What to do with green Cherry tomatoes

I have 7 kilos of green cherry tomatoes.  They never ripened, and the frost will be here soon.  Decided to make Green Tomato and Ginger Jam.  Delicious, even the urchins love it on crackers!

Green jewels

Pot of slime

Green tomato jam

• 1.3kg green tomatoes

• 120g preserved ginger

• Juice of 6 lemons

• 1.8 kg sugar

1. Slice tomatoes and ginger. Add lemon juice and very little water – just enough to cook the tomatoes. Boil for about 30 minutes until soft.
2. Add sugar and boil for about ¾ hour or until set.

It's Autumn

Anneke and feet

Oscar and Thingy

Kawhia

The school holidays aren't complete without a fossil hunt at Kawhia.  We found fossilised shells and belemites (fossilised squid). Tighe just looked for crabs and bones - and he discovered plenty of those!

Fossil hunting at Kawhia

 

 

 

We decided to take advantage of the tide, and boogie board down the sandhills at Ocean beach.  Low tide was hours away for the hot water,  so the boys ran up and down sandhills.  I looked for spiral shells, and tiny purple shells.  There were jellyfish on the beach which fascinated Tighe.

Boogie boarding the hills

Running down

Crashing at the bottom

School Holidays! Mt Pirongia with Jack

The great thing about school holidays, you get to spend time with your cousins.  We went exploring up Mt Pirongia.  I think the boys just enjoy using the chains at the top of Rua Pane.

Jack, Quinn, Tighe on the way up

Chains at top

At the top of the second (Rua) hill

Coming Down

Step and Deck progress

More work done on steps by Brad.  We can't wait to use them.  Currently we are walking around to use the back door.  It's a good time to get the deck painted as well.  Erik changed his mind about the paint colour.  The first coat was too "limey"

Oscar is 7! Pirate Party

Oscar is growing up so fast.  I can't believe he is 7 already.  Lots of his friends turned up for a swash buckling time.  Erik put together a treasure hunt, and the children had to read the treasure map, hunt for clues, decode the message, and unlock the treasure chest.  Exciting times.  Lots of yelling, running, shouting, and fun having.
Happy birthday Oscar!

Early morning gifts

Unwrapping more gifts

Sharing some loot

The treasure map!

Finding some clues

Digging for treasure (or more clues?)

Uncoding the dug  up clues...

Unlocking the treasure chest!

Cutting the cake and distributing the gold

Oscar's birthday Cake

Oscar helped me with the icing of his cake.  I wanted to achieve a "wood grain" pattern.  I think it has a walnut appearance to it.

 Oscar also helped choose the gold table cloth.
 Perhaps I put too many gold candies in the chest, the lid wouldn't shut.

The seashells are chocolate, and so are the gold coins.

Make a wish Oscar!

Waihi gold mine and beach

After the bike trail, we checked out gold mine.  More silver than gold is excavated from it now.  It was the old Martha mine.

Next day, before going to Hamilton for Mama's birthday, we visited a small isolated cove.  The walking track is off Waihi beach.  Very deserted, and peaceful.