Spring has arrived

In a very senior moment last night, I deleted my last blog, called Activities I think.   Done in a moment of frustration, not with my blog, but with the site, and hey presto the blog was gone for good, never to be retrieved again.   So of course I intend to use the photographs again, just in case you have sudden moment of deja vu when reading future blogs.   You will be correct!    So much for senior moments.

The good news is - Spring has arrived!    Hurrah.   And for people down under, the skies are genuinely blue, and have not been superimposed onto the photograph. 

When we came home on the 10th April, it was as if time had stood still for three months, but within a few days the sun came out, and the temperature rose.   Now there is so much colour around it is dazzling.  The world around us has burst into life.   Wonderful.

 A week ago the leaves on the miniature willow was about to burst open.    Now they are fully open.

 The grape hyacinth hiding among the shrubs.

 The flowers on the hedge are ready to burst open.   And it will be a sheer wall of white blossom.

 And the forsythia is in full bloom.

 The leaves on the silver birch had just opened up a week ago,

 and today the leaves have fully opened and the tree is clothed in summer green.  

 I am not so happy to see this little flower, and I am frantically digging the offending plants out, whenever I see a flower.   I know Dandelions have pretty flowers but they end up with seed heads that disperse their seeds in all directions, thereby causing a major problem in the garden.  I sometimes think it is a losing battle, so perhaps I should cultivate this little beauty, for the flowers, and for salads.    

 And time to mow the lawn, I mean the moss.   Walter in action.  

Coffee outside on the terrace.   

We have had many opportunities to use our new table and chairs.   Although still a little chilly to sit out there in the evenings.    Not quite Adelaide temperatures yet.   But summer is around the corner, we hope.   We feel optimistic.    

Home again

We arrived back in the United Kingdom last Wednesday evening, and it was fantastic to see the family again.   But it was cold, with the temperature hovering at about 8 degrees.    And it was raining.    Welcome back!

The drive along the M25 on Thursday was typical, with heavy traffic, drizzle and cold temperatures.    I think we would have been disappointed if it had been any different.    Imagine if there had been blue skies, and it had been warm.    I am sure we would have moaned because we were not getting the weather we expected, and if the M25 had been empty of traffic, we would have worried about the lack of traffic. No all was normal, all was well.   Heavy traffic and rain! 

And we arrived home to find our orchid was in full bloom, extremely well looked after by our neighbours, Ken and Carmen.    

And the daffodils were out, quite unexpected, as they should have been long past their best, but due to the extremely cold weather, they had only just started flowering.  What a welcome sight.

The next day we visited Down House with Emma, Steve, Jackson and Isabel.   This is Charles Darwin's house, such a comfortable family home, and now full of information about Charles Darwin and his family.   A very interesting trip.

Due to the heavy rain, we were unable to walk around the beautiful gardens at Down house.   A return visit will be a must during the summer.  

When we returned home last week, the garden was relatively unchanged from when we left three months ago.   There was certainly more light, and there was a hint of green on the small shrubs, but it was almost as if life had stood still during the past three moths.

Except for the rhubarb!   A glorious mass of red stalks and green leaves.  I can see that we will have plenty of rhubarb jam, rhubarb crumble and rhubarb sponge this summer.

And my dearest friends, the moles, have been extremely busy, but luckily on the other side of the fence.  Ken has literally dozens of mole hills, with the accompanying sunken areas in his garden.    He spent some time this past weekend scrapping up all the soil from the mole hills.    Lucky Ken.    I just hope his frenzied activities do not encourage the moles to hop back across the fence and into our garden.  They are not welcome.

And for two days we have had sunshine.    Hurray!    Admittedly not the bright blue skies of Australia and New Zealand, but still blue skies and sunshine.   And today the temperature reached 18 degrees.  

And we are looking forward to more of this blue sky.   Hopefully of course.

Kuala Lumpur

On our return visit to Kuala Lumpur we have not moved around much at all. We have sat in the lounge bar in the hotel, and visited two shopping centres and China Town, plus taken a trip on the mono rail (two stops).  We have had a very lazy time, observing life around us, as well as enjoying shopping, but more about that later.

We are staying in the Melia, which is conveniently placed in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.    A really comfortable hotel with large bedrooms, a very comfortable lounge bar overlooking the street, and excellent dining facilities.    And most importantly the air conditioning is not set at below freezing point. 

The hotel can be seen in the photograph below, the building with many, many glass windows, between the high pillars of the shopping centre.

The view through the huge picture window in our hotel room.     We look directly into the gym in the shopping centre/hotel opposite our hotel.   The building looks very imposing, but could do with a good clean on the outside, as could most of the buildings in Kuala Lumpur.    I think that there is a lot of smog here, mainly caused by the thousands of cars with smoky exhausts.

 The view from the lounge bar, a really good spot for spending time looking out at the world outside.   The mono rail runs above the street between the hotel and the shopping centre/hotel opposite.    Very impressive.

 And the shopping.   Fantastic.   Dazzling.   We never tired of walking around looking into the shops in the shopping centre opposite our hotel.   And in the basement there was the usual Asian food court, with the most delicious dishes.   Much better than in Singapore.

But the most exciting visit was to the electronic shopping centre behind the hotel.    Six floors of electronic gadgets - mobile phones, tablets, computers and all the related accessories.    We were in electronic paradise.    The only downside, were the eager salespeople who pounced on you, in the hope that they could make a sale.   And one salesmen was successful, as we bought a second hand Galaxy S Advance smart phone from him, for what we considered a reasonable price.    The phone was released out for sale in July 2012 and the owner traded it in for a new phone.   Well that was the story anyway.   Time will tell, as to whether we picked up a bargain or not.    We now have three smart phones!   And plenty of chargers.

Samsung phones, in all shapes and sizes are the most popular mobile phones sold here.    Interesting.  Not Apple.   Is this because Malaysia is a near neighbour of South Korea, or is it because Malaysians know that Samsung make superior mobile phones?  My apologies to Apple fans.

 Today we took the mono rail for two stops, and visited China Town again.    This is the area that sells fake goods, and lots of them.     We spent quite a lot of money here on our last visit, so set off today to do the same.   And we came back with many items, which we hope are all good bargains and will not fall apart too quickly.     Walter was in his element as he loves haggling over prices.  

A great place for bargains, as long as you do not mind that they are all fakes.

And this shop has the largest variety of mobile phone and tablet covers that I have ever seen, in all sizes and colours.   Rows and rows of them.   Overwhelming really.  

And tomorrow we fly back to the United Kingdom, hopefully to good weather.   We are also going back to a fitness and diet regime, as we need to lose some of the extra weight gained from all the delicious food we have eaten. There is always a downside to travelling around other countries.

Walter is also going back with a trendy haircut, from a fancy hairdressing saloon in the shopping centre.   Unfortunately there is no photograph, as he is too modest, but I can assure he looks good.

Food, glorious food in New Zealand

The food in New Zealand is outstanding, and all very fresh, especially the sea food.   Consequently, we always leave the country, feeling very full and satisfied, although a little overweight.

I will start this blog, with a photograph of sheep, quietly eating in a paddock, without a care in the world.   Little do they know they will soon become lamb chops, or a lamb roast.     There are not so many sheep in New Zealand these days, and the old saying that there are more sheep in New Zealand, than people, can no longer be said.      The price of lamb in New Zealand is also horrendously expensive, so not a popular dish on most tables.  

The reason for the lack of sheep in the paddocks, is due to the upsurge in diary farming.    Intensive dairy farming has resulted in a large number of cows per paddock, a concentration on growing very lush pastures and much cow effluent flowing into the streams and rivers.    The milk is sent to huge factories where it is processed into milk powder and sent to China.    Big business, dairy farming, and it brings a huge return for the farmers, related businesses and the country generally.    A pity about the environment though.

But onto more serious matters, which is about the food that went inside our stomachs, while we were visiting New Zealand.    Whitebait patties.    The little fish, caught in nets along the rivers, at certain times of the year, are a luxury.   It takes many of these tiny, tiny fish to make a patty, and they are delicious.

Paua patties.    The meat of the paua is very tough, so needs to be minced or sliced thinly and tenderised with a mallet.    The meat in the patties below had been minced, and was combined with onions and spices.   We liked the taste, but the grittiness of the meat can only be enjoyed by true New Zealanders, I think.

The paua shell is multicoloured and has a high sheen, and much sought after for jewellery making, etc.   The meat is green, by the way, and I have heard it is bleached and sold to the Japanese as abalone.   But this may be just a rumour.

As an aside from fish, I have included a photograph of a trailer load of clean potatoes, and without blemishes, which were too large to sell to the supermarkets.    These potatoes, excluding the ones we cooked, were destined for the ponds, in readiness for the duck shooting season.    I am unable to see the connection, but apparently ducks like potatoes.

Blue cod, from Southland sea waters, and the most delicious fish I have every eaten.   And so fresh too.

Not to forget Bluff oysters.    The most delicious oysters ever to be found, and eaten.   It was the oyster season, and we took advantage of it, by partaking of quite a few oysters.    Luckily someone else had shelled them for us.

Scallops, again very fresh, and this time from the Nelson bays.   Such a joy to eat.

Super large ice creams, and we certainly made sure we ate plenty of them too, especially hokey pokey ice creams.  

Food, glorious food.    New Zealand style.    We love it.

Bridges in New Zealand

I cannot leave this lovely country, without mentioning the bridges in New Zealand.    Now there are two way bridges of course, but without doubt most of the bridges on the very scenic roads are one way only, with signs informing the drivers about right of way.       And very occasionally, as can be seen in the photograph below, there are lights.

 And on some of the bridges, there is also a train to consider.   Although I might add, there are not many trains, thank goodness.    The bridge below was also being repaired, so in this case it was like driving through a tunnel.

Some of the bridges, have very high sides, as does the bridge below, which spans the river in the Haast Pass.   I am not sure whether the sides prevent drivers from plunging into the depths below, or they are there to strengthen the bridge.    No doubt it is for the latter reason, as these bridges span very dangerous rivers, which are likely to carry the bridge away, when in flood.    

This bridge has slightly higher sides, is very long and has passing bays.    Not that I would like to pass a truck on the bridge.

Thank goodness there are always arrows on the road, after leaving the bridge, to let people know which side of the road they are meant to be travelling on.   A bit of a problem with the tourists, I hear.  

Around Nelson

The weather in Nelson has been glorious, most of the time.   Not good for the farmers, I know, but great for everyone else.

The main street of Nelson, with shady trees

 and plenty of colour from the flowers in the hanging baskets.

 Walter and I looking very happy at the fish restaurant.    Good company and good food.  And a great view of the harbour. What more can one ask.

 The harbour in Nelson.    Full of small boats.    How do they get the boats out, without reversing into another boat?   Luckily, I am not a sailor, nor do I have a boat here, which is just as well for the other boat owners.   I have enough trouble reversing our car.    

 As the sun set the shadows and reflections were magnificent.    

 Lunch in Mapua, in the warm sunshine.    Not for Walter though, he sat in the shade, as he does not like sunshine, not to sit in, that is.    We also followed up the lunch with a large hokey pokey ice cream.

The drive out of Nelson, over the hills, was very slow, due to a cycle race.   Plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, if only we did not have to catch a plane in the afternoon.

The railway cafe in Seddon, on the south side of Blenheim.    For sale, if anyone is interested.    This cafe, did not prosper, but than the coffee was not brilliant.   We stopped there last year.   However the coffee from the successful cafe/takeaway across the road, was very good.    No competition in the small hamlet of |Seddon.  

 Although it was sad to leave our family in New Zealand, it was time to go, as the temperatures had dropped during the night, daylight saving had finished, and on the morning we left Nelson, there was snow on the mountains.  Winter is approaching this very scenic country, and we need to return to the other side of the world, where Spring and Summer promises warmer weather, and bright sunny days.   I can only wish!

Show Homes in Nelson

A visit to a city is never complete unless there is a visit to to see some show homes.  It is also a great way to fill in a quiet Sunday afternoon, during the Easter break, when all else is closed, or overcrowded with visitors.

This house is not a show home, but I liked the way the house nestled into the front garden.   The flax bushes on the right certainly complement the garden, but then I have been fascinated by flax bushes during this trip.   I have been told they are a nightmare to have as a garden plant, as the leaves become dead looking, and difficult to cut, without the plant looking very mangy.    

 The show homes, two of them only, but both are large and very comfortable looking.   They come with a high price, unfortunately.

 Margaret playing the part of hostess, and looking very glamorous.

An outside bath!  I did not follow instructions, and lie down in the bath in order to have my photograph taken.   A girl has to have some pride.  

 I could easy live in this house, especially if the furniture is included in the price.    Margaret and I settling in for the afternoon.