The Water Tank Walk.

Today is a very grey and overcast day, I'm so glad I took my phone with me yesterday to take photos of my walk.  I live in the burbs of Timaru and it really only takes a few minutes walking to get out of town and into rural areas. Eleven minutes sees me at the entrance to the scenic reserve if I take a left at the end of the road. If I turn right instead it takes just a few more minutes to reach green fields.  A peep through a thinner layer of hedgerow reveals equestrian land. There are lots of stables and grazing around town. The famous racehorse Phar Lap was born here in Timaru. 

As I walked my eyes were drawn to the colours of Autumn all around me and one particular hedge made up of bottle brush. Such a vivid red.

And there were berries too. 

My path continued and I saw this notice painted onto the ground...

Of course, there is always a golf course on the edge of town.

The foot path and road run right around the golf course.

I could see the pond and looked out for ducks, but there were none, I couldn't even hear them.

But there were Pukeko.

A water loving bird native to New Zealand.

I was delighted to see a whole family of them. 

As I carried on along the path, I could see the water tank in the distance and soon came upon it.

Much of the town's water runs through this tank for treatment before heading on along the pipes to our homes.

If I keep going along the road, things get a little more rural.

But I went around the water tank and along the road that divides the golf course.

Now it was on both sides of me.

On we go, straight ahead.

Soon the golf course came to an end and properties began to appear again. Some of them have rather iconic mailboxes.

In between those properties I could see countryside and waaay over there in the distance is the Pacific ocean.

Then I was back in the burbs, so I put the camera away. 

The cones?  A blocked drain, there was rather leafy puddle around it.

My walk took me just over an hour and was a very nice change of scenery.

Todays walk? It will be a half hour walk to work for a meeting, then another half hour walk home again. Nowhere near as exciting or scenic. 

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Before and after my walk yesterday, my time was taken up with chores and the grocery shopping.

Today I hope to spend some time sewing after I get home from the meeting. 

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A Sweet Little Kitchen Moment

 I mentioned the other day that I’d found eggs going for half price at the supermarket. Well honestly, what was I supposed to do — walk past them? Leave them sitting there on the shelf? Not a chance. So home they came with me, and suddenly I had enough eggs to open a small café.

Tony is rather partial to an egg custard, so I asked Co‑Pilot to help me adapt a recipe to make it keto‑friendly. What a hit — Tony absolutely loves it, and it’s definitely going on the “make again” list.

Here's the recipe, just in case you want to have a go. 

Keto Egg Custards. 

Ingredients

6 eggs

2 cups cream (heavy or pouring cream)

3–4 tbsp erythritol or preferred keto sweetener

1 tsp vanilla extract to taste

nutmeg (optional, for sprinkling)

Instructions

1 Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F). Place 6 ramekins into a deep baking dish.

2 Whisk the eggs, cream, sweetener, and vanilla together until smooth — no need to whip air into it.

3 Pour the mixture evenly into the ramekins. Sprinkle nutmeg on top if you like.

4 Create a water bath: pour hot water into the baking dish until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

5 Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until the custards are just set with a slight wobble in the centre.

6 Cool, then refrigerate. They freeze beautifully — just thaw gently and warm if desired.

I wanted to make individual portions — partly for portion control, partly because Tony is not exactly known for stopping at “just a little bit more.” I went hunting for ramekins, only to discover that half of mine were already in the freezer full of keto crumbles, and the other half had migrated to the mancave where they were bravely holding screws, washers, and mysterious bits of model plastic. We’ve talked about that… clearly with limited success.

Anyway, I suddenly remembered a stash of small preserving jars that were just the right size, so I fished out a few and got busy. They worked a treat. You could also use pottery teacups or any small oven‑proof vessel you’ve got lurking in the cupboards.

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as Tony did.

A Frosty Morning Finish.

 This morning I headed straight into my quilting room as soon as Tony left for work. The sun wasn’t up yet and the room was cold enough to make me question that decision, but I knew that once the sun crept over the horizon it would warm beautifully.

As I stitched, I watched frost bloom across the neighbours’ rooftops.

A blackbird settled into the wedding cake tree to supervise my progress.

It’s only a small quilt, so by the time the sun finally reached the windows and started to warm the room, I had the quilting finished and spread it out on the floor.

Time to trim and bind — which meant moving to my other sewing room on the opposite side of the house. Another cold room. Another layer of determination. But it didn’t take long to get the binding cut, joined, and sewn on.

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With that done, it was time for a walk.

I headed into the scenic reserve again, soaking up the warmth of the sunshine and enjoying it so much that I made the walk longer than planned. I arrived home just in time for lunch: a bowl of homemade chicken and leek soup that hit the spot perfectly.

After eating, I settled into my comfy chair and closed the binding. Then it was back outside to the sunshine and a visit with Old Man Tree.

As I turned to come back indoors, I spotted the bench my boy Joe made me as a Christmas gift years ago — still sturdy, still loved. It felt like the perfect place to photograph the finished quilt with the shadows cast by old man tree adding a little something to the final result.

Once I was back inside, I picked up my Retro Rescue crochet and added a few more rounds — the slow, colourful exhale at the end of a busy, creative day.

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And that wraps up the last of my three days off. Back to work tomorrow, though I’ll keep chipping away at my Retro Rescue crochet in the evenings — it’s the perfect companion for these cooler nights.

And now that we’ve finally stepped into May, the countdown is officially on.

29 days until our flights.

It's beginning to feel very real.

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Another Busy Day Off.

Another day off, and somehow another busy one full of chores and crafting. Tony headed off to work at 7.10, and as soon as he was out of the door, I got started.

First job: slicing a courgette and getting it seasoned and into the dehydrator for chips.

Eggs were cheap in the supermarket yesterday — usually they’re over a dollar each, but I found some for less than fifty cents. I bought two trays. They weren’t short‑dated, but I wanted to use some anyway, so six went straight into a batch of keto egg custards for Tony.

He loves them, and he had one after tea. Good job I hid a few in the freezer.

Next up was a cheese and onion quiche, using keto wraps instead of pastry cases.

I had a slice for lunch after a very long walk through the scenic reserve — but not before making another batch of my chocolate slice and doing a few domestic chores.

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I was out of the door by 9.30. It was a beautiful day for walking. I passed the old schoolhouse, now the art society club rooms and the meeting place for my local patchwork group.

Then down the hill and on and on. I could bore you with photos, but I won’t. I did enjoy seeing the trees changing colour though.

After just over an hour and a half, I was home again, had a quick early lunch, then wandered out into the garden. I sucked up the leaves on the lawn — the machine mulched them nicely — and spread them over the veg beds. Then I planted some Ixia bulbs in with my pansies and had a general tidy‑up.

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Incidentally, I came across this wee plant hiding under the hellebores a few years ago and have watched it grow very, very slowly. It’s creeping this way and that, but I still have no idea what it is.

Any ideas?

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By 1.30 I was back indoors showered and refreshed, with a cup of tea nearby and settled into my chair. I pulled out the kiwi quilt and stitched on the last of the legs — it didn’t take long. Then came the batting situation. I had two largish offcuts, neither wide enough, so a bit of cut‑and‑shunt was required. Once that was sorted, the quilt went onto the frame.

I chose a new‑to‑me quilting design, one of the Meredith England patterns from the bundle I was gifted many years ago.

I managed two passes before Tony appeared looking for his tea.

More about that tomorrow.

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Retro Rescue.

 So here we are again — more days off, and today has been a busy one.
I had a list of chores to get through in town, plus the grocery shopping, and the day started under a blanket of thick fog. I couldn’t resist snapping a quick photo from the rooftop carpark.

Somewhere under all that grey is Caroline Bay — the gardens, the play area, the dunes, the fairground. Autumn fog has arrived right on schedule.

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One of my missions in town was to hunt down more of that dark, chocolaty brown yarn I’ve been using for the latest scrappy crochet project. If you remember, I found a bundle of granny squares in an op shop a few weeks ago. The colours all play nicely together, though you can tell they were made by different hands. After joining them, I started adding rounds… and then spent two full evenings tidying yarn ends. None of the original squares had been finished off, and of course there were all my joining threads as well.

That job is finally done, and once today’s chores were out of the way, I curled up with a movie and my hook. I’ve added a few more rounds, as you can see. I showed a progress photo to my daughter Kaiy the other night, and the moment she saw it she said it looked like something straight out of the 70s. She’s absolutely right — so this piece now has a name:

Retro Rescue.

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That’s my progress report for today. I’ve got two more days off, so hopefully I’ll get the last of the kiwi legs stitched on and make a decision about those maple leaves. In four weeks and two days I’ll be on my way, so the kiwis really do need to be finished before then. Plenty of time… as long as I stop getting distracted by other projects. I do enjoy having a cosy project on my lap on these cool evenings though.