English Weddings

I just bought a hat for an English wedding.
Black, blue. Gorgeous.

I'm gonna look like Audrey Hepburn. Bring on July.

Living Somewhere

This morning, I got up and baked oatmeal raisin cookies for a friend who is far away from home. I found a recipe online and with the last batch in the oven as I type, they didn't turn out too bad. A little dry (short on unsalted butter) but in a country where tea is prevalent, they'll be fine with a cuppa.

As I read the instructions this morning though, I sighed at remembering not only do I not have a hand beater, I definitely don't have an electric one, i.e. the kind of necessary baking tool I grew up using and absolutely loved. No, they aren't really popular in England and even though my love's mum has shown me multiple times how her grandmother used to beat her batter 'within an inch of its life,' I still struggle beating any mixture by hand.

It reminds me of my mom trying to bake pumpkin pie for Christmas in Ireland. None of the stores had pie tins--aluminum, non-stick, or glass--and neither of us had thought to pack one. The Irish make pies, yes, but thick savory pies and anything resembling the sweet slices we craved were made into little tarts. After much searching, we finally settled on pumpkin tarts for Christmas. They were delicious. Plus the cream was way better.

A friend's sister says that she hasn't lived in a house until she's baked in it. Baked once, that's a start. But it's more than just the inaugural batch of your classic chocolate chip recipe with the secret ingredient. It's finding where your baking ingredients will be kept, how the bowls will stack, the temperament of the oven, use of counter space, and where your dish cloth or apron will hang.

When you live in a new country though, it's even more than organizing and understanding a kitchen. You have to learn the new names for ingredients: Bicarbonate soda is baking soda, sultanas double as raisins; which brand of butter you prefer; and sift through the masses of sugars you never knew existed. There's Gas Marks instead of Fahrenheit or Celsius, hand beating techniques instead of mom's Kitchen Aid mixer. No, I think it's not until you have learned to bake in a new country that you begin to learn to really live in it.

Creative Genius

If you haven't seen this, I encourage you to watch it. It has continued to resonate with me for weeks now.

TED, Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

love & creativity.

Things that make me truly happy

A short list:

• My family
• A needle and thread
• Writing poems about my love
• Getting so excited about something with a friend, you're practically talking over each other
• Cute days
  
• Really well-prepared vegetables
• Loosing myself in music, particularly at a concert
• Both bedside lights on, each snuggled in with a book
• Baking, with anyone
• Summer thunderstorms in Northern California
• Proper tea, with two big spoonfuls of sugar
• Irish soda bread, toasted with olive oil, Buffalo mozzerella and fresh tomatoes
• Big musical productions
• Dancing, anytime, anywhere
• Airmail

Staying Focused on Technology

I am really a voyeur sometimes, particularly when it comes to technology. I even inched into email at 15 with cold feet, despite the growing addiction since, read multiple blogs without commenting and the whole twitter thing just boggled my mind. Even today, as I've taken the plunge into Twit-hood and blogging-on-somebody's-site-other-than-my-own, I'm all unsure of myself.

You'd think as an avid Wired reader, I might get the hang of this better. But like email, I'm sure the day will probably come where I couldn't imagine being without it. I'm just not sure what that will mean.

Twitter: eoflovefest
Official blogger for a community gay wedding blog: So You're EnGAYged!

Blueprints for the Garden

First, I love hanging wash on the line. Ever since I lived in Ireland and learned that clotheslines were not only prevalent in the rainiest country in Europe, but that they prevailed, in all sizes and forms, throughout the continent. It was while I was hanging out the wash that I started to look around the garden.

We have spearmint, pineapple mint, basil, coriander/cilantro, and a rose bush in ceramic pots. Everything else, from what I can tell of the different shaped bushes and vines, are either shrubs that have been planted for decoration and to take up space or plants that have settled there--blue bells, ivy, grasses, bramble, and a few other wildflowers.

But I want to plant vegetables, lavender and wildflowers, the question is where. I think, slowly, I'm going to start taking back the garden from the landlord-semi-manicured rented garden:

• Move the herbs to the guest bedroom windowsill.
  
• Install hanging baskets for tumbling tomatoes.
• Sow lavender indoors to be eventually planted in the corner nook by the BBQ.
  
• Clear space in the side bed & plant tomatoes and courgettes/zucchini to start.
• Sow wildflowers for the bees.

I'm just hoping June's not too late.