To insanity and beyond ...: How can I make Rhubarb Crumble when the pie dishes are packed?

Hmmmm .... my sulk about the rugby is OVER. My Bokke were outplayed and at this moment in time, the Flightless Fowls are indeed the best team in the world

..... FOR NOW.

Don’t let all my Kiwi friends be fooled by this statement though. It in NO way indicates that I’m supporting YOUR Flightless Fowls. All it means is that I recognise good rugby when I see it and give praise where it’s due.

My Bokke will be back.

I guess I’ll let the hound use and abuse that Chiefs rugby ball for a little longer.

My house DOESN’T look like a HOME at the moment, there are boxes and boxes and still more boxes. I think I MIGHT have been a little hasty in packing some of the things in the kitchen. Last night I wanted to make a Rhubarb Crumble and all the pie dishes are PACKED!

Friday can’t come round soon enough. Disorder and upheaval are not condusive to a creative mind ... I need harmony and ORGANISED chaos to work at my best.

.... and the hound NEEDS her rambles.

Mondays and Wednesdays are always a bit chaotic ... made even more so at the moment with the hubris of the move. Telling customers in the shop that you ramble on the beach at 6.30 in the morning always causes raised eyebrows. You can see what they’re thinking. Why would ANYONE with a sane mind ramble in the waves at 6.30 in the morning?

Ask Julia ... she’ll tell you .... it’s all about the MAGIC ... and that LACK of sanity.

Even when it’s raining, even when the sun hasn’t yet risen in the sky, even those days when the wind tries to blow us to Timbuktoo and back .... there’s a magic in the morning that disappears once the rest of the world wakes.

I LOVE it!

It’s that sense of oneness with the world as I walk down the road. Very little stirs. I meet and greet the neighbourhood kitties ... and there are a LOT of those. I say good morning to the elderly gentleman who’s always fetching his newspaper from the letterbox as I pass by. The cyclists call out greetings as they not-so-silently swish past.

The hound takes none of this in. She’s got a one-track mind

..... beach, ball, waves .... in that order.

She’s just as focused when we go to Waiatarua. She races on ahead of us, CHIEFS ball in mouth, impatiently looking over her shoulder to ensure we’re still heading in the same direction as her. She was a tad confused today by Carol’s new-found fascination with the BUSH. Sam couldn’t understand why Carol kept on disappearing ... he thought it was a new game!

Ebony, the SUBMARINE Labrador joined them at the dog-pond again. She’s amazing the way she holds her breath to retrieve things of the bottom of the pond floor. She showed us a new trick today too ... carrying a stick AND a rugby ball in her mouth at the same time, even leaping into the pond with them and not dropping them!!