Peapods

tea and seed catalogues

I have been reading my new seed catalogues, so exciting! I am imagining myself sitting in the sun eating a herb salad picked from the garden :) Choosing the seeds is really long-term meal planning, I need to think what we will want to eat in 6 months. Last year was my first time owning a garden, I think this year I will hopefully know a bit more. I must do some kind of round-up about my gardening last year at some point, it has been quite the adventure.

Like my new cup? I bought it in a Charity shop at the weekend. The cup and saucer do not actually match, the cup is some kind of English scene and the saucer has Dutch windmills. I rather suspect that the saucer is the 'real deal' and the cup (while still old) is not quite as old. Well I like them together. A new addition to my mis-matched crockery collection.

Should anyone care I am drinking Lady Grey tea :) I always take my tea black. Normally I drink green tea so the milk issue does not arise.

Mmmm tea.

luminous pink cloud

Phew I think I broke some kind of land speed record getting home on my bike (up hill!!) in time to see the inauguration. That was emotional. Let's see what happens, but in a way, no matter does occur, for a lot of us the most significant thing has already happened; that a majority of a vast country have voted for change. But enough politics...

We got back from our weekend away by yesterday lunchtime so I spent some time trying to work on new clothes to make for myself but I had one of those URGH moments when nothing was going anywhere. So I did what was the most sensible thing to do... and messed about. What I came up with was this luminous pink felt cloud next to my desk :)

Just a silly nice thing to go on there for now. I have tried to stick an inspiration board up on those doors for a while but it always comes crashing down, I don't really want to hammer nails into that finish as it is quite pristine. I stuck the felt up with acid free glue dots so it can come down easily any time. I think this idea could be cute in a child's bedroom maybe? Perhaps other shapes too; birds, flowers, houses? Decals can be so expensive, this could be a nice DIY idea?

:)

Inauguration

Good luck USA!

…to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and
palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of
the world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared…

-    Mr. Barak Obama

*******************
That is us! As a non-American I think it is important to say how this whole election has also been followed so closely and keenly abroad. We arranged to be in New York during the election and it is so wonderful to be finally watching the inauguration. I am watching now on the BBC as our day is coming to the end here and the day is just beginning in the USA. Good luck everyone, there is a lot to do, it won't be easy, but I hope that you have the right man for it.

Let me know if you have also contributed to this project and I will list you:

A Wrung Sponge
I Have Mom Hair Now
No Apathy Allowed
Yat-Yee Chong
Daily Vignette
Shutter Sisters
Sarah-Ji
But Wait, There's More
This Life Is Worth Living
Mother May I
Amanda Churchill
In The Meantime
Peculiar Momma
Bamboo Sticks

And thank you Melissa for coming up with the idea.

Ps. One of the BBC commentators seems to be wearing Earbags!

Let's blog on Tuesday

Iffley Village, Oxford. Not too far from my house.

Melissa has had a great idea, here let me quote her:

I had an idea today about something that could be done next Tuesday—Obama's inauguration day here in the US—amongst a few or several bloggers around the world.

Basically, I was thinking that it's very rare to have an historic event taking place that so many people in every country are excited about, and that a great way to commemorate it might be for each blogger who participates to take a photo on Tuesday that for them is emblematic of hope, optimism, or a new day. It wouldn't need to have anything to do with the inauguration itself, just something that speaks to them on a personal level. Then post the photo along with 44 words about it or the day itself. (Obama will be our 44th president.) A fairly simple idea.

This is a fabulous plan, I am going to do this for sure. I will take a picture and write 44 words about the day. Who else would like to do this? It would be great if you would like to join in. If you know anyone else who would be interested do spread the word. Please let us know if you are so we can come by and see you.

***

I am signing off for a few days as we are going on a small adventure. I should be back in this space on Tuesday with my contribution to the idea.

Catalogue Cards

(Via Freckle Farm)

Have you seen this free application with which you can make your own old-style catalogue cards? I typed my to-do list but I am sure you could think of more inspired things to do with it. Pretty cool.

London

Holland Park, London. Today I was in London for work reasons. Afterwards I had a little extra time so I walked up Kensington High Street, past Kensington Gardens, stopped at Wholefoods (bought a very late lunch), on to Piccadilly, stopped at The Japan Centre (bought pickles and sencha), to Notting Hill on the Underground, and then back home to Oxford. It is nice to check in with London every now and again. I went to University there and have worked there in the past but really I am happy to be a bit of a country bumpkin.

Taste Test

It is marmalade making season. I am not going to make my own but I did do my own breakfast time taste test between Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade Original and Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade Vintage. They were both nice. I would happily have either of them. The Vintage however had bigger bits and was a little more bitter, so I would say the Original was more of an everyday easy to spread kind of marmalade.

:)

for the lunch

Laying the table, waiting for guests. We don't have full sets of crockery apart from the white plates but that is ok with me, my ideal china set would be completely mis-matched. I am working on it slowly.

This was some of my dad's starter course that he brought over, it is nori (flat Japanese seaweed) with cheese! He got the recipe from one of his Japanese newspapers. I didn't think it sounded like a good combination but actually it was really nice. Mozarella on nori tastes good together, who knew :)

I didn't take many pictures of the food Simon and I made. Too busy chatting and being the hosts really. We made:
Inarizushi (tofu bags filled with rice and white sesame seeds)
Various Makizushi (the rolled sushi)
Temaki (the cone shaped sushi) with various things such as avocado and prawn
Yuba filled with Spinach (soy milk skin rolled around spinach)
Tamagoyaki (omelette made in layers)
Miso Soup
Salmon Sashimi (didn't have to 'make' this as my dad also brought it over)

 
This is the dessert my father made, an ice cream of black sesame, banana, and vanilla. You scattered some brown sugar on top too. Very nice. A fun Sunday!

preparations for a party

I made some decorations for my aunt's birthday lunch that we hosted, little pompoms strung on thread.

I bought these green chrysanthemums for the centre of the table. They were really long but I cut them down to make a little bunch. Kind of cute, also like pompoms :)

My father did the starter and dessert and we did the main, all Japanese dishes. This is one of my favourite Japanese cookery books, The Japanese Kitchen by Kimiko Barber, it is interesting to read as it explains all the ingredients.

kitchen

This is almost real-time picture blogging! I took this an hour ago because I noticed this scene as I was running up and down the stairs multi-tasking doing computer things and cooking the dinner. I have been looking out for different light scenarios to photograph but also this scene reminded me in subject matter of Lea's pictures of her lovely kitchen. This is a very everyday scene from our house. I had kicked off my boots when I came in from work and left them in the hall because we are about to go out again to meet friends for drinks (that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;) ). Those are my hat and gloves etc that I have tucked on top of the radiator (maybe I am the messy one after all!), again because we are heading out again shortly and this makes them all warm for when I have to put them on again.

I am making 'spaghetti bolognese', actually it is wholewheat brown pasta with a sauce of tomatoes, onions, and Quorn mince. Like Melissa very correctly points out here vegetarian dishes are not often actually like the meat versions but are delicious in their own way. Do you eat fake meat? When I stopped eating meat (I still eat fish) I never ate the fake meats but now I admit I quite like every now and again to have some vegetarian sausages or Quorn mince. It is a quick-fix way to get protein into the meal which is something that I keep an eye on now we eat mainly vegetarian. Beans and lentils are of course the very best way but sometimes it is nice to replicate the simplicity of a dish a bit like spaghetti bolognese :)

If you are interested in any of the other things in the picture: the print on the wall is by Camilla Engman, the red thing on the door is a woven decoration that we keep up all year round, the mirror used to hang in my grandfathers house, the rug is Ikea, you can see my rice cooker in the kitchen, oh and my little green soy sauce pourer.