Lincoln: It's Much Nicer Than I Expected

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The boyf, Billie and I headed out to Lincoln last Friday and really quite enjoyed it. It is missing the sea, but has a little river and it doesn't have any hills, but it seems popular with cyclists. And what a library.

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Click to see options for using the image. The closest you'll get to an English pub in Lincoln. Good food and dog friendly.

The laboratory was the closest you'll get to an English pub in Lincoln. Good food and dog friendly. Read more on the boyf's blog.

I Love New Brighton. It Has Many Reasons to Be Cheerful

If I didn't live in Lyttelton, I’d probably choose New Brighton (though I would be worried long-term about the threat of sea level rise and tsunamis). New Brighton has a fabulous long sandy beach and a cool modern pier that stretches out into the Pacific. The council had to do a lot of work to repair it after the earthquake and it is due to open to the public again tomorrow.

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New Brighton also has one of the new electric car charging points that are springing up around Christchurch.

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But the thing I like best about new Brighton is the library. You can sit and work in a chair that looks out over the ocean and there is a cafe below whenever you need a break from that.

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Reasons to Be Cheerful: I'm on Cartoonstock

I'm not very good at selling my own work and tend to leave it to others (e.g. King Features and Amazon). But I've been asked about availability of some of the personal work I've been putting up on Gocomics.com as my Doodle Diary. Eventually, I hope to turn Reasons to Be Cheerful and New Zealand Diary into books, but that is waaaaay down the track at the moment.

In the meantime, Cartoonstock have offered me a way to sell my cartoons, so I'll give it a try. Clicking some of my images should take you to Cartoonstock and they'll take care of the sale of the work. We'll see how it goes. Click on the following images if you want to find out how it works (I do!).

Cheers!

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Reasons to Be Cheerful: Fermenting

My friend, Jane, introduced me to my latest fermenting foray (previously, I had only tried yoghurt and alcohol).

After being inspired by Sandor Katz's "The Art of Fermentation" and coming back from my Mapua trip with a couple of cultures, the boyf tolerated the build up of various jars and crocks in the house (kombucha and sauerkraut) and kindly shouted me a ticket to a fermentation workshop, hosted by the Australian, Sharon Flynn of The Fermentary. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted half the photos on my phone this week, so these images are grabbed from Sharon's Instagram.

I went along to the workshop thinking I would learn a little, but came away with a lot of notes and a better understanding of fermentation, including some of the things I had been doing wrong (I'm surprised my kombucha has done so well - that SCOBY is bulletproof!). I don't think I'll be attempting milk kefir again any time soon, but there are definitely a few other things on my list.