Post No 112 - Look what we made....

....tattie scones! And they are lovely - just like the one's you buy in Asda!

Next weekends new recipe: Lorne (Square) Sausage
We will be a Scottish food catering business before you know it!

Anyone got a recipe for Haggis?

Post No 111 - My, what long legs you have

I will try harder not to make this too much of a dog blog! But at the moment, he's the only thing we seem to be taking photo's of! Plus he is just too cute. Every day he has us in hysterics, he gets up to so much mischief and it's hard to remember what it was like with him not around (although I fondly remember NOT being woken up at 5.30am to let him out!)

We had our second dog obedience class on Tuesday - this was the first one we actually took the dog to! He did well, didn't get too fussed about the other dogs and seems to be picking things up fast. The only problem we have is getting him in the car - he is terrified! But he seemed alot better in the car coming home from the class and we now have some tips to help him realise the car is a good place!

So what else is new?
Graeme is playing soccer today so look out for the match report on his site later. The weather here has been extremely wet and the grounds he trains on were closed this Thursday and last. The game last Saturday was called off also due to the pitches being flooded.

This worked out quite well actually because he came with me on a wine trail with the social club from where I work. It was a good day, we bought a few bottles of wine (one a Boysenberry wine which I am looking forward to sharing with Mum as Graeme hates it!) and the weather was good to us. I was chief photographer with the work camera and managed to get some good shots of the floor and fields (there was supposed to be NZ birds there but the bus was going too fast!)

I've taken up scrapbooking and went to a class with some friends last night. It was an introduction where the teacher talked through the lingo and how to lay things out as well as showing us how to use the cutting tools. Then we got to go mad and make our own pages! This is all part of the masterplan for "Our First Year in NZ" scrapbook. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and will be going back in about a month to learn some more techniques. Then we might try and meet up once a month and share equipment and ideas to get lots of pages made!

Winter has definetly got milder. There were a few really cold days in June and even a few frosts but July hasn't been nearly as bad. The only problem has been the constant rain which has left the garden saturated and it keeps flooding. So we end up with a very muddy dog and very muddy floors!

Post No 110 - True Kiwi's Now?

To celebrate our first anniversary of being in New Zealand, we treated ourselves...not to mention all the people that are going to come and visit.

We bought what epitomises (and yes, I did look that one in the dictionary to check I had the right word!) the true New Zealander, the best thing to ever happen to burgers and steaks...yes, you're on the right track - we purchased a Bar-be-que!

And here it is....what a beast!


So hopefully we have whetted a few appetites out there and may get a few more bookings into Chateaux Stalham-McCrae! We even bought BBQ utensils and a gas bottle to go with it...of course, we both had a daft hour trying to work out why the BBQ wouldn't light when the gas bottle was connected up - d'oh! You buy them empty then have to get them filled at the petrol station.

Once we have out first cook-up on there, we will get some pictures for you!

Also, I didn't realise how many people were still visiting the blog...and now feel extremely bad for the lack of posts over the last 6 months - I will definetly try harder! Thanks for all the comments and emails our faithful readers....and you'll all get an extra burger when you come to stay!