September 2007

September 30th, 2007

The name meme

I saw this over at Poppalina and tagged myself.

1. Your rock star name
(first pet & current car)
Bodha Golf

2.Your gangsta name
(fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Honee Lavendah Flohrenteen

3. Your Fly Guy / Girl name
(first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
Cfra

4. Your detective name
(favorite color, favorite animal)
Blue Waxeye

5. Your soap opera name
(middle name, city where you were born)
Alexandra Epsom

6. Your Star Wars name
(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Frach

7. Superhero name
(2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”)
The green mandarin (on ice)

8. Nascar name
(the first names of your grandfathers)
Sid Jack

9. Stripper name
(the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy)
Sui Pink Smoker

10.Witness protection name
(mother’s & father’s middle names )
Sidney Gordon

11. TV weather anchor name
(Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Jonhson Jericho

12. Spy name
(your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Spring Godetia

13. Cartoon name
(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Passionfruit Skirty

14. Hippy name
(What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Marmalade Kauri

15. Your rockstar tour name
(”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Photographic Rain Tour

This is a self-tagging meme – if you like it go for it!

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September 28th, 2007

Thirty thousand today

Looking at my little counter I set up in May or June I think it was we now seem to be nearing the 30,000 visits mark. Oh my gosh how exciting!! I have no idea of knowing who it is, but if you notice it’s you – let me know! (The counter is at the bottom on the right hand side).

Well – wow! Thanks all so so much for visiting my blog – you all help make it what it is. It’s incredibly enjoyable sharing what I’m doing, keeping a record of my life and doing it via a medium I just adore.  Without wanting to sound ridiculously overenthusiastic I think blogging is actually one of the best things that ever happened to me. I would never have otherwise had such exposure to so much creativity – and of course all the friends I’ve made – I love you all!

It’s really bloody brilliant, blogging, isn’t it?

:)

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September 27th, 2007

And now for another giveaway

Yep – you asked for it – so here it is; another giveaway. I’m giving away four sets of six mixed cards and one $30 voucher (which will actually buy you quite a bit!) from the shop. All you need to do this time is to head on over to Little Orchard and register. No need to buy anything.



And, as this is a draw with a bit of a difference – if there’s something you really want to win – tell me either in the comments here or email me – and if it gets enough votes I’ll include that in the prize draw too – on top of what’s already in the prize pool. Can’t get fairer than that now can I? Contest is open until October 30th – I’ll notify the winners by email and publish them here.

Have fun!

And thanks so much to all of you who have been over and had a look – and a special Big thank you to those of you who’ve registered and bought something – you’re in the draw too :)

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September 25th, 2007

The shop

Well it’s now live. I’ve tested it. But there is bound to be something… if you find any little bugs or glitches please let me know! Otherwise, please enjoy… www.littleorchard.co.nz


It’s the start of a new era I suppose isn’t it now.

To celebrate the new I cut myself a fringe today. How I miss my London hairdresser. Oh well, I’ve decided to just cut my own hair again from now on and I’ll just have fly to London every now and again to get it done properly. I’m sure if I copy what she did I’ll be fine (ha!).

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September 25th, 2007

My desktop

Well I have just been asked by Jen to show my desktop to the world. I know I still owe Arch eight things and Veronica some rocking girl bloggers – but this one’s easy – and it has caused me to do a little bit of desktop organising – and also to realise I have a client meeting this morning. I have a 23″ apple cinema display which I’ve had for quite a few years now.

And yes, my background is dark grey. I find pictures too disctracting although very occasionally I might put a photo or illustration up. Usually I will tire of it very quickly and go back to good old fashioned plain old grey.



Still working on the shop. Wrote tonnes of copy yesterday. Today I just need to weigh everything and make sure the postage system is working, and accurate! So close now.

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September 23rd, 2007

Little Orchard news

Well, I was aiming to have the shop launched today. And I could if I felt like staying up till 2am. But I don’t do that anymore. And, I am always of the mind that to miss a deadline by only a day isn’t too bad really. There was a Harvard study that said things always turn out better if you miss the deadline – it means you’re doing it properly!

So. All things going well it will be open tomorrow evening. I’ve been documenting the process of making and bottling over the past few days. Today we finally sorted out the Little Orchard shop room – ooh it’s so exciting to have it all there. The result of seven years of thought, learning, practice, experimenting, discussing, preparing.

This is me finalising the fragrance blends for the moisturisers. I’ve also got a new skincare recipe book for me to write the final perfect potions in. Always good to have an ideas book and the proper book of brews I think.



Weighing the waxes. Just small amounts. This is the beeswax for the mature skin blend. Oooh do I love its smell. And cocoa butter. That gets me too. (By default it’s all certified organic – just for the record).



Measuring out the oils. Each blend contains French Sunflower oil – then Borage oil – that’s my favourite – and an oil to suit the different skin types for each product. Although the secret to my recipes, or should I say the feature, is the floral waters. They are my true love. And you shall be seeing and hearing a lot more of them here.



Making the moisturisers. I wouldn’t get very far without the thermometers. Also most useful when making marmalade.



The next day I filtered and bottled a few litres of lavender floral water. I also got some news on my geranium plants. Thomas – my trusty grower has planted out the 250 that survived the winter – all destined to become floral waters for using in moisturisers, serums and facial mists. We’ve organised to go down for the distillation. We don’t know when that will happen. He’s not grown geranium before – this lot is especially for us so it’s all very exciting!


Ah yes, and here’s the Little Orchard table with my new scales for weighing items for the post and my treasured aerial farm photo from the 1950s from New Plymouth. The big containers hold shampoo and conditioner. The white tissue on the table is my new photographic studio, and with the lovely evening light in this room I managed to keep photographing until seven this evening.



Today was the Spring Equinox, and in suitable fashion it rained heavily. Our cherries are starting to blossom. The Kowhai has been for a while now. And the skies were a gorgeous dark grey. I took a small break from my work to capture the mood.



We were going to hoe up half our back lawn on Friday to prepare for the meadow, the medicinal garden and the vege patch, but Dad’s back wasn’t up to it and I was busy building the shop – so that’s hopefully on the cards for next Friday. I’ll be documenting the process of course. Gosh I just can’t wait! I’ve always wanted a meadow.

Over the past few weeks I’ve planted a few fruit trees as well but haven’t manged to capture them nicely yet. I shall keep on trying though and soon the trees will have a little story. Well, goodnight – and see you tomorrow.

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September 18th, 2007

Ricotta. And grapefruit marmalade

It’s been a poor year for our grapefruit tree. We’ve only had about ten fruit so far and I think only another six to go. But it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t make marmalade – so I did that yesterday. Not until I’d been out to the trusty Mitre 10 (equivalent of B&Q) in Henderson and bought myself some nice jars. What does it say about you when your current favourite shop is a giant hardware shop I wonder?

I used the recipe from the Edmonds Cook book. I ran out of sugar though and was a couple of cups short but forged ahead regardless. So this morning I jumped out of bed early to check the marmalade. It was the perfect colour, but just like sweet grapefruit drink! Off to the dairy to buy more sugar. Back home I tipped all the marmalade back in the pot and corrected my sugar levels. This time, perfecto.

Always. Follow. The. Recipe. (At least until you know what you’re doing).



Last night I also made ricotta using Campbell’s recipe.

Ricotta

• 2 litres of milk
• Heat slowly to 93° in a thick bottomed pot, scraping the bottom as it heats up
• Remove from heat
• Add in the juice of one and a half lemons
• Stir only twice – as in 1 stir, 2 stirs – that’s it
• Leave 15 minutes
• Line a small sieve with cheesecloth and scoop the curds into a colander that you’ve also lined with cheesecloth
• Leave to drain for twenty minutes
• Fini

Gorgeous together on Vogel’s toast or a nice sourdough.

And – I also want to say thank you so so so much everyone for your thoughtful comments on my post about Mum. I printed them all out and took them over to the family home while we were having the funeral party so everyone who came over read them. Thanks so much – every single one of you who wrote – your support really helped :)

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September 5th, 2007

My mum

Cynthia Franklin : 26 March 1943 – 5 September 2007



Mum outside Bouchon in Kingsland. February 2004.

I have just got back from hospital. When all else fails write. Before I forget what happened. I am beginning to forget already. Some time early evening Di Church phoned me telling me mum was going into hospital and dad wasn’t there so she was just ringing me so that someone knew. Then Dad turned up and she got off the phone quickly. And now I can’t remember what happened. Why we didn’t go in to hospital right away. I know I rang Polly and said I think Mum is going to die this time and she told me to go in. It’s good I have Polly to tell me what to do. When I don’t have my wits about me I phone Polly to get instructions. Kevin was out at the shop. Kevin’s phone was in the car. Kevin was not. Dad keeps phoning. Better come in now. You really had. Now. Come. Have you left yet? Get Astrid ready. Make food. Get blankets. And giraffe. Kevin gets home and we leave. I remember doing this trip before. The last time I drove myself. It was quite a few months ago now. Both times I remember one of Kevin’s handkerchiefs just before going out the door. This time I knew I wanted Astrid and Kevin to come too. I just knew I wouldn’t be wanting to drive myself back from the hospital this time. And I knew Astrid had to come.

Into the Emergency Department and they let me through to HDU. In the door to the room, through the curtains and there’s my mother lying on her back, her torso and head lying to one side, her arm down by dad and he’s holding her hand. I remember earlier when Dad called and he said Mum was in a room full of doctors and nurses. I told him he had to go in and be with her and hold her hand. He did and he stayed holding her hand. So we are there. I have seen my mother looking like this before. Only this time she’s more yellow and oily looking. Very thin and fluid like all the life has been sucked out of her. She’s breathing oxygen but I notice the monitor is not switched on. I sit on the opposite side of her, then realise she can’t see Astrid so we move to where she can see Astrid. Everyone says she can’t see. People are talking like she’s not there. Arranging stuff for tomorrow. People to phone. I want it to be quiet and I divert attention to Astrid. Astrid makes some noise and Mum acknowledges it with as much noise as she can muster which is a gentle grunt. She knows Astrid’s there and she can hear what’s going on. There’s a doctor in there explaining what is happening to Mum – about her lung cancer and that the lung has collapsed. They’re not trying to save her and he says it won’t be long now. I silently wish it would all be over but I also wish it had never had to come to this. I don’t think mum wants to hear all this boring talking though in her last minutes and then the doctor asks about Astrid’s name.

Astrid’s name comes from Astrid Lindgren I tell him although Kevin says it’s from the girlfriend of the Beatle that didn’t stay a Beatle. Astrid Lindgren wrote my favourite ever children’s book. And it’s about death I continue. The older brother Jonathan throws himself and his younger, crippled brother, out of a window so that they die together and go to heaven which is called Nangiyala. But they find that Nangiyala has been taken over by evil and they need to fight battles and slay dragons to bring peace to Nangiyala. There is much great adventure here, they rally people together and help bring peace to the land. At the end of the story they die and go to Nangilima which is the next level – or real heaven where true peace reigns. I think at the end of the book they say they can see the light… look, here it is.

Astrid was holding mum’s hand while I finished telling the story. And a few minutes later Mum very quietly stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating.

My god. There’s so much more to say. I’ve been wanting to write about this for ages. Wondering what if Mum would read what I wrote but she’s not even been able to get to a computer for months now. My relationship with my mother was terrible at times and good at others. We got on brilliantly when I was in another country so I made it my business to spend a lot of time in other countries. We’d talk for ages on the phone. I would tell her everything. But when we were together in person, a lot of the time we wouldn’t get on. Especially recently. But I’ve decided I am not going to wish I’d done this, or that things had been any different. I never did the whole big discussion and make up before she died thing. I don’t think we needed to do that at all. Life is what it is. What happened happened. A lot of things I remember about my mother are not great. Like I remember the first massive argument we had. I was about three or four and I had collected a matchbox full of baby praying mantises that I’d just watched being born – straight into my matchbox! Anyway, these newly born praying mantises ended up on the dining room table at dinner time with some guests. I thought it was wonderful. Mum not so.

The other time I remember was the first day I got my period and Mum had to pick me up from school. She was so mad at me I remember her yelling at me that she wanted to kill me. I can now see the humour in both situations – I must have driven her absolutely nuts! I have recently been trying to remember good things about my mother. Especially from childhood. I remember Mum used to skip us to bed when we were really tiny, something to do with goats. And I remember when Mum was an Avon lady we used to walk around Cheltenham doing that. I also helped her when she ran skincare seminars. So funny that. And here I am making skincare products.

I think there’s more of her in me than I care to admit. Ha. But tonight I am just so glad she heard Astrid and that Astrid was holding her hand when she died. And I’m glad I told the story about the Brothers Lionheart too. Even if it was a very quick rendition.

It’s not sunk in yet. It will over the next few days I suppose. And any time I think I want to talk to her. But really, she’s been ill for a while now and it’s been difficult to speak to her, so at least I have had a long time to prepare and in a way be eased into her not being here any more.

Any of you reading this smoke and want a reason to give up? Here’s one.

My mother just died at 64. Her mother died five years ago aged 96. Thirty two years. That’s my entire life minus two years. My mother should have had another thirty years. She said she didn’t mind dying, but just a few weeks ago she found out she had another grandchild on the way too and she wanted to stay alive for that.

Too late. Too late. I’m so sorry Mum. Bloody. Fucking. Cigarettes.



This photo was taken only last February. I was living in London at the time and when we got back I tried to get her to go on retreat to stop smoking. But she was bitterly annoyed with me for saying so. Just a year after this photo was taken she was emaciated. Down to 9 stone – just skin and bone.

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September 5th, 2007

The gods are smiling

The Good Customer Service planets must have been in alignment on Monday because at 8am the postman left this lot on my doorstep:



And a couple of hours later this turned up:



And then this turned up in my bank account (yes, that’s £ pounds):



All the above came because I emailed or phoned about something not quite right. Nehoc wins the Generosity Prize. They sent me two print packs with screens, bulbs and inks just because I didn’t get the artwork cleanup paper in my starter kit.

Cath Kidston wins the They Finally Get Me award. Long story to do with postage costs and missing items and lamp shades. Junior customer services people didn’t even get what I was talking about and I managed to end up talking to the guy who is even above the complaints department – that was a stroke of luck.

But I can’t believe they have light shades back in stock after the absolute hoohah I went through to get ANY after they failed to send my order so I ordered more – and then told me they were totally out of stock and would never ever have any ever again – so I cancelled the order with the green ones. I now have a lot of them in pink!! And, I hope my new season’s oilcloth turns up soon. Then I will love them again. But only then. And I hope they give it to me – then I shall be ecstatic and say lots of nice things about them!

And EcoStore wins the personal service award. Their products arrived in a courier and the owner of the company will be with me shortly. I so hope we can get to the bottom of the laundry issue. You’re probably right you people and it’s rust spots – but I am still wondering about the essential oil connection…

And speaking of Gods – the Internet Gods were smiling last night when they finally relented and let Yvonne see my blog. Aaaah! After all the effort the two of us have made here behind the scenes – like you would not believe – phone calls, emails to my hosting company and her ISP – it is just incredible to see a comment from Yvonne on my blog – and know she did it from her own computer!

Oh frabjous day :)

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