Happy hols.
We’re in the long Easter weekend: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.
Usually I remember this is happening, but this year I was distracted and until the guy I work for asked if I’d be around this weekend (to work, of course) I hadn’t focused at all.
I realised that last year I made a point of taking pictures of various Easter decorations around the village. This year, alas, not much, and none of it from the village even though I keep noticing one house’s decoration of a bunny’s bottom on their electric gate.
It’s been a full long weekend in any case, starting with a visit to a very quiet garden centre Friday morning for the last five (literally) primroses to plug holes in the shady border. Then, on to an incredibly busy (a shock to the system – I tend to wantonly forget that this place gets hugely busy during holidays) farm shop to plug food holes and get things so I didn’t have to cook much (oh, the joys of focaccia, peppers and hummus for dinner). In between, some work in the garden (getting a fig tree out of a pot and into the ground, planting those primroses), doing some work-work, more planting, a walk with the dog, finishing a novel and starting to re-read Nigel Slater’s A Cook’s Book.
Saturday started with a nice long walk to the nearby small town – a 40 minute walk on the coastal path next to the estuary and then through the marshes. The point was replacing a salad plate I managed to break (it’s now in the garden, against the fence, as decoration) and getting the weekly sugar rush from the bakery. It’s full of Easter stuff and I did manage to get a picture of that. Then the bus home, more work in the garden, some repotting, thinning some sweet peas from the front wall (moving to pots), watching the fourth episode in Gardeners’ World, and then some more of A Cook’s Book. If you aren’t familiar with Nigel Slater, he’s a food and recipe writer, not a chef. His recipes are easy to follow and don’t generally require you to go out and buy loads of stuff you’ll only use once or twice.
Sara’s bakery in Topsham: Easter cakes
Sunday was cleaning (including the car), dog walk in this time deserted farm shop area, weeding, reading, a long walk, and cooking (chicken with white wine, butter and lemon sauce). In other words a totally vague day which was much required.
Finally, it actually been doing proper spring here finally, so the weekend was full of thinking about how fragrant the garden will be in a month or so. But, alas, we’re back to wet and windy from tomorrow.
Anyway, hope you had a good long weekend. Did you get up to anything fun?
Well, it was quite nice here. Saturday I kind of noodled around the place cleaning. Sunday I went out, bought some gas, ran the car down to the beach to “charge the battery” but Santa Monica was chilly and fogged in. So I came back into town and went up into Beachwood Canyon under the Hollywood sign. I went to the village market and did some food shopping, drove across Mulholland and came back to the apt. It was a lovely day.
I’ve never been to LA despite having lived in the US for 34 years. I really enjoy reading about your to-ing and fro-ing. Vicarious pleasure and tourism.
This sounds like a perfect weekend Cinnamon.
Portia x
Tx, Portia. It was incredibly pleasant and relaxing.
Love the description of your weekend, Cinnamon. You did so many nice domestic projects, a good balance of indoor/outdoor and active/peaceful. As for me, I’m still recovering from bronchitis & asthma. I did a lot of resting, movie watching, reading, and watched church online Sunday morning. Normally I would have been singing in choir. Not this year.
Ouch! Hope the lurgy recedes quickly. Sometimes domestic activities are incredibly soothing and leave feeling like much has been accomplished.
I love UK bakeries — well, okay, I love all bakeries. But my point is I love the way the familiar (flour, eggs, sugar, butter) gets reworked into things recognizable while uncommon here in the US, whether you’re in Bath or Paris or Vienna. I want hot cross buns and millionaire shortbread available in every US bakery. There should be a law.
There are things in US bakeries you don’t find here I yearn for (those big, chewy cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing — oh my goodness). I feel strangely lucky to have Sara’s nearby — but there’s also a place called the Exploding Bakery in the nearest large town which offers these amazing flourless (ie, mostly almond flour) brownie bakes. I guess the point is, as you say, bakeries are good, very good, and sometimes great. A law … well, I mean, we’re talking serious indulgence. No one bats an eye here but I don’t think we can hold a candle to Paris bakeries…
Scones. Our scones are generally wretched and all wrong. Currants. Currant scones. Currants in everything. Those weird … what do you call them? Fly pies? They were on GBBO once. You’re right about cinnamon buns, though, I’d miss those.
Our scones aren’t good. But they are pretty easy to make (typed the microwave burrito king.)
Currants were actually banned in the states. Not quite sure why. But according to interwebs New York was the last state to lift the ban, in 2003
Wait, why were they banned? My mother had a currant bush which moved with us from house to house.
I live in scone central (plain, fruit, cheese). You can get incredible cream teas all over the place. The scones I remember from the US were too big, very stodgy, and sometimes rock hard.
We did very little really. DH is feeling back to his usual self during this hiatus between chemo & surgery. I’m letting him get on with doing all the stuff he loves. So the patio is half jet washed & scrubbed, the lawns are mowed & strimmed (jobs I loathe), I played with Mr JC in the garden for hours, it’s his favourite pastime & burns calories off both of us.
I shopped at the market, after 2pm the stallholders mark things down & I have to remind myself not to buy because it’s cheap!
I made a fish & chip supper, chicken dhansak, rice, paratha & green yogurt chutney, a ham roast dinner & meatballs in tomato sauce to eat with pasta later. Cooking, especially batch cooking, gives me huge pleasure & on sunny days making slow food in the multipot & slow cooker mean I can do other things & the solar panels mean the fuel for cooking is free!
I wore Zara’s A Sweet Pastry in Paris to fake the baked goods smell
Glad to hear your DH is feeling more himself. I need a streamer. That sounds like some great cooking. We don’t have a local market maybe because of the farm shop. That’s a great name, the Zara perfume. Might have to try it just because of the name.
I’ve written a blog post reviewing A Sweet Pastry in Paris that will go up on my blog at 7pm Thursday.If you’re interested just Google alitykescents. As with many Zara LEs this is now d/ced & is on resale sites for ridiculous amounts.
I will look the blog 🙂 I think I know nothing about Zara stuff because I can’t fit into the clothes (ie, I’m the wrong shape) so never go in there or look at the website.
Zara clothes aren’t the right shape for any normal human. Even Trinny Woodall, their patron saint, complains about their sizing.
I would be honoured if you read the review, thank you
Focaccia, peppers and hummus sounds like a yummy dinner. My Friday night supper was quite similar, I had fresh baguette, bruschetta and burrata, with the addition of some leftover grilled chicken for extra protein. Over the weekend we went to Boston, Massachusetts’s and did a bit of exploring as well as went to Quincy Market for food on Saturday, it’s a local food market where you can get all sorts of foods from at least a dozen different cuisines. We started out by hitting up “The Monkey Bar” for the best fruit smoothie I’ve ever had, then when lunch came around, most of us went for Boston’s finest Clam Chowder and mountains of fish & chips. We finished off our day of feasting with the sharing of a lobster roll, (always best served hot in a toasted bun and drenched in seasoned butter) Greek baklava pastries and some absolutely delicious Cannoli’s. Sunday was a bit more leisurely starting with a pancake brunch with mimosa’s, Church service midday, then an incredible Easter Ham Dinner at a friends place later in the afternoon. Overall a very delicious holiday weekend.
It’s a really satisfying meal. Your Friday meal sounds great — will steal the idea. And the weekend goodness sounds wonderful as well. Our local green grocer now has both cannoli and Gelato which I mean to try. Ah, clam chowder. so so good and so not a thing here.
What a nice full weekend!
Spring very suddenly arrived here yesterday. After days, weeks, months, eons of gray days, the sun was shining, temperature mild, no wind. Green grass, forsythia, jonquils, hyacinth in esp sunny spots, all appeared like magic. Today is the same only warmer. I’ve worn Chanel 19 and Le Temps d’Une Fete and they both smell perfect for the weather.
It has been. And the weather has held up which is surprising for a bank holiday weekend. Your perfumes made me realise I really don’t have spring fragrances — yes to all other seasons, but guess I need to fill that hole.
Rosarita,
You smelled gorgeous. Perfect scents to wear to match the springtime blossoms!
oooh! Le Temps d’Une Fete is absolutely DIVINE!
xoxo
so far it’s just been yard work (mid-Sunday, as I write this). Lots of early daffodils on the bloom, as well as my Star Magnolia – the one I got for $3, ages ago because it would only show a bloom right at the root. Took 3 years of pruning and cajoling but now… well, next week I’ll show a photo.
Your weekend sounds absolutely lovely!
xoxo
Like your magnolia (love magnolias) my little fig seems to be punching above its weight. fingers crossed. It’s been a nice weekend. But every time I go in the garden I wonder what to put in the bald spots in the shady border. maybe more violas…
hostas are great – I use eggshells (lightly crushed) to deter snails.