Continuation of Stages.

Welcome to part two of my Stages of Life posts.  

In part one I showed you our move and some shots of our first day in Waitakere Gardens.  I'll continue the view of our new home with this post.  

I took these first two pictures to commemorate our move. First Day Moon is my title for the first. That was taken in the late afternoon. I don't really know what time it was when I took the night time shot. Shortly after midnight I suppose.  

Here is Jeanne going down to the café to return the dishes we received with our first evening's dinner.  

The lift (elevator) has an interesting security feature. That black rectangle just below the sign is a reader for the tag each resident carries attached to his apartment key.  The elevator will not rise from the ground floor until the resident scans the tag. The sign informs any visitor who tries to use the elevator without authorization from reception that they must return to the main desk and get the okay to ride up to the residence levels.    

All doors around the entire complex, other than main reception, are locked and opened only by scanning the tag. Very much like hotels.  

This is the door to our apartment.  We have put some personal objects outside the door. Jeanne's tui and her gardening angel together with my kauri tree rootlet with pockets of resin (gum) rests on a slice of kanaka tree trunk.  The kanaka slice came from our backyard after the tree was toppled in a gale. I sawed off about a two-inch piece, sanded and finished it. 

I'd guess a majority of residents here have some little object(s) outside their doors. I was astounded when I first toured the complex and saw them all. I asked the director if they had had any problems with theft.  Not a one, ever, I was told. 

New Zealand as a whole is an extremely safe environment. Waitakere Gardens makes their little piece of it into a haven of ultimate security and confidence.  

Pouring a cuppa. Jeanne took pains to make sure our refrigerator door was properly decked out. I added my Frieda Kahlo magnets later.  

The day after we moved in was cloudy. I took a walk along the corridors to some of the other buildings.  This is a view from a corner along the way. 

I have just now measured, using Google Maps, how long a walk it is possible to take if I circle our Atrium and then walk to the furthest point accessible in the furthest attached building and return to our apartment.  I measured 430 meters.  

While I intend to continue to explore Auckland by bus, train and walking, on days that weather makes that impossible, I could still easily walk kilometers here, all of it indoors. Rather than stay on our level two during my walks, I could climb the stairs and incorporate all the floors into my hike.   

And I didn't even measure my route if I were to cross the skybridge and walk the corridors beyond it. Looks like there is no excuse not to do all the walking I want to do.  

I really like the library. Very comfortable chairs and great lighting. A gas fireplace for winter comfort. 

This is our café which is also inside the Atrium building. You can stop by during the day and order something from the posted menu or you can order your choice of one of the two dinners  that are made available each evening for either dine-in or delivery to your apartment.  Delivery is very popular.  There is no charge for the service when you order Wednesday through Sunday.  

One of the lounges that surround the café.  This is the Twin Creeks Lounge and drinks are available Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  

There are tables along the brick-walk outside the café. Flower gardens, a croquet court and a putting green make up the green space.  

The individual garden plots, hydroponics, produce garden areas, worm farm, orchard and apiary lie to the right and behind where I am standing here.  

Most days, volunteers pick and bring what was picked from the produce gardens and make it available to any interested resident. The cost for each packet or bundle is one gold coin. Gold coins come in $1 and $2 denominations.  

This was in the bag of produce Jeanne bought this morning.  Look at the two miniature bananas. I can't wait to try one.  I'd say that was worth $2. (currently $1.44 U.S.) 

At the very end of the path winding down the hillside and through the individual plots, the hydroponics, and the garden areas, is the small orchard and apiary.  

Well, that's the tour.  I'll close this post with a look at Jeanne relaxing just inside our balcony. Those plastic bins to the right of the door have now been returned to Allie for use when she moves to their new home.  

Jeanne has two long planters that she plans to fill with geraniums and ivy and add to the greenery on the balcony.  

I'm writing most of this Sunday evening, Jan. 24, 2021.  We just had lamb shanks, potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, and cauliflower down in the café. We ate at a table of eight with Kiwis, a man from England, his wife from Switzerland, and a lady from Rarotonga. (largest of the Cook Islands and about 2100 miles from New Zealand.)

It was a fascinating discussion about everything from how England has changed recently, to the Swiss military, to our 2nd Amendment, and to Kiwi culture.  

This place is truly unique.     -djf

Stages of life

A point, period, or step in a process or development. 

That is one definition of 'stage'.  Additionally, stage can also mean:

A raised floor or platform, typically in a theatre, on which actors, entertainers, or speakers perform.

Let's take each definition in turn and consider it for a moment.  

We start as a baby, and progress through toddler, child, teen, adult, older adult, and Really old adult.  

Or, 

We can be thought of as having been performing on a succession of stages during our lives. Whether we're in school, on the job, raising a family, or doing whatever, we have been looked at, judged, and appraised by the rest of our world.  

With these in mind, I invite you to take a look at the newest stage (either definition) that Jeanne and I are embracing.  

This post looks specifically at a major change we have made over the last couple of days. (months in planning) 

Jeanne and I have moved into a retirement village.  The time was right for us to do so. We're both pushing 70 after all, still only in the 'older adult' category mentioned above, but not getting any younger.  

There are plenty of apartments for sale all over the city, but after just a little investigation, we determined that a retirement village would best suit our needs. The apartment we have purchased in the Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village is no more expensive than many apartments we might have purchased would have been and offers So many additional benefits, that it was, as they say, a no-brainer about which one to buy.  

Let me show you around our new home. We are not fully moved in yet. Further, our dining table and chairs and a recliner and foot stool haven't been delivered yet by the store, so I think I'll concentrate on our surroundings, and when we get fully settled, I'll show you more of our apartment.  

Out of the old...

and into the new.  

The balcony to our apartment is at about the center of this picture. 

Just outside the main entrance. 

The -A- in A216 refers to the atrium, which you see part of here. It extends similarly beyond the lift column you see in the distance.  

The first look at our 'lounge.'  (I should have shut the bathroom door before taking this shot I suppose.)

The view from our balcony.  You may note that Jeanne already has some of her plants positioned. 

The management sent us flowers. 

They provided sandwiches, coffees and muffins during the day and dinner on our first evening. Jeanne had apricot chicken and I had a steak and kidney pie, delivered to our door and still hot.   

Our first night in our new home. We were exhausted and went to bed really early. I got up during the night and took these two shots.  

It was a balmy night.  It felt, if not fully tropical, at least tropical-ish with gentle breezes and flowery smells. This is a Nice place.  

That white car belongs to the security guy. He just happened to be checking in with reception as I took the picture.  

This seems like a good spot to end this post. The next one will to show you scenes that we'll see everyday.   -djf

Interesting food finds

“The first time you see something that you have never seen before, you almost always know right away if you should eat it or run away from it.”
― Scott Adams   (Creator of Dilbert)  

I don't know about what you consider to be too far beyond the fringe to consider as food. I realize that there is a huge gulf between the most particular eaters and the most experimental. Where you fall along that line is your business.  I know someone who says he has never tasted a strawberry, because he doesn't want to. I have so far drawn my 'line in the sand,' with salted squid guts.  You probably fall somewhere between those two extremes.   

Today's post is about interesting foods I've come across lately.    

My header photo and this one just below this batch of text were both taken at our favorite fish market. They recently added these little baskets of frozen octopuses to the store. (yes, adding -es forms the correct plural, I looked it up) 

Can you see how difficult it would be for me to pass these packages up?  That's an experimental-sized octopus if I ever saw one. They are now so satisfying and neat. (They become must less neat when you thaw them) 

In John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, one of my favorite books, the character Doc drives down the California coast to some tide pools he knows about and collects octopuses (yeah, I still want to say octopi too) for biological specimens.  As I read, I imagined them to be about this size.  

This is where I bought the octopus that I cooked with potatoes in a recent post.  

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/398866872025297364/3971390330736738207

Now here is something I've seen for a long time but never bought. These are salted egg yolks. Apparently, to make these, the yolks are separated from the whites, laid out very carefully on a layer of salt and then buried in same.  In a week or two, they have absorbed enough to keep indefinitely.  

I did not buy any egg yolks themselves, but did bring home these cookies when I saw them. We didn't care for them.  The egg yolk taste seems to be concentrated by the salting process, and even though these cookies weren't too salty, they were too 'egg yolky.'

(Because I like  to try things, doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to enjoy their flavor.)

Here's another one with egg yolk in the description, although apparently not salted this time. 

These reminded me a little of the fish I used to eat as a kid. 

On the rare occasion when I would actually catch a fish, my mother would have me scale it and then she'd fry the separated halves whole; skin, tail and all. (No heads though) 

We didn't know anything about filleting a fish.

I liked the skin and especially the tail. It was always so crispy that the spines would explode into crunchy bits in my mouth. I liked mine with plenty of salt and pepper.  

These are nowhere near as good, although it is clearly fish skin. They're not salty and their crunch seems to be somewhat stale. The egg yolk coating doesn't do anything for me at all.  

My friend Lee, who spent his early years growing up in Papua New Guinea, has told me about going into town to buy dried plums after school.  I didn't know if either of these are similar. 

The ones on the left are really good while the ones on the right are much rougher, but still pretty good, and certainly interesting.  If either of these are similar to what he bought, I can readily understand why he did.  

Update: I recently sent Lee some of the plums on the right, thinking that, from his description of them, that they were more likely to be close to what he remembers.  He reported that they are quite similar.  

I took this shot as I walked toward Henderson to do our grocery shopping and passed by a tree with fruit hanging over the sidewalk.  These are the first fruits of the year, loquats.  

I've done posts on the durian in the past. I don't want to repeat myself here, but look at the price they're charging for them these days.  A small one will weigh about 1.5 kilos. And yet, these fresh ones will fly off the shelves, or rather, out of the bins 

(I can get frozen ones anytime for only $19.99/kilo.) 

I'm sure that I'll get another some day, and when I do, I intend to weigh it to determine what percentage of the weight is actually edible fruit. I'm guessing it might run 25% to 35%.  

So, you want to talk about pricey? I just saw two kinds of lobsters. The packhorse are slightly larger than what are labeled crayfish in the photo just below, but they both weigh about 1.5 kilos and up.  

They're bargains, marked down to just $110. per kilo.  

These will also disappear quickly.  Amazing.  

 

It's mutton bird season.  These are the chicks (yes, they're big birds) of the Puffinus griseus, or sooty shearwater.  A member of the petral family of seabirds.  The Maori call them Titi.  

Each year, Maori families, who hold the Titi harvest rights for small islands located off the south island, go out and harvest their quota of the chicks from deep burrows.  

It has been estimated that 21 million mutton birds congregate on these islands each year. A total of 250,000 chicks are allowed to be harvested.  It is reported that those numbers represent 100% sustainability. 

The birds are cleaned, salted and stored in barrels.  Cooking them involves boiling in two changes of water, and then roasting or grilling them.

(I wonder what salted mutton bird eggs would taste like) 

This next picture was taken at our favorite butcher's. Biltong originated in South Africa. The beef is first marinated in vinegar and spices and then dried.  I've tried it sometimes and enjoyed it, mostly. 

I couldn't resist buying this package when I notice Miss Durian winking at me from the shelf at Lim Supermarket. The individually wrapped cakes inside did not have as runny a filling as is pictures here, but were powerfully durian.  

My final item today is a honey I haven't tried before.  

I came  across it at Countdown where they use dummy jars on the shelf to prevent theft. 

Tawari trees are indigenous to the north island. They're relatively small, only reaching about 10 meters. They live under the forest canopy, like moist conditions, and have, like the jar shows, little white flowers.

  

Manawa is a Maori company and they refer to their tribe as Children of the Mist.  

It's very good, but doesn't interest me quite to the extent that Waitemata pohutukawa, thyme, or beechwood honeydew do. It is a very 'dry' honey. Its consistency is like that of creamed honey, which I like. I e-mailed the company to get whatever additional information I could about this honey, and was answered by one of the most friendly, helpful and pleasant people I've ever run into at the other end of a business keyboard.  She contacted me three times over the next couple of weeks to follow up on our first 'conversation.'  

I hope that you've enjoyed this look into our island foodstuffs. I find that there is always something new to discover.        -djf 

Gee, bees

I was sitting on our deck when I spotted a bee working its way across the yard. I grabbed the camera and started zooming in on the wee beastie...

Here are my best shots.  

Across the yard I spotted it...

Coming closer...

Oh good, it's heading for these calendulas right next to the deck. (All of these pictures will be of the same bee.)

You can easily see the corbicula (pollen basket) on each of its hind legs.  

With such close-up shots, I feel that I'm getting to know this bee really well...

Look at the condition of this bee's wings in this photo and in the next two.

You'll see that its wings are tattered. I think that must mean that this is an older bee who has been using its wings for some time.  

I read that a bee's wings beat at 230 beats per second and that a bee might fly 500 miles in it's lifetime. (measured in weeks)  Little wonder this one is showing some wear and tear. I wonder how much longer this one has... 

Notice too, in this picture and others, that at rest, this bee's left wing overlaps the right one slightly. I wonder if all bee's wings are like that, or if they vary? Are they right or left winged?  

I was reading that some beekeepers think that bees might enjoy music. One guy asked in fact, "What kind of music do your bees enjoy?" That got me thinking, and thinking...

I imagine that my bee, the one I photographed today, is quite musical. And I think that bees especially love disco. We already know bees love to dance. In fact, I wouldn't bee surprised if my bee had written a bee song, set to an old, but very popular disco tune.  And beeing such social creatures, they would love karaoke too.  

Here is a link to the music it used. I think that it especially liked the frequencies of the singers' voices in this piece. 

Start it and then click right back to this page. The words to the bee's version of this song are below. See if you can keep up.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N5UZKPvYQE

"Sustainin' the hive."  by the Gee, bees.  

[verse 1]

Well, you can tell by the way I use my wings, I'm a worker bee. No time for talk 

Buzzin' away from my hive warm, I been workin' hard since I was born. 

But it's alright, it's okay. You could say flyin' makes my day. 

You could try to understand, just how fast I really am.  

[Chorus]

Whether you're a worker or whether you're some other,

You're sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive.

Feel my wings a breakin' and pollen baskets shakin,' 

I'm sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive.  

Ah ha, ha, ha, sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive. 

Ah ha, ha, ha, sustainin' the hi-i-i-ive.  

[Verse 2] 

Well now, I fly low and I fly high, in any kind of weather I really try,

Got the wings from Heaven upon my back, and this insect has got no lack,

You know it's alright, it's okay, I'll live to see another day.

You could try to understand, just how fast I really am...

[Chorus]

Whether you're a worker or whether you're some other,

You're sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive.

Feel my wings a breakin' and pollen baskets shakin,' 

I'm sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive.  

Ah ha, ha, ha, sustainin' the hive, sustainin' the hive. 

Ah ha, ha, ha, sustainin' the hi-i-i-ive.  

[Bridge]

I'm over loaded, Somebody help me.

Somebody help me, yeah. 

My wings are tattered, somebody help me, yeah. 

Sustainin' the hiiive.

[back to verse 1]  

-djf