Eat Your Greens

I was horrified recently to learn that New Zealanders waste a good proportion of their food (I think it was in the 30% range but that could be a wild exaggeration, once my mind starts to turn over a statistic it is liable to increase if I am impressed).  I don't know about you, but I don't throw away much in the way of filet steak or salmon, it tends to be vegetables which are discovered moldering and slimy in the darkest recesses of the refrigerator.  I suspect that supermarkets are set out so that we go in and buy the things first which make us feel virtuous and we know we should be eating, and then we proceed through the more tempting areas where we find the things we would prefer to be gobbling up, and we put them into our trolleys as a reward for braving the horror which is supermarket shopping.

Recently the thing which was lying sad and unappreciated was spinach, or to be more precise two large bags of baby spinach leaves.  I can only surmise they were on special and two frugal members of the family availed themselves of the opportunity to bag a bargain.  Now spinach is one of those worthy vegetables which you know to be very good for you (think of Popeye with the bulging biceps, for instance) but which nobody particularly enjoys eating.  I still remember as a child being forced to eat every morsel of food on my plate (the starving children in Africa would be grateful for it, after all) and almost vomiting when spinach or silver beet was presented for my consumption.  Something about the texture, it seemed a bit gritty but slimy at the same time somehow.  Jack, the number four child and only one presently residing with us, is a particularly bad vegetable eater but even he admits that he will eat anything if it is presented in the form of soup, including vegetables.  So it seemed the best thing to do was to find two spinach soups for his delectation and see how we went from there. (We do eat a lot of Popeye Pie, made with spinach and feta and filo pasty, but he was getting wise to my tricks.)

The two recipes I fixed on were very different from one another, but each has proved to be a great success and I will be adding them to the repertoire of vegetable filled delights which are nevertheless enjoyed by all of us. The first recipe was Kumara Spinach and Coconut Soup, and the second was Spinach, Pea and Blue Cheese Soup.  They both sound a bit unlikely but are equally delicious.  I particularly liked the Spinach, Pea and Blue Cheese though, because the combination of the sweetness of the peas with the salty and robust blue cheese was really unusual and very delicious.  Also the colour was an intense green, almost looking radioactive in its luminosity, and it was like a jolt of summer to see it shimmering in its bowl.  In fact it looked rather unnatural but at least green is a real food colour, whereas blue never looks appetising.  (You don't need to find a gourmet blue cheese, any one which is on sale will do and if you picked up a bargain already in the supermarket you may well have a nice ripe one just waiting for this occasion.)  If you have been tempted by the spinach in the vegetable aisle and lived to regret it, do give them a go, both recipes are delicious comfort food for winter without feeling too heavy and they are very speedy to whip up too.

Bon appetit!

The Malady Lingers On

I was determined that there would be no toying with hexagons at Shoestring Cottage this weekend, and on the first day of the long weekend (Queen's Birthday, good on you Lizzie) I did very well.  I got into the garden and repotted a lot of geraniums to ensure they survived for next summer, I planted up hanging baskets and generally turned my mind away from the thing which had been bothering me the most, the new possibilities of framing toile fabrics with baby one inch hexagons.

I have one Pelagonium sidoides (yes I know, isn't that clever, quoting correct botanical names?) which never disappoints.  It is an excellent doer and thrives in the sunny front garden.  It has scented leaves and insignificant white flowers but I was thrilled to find the one above with beautiful blood red flowers which I hope will prosper in one of the new hanging baskets.

Apart from that nothing much was looking floriferous in the garden, though in the front porch things were still quite good.

The hare's foot fern is attempting to take over all the coconut matting in its basket and I have hit upon a plan whereby I will use bent pieces of wire (or maybe hairpins) to stick the rhizomes into the coconut matting so that in time it will appear to be a solid ball of fern.  I hope it works because it could look quite spectacular.

The tradescantia (I think it is Tahitian Bridal Veil) hasn't received notification that it is winter and though you can't see it above, it is covered in tiny buds and should soon be smothered in blossoms.

On Sunday the rain came so I had to move indoors and play with beads, I am thinking I may make a couple of shoe pins using old earrings, the one on the left is the prototype but I suspect I won't have the patience to recreate it so may end up with two brooches instead.

I did make a start on trimming a hat for winter deco but somehow had left the hat behind in town and had to content myself with the ingredients rather than the main course.  Next weekend I will do better.

I have to admit to being rather pleased with myself on finding these plates (Habitat for Humanity never disappoints) to smash up for the mosaic in the back garden.  But when it came down to it,I couldn't bear to take the hammer to them so they might have to reside intact and indoors after all.

 Anything with birds has to be good

I think the crinoline lady is particularly pleasing; although you can't see from the photo she is a footed plate which would be very useful if I was in the habit of hosting garden parties where pastel coloured sugared almonds were served.

But these shoes really were the best buy this weekend, they are so beautifully made and perfect for winter deco.  I have a heather pink tweed suit which will be ideal to wear with them and though the heel isn't quite right (should be Louis), the rest of them is perfect.  

In the end though the old malady came bursting out once again.  I must have cut out hundreds of old silk tie hexagons, cotton hexagons and worst of all I gave in to temptation and cut out sets of 18 with which to frame toile scenes.  I wasn't going to admit it, but such was the case.  There really is no recovery from the hexagon fever once it takes hold.  I did take some photos but I won't include them because they only serve to prove that I haven't recovered at all.  

Cutting a Rug

We went to the local RSA on Saturday night with the Cannucks to see Roy Orbison and Elvis (yes, I know, I thought they were dead too but apparently not), and practice our fabulous dance moves.  The Cannucks cut a pretty impressive rug with their rock and roll and Mr Shoestring and I contented ourselves with trying to dust off a bit of rock and roll and some swing, also one or two sedate foxtrots.  I tried not to be annoyed with Mr Shoestring when he realised I had forgotten to don my net petticoat and began ever more vigorous spins to make my skirt fly up, and the whole outing was a great success.  We gave Mr and Mrs Cannuck fish chowder and a nice fruity pudding beforehand so they wouldn’t be overfull for the dancing and I have almost forgiven Mrs Cannuck for refusing my offer of some recently unearthed Jerusalem artichokes – she said she could still remember the bad effects she suffered from last year’s supply.  Some people are just not grateful! 

The weather was pretty dire, although the night was beautifully clear on Friday with not a cloud to blot out the pretty light on the mast at the top of the mountain by Saturday morning the rain had commenced and it continued for the whole weekend so a quick trip to the library was just about the extent of our other outings. 

I continued with the quilting on the latest quilt and the background for the tulip needlepoint but I have decided that although I love the look of a lot of quilting on a quilt, in the foreseeable future I will be content with making a very simple quilt with backing and some ties in well chosen spots to hold the two layers together, and not a lot of quilting, possibly none.  Otherwise I will never get onto starting all the quilts which are spinning around in my head. 

Next weekend is a long weekend and I want to “dress” a hat for winter deco with some colourful silk flowers and some leaves, possibly a bit of net and a few buttons and extras to make it fun to wear.  I have a few cloches and other felt hats to choose from and have a yen for a bit of colour to add some zing to my winter deco costumes.  Winter deco is great fun because apart from the fact that the furs can come out, there is a lot of choice in hats because of the felts not feeling too hot and oppressive (which they can sometimes do in summer, though One must Suffer for One’s Art of course). 

I am thinking if I deconstruct this flower and add in some silk leaves and pretty stamens I could end up with a magnificent chapeau to wow my fellow attendees!  (Things never seem to turn out quite how I anticipated, but I always start out in an optimistic fashion, expecting the best.) 

There is hardly anything flowering in the garden and even the fish were looking somewhat despondent and lacking in energy, perhaps even fish can get too much water in the form of rain or maybe the cooler weather is making them sluggish. 

A few weeks ago when I started cutting 1 inch hexagons out of my scrap fabrics in order to get through them all I found it a very tiresome and laborious task, also the basting of the hexies over their papers was tedious in the extreme.  Over time though I think I have sadly developed a veritable addiction to cutting yet more and more hexies, thousands of them in fact, and even enjoy the basting.  When Mr Shoestring is driving and I am free to stitch I have started keeping a tally of how many I can baste and keep trying to improve on my record.  I have begun to find little stashes of cut hexies and basted hexies and papers in various places and realise that it really is time to seriously think of a few projects to use them up, rather than just stitching random rows of them and never doing anything with them.  Apart from some cushions for the outdoor chairs a bag or two might be handy and I have these old frames, picked up at op shops over the years, which would be ideal.  Also a couple of modern handles which could be fun.  There are a lot of possibilities, now I just have to take myself firmly in hand and stitch all the random rows and random partly made rectangles into something useful!

Lately a new theme has emerged,sewing notions, irons, paper dolls and what not.  Before that there were small florals and also the chickens and roosters, it changes from week to week!  All in all a most eclectic selection in the end.  

I have a collection (yet another collection) of old handbag frames, collected from op shops over the years, and these could be ideal for turning some of the hexagons into bags.  

The most surprising treat last weekend though was when Mrs Peaceable gave me a lovely selection of old crocheted and embroidered pieces.  There was a set of pansy pieces which fitted perfectly with the last remaining flowers in the garden at Shoestring Cottage.  

Who could resist them, and they have an unusual three dimensional pansy as well! 

But the piece de resistance had to be this swan doyley complete with the little black markings at the base of the beak, and the eyes also.  Each swan is stuffed at its base (that sounds wrong somehow, but you understand what I mean) with a cotton wool ball!  I couldn't make the swans all stand up properly for a photo call, they were a little exhausted after their time crushed up with all the other treasures, but I will revive them and change the photo forthwith.  You will be astonished!