Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Swathes of Wild Lilies

winding pathways to my door.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

I am here!

Oh the joy of rediscovery!

Wild raspberries just beyond my kitchen window. Swathes of wild lilies winding pathways to my door. The wildflower seeds I scattered three years ago in bloom here and there and though sparse and bedraggled providing the first glimpse I have ever had of the fruits of my past labour. It has always been my dream to create a woodland garden here for the great love of my life but this will not be achieved without considerable handwringing, not least because I am here in America so rarely! Long distance love is one thing but long distance gardening quite another!

And in my kitchen? Omaha steaks gifted to me by my love. I adore American beef. It tastes vastly different (and dare I say superior?!) to New Zealand beef. In New Zealand our cattle graze outdoors all year round on lush green pasture. But the grain-fed cattle seem to me to produce a beef that is far more complex and satisfying in flavour. When I first arrive I love the wild days and nights of rediscovery - ferreting through my cupboards for all that I left behind all those long long months ago. Dark brown Canadian Lake wild rice. Quaker Oats. Organic brown rice pasta. Popcorn grown by the Amish communities of upstate New York. I am told by Americans who eat in my home here that my cooking is "restaurant quality". Anyone in New Zealand who knows me will know that I simply cook in the style common to all my New Zealand friends. In New Zealand my cooking is seen as everyday and rather average.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Rush On By

People do rush about so! Perhaps the sensation of excessive speed is to be expected when one drives a car but even when I walk others rush past me on foot!! I am perplexed by all this hurrying. It doesnt seem to me that the world is a better place for it. Of course things will speed up even more for me soon when I arrive in New York! "Leisurely dining here in this city" I commented once to my American friends "is eating walking along the street rather than running!" When I fly back into New Zealand from America it seems as if someone has slowed the pace of the world down several notches. But even here there seems undue haste. Still, I tell myself, this works in my favour as I never have to jostle for position in my botanical gardens to watch a droplet of dew swell from the tip of a leaf and cut a path through the smokey autumn air as it falls to the silent earth. No. There at such events I am always alone.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Late One Night

It was my intention to tell the pictorial story here of how I steamed New Zealand greenlipped mussels in white wine and saffron. But regrettably I became caught up in the fervour of the moment and before I knew it one dozen mussels were all gone and there I was ~ alone and reeling from the succulent pleasure of it all!

Thank You

Photo By Helen
Today I said a long lingering farewell to my botanical gardens. Without this place I would hardly have been able to bear this prolonged period of exile from the great love of my life.