Tag Archives: crafts

Well, hello cyber world.

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“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Meg and Henry united

We are back. It has been a slow start for us at Durvillea Wines on the blogging production line. However the lives of the Durvillea Women have been action packed.
Before I begin filling you in on what the Durvillea’s have been up to, I have to acknowledge all those suffering in the world. We have family in Christchurch and they are all safe and facing the future with resilience. Our niece Louise is an English teacher in Japan and thankfully she too is safe. We are very fortunate here and I think that all the economic turmoil and now devastating earthquakes have helped us all remember what is really important.

The end of 2010 was a whirlwind. No sooner were Simon and I back from Canada, Ireland and the UK than we were packing for Brisbane. Libby graduated from University of Queensland with a BA and LLB(hons).

Libby graduates

We had a great time as Dad joined us. Then home for Christmas with the McLernon ‘s here as Astrolabe Farm. Food, family and dancing.

Family dancing

However the big event was just building up. On the 5th March we held Meg and Henry’s wedding here at Astrolabe Farm. It was a wonderful day full of happiness, love and fabulous dancing. There were many elements that we created ourselves. We sewed the bunting and the tablecloths.

Sewing bee

Invitations in progress

The finished effect

Arabella designed the invitations and we screen printed them here. Libby made the little figures for the top of the cake. My sister and Henry’s dad did the flowers. Simon’s sister made the cake. So many people helped out. Here is a little album of Meg and Henry’s Civil Union.

Then to top it all off Sophie decided that she would hold a fundraising auction for Christchurch. If I had not been distracted by the wedding I would have been a bit of damp squib. How can you pull it together in time was in my mind. Well she did.

Sophie at work

It was a terrific event. Sophie and her co-organiser Kate Cameron raised $33,618. We are very proud.

So we are very proud of the women involved in Durvillea Wines. They are an astonishing bunch of young women.

Crafty work down on the farm.

Posted on by Jane
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The approaching harvest of the grapes is beginning to dominate life. Nick has been working hard in the vineyard cutting out green fruit and putting on nets. There is a rising sense of anticipation. We are beginning to watch the weather carefully and notice the cooler nights. So far so good.

As well as the grapes, the pears and apples are now ripe. The swans wander up from the pond and eat the fallen pears and we are enjoying them straight off the tree. We also had a great plum crop and Simon made plum kasundi. In the past we have made a tomato kasundi but Simon cut out about a 1/3 of sugar to account for the higher sugar levels in plum. The recipe we use is Annabel Langbein’s and goes particularly well with courgette and feta fritters. These fritters are a great way to use up courgettes that are probably more correctly called marrows.

Simon has also ventured into jam making using up the apricots that could be saved from the birds!

Winemaker jam making

Domestic activities have been a feature of our summer. Libby, Meg and I decided to take up crocheting over the Christmas break. We bought wool, borrowed books from the library and struggled. I did know how to do this once and the plans for an afghan rug may at this point be beyond our skills. It was a lot of fun and I intend to keep trying.

So it was with some relief when Arabella decided to make cusion covers for her flat. I am much more comfortable with the sewing machine. Generally I have not fulfilled my role of good mother by teaching my daughters to sew. However my hopes have been rekindled with Meg and Arabella showing a bit of interest. It was great fun whipping up soft furnishings with Arabella. Appliquing creatures on top of the floral fabrcs was particularly successful. We even tackled recovering a lampshade of an old standard lamp she had painted. Adding fringeing pleased me greatly.

Making cushions

From this I carried on to make aprons for us to wear for the wine and food festival. I love to wear an apron. Arabella found some seaweed fabric online and we had some pockets screenprinted with the Durvillea artwork. Simon took one look and said that the seaweeds on the fabric were from the Northern Hemisphere! The girls looked fab lined up behind the counter at the Wine and Food Festival in their pinnies.

Super pinny model Sophie

This domestic activity culminated in a fantastic bread making session. A couple of weeks ago we had a visit from Toni and Dean Betts. Dean is a chef who started The Fish Market restaurants in California and then moved to Auckland and started The Anglesea Bar & Grill. In discussing food, wine and life Dean offered to show me how to make a a flatbread and baguette loaf using a no knead recipe. Wow! We mixed up the dough and the next morning Dean came back and we shaped and baked , topping the flatbread with olive oil, rosemary, and garlic from the Farm. It was so much fun,  extremely satisfying and very delicious. Dean’s generosity as a chef and teacher was greatly appreciated.

Dean making the bread

Jane and Dean's bread

Over the next week I will post the recipes…………