29 February 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Instant Fun We Like


We like an outing to the bridge over a busy street at our local university
We ask about it every day when we drive under it
Mum quite likes to take us 
she wonders if the atmosphere might even rub off on us 
as if we might somehow inherit a love of learning 
just by osmosis


We like to play tunnels and hang upside down
Despite the fact that we're a bit noisy 
and Mum has to say the 'shh...' word a fair bit
since there are people trying to study in the vicinity
But most of all Mum likes that it's free fun


We just like that it IS fun


We like that we can look out on our beautiful city from here


We like that we can do all this while taking flying leaps in the air


We like that we spotted tuataras 
and we had no idea they even lived at the university until today!


We like that they were not at all shy and that we spotted three!
We like that one of them had a really pink mouth
and we like that that fact surprised us 


We like that we can play in the park 
and be so near to this iconic symbol of our city at the same time
Travelling up, travelling down, travelling up, travelling down


We like slides.....swings not so much, but slides yes sirree.


We like it that we're confident enough to climb all the way to the top these days


 We like slides that are big enough for two at a time


 Well to be fair..one of us actually likes swings quite a lot
We like to think we are going higher than ever before
and we probably are


And we like to ahem do what boys do


We like to wave at the travellers on the cable car as they pass
and we really like it when they wave back


We like to turn the camera on mum sometimes too
you know...just to get the evidence she was here too


And we all like cuddles in the sunshine


Yes we like them a lot!


But of course we like light saber stick battles too.


Let's face it..we like being boys. 

And that's all there is to it.

28 February 2012

Recipe: Sticky Maple Chicken

I must preface this post by saying there has never, will never be, a nicer smell wafting through your house than the smell of this dish cooking. It's the bomb! And now that the summer Weight Watcher regime has a drawn to a close, I don't feel quite so bad about getting back into posting all our favourite recipes (naughty or not!)

Ingredients:
Meat - pork chops/ribs or chicken drums/nibbles
250ml sharp apple juice (we use Macs Sour Green apple)
4 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese five spice (the recipe says 2 star anise but Mark uses this instead)
6 cloves garlic unpeeled

Put the chicken ribs/drumsticks in a couple of freezer bags or into a dish. Add all the remaining ingredients squelching everything together well before sealing bag or covering dish.

Leave to marinate overnight in the fridge (or at least all day if doing first thing in the morning).



Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Pour contents into one or two large roasting tins (make sure chicken is skin side up). Cook for approx 1 hour and quarter until everything is sticky, syrupy and glossy brown.



Tastes amazing with basmati rice and roasted veges. But I'm sure it would be equally as nice as part of a summer BBQ too.


And I feel very lucky to have a wonderful hubby who cuts my meat off the bone for me...just one of my funny pet hates, eating meat off the bone, funny gal I know! :-)

For more tasty recipes, visit here

26 February 2012

When summer stayed the day

At long last.

A summers day worthy of its name.

Still and warm.


A day worthy of an expedition. To a high hill on a distant headland.


In search of the memorial to those who bravely fought and lost on far foreign shores.


The Ataturk memorial.


Dedicated to those who lost their loves fighting for our freedom nearly a hundred years ago.


We will not forget their sacrifice.


I wonder how different these young lives might have been if those brave souls had not fought


Thankfully they can enjoy the warmth of this summers day knowing peace


There is nothing but beauty to be seen through their eyes


They are free to climb hills


And survey the wondrous land of the long white cloud


They are so, so blessed.


Blessed to capture nature in its raw beauty


Even the raw beauty of cabbage moths mating


 A rare chance to see how love and creation exist in the wild


The wilds that surround here are truly wild


The hills in summer densely covered in the canary yellow gorse flower


Beautiful from afar, so deadly sharp up close


The wild was sought and the wild was found


Even in these wild flowers hugging the sand dunes


The burdens of the soul are somehow lightened just by breathing in this salt air


And beholding the ebb and flow

Ebb and flow


 With great reluctance leaving the beach to return to its own intimate waltz with the shore


Drawn now to the far fetched loveliness of the coastal road


No greater show on earth than that of sun, sea and sky


Each one on its own a picture but put together a living masterpiece.



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