Food Flavours that Divide Us

As the comments to my previous post show, folks either love or loathe anchovies. A couple more like/hate foods that I like are blue cheese and olives. An absolute divider is fresh coriander which I admit to utterly loathing (and it repeats on me so I retaste it).

Here are some more of my "loathe" foods:

Caraway Seeds

Watermelon

Peaches

all offal except black pudding

shellfish

Whiskey*

Which foods and flavours do you go out of your way to avoid?



(*Both my parents have the whiskey gene, unfortunately they only passed it on to my sister. I missed it completely!)

Gale force winds......

... with horizontal rain and sleet - it must be a Wellington winter's day. Just the evening for comforting and delicious home made leek and potato soup.

Having filled and warmed myself up, I moved onto roasted tomatoes (I only had little ones) ...

...topped with garlic, anchovies and fresh mozzarella. Back in the oven then served with a sprinkling of chopped chives and some good bread to mop up all the juices.

After a happy 2 hours of heat bathing in front of the big heater Zebby moved to under his "quilt" again for more happy time - snoozing, purring, washing, purring some more and then a good, sound and snorey sleep.

Those *@&# Plastic Horns!

They sound like an angry swarm of tone deaf bees.

Massed Pipe Bands with the Pipers only playing the drone would sound better.
A Pipe Band paying any tune would be a huge relief.

The New Zealand team, the All Whites, have just thwarted and frustrated Paraguay to a scoreless draw. Sadly this wont see us through to the next round, but it does have us third in our pool group where the defending cup champions, Italy, finished last. Our lads can come home feeling very proud of what they accomplished - unbeaten, and now free from the sound of those bloody horns!

Wellington's Shortest Day

I took these shots at about 4.00pm on Monday, after the unglamorous task of taking the rubbish (trash/garbage) and recycling bags up the demon steps to the road. I then only had to walk past a few other houses to give you some new views of Wellington City


Our Mid-Winter's Day got to a balmy, barmy 16C (61F). In this next shot I was lucky enough to capture one of the Cook Strait Ferries coming into the harbour:



Next, here I've gone back to the view to the south-east, the view from partway down the demon steps. That's the Pacific ocean over on the left. Those beautiful, semi- clear skies led to a chilly night.



So you know where Zebbycat was, don't you - yes, under His quilty-comforter for a few hours of purring, washing, snoring and a scratch or two. Despite me covering him up well his tail escaped!

On a soggy Sunday,

when Your human has got up yet is too busy with daft human things to turn on a heater, there is nowhere as good as under Your quilt.

With a full tummy and the secure knowledge that Your human has changed the kitty litter you can purr away to yourself in warm comfort, and ignore the human completely!

On a fine Winter's day this week I wandered up to the top of the driveway to take some shots. Here we are looking out to the north east, over Wellington Harbour to the Hutt Valley. The white house on the left is the residence for the Indonesian Ambassador to NZ.



Looking down the driveway to the residence of the Greek Ambassador - only he isn't home as there isn't a Greek flag flying from the flagpole. The hills in the far distance are over on the east side of the harbour. That's the letterbox for the flats by the bottom of the street light on the right and the handrail at the top of our steps.



Having two diplomatic residences in the street makes for a very safe place to live - the NZ Police Force's diplomatic protection squad regularly cruise the street.

Meanwhile "His Nibs" was down checking out His garden. Everything seemed to be in the right place.....

...and there were some interesting smells to check out

A Pair of Socks at Last!

Finished just in time for a chilly spell in early Winter.

My feet were still cold so on went the new slippers too.

Yes, green butterflies on green.
I had very cosy toes last night while it sleeted outside for hours.

Today's find: $8.00 for a fine green/brown corduroy with a pretty floral border at the bottom.
It only needs a couple of side seams and a tunnel at the top for elastic
to give me a new skirt.

All ignored by the purrball. He is is giving attention to the camera .......

until his greater adoration of heat and snoozling take over

I hope you are loved as much asI love my Zebbycat, which is at least as much as he loves me.

Now that it is Winter

Winter arrived last week, a week early. This is a huge improvement on last year when winter was a whole month early. With cooler days and nights I'm back to knitting with wool.

The yarn for the charcoal grey scarf is a mix of merino and possum fur, very soft and beautiful to knit. I gave dear Mum a skein of this last year, saying "I'll knit whatever you want". Mum chose to have a scarf and I found just the right pattern on Ravelry - lacy parts and solid parts, the pattern is fun to knit.


For a break from lacy patterns I'm making a simple garter stitch scarf for me in a merino and kid mohair blend. It does require some concentration as it is a fine 2ply yarn being knitted on 5.5mm needles.

And there is no fear of me running out of projects - here is the yarn stash:

Well, Zebbycat only needs the kittycat-carry-cage a few times a year, so why not keep yarn and cotton batting in it (where they are, co-incidentally, safe from his paws and claws). The ziplock bag on top is full of sock yarn.

I have a wee stash of yarn related books to keep me inspired.

At last I finished my first ever sock this week.

Only one year after, nearly finished, I found I'd dropped a stitch and put it aside.
The 2nd sock is already 40 rows long.

And I've finally joined the 21st century by getting Sky digital tv installed.

A clear tv picture at last, but the weather temperature figures don't appear any larger. I'll just have to put my glasses on more often! They'll come off again fast as short-sighted Mickle can't see close up needle work (knitting and sewing) clearly with the goggles on. Reverse issue to what the long-sighted stitchers face.

With the cooler weather Zebby is spending more time under his battered quilt. Fine by me - it means he isn't paw/clawing at the knitting projects (only at me in the mornings). His purring quotient is still at a super high level, so welcome during my insomnia moments in the wee small hours of the morning.

Postscript: The bear on top of the TV, Alphonse, is fully jointed, and he is made from a possum fur pelt. To the right are two patchwork "chooks*", made by my dear Mum - with Mickle finishing up the beaded eyes and other hand sewing parts.

*chooks = chickens of any type, age and/or gender. A common term in NZ, Aussie and, I believe, parts of Scotland.