Things go on

June has been a bit of a mess thus far. I got back from London, Stephen went to Edinburgh. When he got back we all we under the weather for a week at least. 

So not much walking has been done. Not much cooking has been done. And it is just too much to go back and remember what I did cook out of which book. 

I did start off well, a picture of feet from the beginning of the month. I believe the cute little purple bag was from Liberty in London and contained a chocolate bar for a friend. Not a fancy chocolate bar, but she insists the English ones are better than our Canadian ones. The bag was just a wee fancy touch. 

I saw a nice rose. (I'm still always amazed at the clear pictures one gets with a gol-darned phone these days.)

I went for a walk with friends. We thought we'd end up at the beach but we were hundreds of feet up at the top of unstable cliffs. Nice view; we'll try to find the beach on our next attempt.

One day I was downtown and tried to get an arty shot of other people's feet. This sort of worked with a lot of cropping.

There was a party. One of our longtime neighbours is moving about 6 or 8 blocks away, so an outdoor potluck was called for. Great fun! I do really like my neighbours and my street! 

We had our annual street party for the first time since 2019, and though Stephen and I stayed on the porch because we were unwell, everyone else seemed to be having a pretty good time. I did make a delicious beef stew for just us. 

Hopefully we can move forward and I can get a few more feet pictures and a few snappy recipes made before the end of the month. I even looked at my knitting today, so that is a step in the right direction. 

Back on track in June

May's cook book was Small Plates Perfect Wines, and June's will be Nantucket Open-House Cookbook. 

I made a couple of things from May's book and think it is a keeper. One just needs to plan and think a bit, because these recipes are not necessarily quick and carefree. If you don't have crabmeat or radicchio on hand, you'll need to pop out to the shops. 

The other day I made Grilled Eggplant and Tomatoes, which is just what it says. Cut long thin eggplants into strips (I just cut them in half longwise but I could have done thirds.) and grill on the barbecue. Then cut tomatoes and grill them. Make a dressing with oil, balsamic vinegar, capers, orange zest; throw some fresh basil over it all. Nice! I also made a flank steak from this book... I did not, however, have the presence of mind to blog it earlier. As I recall, it was fine. This book goes back on the shelf! 

June's books is one of those that I've had forever, know a couple of tried and true recipes in, and rarely look at the rest. It is more of a party, entertaining, slightly fancy-pants recipe book. I think it will be great for June because there are lots of meal-sized salads. 

May's photo theme was Environmental Trash, and if I hadn't gone to England I imagine I could have kept that up. I did get a few interesting moments with that theme. June's theme is Feet. 

As you may have noticed I put my feet into photos quite often, so the trick will be to take my feet to interesting places, I guess. 

We'll be in a bit of a tizzy here for a week or so while we get Elaine settled in her new digs, Stephen goes to the UK and comes back again and we contemplate our future. 

I was away and now I'm back

I have had this post half-written for a while so I'd best just post it and start afresh!

May seems to be over. I did not cook from my book for two weeks and I took loads of pictures but hardly any with my photo theme of the month. Oh well. I will do a recipe round-up in a day or two, because I did get in a couple.

Let's see if I can condense two weeks holiday into a reasonable number of pictures... 

We missed spring flowers by a couple of weeks, but when we were in King's Lynn, the California Lilac was simply amazing! What a colour.

Everywhere we went we saw preparations for the Jubilee celebrations coming up next weekend. I did not add to my pile of royal plates. (I have thrift store pieces from both the Charles/Diana and Andrew/Fergie weddings.)

We spent a few days getting our bearings in King's Lynn and then quick took the bus to Hunstanton, where our walk started. 

The cliffs at Hunstanton are white chalk and red chalk and red carstone. Very striking. I know from 2019 that there are also cliffs in Cromer, the other end of our walk. 

I was unprepared, however, for the miles and miles of marshy, sandy, tidal flats in between. It's great bird habitat. We are not birders. 

Early on, we could see the beach and the sand and, way out there, the water. 

As time went on, though, the salt marshes took over and the water disappeared. The "coast" is pretty ill-defined, with shifting sands, grassy bits, dunes, erosion from one year to the next. We often walked along the top of a dike, or sea defense. 

Marsh on the left; fields on the right. And we just kept going, in between. 

After a couple of days of apparently endless salt marshes, we played hooky. We took a bus to Morston Quay and got a boat out to the seal colony. Alas, May is not a good month for seals, but we did see a few, and we got a boat ride. As you can see it was a bit of a grey day. We got to wear our woolly hats, so we didn't carry them all that way for nothing!

Our last day started in Cromer. We were scheduled to take the bus back to Blakeney and then walk to Cromer but we decided to walk to the next town along, Sheringham, and see what we felt like once we got there. It started to rain, so we nipped in to the museum, but it was nice and clear when we got out so we walked back. 

Then, magically, we turn up in London! 

Impromptu Covid memorial: 

More Jubilee prep: 

What's on the fourth plinth?! 

Our dinner on Tuesday! 

We went to Hampton Court. Again we had just missed the spring flowers, but the peonies and roses were out, and the whole house (palace!) and garden were pretty amazing. 

A smattering of photos:

We had one more day in London which we spent in a couple of small museums and out wandering about. I left my phone on a park bench once, and had to retrace my steps, not sure where exactly I'd left it! That all ended well but it was a bit of a panic for a few minutes! We ate well, walked a lot, got hailed on once, were delighted with everything. 

I am sort of back in this time zone, but I do find myself awake early in the morning. Our youngest is moving to a basement suite 10 houses away, so soon I won't be awakened by her getting up in the morning. And we'll all be back to normal! Always a new normal...