Peapods

pompoms on leaves

Morning pictures: Trinity College, my slippers. It is getting lighter each day. My slippers were a gift from my sister and are by Ruby and Ed.

Kenilworth Castle

First of all THANK YOU so much for the Paris tips! I am just sorting through them now to try and figure out where we want to go. I knew you guys would have the best tips :)

In return I have a good suggestion of a wonderful place to visit if you are ever in Warwickshire in England... Kenilworth Castle. It is an incredibly historic and beautiful ruined castle. There are more photos here on my Flickr. It is the kind of place that seems unreal - like it should be in a movie or Narnia or something. So much history, it blew my mind all the living and dying that had gone on in this place, and now it is this beautiful empty shell of stone. There are fireplaces halfway up the wall as the floors were made of wood and are long gone. I am not sure my photos give an impression of quite how massive the place is, it took us several hours to walk around it. It is an 'unspoilt' ruin in that while they have a little ticket shop and cafe off to one side you are left alone to climb over and under the place and investigate by yourself. It isn't like a theme park experience which some of these historic places can feel like. I think that it may get rather overlooked because Warwick castle is down the road, this is good from the point of view of the visitor though as it was beautifully empty when we visited.

Paris! Any tips?

In a few days we will be off to Paris on the train. Yippee! It is my Christmas present to Simon. I feel quite fancy as I paid for this trip for the both of us all by myself. However really it was not so much and the main effort was in all the organising and bursting to tell him the surprise all December. I got very reasonable train tickets in the big pre-Christmas sale at Eurostar and some friends gave me the tip of a budget hotel. I will report back on this hotel if it is any good. We are becoming budget travel experts.

(The picture is from this weekend in our local pub where they have started doing the most delicious traditional Sunday lunch. It seemed appropriate to this post somehow.)

I studied French up to GCSE level (that is up to the age of 16) and Simon has discovered that I got an A at this so now says that I will have to do all the talking. Really that is a long time ago now so I don't remember very much. Hopefully enough to ask for two glasses of wine!

I am looking forward to it so much but we have done almost no planning of what to do when we are there. Does anyone have any tips of places to visit and good bistros to eat in and such like, that they would like to share?

Toast

Shhhh but I went back to the Toast sale again. Really I have been very good about not buying a single thing lately, but when an email came through about their archive sale just as I was checking my email before dinner last night I could not resist checking it out, I think my blood sugar must have been low or something. Anyway today in the light of day I am very pleased with my purchases, there are some great deals to be had at the moment and it is about quality not quantity right? :)

Sunday Granola

I first posted about granola almost exactly a year ago, it is good to know I am consistent in my seasonal eating habits! I have made many batches since then and after posting abut the steel cut oats I thought it about time I made another batch.

The good thing about granola is that it is completely adaptable to your own tastes and what you have to hand. Good for using up any left-over Christmas nuts. Our oven is not working correctly so I grilled at all stages but you could use the oven if you wish, it would just take a little longer.

This is what I did this time around...

Grab handfuls of your favourite unsalted nuts and seeds. I used chopped hazelnuts, peanuts, brazil nuts, cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds. Spread these out on a baking tray and grill until they slightly brown and smell wonderful. Watch them like a hawk as if they go too far it will taste bitter. Mine took about three minutes.

In a bowl mix jumbo oats (I roughly do a ratio of at least 10 parts oats to 1 part seeds/nuts) with a drop or two of good vanilla essence, and few tablespoons of ground nut oil, golden syrup, and honey (I love acacia honey). How much you use is up to you. I tend to be quite sparing with the oil, syrup, and honey, maybe a tablespoon of each for a big batch, as I don't like it too sweet. The idea is to have the oats ever so slightly sticking to each other. Then, when the nuts and seeds are toasted to a very light brown, mix everything together.

Spread this mixture back out on the baking tray and put back under the grill. Again you need to watch this like a hawk. I carried a chair into the kitchen and sat there listening to the radio while stirring every few minutes. A lovely activity for a Sunday morning. It makes a very quiet hissing noise and the smell that washes over you and the kitchen is just divine. When it is toasted to to an even light brown, about 10 minutes, remove from the grill and allow to cool.

And thus you have granola. My instructions are not too specific as it really is up to you what you want your granola to taste like. Sometimes I have shredded coconut (add in at the oat stage), and if you want to add dried fruit I would add this after the granola is cooked. I enjoy my granola with milk or soy milk but very heavenly is a handful over Greek yoghurt and a small dollop of honey.

Bliss. Simon has had this great idea that you could use this to make grown up cornflake cakes. Imagine that, little granola cakes held together with chocolate. I am keeping it in mind as a good gift idea.

Oh yes and speaking of tins, the golden syrup tin seems to have had a small make-over luckily it is still very pretty :)

Hair Inspiration

(Image: pricelessmovie)

I am looking for a new haircut. Finally after much procrastination I have booked myself in for an appointment on Wednesday after work. I have had the same very long hair for aaages and it seems time for a change. Now I need to decide on what I want. I really like Audrey Tautou's hair in the film Priceless (a really sweet and funny French film), isn't it cute.

tablemats

Yesterday I also made some table mats, and I tested them out at breakfast today. We use table mats everyday and I thought we could do with some variety. They are quite simply some cotton with a layer of padding.

My breakfast was steel cut oats with honey banana and almonds. I think I really do prefer jumbo oats. The steel cut oats have such a pretty tin though:

I am looking forward getting through these oats so I can use the tin as a plant pot.

Earrings (for me!)

Part of my January resolution was to make four things I could wear. I did the first two with making these tops. Today I did the other two, I made earrings! I have various silver fixings and beads that I bought with a leaving-gift voucher when I left my last job. After almost three years I figured I better finally use them :)

These are red ceramic beads and silver:

These are little black bows that I made with some thin black ribbon and then hot-glued to stud fixings:

It is quite nice to make things for myself :D Normally I make things for other people as gifts.

People also give me good gifts to make things, the buttons of the left and the pin cushion are from Simon's sisters (thank you so much if you are reading!) and the buttons on the right are from my aunt. I am hatching plans to make some more things, maybe I can make another four next month?

plowed

 

Happy weekend!

desk

Brinja has tagged me to show my desk. Well here it is "warts and all" as they say. My desk is a little utilitarian at the moment as it is set up for full on computer work as I am trying out some more advanced things in Photoshop. This old Mac equipment, while nicer looking than most computer stuff, is not so pretty as paint and things.

Some explaination of what is on my desk... The white flat thing is my Bamboo graphics tablet that I use instead of a mouse. There are two screens as the laptop is the 'brain' for the big screen. I use the big screen as it is better than my laptop screen. All the equipment is many years old now which makes it ancient in computer years.

I have a few cheerful small things on the windowsill. I try not to have things living on the desktop as my desk gets messy very quickly. In the right corner is my giant one pint 'I heart NY' mug. I was drinking camomile tea while watching this rather sweet interview with two designers on Mrs. O (ps. this coat is great).

There we go. Maybe too much information :)

Would anyone else like to play along with this? Go on, show your desk!