Apologies to anyone who was getting worried... I'm ok! Just managing to get a few other things ticked off my to do list now I've actually got more hours in the day than things I have to do to fill it rather than visa versa. No chance of me getting bored though - lots to photograph (even though I've yet to figure out how to upload them given this machine sulks and turns off if you use the usb port...), ooodles of great books to read, my quilting stuff arrives tomorrow and there's the garden, chooks and Cammi to look after....
Having lived in this country now for 18 months and been visiting for over 3 years the number of occassions when it hits me hard that I'm a comer-in rather than a local had been gradually diminishing. Until I got here when everything stepped back up a gear. Ok, so how do you know when a tamarillo is ripe? (and then what do you do with them?!), what about figs (I've only ever eaten them dried!), guavas - both red and yellow, persimons (spelling?), and how come limes turn yellow? The apples I can cope with, mandarins I got used to in Wellington but the rest of the fruit I'm far more used to seeing on the greengrocers shelves - if there!
The chickens are having to put up with just getting their coop moved as far as I can pull in one go rather than the distance they should be but that's getting further each day. I've not (yet) fallen off the bike and John fixed it to the right height for me rather than the basketball player height M&Q's spare was set at (my elbow has healed over now, but the bruise on my bum from where the sadle hit me is still a corker!).
YF Camp is already feeling like a distant memory, yet it was only a week ago that we started heading north from Wanganui round the Taranaki coast to Auckland. It's almost two weeks now since I left Wellington behind with GFH now in Alan & John's capable hands. It feels like there ought to be lots of reflection going on about the last 18 months, and the months to come, but right now I'm happily content living in the moment, taking each day as it comes and enjoying simply being here.
2 comments:
I wasn't getting worried, but I was waiting to see if you would post the post that's been going around in my head, as you often do. It wasn't about exotic fruit though, so I might have to do it myself :)
You can tell when tamarillos are ripe when they are dark purple, just a little smaller than a kiwifruit, and feel just so between your fingers. What you do with them then is pick them and put them in the compost (or feed them to pigs). They are gross and not fit for human consumption. Mind you that might just be my opinion, Dad thinks the same thing about figs and I love them. Mum used to make tamarillo upside down pudding which they loved, but I detested. Feijoas though, we all agreed about them.
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