

New Year

Most of the literature I was brought up on was from the northern hemisphere so poetry which celebrated seasons never fitted my experience. Because of that I still get a thrill from the sense of connection with poems which come from a southern hemisphere perspective as this Friday’s choice does.

 It’s New Year by Ruth Dallas from Collected Poems, published by University of Otago Press, 2000.

New Year

 

The brimming year spills over in midsummer heat;

A deft wind combs the willow-branches

And coaxes small-talk from the poplar grove.

Tat dissolves in the deserted street.

 

My neighbours are gone to the sea or inland,

But I like this time of the year at home,

In the space left by motorbikes and a silenced guitar.

I watch a blackbird grow tipsy on gooseberries.

 

Doors and windows stay open. Three or four

Sheepswool clouds lie distant from the sun.

In the evening I carry water to the beans.

The sky darkens and the clouds grow a halo.

 

The moon looks up from the poplars

Like the bright eye of the pert blackbird,

Then expands into a luminous marrow-flower

This postcard is a view from earth.

 

                      - Ruth Dallas –

Blogging in absentia

We’ve spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in Argentina and almost all the posts since we left on December 14th have been ones I wrote in advance.

While we were away I did a few quick checks on Homepaddock when I had internet access which enabled me to respond to comments and correct the typos I’d missed (memo to self – learn to proof read).

But most of the time there were many other claims on my interest and attention which I’m relieved about because it proves I’m not addicted to blogging - something I feared I might be in danger of for a few weeks in late October and early November.

It was our fifth trip to Argentina and the primary purpose for this visit was to attend two weddings but we also celebrated Christmas,  renewed friendships,  visited farms, covered several thousands kilometres from Buenos Aires to Baiha Blanca, Mar Del Plata, Pergamino and back; drank wonderful wine, ate lots of meat . . .

When the body and brain have caught up with the clock I’ll blog on my reflections on my favourite country (outside New Zealand).

In the meantime – feliz año nuevo, may 2009 be a wonderful year.

The year of the flying pig

I always enjoy looking at the calendar and my diary at this time of the year – all those days with nothing planned, all those weeks with no claims on them, so much time with which I could accomplish so much.

 

Looking ahead from here before the squares on the calendar are scribbled over and the pages of the diary are filled with things to do, places to go and people to see, almost anything seems possible.

 

This could the year when I do at least some of those things I have been wanting to do but have not yet done.

 

This could be the year when I stop doing at least some of the things I ought to stop doing but don’t.

 

This could be the year when I do what I have to do before I have to do it; when I regard all challenges as opportunities rather than crises; when I keep problems in perspective; when I remember to take a deep breath and think before I react; when I respond with both my head and my heart and when I retain my sense of humour regardless of the provocation to lose it.

 

This could be the year of the new, improved, better and brighter me – and this could be the year that pigs start flying.