LONDON: December 2007

Last pix post of the year. Mostly for TheLovelyYOOVIE. Things to look forward to in your upcoming visit.

LONDON FOG:
It has been cold and foggy this week.

The view of my garden this morning/afternoon/now. *yes, that's my laundry on the line*


Chelsea Bridge looking south over the Thames. It's always lit like this.


Yesterday we went for real English tea!


I had crumpets with honey on the comb. Yum.


My front window with fairy lights. (they are always there)


Oxford Street, Friday before Christmas. It's as bad as it looks.


And I went to Cologne, Germany 2 weekends ago. The Christmas markets are famous. This one is next to the huge, huge, huge cathedral.



A nativity sheep for tooslow & plopper. <3

Cologne, Germany

Last weekend, I went to Germany for the first time. The German customs officer chuckled when I squealed (just a little one) then bounced up and down (only a little) as he stamped my passport. I explained that it was my first visit to his country and I really love getting new stamps in my passport. This all made him smile. And I was in! Thus began my weekend with nice Germans. Really, pretty much everyone we encountered was very kind and helpful and didn't mind that what little German we knew was incomprehensible to anyone who actually knows German!

Cologne ("Koln" with an umlaut) is a lovely city. It may be the best city in the world because it has a Chocolate Museum. Here I am in front of it, wearing my funky new winter hat bought in June at the Glastonbury festival.



I went on this trip with my friend W. We had a great hotel room with a fantastic view of the huge cathedral.





The hotel had a steam room and sauna. And some nifty shower options in the "Wellness Center". I enjoyed them very much!

We were really there to cruise the Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkts).



The most popular time for people to visit the markets is at night.






The markets are a perfect balance of places to eat a variety of things and drink Gluhwein (with an umlaut "u", it's German mulled wine), the traditional drink of the Christmas markets.

Recipe
(makes 24 glasses)

Ingredients:
2 bottles red wine
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 lemon, sliced
20 whole cloves
6 to 8 cinnamon sticks
1 orange, sliced for garnish
Directions:

Mix water, lemon and spices and simmer for an hour. Strain. Heat but do not boil the red wine. Add wine to hot water mixture. Ladle into cups and serve with half a slice of orange.

Our favorite market food was the reibekuchen, potato pancakes. But I managed to find what had to be the best place to get them in all the markets. They were crispy, crunchy fried on the outside, soft on the inside, hot from the cooking oil (not deep fried, shallow) and not greasy at all. You can get them with apple sauce, cranberry sauce (the real stuff, like a real sauce) or malt syrup. The traditional way is with apple sauce, so that's what I had. The first time :)





We also were lucky to have a newly opened Bastian's restaurant/bakery very near our hotel. It's a real bakery. Oh, so yummy things, sweets, breads, rolls! We ate most of our meals there. Here's what our first desserts looked like. They were so huge we both had to take pictures before eating them much to the amusement of the local people sitting all around us. Oh, they taste better than they look!!





So to summarize: Cologne has a big cathedral AND a Chocolate Museum; Germans, even the customs guards, are very nice to strangers; there's yummy food and drink in Christmas markets; the hotel steam room and sauna ROCKED!

That is all.

Not Quite NaBloPoMo

Well, my dear friend Mitter inspired me to try this blogging each day for a month thing. Unfortunately jetlag had another plan for me that involved sleeping most of the first 2 days of the month. So, here's my start. A short chronicle of my yesterday. The boots got their first outing. I survived.

BATH (for the lovely 70s):
BEFORE --


DURING --



BOOTS (for the lovely jen-a-rella & Mitter & noangel), 3-inch heels, my BoPs --






BUTCH, not really, but definitely chopped, messy & a bit redder (by request):

It's Been One Year

Yesterday, 20 September, was one year to the day since I arrived to live in London. It has been quite a year. It has been a wonderful year. It has been a challenging year. I like living in London much more than I ever could have imagined. I've made some lovely new friends who I hope will be part of my life for years to come. I've learned so much, mostly about myself.
That is all.

BEAUTIFUL MONDAYS, again

Beauty is in the eye (ears, nose, tongue, and touch) of the beholder, so tell me, what beauty have you “beheld” lately?

This weekend my beauties were multi-sensory. I attended the final performance in the Proms concerts for this season. I went to the one in Hyde Park. At the end there were fireworks. It was glorious.

BEAUTY: Paris and environs

This is the last of my beauty posts for a while. Today’s was inspired by and is for gypsyg, as well as my ongoing ruminations on the true nature of friendship and trust, vulnerability and fear.

Beauty is in the eye (ears, nose, tongue, and touch) of the beholder, so tell me, what beauty have you “beheld” lately?

PARIS, May 2006










This one’s for Mit: the best kitchen supply store in France








This one is for hitmouse & misfratz:

BEAUTY: Brighton, Newquay, London

Yesterday, I posted because it was Monday. I had a bit of a turbulent weekend, but come Monday, I had a new perspective on a lot of things and on myself. But, I want to keep doing this for a few days.

Today’s submissions are inspired by something frreenie shared with me yesterday. These posts are all about beauty, wherever you find it.
Beauty is in the eye (ears, nose, tongue, and touch) of the beholder, so tell me, what beauty have you “beheld” lately?

Come. Share. Enjoy.
NEWQUAY: August 2007









BRIGHTON: June 2007


a very small jellyfish on a very big beach


a water story in 4 parts:






LONDON: July 2007