twenty-three | And the earth moved...

An earthquake in New York? Who'da thunk it?

ps. Apparently Californians find the East Coast reaction to today's earthquake hilarious.

twenty-two | life in time lapse

Sometimes I feel like my life is lived in time lapse, with anything between and week and 3 months between snapshots.

June | Québec City, Canada | Cirque du Soleil and Cirque du Cerveau

July | J+G, Begur, Toroella de Montgrí and Pals, Spain

July | Rossnowlagh, Co. Donegal, Ireland

July | Central Park, New York City

July | Birthday Carairinhas

August | Adirondacks

twenty-one

Please meet my new friends, the Le Creusets! This calls for a dinner party, methinks!

twenty | special

What a beautiful night.. Thank you, all!

nineteen

Wow. This week's heat makes me want to be a frozen bubble. From National Geographic via inspire me now.

eighteen

What is this? Lifestyle porn? Picnic porn? Whatever it is, I love it... I am unbearably, uncontrollably drawn to it, yet indulging the compulsion to look at it leaves me feeling empty. It feels superficial, vainglorious. Or am I just jealous that my life isn't soft-focused and sepia-tinged? (I think the answer is yes.)

seventeen

While the entire world was gripped with Royle Wedding fever, we spent last weekend wandering around New York, chilling out with our friend Richie. The weather was beautiful, so we checked out the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, enjoyed a few beers (at this fantastic beer store in Brooklyn), a yummy brunch in a new Harlem restaurant, followed by another leisurely stroll through Harlem and Central Park...










...all in all a great weekend, apart from a miserable dose of hay fever! And we had a much happier weekend than my poor mum, who had to deal with the stress and worry of terrible gorse fires that were threatening to encroach on our home. Thankfully some long-awaited irish rain finally seems to have brought them under control again. And some people question the reality of climate change!?!

sixteen | hot cross buns

Hot cross buns, hot cross buns...

...one-a-penny, two-a-penny...

...hot cross buns.

From this Nigella Lawson recipe. They were not a complete success, but not a failure either. I've been having a lot of trouble with yeast-based breads. The dough just doesn't rise like it's supposed to. I've been advised to try mixing the dry yeast with a little warm water and sugar and letting it sit for 10 minutes before mixing it with the flour. I'm definitely going to give that a try next time!

Happy Easter! We had a yummy and relaxing lunch with friends... but I am very jealous of everyone at home and their day off tomorrow!

fifteen

Quick Saturday salad:
3 tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
A bunch of asparagus, blanched and chopped into 1 inch segments
3 cloves of garlic, chopped (we like a lot of garlic, reduce as desired!)
A handful of basil, torn
A small handful coarsely grated parmesan
Salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil

Delicious with a slice or three of bread!

fifteen | La Courtepointe Provençale

About a year ago, I started on a quilt that was to be a present for a wonderful couple, Redmond and Cora, whose wedding took place in a magical château in Bordeaux last June. I posted about the pattern (Marquee, from this book) and my progress a couple of times.

I even managed to finish quilting it sometime last year. But, for the past 6 months or so it has languished in a corner, awaiting the tedious process that is hand-sewing the binding.

Well, finally, I managed to spend a slightly hungover Saturday on the sofa, and I finished it!

And just in time too - Redmond visited us and picked it up last week, just after I managed to run it through the wash ad get a quick couple of snaps of it!


It's called La Courtepointe (French for quilt, of course) Provençale, because the bright colors strike me as a little French... R&C did get married in Bordeaux, but I'm taking a little artistic license here!

I am delighted with how it turned out, and must try another quilt with this pattern soon. I also have a pile of left-overs that I am determined to turn into cushions for our new sofa. Hopefully in less than one year. Yay!

fourteen | Bircher Muesli

Our new favorite thing to eat for breakfast at the weekend is bircher muesli. Now, there seem to be many recipes for bircher muesli out there on the internets, but what I've been making is based on what we had in the house of a Swiss friend... and seeing as it is a Swiss thing, I'm going to go with stick with her version (or at least, my bastardised version of it)! I think the main difference is that all the versions I have read include soaked oats, but I just include some toasted dry ones.

I never really measure things properly, and this is certainly something that can be pulled together without much regard for measurement. Basically, to make enough for two people, coarsely grate one large apple (I've been using Fuji apples), and squeeze half a lemon over the gratings.

Toast about a handful of slivered (thinly sliced) almonds and a handful of porridge oats. Mix a teaspoonful of honey and about four heaping tablespoons of yogurt (I've been using Fage 2% Greek yogurt) together with the apple and lemon and add the toasted nuts and almonds.

You can also mix in any other fresh fruit that takes your fancy like strawberries, banana, blueberries and so on... I've been adding segments of clementine.

Yum!