Last week I decided to Start Learning How To Cook.  My first meal, mostly made of things from Veganomicon, was mostly A Failure.

Undercooked lemon potatoes (which if they had been properly cooked would have been amazing), asparagus which I cooked in soy sauce because I didn’t want to use even more olive oil, thus they didn’t ‘fit in’ with the rest of the food and were too salty, chickpea cutlets (with vegetarian sour cream) which were pretty yum, except the oil I cooked it in was too hot so the inside was a bit raw while the outside was a bit burnt, and my own favourite, roast mushrooms.  You clean them, wrap them up in tin foil with chopped garlic and balsamic vinegar, then bang them in the oven.  These were a bit too juicy for me – I am a barbarian who likes things shrivelled and burnt!

Anyway I haven’t done any more cooking at my place since, as I realised I can’t afford to buy food, so I’ve been living off toast, apples, random bits of food in the fridge/freezer/pantry, and my mother and flatmate’s leftovers.  I have done a bit at my boyfriend’s, but nothing fancy since I HATE cooking in his kitchen.  I did make a num num pizza last night – tomato base, cheese, rocket salad, walnuts, goat’s feta, roast garlic and pear.  My mouth is DROOLING just thinking about its deliciousness.

I love monarch butterfly season, it’s such an O Hai! to my childhood.

Every year in kindergarten and primary school, we would have a monarch butterfly plant (swan plant) in our classroom.  It was so exciting around chrysalis time, trying to find where the caterpillars have gone to make their chrysalis.  They turned up in the most bizarre places – once a boy wasn’t allowed to sit at his desk for a few days because one had chrysalised (?) under his desk.  It was so exciting when they started breaking open, too!  When I was in Melbourne I wanted to get a swan plant, but the people I was staying with had NO idea what I was talking about.  I was shocked because this was an integral part of growing up, for me, and how could somebody not have experienced it!  Cultural differences, Poppy.  Does Australia even have monarch butterflies?  I’m sure you do!

Anyway this is on a plant at a house I walk past to go to my boyfriend’s.  When the caterpillars begin making chrysalis’, I will take more photos because they are so pretty.

André sitting on one of the mosaic taniwha seats that are around Devonport.  Taniwhas, gosh talk about childhood again… what kid in New Zealand did not learn ‘One day a Taniwha?’ in school (and if you say you didn’t I cry for your lost childhood.)  André had to be bullied into having his photo taken.  I think he is sticking out his tongue…

I bought this pretty print from Jen (you should see it at the source, it is really washed-out in this photo and is so pretty irl.)  I love getting things from Etsy because they are always so prettily packaged (I opened this before getting a photo, whoops!)  I am also so jealous of her hand-writing, I could never sell anything on Etsy because my handwriting is a snarled mess.  She also has a lovely blog, Hello Jenuine, and it sounds like she might be having a giveaway soon so you’d better add her to your reader!

My boyfriend and I climbed up Mt Victoria in Devonport (p.s. not really a climb, more like a strenuous walk) and saw a seagull with one leg…

Sculptures of toadstools…

Cardboard people use to slide down the hill…

A random shack (André kept complaining that it was “too hot” well of COURSE you’re hot you’re wearing jeans and a polo!)…

The inside of the shack, where people seemed to store the cardboard…

And a cannon built in 1899 because everyone was afraid the Russians were going to invade.

Behind me is Rangitoto, which we have also climbed up.  That actually IS a climb, and the view is gorgeous.  Note to self: get rid of t-shirt, makes me look very frumpy.  Also I don’t really know what is going on in this photo, Rangitoto and the sea aren’t actually on a tilt in real life…

I was intending on doing a photo post every week to practice photography and stuff, but I have realised that I would quickly run out of subject matter because I hardly ever DO anything worth photographing.  This is the most exciting thing André and I have done in months, haha.  The only things I have done this week is go to university, be tired and grumpy from getting up early to get to university, and playing Hello Kitty Online.

Also thank you for all the nice comments recently, particularly people who have not commented before :)  I am so so terrible at replying to comments, I think because on the rare occasion I comment on someone else’s blog I never go back to see if they replied.  I must rectify this!

Related Posts:

1. Dolly Dagger Delights And Other Stories
2. My Boyfriend, The Next Am Appy Photographer?
3. Fush and Chups
4. I Swear I Am Not Kicking The Dog

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.