Sunday 10 January 2021

Hobbies

In these strange days when you're more or less confined to home it really helps to have something interesting, creative, to pass the time.  I thought I would be able to read more books, watch more TV programmes of my choice but it rarely turns out that way.  I have a hundred things to do everyday and there still isn't enough time to to do it all.  I still have to cook and clear the ashes and get rid of a few cobwebs.  Clothes still have to be washed, but not necessarily ironed, beds changed and carpets vaccumed.

However, that's morning stuff.  Afternoons, after the essential siesta, there is more time for me.  Thanks to my daughters I have begun a regular walking programme.  The festive season was too much fun and food and I seem to now carry a few extra kilos.  Those have got to go and I need to get fit.  My summer exercise is swimming but I twisted my ankle and sank down into that couch and rarely rose from its depths even when the ankle was healed.


  We have a treadmill which has the evil eye.  The xmas tree was set up on top of it this year through lack of space.  We took it down on New Years eve. Before twelfth night.  It seems that is unlucky.  Ye, right.  But when we turned the treadmill on it came to a grinding halt.  So I have been pushed outside to get exercise.  Dragged and pushed, not quite screaming.  What better place to walk.  We live in the wop-wops.  Fresh air and no-one else to encroach on our space.  The thing about walking is that when you've walked half an hour or so then you have to turn round and walk back again the way you came.  Boring.  Which is why I liked the treadmill.  But with encouragement I am overcoming that.  So many ways to go, so many different turns to make.  I'm getting to enjoy it.  Or I will.

 One of my many hobbies is crochet.  And knitting.  But crochet is faster and all you need is a hook, a bit of yarn and imagination.  If you make a mistake it is so easy to pull it out and continue on.  Unlike knitting


I'm making peggy squares, also known as granny squares.  I'm using whatever yarn leftovers I have on hand.  Sewing in all those ends is a bit of a bugger and you need a few hundred squares to make a decent size throw or blanket but the project can take years.  Who cares.  It's calming and satisfying to see the squares mount up.  If I had enough yarn in just one or two colours I could even make a vest or a jersey, may even do so.


One xmas I knitted dozems of these stockings to hang on everyone's christmas tree.  




Meanwhile the male half of our duo is fixing appliances of every sort for friends and family.  How often does a kettle, iron, vaccum cleaner, bedside light give up the ghost.  If you don't have a handy man then you chuck it and buy another.  Not us.

When it's freezing he brings his repairs inside to the living room.  That's ok.  If he's happy then so am I


Baking takes up time.  Sourdough bread or quick bread when its cold and wet and we don't want to get into the car and take a trip down the mountain.  I'm trying not to bake cakes and biscuits.  Easter isn't that far away and we will once again have a house full of easter baking, cookies and sweet bread.  



I'm making a cookbook of all the New Zealand, English and Gre-nglish recipes we make at Christmas.  I think our house hold should celebrate a Greek easter and an English Christmas.  Traditional people do not agree and we always have some fatty pork at Christmas too, like it or not.

But brussel sprouts, yorkshire puddings, stuffing, roast vege, real gravy,  pate, xmas cake and lots of chilled sauv blanc are essential for me to feel that xmas spirit. It's all being recorded for posterity. 

And now my cousin C in NZ has given me another project.  She wrote and published a book on her extra-ordinary life, her idyllic upbringing in NZ in the '50s and 27 years in Lesotho.  She has asked us all to write 3 pages on our own lives and she will publish a second book.  It's a marvellous idea.  Where to begin, where to end.  





25 comments:

  1. Put me down for a few copies of your Gre-nglish cook book Linda. They'll make great Christmas presents.

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    1. Gravy and tzatziki, pork and celery, turkey stuffing, beetroot and garlic sauce. This year especially we had everything. It would make a great book.

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    2. I was going to make my Cornish pasties too this Xmas but nothing else would fit on the table!!

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  2. What a cool idea about the book. I've been working on like a memoir of my life for that day when I'm gone for my children, bit by bit.

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    1. Next generations will love your life story, specially if it's warts and all. I have stories from my grandparents and my parents.

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  3. And pavlova. Show us the growing pile of squares from time to time. And keep enjoying that minute exploration of your neighbourhood.

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    1. Yes, Tigger. I've got trifle and choc upside down pudding on the list. Forgot the pav. My daughter usually makes it. She didn't this year. Her sister made a lemon pie

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  4. I don't have any hobbies although I suppose gardening is a hobby. By the time I have done the jobs on my list I am tired out anyway.

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    1. You don't need hobbies. Your days are so full. However gardening, walking and the gym could definitely be classed as hobbies

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  5. Your Christmas cookbook sounds like a wonderful way to record your particular family's festive cooking traditions :)

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    1. We have several cooking scrapbooks from my mother and the girls let be them. I've already filled a folder with my own recipes and comments. Now I'm enjoying making this Xmas one

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  6. I think your cookbook sounds fabulous! I wish I had my Grandmother's recipes (or my Aunt's home made ice cream recipe). And I love your granny squares ~ very satisfying to finish a square and see them accumulate, whereas the quilt I'm making is still sitting there, giving me the evil eye :-)

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    1. We lost some of my grandmother's recipes and ate now trying to replicate them. I have all my mother's thank goodness. Next generations will love them.
      I used to knit sweaters but not any more. Too long and boring. I love the quick satisfaction of a granny square.

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  7. You must get up very early to accomplish all that in a morning! I don't like walking alone. Does someone go with you? -Jenn

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    1. I don't do all that in one morning, believe me. Ooof. I've got to a stage in life where I no longer notice a bit of dust, cobwebs . Life is too short. I do like order though.
      Now I'll have to walk alone. My girls are too busy during the week and k is not interested. I used to walk,set myself goals, distances. I just got out of the habit. Time to begin again. I don't mind my own company

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  8. My late mother-in-law used to knit socks for everyone, but the heels always wore out very quickly so she began making miniature socks instead. These now hang in Christmas trees, in the front of cars (instead of furry dice), and in other bizarre places. The heels no longer wear out.

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    1. Fuzzy dice or a dangling sock would get on my nerves. I think K would make damn sure it wore out, with a pair of scissors.
      They put nylon in sock wool now so the heels don't wear out. I have a short attention scan. One sock is fun. Two socks exactly the same would be far too tedious

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    2. Dangling stuff in the car...he wouldn't dare do anything to the Xmas tree

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  9. There isn't much point in me trying to produce a recipe book. I always make it up as I go along, chuck anything in the pot and hope for the best.

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    1. That's what we all do after years of daily cooking. I make up some sort of story around it as well and note all the changes that can be made. Whoever looks at these recipes in later years will probably get the idea and do as you do. Cross fingets

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  10. Crochet saved my sanity during our long boring lockdown. Your cookbook is going be an amazing mush mash of recipes. I’d love a copy of it as well

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    1. Well, Angela, when I finish it. When, is what I say. I'll make copies for you. You're one of the few xeni that would understand it all lol

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  11. When my parents moved into a retirement centre where all meals were provided my mom threw out all her recipe files and books. My sister and I didn't know this until it was too late-so they were all gone!. When my GD got married i made her a recipe book of all our favourites.

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    1. A pity your mum didn't keep them all. Fashion's come and go, even with food, and we all want to enjoy what we ate as children. Good for for handing on your favourites

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  12. Great idea about the book, there must be Kiwis all over the world who have very interesting lives. Enjoy your walking, looking for things to take photos of will help along gnthe way. Great idea for the recipes, I amlucky to have my mothers recipe books, what she cooked changes a lot over the years. Good idea doing the crochet, no stress do it when you feel the urge!

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