A gorgeous birthday gift from P. It was love at first sight. It will be making an appearance at the wedding; a bit of a twist on the old guestbook.
Monthly Archives: August 2011
This week
1. Busy busy; 2. Miss T’s desserts; 3. Daffodil Day;
4. Instax wall; 5. Jeff’s chargrilled beef baguette
It’s been a terribly hectic week, made worse by our broken water heater and having a day off sick. I’ve been working half the weekend to make up for it, whilst trying to fit in hosting a pizza night (of which I managed to only take a photo of the dessert, shown with Miss T above), City to Surf and all the usual weekend things. Now though I think it’s time to put away the work and enjoy a bit of Doctor Who!
City to Surf
Before the run
I signed up for the City to Surf 12km run at the last minute due to peer pressure on a whim. It might not sound like much to some, but for me it represents a massive achievement. I’ve always hated to run, and have only been able to get into it recently – even then, only for much shorter jogs than this. I once walked an enforced primary school cross country run in non-violent protest – the teachers hated me because I was the very last to finish and they wanted to go for lunch.
Look at that crowd!
I didn’t manage to run the whole thing, partly because we started late with the walkers and partly because I lack the stamina to jog up hills, but overall I jogged much more than I have before and thought I was able to. The energy of the event and the beautiful weather really makes you push yourself – I was really happy with my end time, which was well under my goal of 2 hours.
At the end
I’m now feeling inspired to improve my running so I can get a better time next year! Although I have to say my favourite part was ‘carb loading’ beforehand, which I probably did with more gusto than my run required, and my reward of a steak sandwich with chips and a pint of beer.
A most excellent reward
Time for Tea: Gyokuro
I didn’t get a particularly good night’s sleep last night – hearing the water heater making strange noises all night then begin slowly flooding our apartment at 5am does not make me a happy camper. I think maybe it will be comical in retrospect, after I’ve gotten some more sleep and we have hot water again.
Anyway, I’m a big believer in the ability of tea to cheer and comfort – even better if it’s served in a fat red teapot!
Today’s tea was gyokuro, a Japanese green tea grown in the shade (rather than full sun) and usually kept for more special occasions rather than everyday tea (possibly because it’s quite expensive). It’s supposed to have a very distinctive, sweet taste. To be honest I can’t really taste a huge difference between gyokuro and the much cheaper everyday tea sencha, but it’s possible I’m just brewing it incorrectly.
Apparently gyokuro should be brewed at 50°C–60°C for 90 seconds (as opposed to ~80°C for 1 minute for sencha), with a greater volume of tea leaves. Boiling water can be cooled by pouring it into teacups or another teapot before pouring over the tea leaves. Once you’ve served the tea make sure there’s no water left in the teapot – the leaves can be brewed a couple more times.
Some Interesting Things
I decided to finally clean up the disorganised mess of my bookmarks folder – here’s a few interesting things from around the web.
This roasted eggplant and za’atar pizza recipe from Sprouted Kitchen looks incredible, a nice change from my usual pumpkin, pine-nut and fetta or chilli chicken pizzas.
Project 333 is an interesting project on living with less items of clothing. Nice way to figure out how to reduce the size of my wardrobe, and good practice for future travelling!
The art style of the Cucumber Quest comic looks so adorable and unique. I haven’t started reading it yet, but if wredwrat likes it then that’s enough encouragement for me.
Along with many other blogs I’ve seen mention it, I’m completely smitten with Kinfolk Magazine – an online zine about small gatherings. The photography is gorgeous, stories are lovely and all very inspiring for my own small gatherings. Their blog comes up with lots of gems from around the web as well.
This article posted on Dead Fleurette talks about investing in a good collection of clothes (and possessions in general) rather than ‘disposable’ fashion which isn’t good environmentally, ethically or financially in the long run.
I really really want this book by Sarai of Colette Patterns. I’m hoping it’ll be able to get me back into sewing, and learn some proper basic techniques that I somehow skipped when learning to sew!