Recipe instructions revised December 2022 :-)
Pōhutukawa flowers are such an icon of New Zealand summer :-)
Over the past few weeks, more and more have come into flower around here.
I love the way they turn the footpaths red.
But I had no idea they had culinary uses until I heard about pōhutukawa cordial on National Radio the other week.
Last summer I was regularly swimming at Blockhouse Bay Beach. I would take the bus, walk down the hill and then swim. I built up to 8 'widths' of the bay, which is about 1.2km and took me about an hour.
Then the weather got colder, and by June/July I was only staying in for about half an hour and swimming 600m. I'd expected to be biking there (rather than busing) for these shorter swims, but I ended up going with a neighbour in her car instead. I would swim while she walked her dogs at Craigavon Park.
Then Covid arrived in New Zealand for real. At level 4 we weren't allowed to swim. At level 3 we could swim in open water, but I was no longer keen to catch the bus and share everyone's germs. So I started biking to the beach: initially swimming 4 widths, then 6, until today when I made it to 8 widths - 1.2km again :-) I was super-pleased with myself. Last week I swum 900m in 44 minutes; today I did 1.2km in 61 minutes. I even kept to the same pace for the last two widths :-)
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| A happy Heather at the end of the swim. It's been a gorgeous day today :-) |
This past weekend Martin and I had a 4-day holiday. We'd been hoping to go camping and tramping in the Waitakere Ranges but, with overnight stays away from home not allowed at the current Covid restrictions, we hatched a new plan. On the Thursday, Saturday and Sunday we slept in, had a late-ish breakfast then biked to Coyle Park for the day; on the Friday we still had the slow morning, but then we drove to the Waitakeres for a day walk.
Martin's bike, loaded with a surprising amount of stuff for the day:
Last summer I bought a dress on TradeMe. It turned out to fit OK, but to hang like a sack :-(
I've been avoiding Oakley Creek/Te Auaunga since we went into lockdown back in August. The paths are narrow and it's super-popular - I found it impossible to stay 2 metres away from people there. But today, on a somewhat grey day, I decided to take the risk and head down right as the 4pm levels adjustment announcement started. I hoped that most people would be glued to their radios and TVs and I'd have the place to myself. I was right :-) And it was so good to be back!
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| A bend in the Creek right near the entrance from our street. The water was running high and cloudy after all the rain last night. |
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| A cabbage tree/tī kōuka in flower up near Harbutt Reserve |
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| New growth on a young tōtara - coming in a much greyer colour than the more brownish/yellowish established leaves. |
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| I loved all the cheerful clumps of daisies in the grassy area on the other side of the creek from us. |
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| A tiny mānuka (or kānuka?) flowering its wee heart out :-) |
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| I love the vivid golden yellow of kōwhai at this time of year :-) |
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| Another stretch of creek as I headed back towards home - so lush with all the spring growth around. |
It's such a treasure having the Creek so close, and it was a delight to spend time there today :-)
At the moment, I feel a bit like I'm surrounded by voices that urge me to be afraid. The New Zealand media is the main voice, with stories about our current Covid outbreak dominating everything, and this voice is reinforced by many people I speak to, by social media, even, to an extent, by my church prayer meetings. It feels like there is one key issue in the whole world, and that subject is scary.
I often buy into it. I miss the Covid-free-paradise that we had only a month or so ago. I tend towards the anxious anyway.
All of which makes my 'Sabbath Mondays' particularly precious right now. I'm so appreciating having a day to just 'be' and a day to fix my eyes on Jesus.
On August 12th I had my first Covid vaccination. At the time it was scheduled, my most local vaccination sites were the CBD and Henderson. I decided to have it in town and to schedule it on a Thursday (Martin's regular day off) so we could spend some time exploring the waterfront together first.
