Chinese New Year was last week and we ushered in the year of the rabbit. I got this lovely lladro piece for Helen before we were married and it is beautiful like the person who received it.

 Chinese New Year is when a lot of travel, homecoming, hope and noise occurs. Lion dances, red packets and fireworks herald the new year.

Joe's Chinese class made mobiles out of paper that formed the character for luck and prosperity and also traced out four character phrase for us to hang on the wall.

We ate jaozi or steamed dumplings that were handmade by Helen and it is great to see the way she puts them together.

Between the rainy days the humidity has been reasonably high which although good for chillies and plants in general, left us wanting to spend more time in the pool.

From Playing in the Pool

Speaking of chillies, I was lucky enough to receive some jolokia chilli seeds which I duly planted. Jolokia and variants of this chilli are reported to be the hottest in the world, which is why I only use one of them to make a sauce which I am calling "B Hot TLC". The B stands for Basil, an ingredient in the sauce and TLC stands for Tomato, Lime Chilli. There are a few other little ingredients used in the sauce which is really tasty.

The red critter on the left was the chilli used. The sauce is on the right.

Joe continues to grow and is almost as tall as Helen. He has just written a 4000 word fictional piece called "Universal Wars" which, without giving too much of the story away is a blended tale combining wizardry, light sabre wielding space folk and some mutant powers. He typed it in rather than handwriting it and it is good to see him typing rather than handwriting (I do believe getting a "typing license" is nowadays more important than a "pen license")

From Joe is getting tall

 

 

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