isobel dalhousie

our first strawberries. celeste & i made these biccys & the chocolate caramel fingers yesterday for school lunches. i've just finished another alexander maccall book 'the lost art of gratitude', i really enjoy reading this series, it's so entertaining & i like to ponder the main character isobel's philosophical thoughts.
'something to do with beauty. yes, she thought, that was one way of expressing it. moral beauty existed as clearly as any other form of beauty and perhaps that was were we would find the god who was so vividly, and sometimes bizarrely, described in our noisey religious explanations. it was an intriguing thought, as it meant that a concert could be a spiritual experience, a secular painting a religious icon, a beguiling face a passing angel.'

weeds

i made these almond fingers today, the recipe is again from 'ladies, a plate' such a great book with such great results - which is entirely a credit to the well researched & selected recipes.
i'm not sure what this yellow weed is, i'm thinking maybe something beginning with 'c' & maybe something that farmer's feed their cows but i can't be sure.

gingerbread biscuits

fooee it's been a long time since i've written on my blog, a lot has been going on but i haven't really been taking many photos, i'm in a lull. it's a beautiful day today on the 6th day of the spring school holidays & we are mooching around home, it's really rather lovely. 3 loads of washing are out & i've even managed to do some weeding in the garden, i check the garden at least twice a day at the moment because it's so exciting to see things popping up out of the ground & coming out of the winter woody phase. i bought these poppies in auckland for my old friend sarah, i just love love love the colours together. the bright orange flower is my first nasturtium flower from the inside.

fudge brownie

we're off to wellington tomorrow for 3 days on our own, too exciting. this is our beloved neighbour maggie's fudge brownie, made today to share with my class tonight.

birthday season

some flowers & afghans i made today for the lovely libby's birthday. the afghans are in a great baking book called 'ladies, a plate' traditional home baking, by alexa johnston. we have had a busy weekend of birthdays & it has only just begun really, it seems most of our family's birthdays fall in winter starting in july & running full tilt until the end of august. louis turned 6 today so we had his party on saturday, he ordered a truck cake from the birthday cake book this year which was a challenge. i was pretty happy with how it turned out until the weight of the tilted trailer made it slip off the plate.

winter is here

the first day of winter & it's all about food. winter lentil soup & nigella lawson's ginger marmalade bread & butter pudding for tea,(this photo is pre-cooking) then chocolate truffle fudge cake to accompany cups of tea, mmm. the winter lentil soup is just right for a cold winter night & is a annabel langbein recipe, i use her recipe book great food for busy lives a lot for our family.
epilogue: 2 out 0f 3 children did not eat their soup & 3 out of 3 children did not eat their desert. never again.

wild flowers

my baby was poorly today so we spent the day indoors, it was cabin feverish for me but was needed for her. i made this caramel slice which is laden with butter & inadvisable if you are not wanting to fatten up for winter - it's got healthy oats in it if that's any consolation?