Spring cooking: Recipe for asparagus tart

An improvised tart to celebrate spring – perfect for a Sunday lunch with friends.
The White Witch still has the East Coast in her wintry clutches, but here in Californarnia, Aslan is on the move. It’s spring! The song birds are pairing up, the squirrels are getting frisky, and the trees are in blossom. Best of [...]

Photo Friday: La Monstrosa – the Prado’s fat Spanish princess

Madrid, Spain; October 2008

I stumbled across his pair of oil paintings upstairs at the famous Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.
It was quite a contrast immediately after perusing the rooms full of Spanish royal portraits, mainly by Velazquez. There was quite a striking family resemblance between fathers, sons, grandsons and brothers and also sisters – all [...]

Dear Airlines: Humans come in all shapes and sizes

Dear Airlines,
You are in the business of transporting humans through the air. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. Deal with it.
There are tall humans and short humans, fat humans and skinny humans, humans in wheelchairs, humans on crutches, humans who max out their carry-on luggage, humans with small children and solo humans with no [...]

Photo Friday: Travel back in time to Victorian England

London, UK; May 2009 / 19th century
Discovered – a rare colour photograph of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens in London. Since colour photography didn’t exist in the Victorian era, this clearly proves the existence of time travel. Maybe the Doctor and his TARDIS had something to do with it.
Or [...]

Driving Highway 1 in California – Big Sur hike to Buzzard’s Roost

This is part 5 in my series on our California Highway 1 road trip.
Big Sur country in California is famous for its hiking and camping and my husband and I were determined not to leave the park without doing at least some walking.
For the most part this holiday was very much a road trip, mostly [...]

Baking recipe: Chocolate macadamia nut brownies

Super Bowl Sunday party
Along with Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is a venerable American tradition with a focus on food. We had to feel our own way for Thanksgiving, but our neighbours invited us over for a Super Bowl party.
This was my first time watching American football and I must admit it was pretty baffling. It [...]

Photo Friday: Pretty Portree on the Isle of Skye

Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland; June 2009

After my trip to Orkney last summer, I travelled back south via the Scottish Highlands, the Isle of Skye and Glasgow. I was blessed with gorgeous weather while I was in Skye and went hiking, hill climbing, cycling and dolphin watching.
Since I was getting around on the limited public [...]

Fettuccine carbonara and other culinary misadventures

I enjoyed this piece by Matt on Abstract Gourmet about rediscovering fettuccine carbonara years after boarding school nearly put him off for life. He writes:
“The list of things that boarding school food turned me off was actually fairly extensive. Among them, steak diane, ham steaks with pineapple, lasagne, meat pies, hot dogs, and pretty much [...]

Driving Highway 1 in California – Big Sur Lodge and Pfeiffer Falls

This is part 4 a series about a road trip along California’s famous Highway 1. Please check out my other posts on Highway 1 and don’t forget to subscribe.
After visiting the beautiful lookout at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, we wanted to find somewhere in Big Sur country to stay the night. We had some [...]

Photo Friday: Tidal power device on test in Orkney

Orkney, Scotland, UK; June 2009

The series on stone-age Orkney was one of my favourite things I did on the blog last year. But the day or two I spent playing tourist came after several days working on a story that is very much rooted in the modern era.
The real reason I went to Orkney was [...]

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