Been a while since I’ve sent out a notification of any kind. After the November trip I got all written out, without nearly finishing the track reports that needed doing. I just wanted to go walking again while I was still fit enough.
A few recipes have found their way up to that section: There’s a couple of new soups come out of the last cold snap, and a zucchini-rich slice.
Curried Cashew and Carrot Soup: Sweet and nutty, substantial enough for a main course, and as spicy as you want to make it. About twenty minutes from start to on the table.
Spinach and Zucchini Soup: An ideal rainy-day-in-autumn lunch, and a wonderful green presence on your lunch table.
Also emerging from the recent zucchini flush in the vegetable garden is
Zucchini Slice : An adaptation of an internet recipe. Absolutely delicious, but main claim to inclusion is that it uses up some of the surplus crop of courgettes. For vegetarians, leave out the bacon and throw in some chopped olives and or blue cheese pieces.
I revisited Woodhill Forest to see how much progress has been made on the walking tracks. They’re open, but there’s a lot of uncleared debris and fallen branches and the bush is so dry it’s almost uncomfortable to walk in it. In the latest issue of the Woodhill Diary I quote a brief report of Harold Holt, the original Holt in Carter Holt Harvey. It’s an interesting account of a man whose love for trees and forests has been so abominably reflected by the company that bears his name. I also take you on a brief photographic tour of the Woodhill Forest modified short loop track.
At the end of February, 2008, Miranda climbed Fantham’s Peak on Taranaki, while I set off for Mt Holdsworth to complete some unfinished business from last November, and catch up again with friends in Napier and in Wanganui. I’ve completed the account of the Loop Track at Mt Holdsworth, and of the Gentle Annie Track as far as Mountain House Shelter and the report on the Atiwhakatu Track will be up as soon as I have a spare moment.