Monday, December 7, 2009

The first Jam of Christmas..and other things

Yes Christmas in hastings has caught up to me! I realised this when the famous reindeer and sleigh that have been a part of hutchinsons furniture went up. Small things like this often make me realise with a start that TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!! I start decoraating so early that I always feel I have bucket loads of time up my sleeve!
On Wednesday i am shopping for a 99.00 Gazebo from the jolly festive red warehouse so that we can all enjoy our Christmas day outside (weather permitting..and who knows with t his years funny old weather pattern?)

I am also going to start buying the Christmas food on Wednesday (which as you may have guessed is Pay day!!) This year I am going to buy Organic free range chickens (in lieu of our own future Christmas offerings) I hate the way Chickens are battery farmed and we no longer buy chickens like we once did . As a side note i have een watching the Good Life from the seventies and as well as laughing a lot have just realised with our warped sense of humour and earthy aspiration that we are the NZ equivalent to Tom and barbara Good!!! Now just need the land (which they didnt have by the way)
We have chosen and put up our Christmas tree. it is gorgeous. Just lovely. Everyone is complaining about the lack of baubles etc to "fill up" the tree. i may have chucked then on purpose...er I mean BY ACCIDENT..as i thought they were cheap and nasty. Any thoughts though of buying some "lovely" balls or to start a collection were eaten up today with the sad realisation that I have been spending way to much (as evidenced y a meager bank balance) and the certainty that next week signals my last pay packet for SIX WEEKS!!!! Eeeek
I havent got any photos of the tree yet as im not so organised and Alex had the camera and all I got were close ups of trees(not ours!) and numerous ones of Georgia with faces like these!! I will say that the tree picking and lolly giving ceremnony afterwards from the owners is as part of our tradition at Christmas as Christmas cake!


But a few days ago I askede GHIU to bring me home a small number of apricots (because in napier there are some good orchards) I say small because it was unorganised and I knew I only had a few bottles clean with lids etc. Also time wise I hadnt made plans to spend it in the kitchen. So my GHIU arrives home that night with 15 kilos..... After fervent supply fetchinf, dishwashing I made these few jars. I was watcing the Christmas epiode of Emmerdale while i stoned and weighed the next lot (for the freezer for when the time is right) and the first 3kgs burned on the bottom...teach me for all the wrong priorites... luckily I saved the batch by skimming off the top 2 kgs and all was not lost. im looking forward to making the next lot now and in fact have found a whole batch of jam recipes etc in the latest Gardener (look out for my letter...skite skite) and have really got the bug. in fact after all the rain things are blooming out in the garden including my boysenberry which I held grim hopes for as it is staying in its black baggie until moving day. The day I eat that first boysenberry will be great indeed. Honestly just little things but sometimes i feel like the big pioneer homesteader!!!
Happy harvesting wherever you dwell.
love Cherry

1 comment:

Kimmie said...

Oh it looks yummy. You ARE quite the homesteader;-)

Did you make the star? I love it.

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted