The importance of wearing glasses while cooking! Gratuitous Pictures!

We have a lovely bunch of chives, basil, cilantro and parsley growing in a pot on our deck.  We had been noticing that the basil is beginning to languish.  I assumed it was because of the blowing salty winds interspersed with very intense sunshine. Our sun down here is intense due to the thinning of the ozone layer south of us, but that is another topic.

So today I decided to make pasta similar to that we enjoyed in Venice.  I began with lots of olive oil, added chopped garlic and onions and went outside to snip the basil, chives, parsley and cilantro.  Since we do not spray I don’t worry about cleaning the herbs too well.  I looked them over and chopped them into the oil.  On this I plopped chopped fresh mushrooms, sweet peppers and diced spicy dried Serbian sausage (bought at the weekend Village Market). I allowed all to sizzle in the oil and glancing at the stove I noted a one inch (2.5 cm) fluorescent green caterpillar ‘hot feeting’ it across the glass topped grill.  It must have jumped from the flying pan…..  I dispatched him quickly to the waste bin and put on my glasses to discover another green vermin jumping about in the greens which were quickly being heated with the oil.  After sending two caterpillars onward I scoured the greens further for interlopers and found none.   The oil with fresh herbs, vegs and spiced meat smelled so good I couldn’t just toss it out, so….  I ran mentally through my personal collections of ‘well they ate bugs in their rice during times of starvation’ or ‘in some countries they eat bugs for protein’ or ‘if I don’t mention it he won’t know it was there.’  This settled I prepared the pasta al dente and served a lovely meal which he enjoyed immensely. 

But when he saw me put my glasses on at the table and peer one last time into the pasta before it was served he asked, “Is there something I need to know?”  The thought of my peering into the pasta intently and then serving it still brings a smile to my face.

Remnants of dock pilings

Up close current piling remnant

He left for work in his uniform of white shirt, dark creased dress pants and what we would call a sweater vest that Kiwis refer to as a jumper.  Viva la difference!

Our home today from historic dock area

Quiet house, rain gone, air fresh, I took a walk on the beach as we had a really low tide.  Took some shots of what is left of the old 1905 dock, just the pilings and a shot of our home from the beach.  Am including photo circa 1900 of home and dock courtesy of Howick Library Historic collection.

Early 1900s

All very good, J