South Island part 1

I'm going to start at the end, swimming with the dolphins in Kaikoura.

Mom and I got up super early our last day on the South Island to take a tour with Encounter Kaikoura. These folks know their stuff, I highly recommend them. It was probably one of the best tours I've ever been on, definitely worth getting up at 4:30am for.

You know when a tour advertises swimming with dolphins and you picture your arse freezing in the ocean while you bob around, squinting at the occasional fin breaking the surface 100 metres away? Well, this was unbelievably better than that. There were times when I was surrounded by half a dozen dolphins swimming circles around me within arms reach.

There's a chill in the air!

It's starting to get cooler in Wellington, which doesn't say much since the summer highs barely pushed past the mid 20s, and I'm in mourning for my tomatoes. It's unlikely that the green globes hanging from the wind stooped plants will ever ripen. I knew this was going to happen, but I needed to see for myself if there was even a smidgen of hope that I could grow tomatoes out of doors around here. Next year there will be a greenhouse. In the meantime I'm hunting for green tomato recipes.

Editing...

Hello, how's it going? Sorry for the long absence. I've promised a few of you new pix, and they're coming, but I'm still editing. Editing... the bane of an artist's existence. That final step when I come face to face with the plethora of rubbish I've produced and now have to polish to simulate the jewel it ain't.

On the bright side, if all artists spat out pure perfection with each shutter click, each stroke of a brush, each punch of a key, the horde of analytical desk jockeys turning the cogs of empires such as Adobe would be out of work. Right?

In the meantime I've added a few new sketches in my doodles page.

Oscars Weta Style

Apes & Tintin were up for a couple of Oscars, so Weta threw a party. The fact that we didn't win this year wasn't enough to dampen our spirits. It kind of helped that the booze was free. ;)

Un P'tit Tour

J'ai loue un char pour le weekend pis on a fait un petit tour de la region nord de Wellington. Voila l'evidence!

Of Tomatoes and Gypsies

Wellington is windy and not very hot during the summer, not the best conditions for growing tomatoes outside. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot. The poor plants, grown from seed by the way, have been tossed around in gale force winds, and have bent themselves to grow close to the ground.

At first I didn't create a shelter for them because I ran out of free time. Then I decided to experiment and see what I would get if I left the tomato plants as is, thinking that next year I'll build a mini green house.

Needless to say I was a bit surprised when I found these guys hiding while I was weeding a week ago. Ain't they cute, all nestled and shy?

Miramar is a sleepy neighbourhood where not much out of the ordinary (read: exciting) happens. But guess what rolled onto my street a couple of nights ago? Gypsies!

When I saw this bus I got a sharp pain of longing for my Westy and a strong urge to hit the road again. Fortunately Mom and I are leaving for a 2 week road trip of the South Island soon.

Sketches

I like to draw, my work notebooks are filled with doodles. I thought it would be nice to share some of them. So, I'm going to add another page to the blog for my drawings. Warning: I plan on including sketches from my figure drawing book, which means nudity.

Here's a sketch to get started:

1001 ways to preserve fruit

Yikes! Ca fait deux semaines dejas? Hmm, qu'est ce que je peux vous raconter de mes dernieres deux semaines?

J'ai acheter un coupon, tu sais les 'groupons'? Les sites qui vendent un deal a chaque jour, souvent deux repas pour un, ou un manicure a motie le prix. Cette fois ci, j'ai paye $19 pour 10 kilos de fruit. Wow, exciting, right? Vieve bought a coupon for fruit. But wait, there's more!

Now, I was thinking, 'What a deal! 10 pounds of fruit for only $19!' It wasn't until the boxes showed up on my door step that I realized my error and cursed Canada's bipolar measurement system. I was staring at 10 *KGs* of fruit. I read 10 kilos when I decided to buy the coupon, but my screwed up mind visualized 10 pounds. Il y a une grande difference entre 10 livres pis 10 kilos.

Alors, qu'est ce que je fais avec mon temp libre maintenant? De la confiture! There is no way I would be able to eat 22 lbs of fresh fruit before it rotted, so jam it is. Jam and chutney and fruit vodka... oh my! Des photos bien tot.

It often amazes me how quickly some veggies grow. I planted radish seeds about 3 weeks ago and now have big, beautiful, yummy, organic radishes I can just pull out of the ground and munch on whenever I want. If you have a small space and want the biggest bang for your square centimetre, radishes are a must. And there are so many kinds to choose from!

On the other hand, I started the broccoli from seed, inside, 3 months ago and am just now starting to harvest. Definitely worth the wait, tho. Last night my supper consisted of a head of steamed broccoli and cheese sauce. Nom nom nom nom.

It's my first experience growing broccoli, and for the longest time that part of the garden just looked like a jungle of big, green leaves. One day Mr R was poking around the veggie patch and exclaimed that he saw broccoli heads. Sure enough, the bastards were hiding! All cutely tucked into their forest of vegetation. It must have been awfully traumatic when I unceremoniously cut them from their stalks. Watch out brassicas of the world! Vieve the veggie hunter is on the loose with her opinel garden knife. Mwahahaha!

Windy Wellington!

 Il y a un vent malade a Wellington aujourd'hui pis les oiseaux s'amusent. J'ai pris ces photos pendant mon lunch. C'est une des plages sur Oriental Bay. Je m'inquiete un peut des plantes dans mon jardin, le vent est si fort.