sunday, slow.

a day to simply rest - isn't that a thought?

individual pot roast lunch. a perfect start to sunday afternoon.

watching the all blacks dominate the pitch against scotland. while snuggling under the just-finished (and blocked!) knit blanket.

walking along muddy paths in late afternoon light.

hot chocolate as the sun sets.

evening service at church praising the one who always remembers.

forty.

le boy turned 40 a couple of weeks ago. and it was a birthday extravaganza to end all others. we are blessed with numerous friends in this big city and so we started things with a big party at a local pub. it was wonderful to have so many people out to celebrate my guy and as often happens at these events, i learn a few new stories, a little insight into my husband. that night i learned just how much people care about him, and the efforts they'll make to celebrate him with me.

i wanted us to have a birthday cake for the occasion so i enquired at a local bakery, when the price tag came back at £125(!) i decided that there must be a better way - after all cake is only flour and eggs right? and it is, admittedly i might have taken on a bit much that weekend, with our saturday night celebrations but i dove in and this was the result.

hummingbird cake recipe, icing design completely ripped off  inspired by a photo i saw online...the learning from this bad boy - it's always better to go with a fluffy icing under a fondant icing...i may or may not have iced this twice.

and if that wasn't enough we had a dozen of le boy's nearest and dearest for a dinner party the following night.

it started as always with some wine and cheese and gift opening. a good friend of marvellous always starts her dinner parties with crackers and cheese and i've shamelessly stolen the idea.

and it continued with, if i do say so myself, the best roast leg of lamb of all time.

i cannot begin to describe this joy. tender and juicy and so delicious. i used jamie oliver's recipe for the 'best roast lamb' he wasn't lying.

full menu :: pinterest board with links to all recipes

caesar salad

roast leg of lamb with mint sauce 

roasted potatoes and carrots 

spicy butternut squash 

lemony green beans 

chocolate pavolova 

it went incredibly well. except the pavolva which i made three times. the directions by the lovely nigella suggest satin peaks for the meringue before adding sugar - it might have been the humidity in my kitchen, which tends to be high and can have an adverse effect on egg whites but these just became seven-minute frosting, twice. my leiths techniques bible, how i love it! suggested whipping to very stiff peaks before adding sugar and it was a success! sadly the photo in the dark kitchen just didn't come out, but suffice to say it approximates the photo online.

in all the celebrations were a success and we felt so immensely blessed to have our friends celebrate this oh so important entrance into a new decade!

seventeen::newlywed::relationship

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so, we learning that marriage is a lot of give and take. those of you who have been married for longer than a minute, can stop rolling your eyes.

sunday was a great example of this.

to say le boy is an ardent rugby fan is a bit of an understatement. and while i appreciate that rugby-mania might not have entered your household, particularly if you live on the other side of the pond and are in the thick of football season, but here in england, it's been the main topic of conversation for months. the rugby world cup is currently playing, the final is next weekend. and while we may live in england, we are decidedly all blacks fans (we support new zealand).

the haka done prior to every all blacks game - see one in action here.

to be honest, when i first moved here, i had little to no understanding of rugby, but my friends are pretty much all rugby fans and so i learned the rules of the game. however, i don't think i ever imagined waking early to watch games streamed over the internet, or as was the case yesterday, hopping on our bikes on a chilly october morning to head over to our friends' house for breakfast, copious coffee and tea, and a tense 80 minutes.

you see, to add to the excitement - new zealand is hosting the rugby world cup - and it would be so fantastic for a win on home soil! yesterday's game against the australians was hard fought, and no walk in the park. and so i'm gearing up for another early morning bike ride next sunday to cheer on the all blacks in the final against france. it will be fun to be sure!

sunday afternoon was a little bit more 'me' focused, shall we say with a mid-afternoon lounge on the couch catching up on the latest bbc drama, and a walk around our neighbourhood park. this is where le boy particularly gives - i take the camera with us on these walks and i stop constantly - he's so kind to indulge my creativity.

finally, i'll end today with a quick kitchen tip:
 
i've been making chicken stock almost weekly - after we've had a roast chicken i throw the bones into the freezer in a zip-loc and wait until i've got a few hours over an evening or a weekend afternoon to simmer the stock. add in a carrot, an onion, a couple of celery stocks and some salt and let it bubble gently for the next few hours - topping up the water level as it evaporates.

after you've strained the stock from the bones/vegetables (be sure to pick off the extra meat that can only be found when everything falling apart and save for later!) chill the stock in the fridge so the fat rises to the top. skim off.

grab a coffee mug and line with a plastic baggie, fold over the top of the mug. ladle the stock into the baggie, remove from the mug and seal with as little air inside the baggie as possible. you now have stock in one-cup measurements, freeze and use as needed!

this one-cup method works very well with any liquid-ish food you want to freeze - soup, stock, sauce. (perhaps the item needs to start with the letter 's'?)

sixteen::newlywed::homemaking

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the weekend's been mainly productive. i did get a little distracted by cooking - the soup from yesterday, chicken stock, delicious fish cakes that i'll post very soon! i hung curtains (more on that later), had a fight with the printer for printing everything with a blue tinge, and made some new pillow cases for our living room.

envelope pillow cases 

really these couldn't be easier, but since every tutorial i found online made these much more complicated than i believe necessary, too much cutting and hemming. i'm sure there's a purpose to all of that, but really, these are for my living room - i'm happy with just having them done at all!

you'll need a length of fabric that's an inch (or so) wider than your pillow and about 2.5 times as long. so my pillow was 15", i needed 16" wide and about 37" long. i had a couple lengths of fabric i picked up in new zealand when we were there last christmas, secretly hoping that one day, le boy and i would have our own place, in need of pillows - and here we are!

start by hemming the short edges, for a neat edge, fold 1/2", press, fold 1/2" over again, press. this contains the edge completely, and reduces the likelihood of fraying. also, as one of these edges will be visible, it's good to get everything tucked away!

now, here is where i fiddled a little bit. i had a semi-repeating, very graphic pattern, and i didn't really want it to match perfectly, so i folded my fabric so that it came 3/4 of the way over the pillow, all the way around the other side, and then the second flap came over by half again. it's nice if there's some overlap as it makes for a neat finish at the back. and remember to sew right sides facing - or your seams will be outside, and not in! (this has happened to me during late night sewing expeditions!)

you can see from my photos that i wasn't terribly fussy, i didn't even pin! i just pressed and then stitched down each side, back stitching wherever the fabric edges were for extra strength.

clip the corners for less bulk when you turn the case right side out.

stuff with a pillow. show your husband and be very excited when he makes a fuss over all the effort you went to. (don't tell him this took less than 30 min!) 

anzac.

saturday night is our engagement cocktail party! i'm so so so excited - it is going to be a great opportunity for our london guests to meet each other, and for us to celebrate with some of our dearest the journey toward marriage! making it even better is a quick trip over the pond by marvellous. i cannot wait.

i'm taking the opportunity to craft my way to heaven - and cook up a storm. i LOVE entertaining, and simply cannot wait until we have our own place. le boy and i have established one of our key values to be hospitality and we are hoping to be able to open our home and our lives to others.

the engagement party is proving a great opportunity to try out some decor and theme ideas for the wedding - our colours are navy and deep pink and our theme is 'a bicycle built for two.' le boy is an enormous cycling enthusiast and so it's apropos.

we're also trying to keep our food choices authentic to the food we love and to our home nations. and so i present the 'anzac' biscuit. the story goes that these biscuits were baked by wives of WWI soldiers because the biscuits could withstand the long journey by sea to the war in europe. consequently, they are a very dense, crisp biscuit, and have no major perishable ingredients. we plan to serve them with a topping of vanilla ice cream as a 'finishing' to the evening of champagne, hor d'ouvres, and immense excitement.

anzac biscuits  (adapted from donnahay.com.au)  1 cup (90g) rolled oats  1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour  ⅓ cups (150g) caster (superfine) sugar  ¾ cup (60g) desiccated coconut  2 tablespoons golden syrup  125g butter  1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda  2 tablespoons hot water   Preheat oven to 160°C (320ºF). Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. Place the golden syrup and butter in a saucepan over low heat and melt. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Place tablespoons of the mixture, leaving space between each one for spreading, onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and flatten to about 7cm in diameter. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until a deep brown. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 28.

time to pray.

rather than blogging about my own situation today.

i'd like to ask you to spend the time you'd normally take to read this, praying for the people affected by the earthquake in christchurch, nz*.

i believe that god is listening...

dec 2010 sunset over lyttelton harbour - location of the epicentre of the quake

^4-6 'I've heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here's what I'll do:...I'll save both you and this city...I have my hand on this city.  (Isaiah 38:5, The Message)

*for those interested tvnz and the nzherald are good sources of up-to-date information.

away.

christchurch cathedral - dec 2010

the single hardest things about living abroad is that there is always potential to be away from your family when something of significance happens - today we learned that christchurch has again sustained an earthquake. this will make three (plus the multitude of aftershocks) in six months.

le boy's family live in christchurch. and so my family now lives in christchurch too. thank god they are ok.

the photographs of destruction - places we stood not even two months ago, reduced to rubble - are reminders of the fragility of this life. 65 people have died so far, and it is unknown how many more are injured or trapped in buildings. it is night now, and it must be terrifying.

christchurch cathedral feb 22, 2011 - freerepublic.com

my heart is burdened today for the people of christchurch, for my family who live in the city, for those kind kiwis i met on our travels, for my fiance as he watches from away. i am driven to my knees today, and i ask that you join me.

¹ I love the Lord because he hears my voice
      and my prayer for mercy.
 ² Because he bends down to listen,
      I will pray as long as I have breath!

psalm 116:1&2 (NLT)

remote.

so i thought i should make an effort to document the final parts of the trip. being engaged is bring all sorts of distractions, and planning a wedding in six months definitely means that we are in full swing!

but back to the travelogue...


warning - it's quite possible that only marvellous will want to read this, and perhaps my grandparents, the rest of you, this is long - but i want to remember the entire exceptionally fun experience we had while travelling!

we parted ways with le boy's parents in queenstown, picked up ever kiwi man's dream car - something about a powerful engine, built for driving....and took to the open (winding) road. our first stop was in te anau. i will pause to say that i encountered some very confused canadian geese - that migration pattern is impressive - and felt nostalgic for the 'v' pattern geese make while flying.

we spent the day hiking, the ground is covered in thick undergrowth - tons of ferns and intense green. but i suppose that's what happens in a rainforest.

after working up such an appetite we finished the day with an excellent meal from an incredibly friendly proprietor at the redcliffe cafe.


we woke up and found our way into fiordland national park. we were spending two nights in one of the most remote places in the world - milford sound. named after a town in wales, it is responsible for the famous 'come to new zealand' photos you see in advertisements. the mountains really do soar up out of the sea - and it is simply one of the most stunning places i've ever visited.

the first evening was on a boat. there are very few ways to stay overnight in milford, we found a way to do it twice, and it was absolutely one of my most favourite parts of the trip.we boarded in the late afternoon and shortly after we set off we were joined by a pod of dolphins!

we were lucky with weather and saw the sound in both its states of glory: heavy rain and beautiful sunshine! evening activities on the boat included seeing the spontaneous waterfalls created by the deluge of rain, sea kayaking in a quiet bay and then braving the FRIGID water for a before-dinner dip.

after a very necessary hot shower we ate dinner and enjoyed a very informative nature talk. seriously, if you ever go to nz, find a way to milford sound and get yourself on an overnight cruise. it was absolutely brilliant!

we woke to sunshine and sailed out into the tasman sea - what a day!

my happy fiancé!

looking a little fresh.

this post has gotten out of control so i'll finish up the nz experience later!

links: redcliffe cafe : milford sound cruise