A chainsaw, some hard work and many trips to the dump will help to rectify that!

But there are a few specimens that will stay to become the basis of the new garden design as we attempt to bring it back to its former glory. And this is one of them.

The colours right now are glorious but judging by the rate they are falling, within a week or so the tree will be stripped bare of all those leaves.

We will also be stripping it of these before the birds decimate the crop.

They are Persimmon. It’s an old fashioned fruit that you don’t see much of these days. I had not tried one myself until a couple of days ago, but oh my!  They are beautiful. Beneath the very smooth skin is a soft flesh with a very delicate, sweet flavour. Apparently they are very good for making jellies but I have seen a few baking recipes for them too.

Within a couple of weeks we will be inundated with them. Persimmon cake anyone?

If you know of any recipes for persimmon, please share them in the comments.

It’s because I have been extremely busy I am very lazy.

And there have also been a few changes going on. A lot can happen in 9 months you know? No, I have not had a baby! Heaven forbid! Not that I don’t like babies, I do! It’s just that in the last 10 years I have discovered the joys of being able to sleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch and I sorta like that, you know?

I’m blithering aren’t I?

Anyway… when I last blogged about Brookies I was a single mother of three lanky teenage boys, living in Hamilton and studying full-time towards a business degree. Now I am none of those things… and it’s all to do with a man. (At this point I could tell you how he swept me off my feet, I could quote soppy song lyrics and break into prose worthy of a Mills and Boon ‘novel’, but I will spare you the details. For now anyway.)

So here I am in 2012, living in a huge 100 year old house in Napier with Mr INTJ.

I kinda like him.

He really does bring out my romantic streak. For instance, on Valentines Day, I posted this picture on his Facebook wall.

And my boys…well they are no longer under the same roof as me. In fact two of them aren’t even in the same country as me which makes it a little awkward when I bake enough goodies to feed an entire suburb of hollow-legged teenage boys for a week and there is nobody around to eat it all.

Except me. And Mr INTJ.

I’ve had to take up running. I know!!! It was either that, or never step foot in the kitchen again, and we know that will never happen!

So maybe that goes some way toward explaining the relative drought of drivel recipes on this blog in recent months. With winter almost upon us, I will be spending more time in the kitchen and oversharing my culinary experiences on the interweb again.

You’re welcome!