Winter's coming on

Time to eat

I’ve been thinking about food.

It’s that sort of a day. The recent run of glorious calm, sunny days ended yesterday.

Today, it’s cloudy, windy and cold. It’s so cold I’ve got a beanie on - my old bald head just doesn’t retain the heat. Cathie suggested I grow my hair and sport a ponytail. I could look like another old wannabe trying to convince the world I’m groovy, but I’m for the conservative look when it comes to hair.

It’s all very well for her. She has plenty of hair and besides, she’s found her new calling as a lumberjack and it’s keeping her warm.

In the Sounds, we’re completely surrounded by native bush. Her new mission is to remove the ones that obscure the nice ferns, or block a view, or block the light.

Her friends the fantail - pipiwakawaka - flock around to see what insects have been sprung.

They chirp like mad and flaunt their bottoms in a shameless way, but look very pretty.

I, on the other hand, sit inside, plan menus and get cold. I roused myself and heated baked beans for lunch. It warmed my insides in a friendly way.

Before I came to hide inside, we went for our daily constitutional. Some days we walk on the Queen Charlotte Track, but today we just wandered around the neighbourhood, including the Outward Bound cross-country track.

We always look out for windfalls in the community orchard or just on the sides of the street.

We came back with pockets full of feijoas.

I once wrote a newspaper column about the pleasures and benefits of feijoas.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry:

“Feijoa sellowiana also known as Acca sellowiana Burret, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina.”

It’s no news to anyone that they also thrive here.

While they’re in season, we eat them every day, with several thrown into our porridge in the morning. They taste great and they’re really healthy too.

There are also apples about. One house down the street, mostly unoccupied, has masses of them falling on the ground. It’s frowned upon to take fruit from the neighbours, but since they’re rotting for the birds and rats to clean up, I feel a bit of kleptomaniacy coming on.

And an apple and feijoa crumble.

Or share with a friend.