Random musings

Quote for the day:

“Happiness isn’t about getting what you want all the time.  It’s about loving what you have and being grateful for it”  from theteenagerquotes.tumbr.com

Welcome to day 16.  I’m a bit late tonight posting this blog, been watching a Jason Bourne movie on TV. Haven’t watched a good movie for sometime, as I normally spend my evenings writing up my lock-down blog posts.

I have a confession to make, today’s feature image is not from my garden, but from the Hamilton Gardens.  I saw the bloom with a bee in it on the foot path and couldn’t resist taking a photo.  Quite beautiful don’t you think?  I’m so glad the bees have a good food supply at present with all the camellia out.

If you missed reading day 15’s comments click here to catch up.

It’s been another stunning day in paradise – what a beautiful day for celebrating Good Friday.  Did you do anything special today, or were you one of those that went to the beach batch???  Yeh right – if only!

This morning I went for a short bike ride to check out the country side and Hamilton Gardens and get some ‘signs of autumn’ photographs. You’ll see my captured moments below.  It’s hard to get used to Hamilton with so little traffic on the roads, and with the supermarkets closed today, the city was ultra-quiet.  This afternoon got my lawns mowed and tomorrow will throw some lawn seed over the bare patches of my lawn.  The forecast is predicating rain on Sunday – so here’s hoping.  Mind you, having said that I’m a firm believer in waiting until the day arrives and then see what the weather will be like.  All this forecasting of weather can lead to false hopes and changing of plans, which is not a good thing.

What can I let go of to keep my life peaceful?

I get monthly emails from Cindy Cashman (Million selling author and Intuitive Coach) and thought you may find this useful.  She wrote the following:

With everything going on with the coronavirus, a question I have been asking myself is:

How do I let go of fear, anger, hurt, sadness, etc?  What works for me is allowing myself to feel whatever feeling is coming up and then I give myself permission to let it go.  How do I let it go?  How do I let go of a hot potato?  I drop it and stop talking about it!  Instead I choose to focus on gratitude and what brings me joy 🙂  This is an ongoing process like brushing your teeth.  Some days are easier than others.

Signs of autumn

That is it for day 16.  Trust you’ve had a great Good Friday and look forward to hearing about your happenings tomorrow.

Take care and be kind and patient with yourself and those in your bubble.  Goldcard Gal 🙂

Quote for the day:

“To live a creative life, we must loose the fear of being wrong”  Unknown

Welcome to day 15.  Wasn’t it great to finally have some rain over night?  Our farmers will be pleased along with the life style block owners and residential neighbours.

Fantastic news that the cases of COVID-19 are decreasing.  Yes, yes, yes!

Today being Thursday is my online teaching day through Wintec.  There were issues with last week’s classes but today thankfully there were none.  I felt much more confident and everything seemed to flow well, students were more verbal and actively involved.

Here is the link to Day 14’s comments just in case you missed out, they are always interesting reads and sometimes you can have a good laugh:  Day 14.

Some special to share with you

One of my readers Sue shared with me how she records her lock-down days.  I admire her imagination and sketching skills – oh to have such talents!.  Sue, I think your daily sketchings will make an interesting book when this lock-down is over.

How are you recording your days in lock-down?

Feijoa Chutney Recipe

Here is the recipe for those of you who have requested it – it is tasty.

This recipe is from Rowan Bishop’s booked titled “The Virtual Cafe Cookbook” published in 2000.  She used to live in Hamilton and write for the Waikato Times many years ago.

Aromatic feijoas are such a wonderful fruit to eat fresh and they are full of good vitamins and fibre.  The only problem is that they don’t have long lasting abilities.  Feijoas do however, made a great chutney for eating with breads and cheeses, tangy and sweet, this chutney is irresistible on crackers with cottage cheese OR use as an accompaniment with cold meats or simply cooked fish or chicken.

Ingredients and instructions

600 gms onions 1.5 kg feijoas (about 7 cups peeled, diced fruit) 3 medium apples 2 1/2 cups wine vinegar 3 cups sugar (I put in 2 cups) 60 gms fresh or pre-pared minced ginger 60 gms fresh or pre-pared crushed garlic 2 Tbsp dry mustard (powder) 2 Tbsp mustard seeds 3/4 cup raisins 1 tsp cardamon seeds* 1 tsp whole cloves 1 Tbsp turmeric 3 Tbsp cornflour 1/4 cup of water *  The cardamon seeds enhance the unique flavour of the feijoas

1. Peel and chop the onions into small dice.  Peel and dice the feijoas then peel, core and dice the apples.  Place the vegetables in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Pour in the vinegar and the sugar and bring to simmer point over a medium heat. 2.  Add all the remaining ingredients except the cornflour and the 1/4 cup of water.  Turn the heat down and simmer, covered, stirring regularly for 40 – 45 minutes. 3.  Combine the cornflour with the 1/4 cup of water and add slowly, stirring to ensure the cornflour mixture doesn’t turn lumpy.  Allow to simmer for 1 minute more. Pour the mixture into hot sterilized glass jars.

Happy cooking and do let me know how your chutney goes!  If you have a feijoa recipe that is easy and always successful, please let me know and I’ll share it.

Signs of autumn

To-do list

• Completed one hour in the shed sanding and have made a start making my grand-daughters a noughts & crosses set.

What can you tick off your to-do list today?

Well that is it for Day 15.  Look forward to hearing about your happenings and events.

Be patient and be kind to yourself and everyone else in your bubble.  Stay safe – Goldcard Gal 🙂

Quote for the day:

“If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” – John Rockefeller

Welcome to day 14.  Two weeks of isolation – at times I wonder where the days have gone.  How have you found the isolation so far?

In case you have missed day 13’s posts here they are: Day 13 posts.

Good news

The good news for today is the issue with my blog site (people not being able to add comments) over the last couple of days has been solved.  Not by my ‘expert’ even though he assisted in broadening my thinking about possible solutions, but by sharing my blog issues with a fellow colleague and coming up with possible options – which then lead to a solution.  So feeling pretty pleased that my ‘problem solving’ skills are still OK!

Snake update

The latest on the snake, now know it’s a python, so that is good news.  On Saturday Phil was moving an unused door inside their house (their house is actually a large shed, but they’re making into a home and doing a great job), when the snake literally slid onto him which did initially give him a fright.  But thankfully Phil is an Aussie, used to snakes and he’s a snake catcher so he stayed calm and took the snake outside and put it into the garden.   The snake hasn’t been seen since, probably come back inside to find a nice warm place to sleep.  Who knows???

Reflections on 14 days of blogging

As I was out walking this morning I decided it was time to reflect on the blogging process so far.  Its been 14 days of consecutive posts, a record for me.  These are my reflections:

• It’s been a series of highs and not so highs, meaning some days I had plenty of content, other days I struggled and it showed, and I”m OK about that.
• I am pleased with myself for completing a daily post.
• I’ve loved receiving and reading all your comments.  Thank you to those of you who comment daily, it makes my blog so much more interesting.  Thank you to those who have given me verbal feedback, appreciate it.
• I often realise a day or so later that I should have said this or said that in a particular post and feel disappointed with myself for not thinking broader.  But I have to remind myself if I wait for my post to be perfect, it would never get posted.
• I’m getting better and feeling happier about sharing my thoughts and ideas even though I’ve quite a private person.
• I much more comfortable writing than talking about my ideas and thoughts because I can re-edit them.
• I’ve enjoyed having to think outside the box to comes up with ideas and thoughts, while at times it’s been challenging it has also been rewarding.
• Writing this blog has been a huge learning experience, thank you Prudence for encouraging it but at times I have wondered??

Have you enjoyed posting your daily activities and reflections?

Signs of autumn

To-do list

• Made my feijoa chutney today, the smell still lingering in the kitchen
• Did some more sanding on my out-door furniture – going to try and spend an hour a day – here’s hoping

Well that is it for day 14, what did you do today?  What are your reflections on posting your comments daily?

Be kind and patient with each other, take care and stay in your bubble – Goldcard Gal 🙂

Quote for the day:

“Life only comes around once, so do whatever makes you happy, and be with whoever makes you smile”  from quoteideas.com

Comments not working 🙁

Just what I need, something not working properly on this blog.  You may have noticed that you couldn’t post your comments today, sorry about that. I spent quite a bit of time searching on Mr Google for any possible solutions, but no such luck today, probably because I wasn’t asking the right questions.  So I’ve organised an appointment tomorrow with a professional ‘WordPress expert’ so here’s hoping he can sort my problem out.

How was your day 13?  What exciting happenings did you get up to?

My bike ride this morning involved getting organic apples and feijoas from over the north side of the city.  Thank you Maureen. While cycling to and from Maureen’s place I forced myself often to stop and take photos of ‘signs of autumn’.  This constant stopping is something I find hard to do, but I was on a mission – so to speak.  I got a lovely surprise as I passed a house where an older couple were out side on their deck ‘dancing’ looked a bit like folk dancing.  The music was  turned up quite loud.  When they saw me we both exchanged big waves and big smiles – they were having fun.  What a way to start the day – do you do any dancing in the mornings just for fun?

To-do list

After I’ve posted this blog my intention is to get out in shed to do some sanding or create something!!  Otherwise nothing has been crossed off my to-do list today.  How about you – is your to-do list getting smaller or what??

Making feijoa pickle/chutney is on my list for tomorrow.   

Signs of autumn

Thank you “I-Solution Wanaka” for your ‘signs of autumn’ contributions, very much appreciated.  The rest are my signs of autumn.  I particularly enjoyed taking photographs of the tractors, which were busy today.  The photo on the left: at times I couldn’t see the tractor because of all the dust; it does show how dry the soil is.  I look forward to seeing what will be growing there in the weeks to come.  

That is it for today, apologies for the hiccup relating to posting your comments. In the meantime, take care out there, and stay in your bubble – Goldcard Gal 🙂

 

 

Quote for the day:

“Follow your soul, it knows the way”.

We seem to be flying through these lock-down days don’t you agree, just about half-way there.  But of course we don’t know how long it will last, and we can’t control that, so why not make the most of the moments we can control.

Thank you for your posts, I always enjoy reading what my blog readers are doing in their bubbles and what you have to say.  In case you missed reading yesterday’s here is day 11.

Today has been a mixture.  Early morning walk then unexpectedly one of my ex-students (from couple of years back) emailed asking for some help in MS Word, so that is where the rest of the day went more or less.

To clear my head it was a welcome change to do the grocery run (on my bike) to the supermarket for my over 70’s neighbours and myself.  I have found the best time to go grocery shopping is around 4.30 – 5 pm ish (probably already said this once before!).  Today the security guard offered to sanitise your hands before entering the supermarket.  Is it me or have you noticed that grocery shopping now is so much more relaxed, people taking their time, or is it because of the time I go?  What has been your experience?

Girls in the shed night

Monday night is Beth and my night in the shed, playing with our tools.  We create stuff mostly from re-cycled materials.  But of course that is not happening just now.  I miss you Beth not coming over and keeping me honest and on track. I haven’t made it out to the shed tonight but promise I will tomorrow night. Instead I’ve had a long conversation with my brother Ben. Great to hear from you Ben and good to know the grape harvest has been completed successfully. Thank you for your complimentary feedback.  Let’s hope we get to celebrate your 70th in June???

Five things to be thankful for today:

1. Another sunny day in paradise
2. I have great neighbours
3. I have everything I need in my bubble
4. I don’t own a cafe, hospitality or tourism business (my thoughts go out to those who do)
5. I haven’t just lost my job (my thoughts go out to those who have just lost their job)

What are your five things to be thankful for?

Signs of autumn

Thank you “I-Solution of Wanaka” for your signs of autumn.  Come on readers you must be seeing signs of autumn in your bubble, please send some of your photographs through.

How has your day 12 been?  What has been happening in your bubble?

Take care out there and stay in your bubble – Goldcard Gal 🙂