Looking forward to June

Last week we were given a real taste of winter with a cold blast from Antarctica and lots of heavy rain and gales.  Our newspaper does like to sensationalise!

//From NZ Herald

Sometimes when its cold, dark and miserable like that it can be difficult to find the joy in the season!  But making our first fire of the year, cosying around it, and making some warm hearty meals reminded me that there's lots to look forward to this month and the coming winter months.

In Season: brussel sprouts, pumpkins and squash, chillies, citrus, leeks, parsnips, swedes and turnips, hazelnuts and walnuts.



Eat: porridge, Ready Brek, brussel sprouts, heaps of mandarins, nuts in their shell, rhubarb crumble, Christmas pudding if I can find some!  casseroles, mashed potatoes.  I recently roasted brussel sprouts for the first time and they were very good, I still prefer them steamed, but I'm inspired to try out a few new things this month.

Drink: Mulled wine, hot chocolate, Guinness, sherry, port, rum, Twinnings lemon and ginger tea.  I really hope the farmers market will start selling take out cups of mulled wine soon.

Decorate: fairy lights, twigs, pine cones, reindeer, red and green candles, and its time to get the red tartan table cloth on.



Smell: cinnamon, cloves, oranges

Watch: Game of Thrones, Once Upon A Time, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Frozen

Make: Sugar cookies, shortbread, mulled wine (I'm all about the mulled wine!) snow globes à la Taylor Swift, bird feeder, cross stitch, and knit or crochet a blanket - it keeps your legs warm while you knit it up :)

//From Taylor Swift Instagram

Wear: Thermals, nordic leggings, reindeer onesie (I got it as a gift from my sister), après ski jumpers, ear muffs.

Workout: Trail running, hot yoga, ice skating.

Go to: Farmers market, rugby game, football game, cinema, pub, ice hockey games

Stay In: Movie nights, scan negatives/photo project, read

Local Events:

Xterra Trail Series, Blues Rugby, Fifa U20 World Cup Final, BHB-Lynfield Lions Midwinter Christmas dinner (Link to last years event)

Other Notable Dates:

1st: Queens Birthday public holiday

This is a public holiday in NZ and the last one until Labour Day in October.

13th: World Wide Knit In Public Day

I haven't been to NZ Fabrics and Yarn in the Queens Arcade since it opened and I recently found out that they have knitting and crafting groups on Monday nights and Wednesday afternoons.  I'm hoping to get along to this knit in public day as well as one of their meet ups.

18th: Matariki

This is Maori new year.  For some reason this celebration isn't that popular yet in New Zealand but there are often free events and each year it grows bigger.  There has been talks in the past of changing the Queens Birthday public holiday to become a Matariki public holiday instead. 

19th: Queenstown Winter Festival starts

I've never been to Queenstown, but this week long celebration of the start of winter has been an annual event for 40 years.

22nd: Midwinter solstice

I do love to celebrate Midwinter Christmas and I know I'm not alone because between June and July there are lots of Midwinter Christmas events.  My Lions club has a dinner every June, and the Alexandra Park (harness racing) hosts dining package.  There's other stuff like craft markets and dinner shows but my favourite thing is to cook up a big tasty dinner at home of all our winter favourites.