Lady Dior goes out to lunch
Plus writing time, and home-grown fruit!
Hello friends!
Paul and I took mum out for her Christmas gift fancy lunch this past week. I know, it's June, we weren't exactly rushing the gift.
It was a beautiful lunch though! We went to a local winery that is always good - Craggy Range if you're ever passing through Hawke's Bay.
I took my Lady Dior out for a treat. Have I shown you her before? I was lucky enough to frequent two staff sales when I worked for Parfums Christian Dior more than twenty years ago, and bought this beauty for a small fraction of its cost. It was at a 90% discount and the original price of the bag was $3,500 at the time.
So I bought a Dior bag for $350 (which was still triple what I'd ever paid for a bag, but I knew this opportunity would not come around often).
It's polished black leather with a print horse-hair front/back. I don't think it's actually horse-hair though... just that slightly furry leather that suits a zebra print so well!
Have you had any excellent purchases at staff or sample sales before? Share the goods!
This week each morning I’ve been in my office tap tap tapping away and I couldn't be happier. I have a pretty candle burning, piano music playing, and I'm working on my next book.
First thing in the morning is my absolute favourite time to write - I get up at 6am, put my exercise gear on (for my walk before breakfast), and sip from my giant cup of hot tea while I get ideas onto the screen.
At the moment I'm in the mood to write towards multiple book; I was finding it hard to stick to just one. So each morning I peruse the titles I'm working on and pick the one that appeals the most. And I write a chapter or two for that!
I was getting annoyed with myself that I couldn't just keep with one book, but then thought 'Well who said I had to?' And now I don't! This one decision has freed up a lot of creative space and it feels so light and joyful.
We were lucky enough to inherit four feijoa trees when we moved to our current home almost eight years ago.
Feijoas come ripe in the autumn and are delicious. Each morning I go out and pick up what has fallen in the past 24 hours. (The doggies always come too, mostly sniffing around, but still helpful 😊)
We eat them fresh, and they are also perfect to freeze for our breakfast smoothies.
It's nice to have our own 'free' fruit, and it's also great to know that it's safe. When we run out of free fruit, we buy frozen fruit, but you have to check what country it's from, know that it hasn't been washed, and also pay a lot for it. Frozen fruit is expensive!
I also buy fresh seasonal fruit when it's a good price for these reasons. For example when strawberries were a great price after Christmas I bought a few kilos and washed, hulled and froze them. They are long gone now but oh what bliss a strawberry smoothie is!
And bananas are great for this year round too - I peel and quarter them, then freeze so I can have a piece here or there in my smoothie.
The funny thing about our feijoa trees is that they are planted on a slope... so when the fruit falls when ripe, it rolls away into the leaves never to be seen again!
Hence I now have a lovely path built to catch them. It was done on a budget because it's pointless to spent thousands on a path and railing only to save tens on fruit.
But we have it now and the cost per use goes down each year as I pick up more feijoas!
I know this fruit is not common elsewhere. In my research I've found that it originated in South America and is called pineapple guava there.
You cut them in half and scoop out the flesh from each half. It has a slightly gritty texture and almost a floral taste (as well as sweet and fruity of course).
I have always loved them right from when I was a little girl, and recall going out in my school uniform to pick up a few to go with my breakfast on a chilly autumn morning.
I am always excited for feijoa season!
Wishing you a wonderful week, and I will carry on writing.
See you next time!
xx Fiona
PS. If you could use a little softness in your life, check out my book below, or find all my links at fionaferris.com
(My Amazon links are affiliate, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase, but at no cost to you. I appreciate it if you choose to use my links!)