{Pinned HERE}
Month: March 2016 (page 2 of 3)
Most days when travelling to and from work my ears are adorned with earbuds; the outside world blocked out by an eclectic mix of sounds. However, over the past few weeks my ears have been earbud free, taking in the sounds of city life.
Here are a few snippets of things I have overheard as I’ve been making my way to and from the office:
– I passed a nanny taking her two charges to school. The boy (about seven) was pestering his sister (she was about four years old). It had been pretty breezy this past week and he, along with the nanny kept telling her to put her sweater on. She finally had enough. She spun around on her little heels, raised her arms up and down in the air and screamed at them, “My arms will tell me when I’m cold; they haven’t done that yet. So, my arms don’t need a sweater!” She looked so serious when she said this, that I had to look away for fear of laughing out loud at this little blonde curly headed child.
– I passed a boy humming the Jurassic Park theme at the top of his lungs while his buddy rode his bike beside him.
– I walked behind two ladies who were discussing their marriage proposals. One lady said that although he didn’t propose at that spot, her husband wanted to give her her ring somewhere that she would always remember it. So, he handed it to her at the roundabout in Shepherd’s Bush. The other lady responded by saying her ring was tucked in a bowl of corn flakes. Her fiancé had brought her breakfast in bed and she was just about to pour the milk over them when she saw the ring hidden in the bowl.
– I walked behind two little girls about seven years old, their arms wrapped around each other. They had just been picked up from school and their nanny was hurrying them along. One girl said to the other, “We’ll be best friends forever!” Her friend questioned, “Even when we get married?” and her buddy responded with a resounding, “YES!”
– I passed a girl with an unbuttoned trench coat that revealed a crinkled scarf wrapped around her throat. She was furiously smoking a cigarette with tear stained cheeks and smudged mascara. She was pacing and rapidly speaking into her phone. Her one sided part of the conversation: “Don’t make me fall in love with you and then go back to your wife.”
– A very well suited young man talking into his phone: “Well, I was in Spain for a wedding and then I had to stay for business and then I thought, HEY! I’m in Spain! So I told my boss I couldn’t attend the meeting because I had food poisoning and then I went to the beach!”
– A very flamboyantly dressed man speaking to his girlfriend who was gloriously dressed with a white beehive and a 1960s styled mini dress. She looked like a decadent cream puff come to life: “That place was so over the top. It looked like the inside of Liberace’s handbag!”
People are just the funniest things, aren’t they?
I grew up surrounded by fantastic cooks. My grandmothers and one of my grandfathers, my aunts and both of my parents all know their way around a kitchen. They have instilled in me, not just the ability to cook, but an appreciation for good food and good ingredients.
I LOVE to be in the kitchen. I find it therapeutic to cut vegetables, stir a sauce, get inspired by something I’ve read and adapt it to suit our tastes. I also and I’m not embarrassed to say this have a bit of a thing for cookbooks. I have new ones and vintage one’s, some from my Nana, some from my Mom. I don’t always cook from them, but I love looking through them as a catalyst for ideas.
I’m going to make a point this year to share some of what I’m cooking here. It’s a new series I’m starting, called “Cooking with…”.
First up, I’m cooking with Audrey. To go along with pulled chicken, smothered in homemade Carolina mustard based BBQ sauce, I made a batch of Audrey’s coleslaw. It’s a simple dressing mix involving sour cream at it’s base instead of a traditional mayonnaise mixture. I whipped it up and threw in some grated carrot for good measure. It was refreshing and a soothing compliment to the spiciness of the BBQ sauce.
Lema Jean Butcher sitting in lounge chair with her sunglasses wearing poodle, Demi-Tasse, Alhambra, Calif., 1964 Published caption:THAT HOLLYWOOD FLAIR-Demi-Tasse, a three-year-old poodle, wouldn’t venture out of the house without her sun glasses, according to her mistress, Miss Lema Jean Butcher of Alhambra, a teacher at S. San Gabriel Elementary School. “She took to them the first time I put them on her and now she barks and cries when I try to take her out without them,” Miss Butcher says. But shopping’s a problem. Wherever she goes, Demi-Tasse, is naturally the center of attraction.
Woo-Hoo! It’s Friday. We have a semi-quiet weekend planned. First up, Mr. Michie is taking me to the movies tonight for a date. We have a very cool retro movie house near us and we love going there. They have big plush couches and a place to put your feet up, so I’m happy! They also have a cool 1970s curved leather couch in their lounge area that I would like to take home, it looks like something off of a great movie set.
Here’s to the weekend long may it last!
P.S. I had to include the caption with this picture, it was just too good!
It’s a rainy morning here today. It’s cool outside and I was up not long after five with Mr. Michie. He has a long day ahead of him and a late school night, so I made one of his favourites for breakfast: buttermilk biscuits and sausage patties.
I am not always a morning person, but I do love being up early, when the rest of the world is still asleep and everything is quiet. I like the amount I can get accomplished in the morning before the clock turns to double digits. I turned on a lamp in the den and put on some music while I went about making biscuits.
This morning my music of choice was Carole King. She is one of my favourites. You can’t go wrong with a good cup of coffee, a hot breakfast, and Carole King on a rainy morning.
I think I need a blindfold like this! I’m in the process of thoroughly gutting our pantry. This is no small undertaking. Especially when I discovered that some of my beloved art history books had been ruined by mildew. Because, unbeknown to us, we had a damp problem along the side wall of the pantry, where the bookshelf is. Now, those gorgeous books are in the recycling bin as they are completely and utterly in disrepair.
We have been living in and amongst chaos all week as most of the pantry is sitting in various piles in our den. We live in a very tiny cottage, in fact, so tiny, we could have started the “tiny house” movement that is all the rage today. But, as I write this a storage bin we have ordered is winding it’s way to me through the streets of London today. So hopefully by nightfall, I can have everything neatly and safely stored and the pantry more organised, so you don’t have to move like a Ninja to grab something.
It is exhausting yet cathartic completing this process. It’s amazing to realise how much crap you accumulate and I’m not ashamed to say that a good portion of it was mine. I have cleaned off my “crafting” shelf and all the little magazines and scraps I’ve kept for so long, have now been gone through with precision. There is no point in keeping an entire magazine for only one page, is there? I’ve been ruthless.
We are pairing down, stripping back and streamlining. By the end of today, we should be nearly there and then I can take a break before starting our next room overhaul, to work on a project that is very dear to me. I’m keeping my fingers, toes and anything else that can be crossed, crossed, in the hopes to be published soon.
Here’s to Wednesday, we’ve almost made it through the week!
{Image: Anne Taintor}
They wound her hair in a garland of crimson berries and crowned her with the first of the spring flowers. The precious necklace of gold and bone was reverently taken from the neck of the Mother of the tribe and placed around her own; she felt its weight like the very weight of magic. Her eyes were dazzled with the rising sun. They placed something in her hand – a drum, taut skin stretch over a hooped frame. As it it came from somewhere else, she heard her own hand strike it.
They stood on a hillside, overlooking a valley filled to the brim with thick forest, empty and silent, but within it she could sense the life in the forest – the deer moving on silent, slender feet, the animals climbing in the trees, and the birds nesting, darting, moving, surge with the life of the first running tide of the full moon of spring. She turned for a moment and looked behind, on the hillside. Above them, carved white in the chalk, was a monstrous figure, human or animal she could not tell, her eyes were blurred; was it a running deer, was it a striding man, phallus erect and filled with the spring tide , too?
She could not see the young man at her side, only the surge of the life in him. There was a solemn, waiting hush all over the hillside. Time ceased, was again transparent, something in which she moved, bathed, stepped freely.
-Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon
OH! Sweet glorious Friday! You finally came! This has been a busy week and one that has seen us at times, crawling toward the finish line today.
Yesterday, I did a few of those “unseen” jobs around the house. I scrubbed down the inside and outside of all the cupboard doors in the kitchen. They are now sparkling. I think I’ve been bitten by a spring cleaning bug. My next project involves scrubbing down the refrigerator, but I’m saving that one for next week along with re-organizing the pantry. Slowly and methodically, I’m moving through the house. I’m on a de-cluttering mission. We just want everything more simplified.
This weekend we’re out to dinner two nights in a row. A friend’s flat on the river tonight and a neighbour’s house on Saturday. Tomorrow, I’m in charge of bringing dessert and as there are food allergy issues to be concerned about, I’ve had to go back to the drawing board about a million times. But I like a challenge. Let’s just hope it tastes good!
Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!
{Image: PINNED}
Yesterday Mr. Michie had a conference near Regent’s Park and I had the afternoon off, so we decided to meet. It was wonderful! It felt like we were being naughty, just walking around, taking in the world, while everyone else was at work.
He bought me a surprise and as the sales woman wrapped it, she asked if it was a special occasion? To which we replied, “YES! We are together for the afternoon!”. Just being together is special occasion enough for us. We wandered slowly, letting everyone else pass us by. We were absolutely content with our stolen afternoon. Here’s to more stolen afternoons!