Room with Views

This is terrible - I don't know how I am ever going to catch up. I still have two more post's worth of photos from Paris, and that was June. And our visit to the Botanic Gardens in late September...
I was sick for a couple of weeks which has left me even more behind. We did manage to get away for a long weekend in the country. A beautiful old beech tree had had to be felled as it was rotten through, and while the main living area in the house always had wonderful views over the lake through the french doors and big windows, there was now a lovely new view opened up which I enjoyed while I played the flute ~ first two photos.
We had fairly good weather on the whole - some rain on the first afternoon when we went for a walk in some woods and didn't mind it too much, and then not much till the last afternoon when we were cleaning and packing anyway. In between the occasional showers there was some beautiful sunshine to set off the beautiful autumn colours.

 

Views over the lake in various weathers...

I took the last two photos on Saturday after lunch; I had a few birthday cards that needed posting with me, and I'd forgotten to bring them with us on Saturday morning when we were stopping at the local shop. So after lunch I walked into the village (about a mile) stopping off to go into the lakeside land on the way. And then when I got to the village, I discovered that I had carefully brought the two unstamped cards that didn't need posting till Monday. So C came to the rescue and drove up with them - and maybe it was just as well because it started pouring on the way home!

Purple in the woods

This was one of my favourites from the Sculpture in Context exhibition at the Botanic Gardens when we went recently. From a farther distance than the photos, I saw the splash of purple and thought maybe it was colchicums. Perhaps because I was too busy looking at it, I didn't pay a lot of attention when I heard something fall - C was ahead of me and I could see he hadn't dropped anything. It never occurred to me that I had - but a while later C informed me that the weight of the tripod had pulled the back flap on my rucksack open - and my portable hard drive was missing. Luckily I knew where I had heard something fall - so we got to see this beautiful creation twice. It was called Pretty Purple, created by Sarah McGloughlin, and seemed to be a mix of crochet, knitting and felt. A perfect example of a sculpture truly in context.

Promenade Plantée part 2

Some of the more street-level parts of the walk, and when we detoured into the Petite Ceinture.
We had a beautiful day for this walk - warm enough, but not enough sunshine to burn, and it stayed dry until after we'd got to the park. I hope it won't be quite so long before I'm back with some photos from the park, and then our last major outing was to the Albert Kahn gardens.

Paris re-visited - Promenade Plantée part 1

Maybe it's the darker colder evenings, but at last I'm getting back to editing some photos from Paris. And I had dreams of being finished before the end of August...such is life.
The Promenade Plantée is a linear park that runs along an old disused railway line from fairly near the Bastille metro station out almost as far as Parc de Vincennes, the far side of the Périphérique (ring road). Last time our problem was finding our way from the end of the walk to the park. This time we remembered that with no problems, but had more issues when we took a slight detour into the Petite Ceinture, which was a circular railway line connecting the main Parisian mainline stations to each other from the mid nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries. Like the line used for the Promenade it's now disused  - some is derelict, some has been used as green space. Where we found ourselves there also seemed to be a small allotment-style garden attached to a local school. The initial part of the walk is raised, on a viaduct, with great views over the city. Further on it descends to street-level and becomes part of the quartier rather than just a path through it.
The first two photos are from the Bastille metro station.

parts of the walk are divided into separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists/skateboards/roller bladed

Sunshine Day

Sunshine, and what may not have been but certainly felt like the hottest day of the year.
Actually it was intermittently cloudy in the morning, but we'd planned a trip to the Botanic Gardens and went despite the cloudy start.

Too hot to eat much - we just had Thai  chicken soup with coconut milk for our dinner. It was much quicker to make than a similar Malaysian soup I tried recently, but perhaps just not quite as nice. I'd make both again - so long as the butcher goes on offering me free chicken carcasses which make superb stock. Today I put the stock on before we went out, and let it simmer until we got back from the Botanic Gardens.

August cards

Hard to choose just a few favourites from August! With the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast I always get an extra creative boost. I had enormous fun with the soot stamping one -I'd never tried this technique before. C was fascinated, too, as I did the sooty part down at the kitchen table. He liked my first go best, with a line-art stamp, but I liked the solid leaves.

Cormorant

I had terrible stomach cramps almost all the way in to work yesterday and couldn't wait for the bus to get into town! But as I was walking up the quays towards work I saw a cormorant take off from just in front of me, and fly under the bridge towards the station. So when I got to that bridge I had to stop.
Sorry for the wind noise - maybe I should have edited it out, but the sound of the train and the trams going by give an urban context which you wouldn't know was there just from the visuals. At first C couldn't believe that I was up at Heuston station.



And one of these days I am promising myself to sit down and finish off my Paris photos. Apart from anything else I'd like to get them printed!!

Starlings

I walked over to the shopping centre yesterday as it was a beautiful and warm morning. I didn't see anybody looking of their own accord at all these starlings perched on the bolts of the canopy at the entrance - I did get some odd looks as I missed several green pedestrian lights while I stopped to take some photos. They look like young birds to me, in the close-up shots I got. I could have spent a lot longer watching them if only life weren't so busy just now.
Another hot and sunny day today - and while tomorow is forecast to be cloudy it's also currently forecast to be up to 25C. Summer, at last!

The King of all Birds

I know these are not the best of photos - the first one was taken through the front window, and wrens are tiny. But we've been seeing enough of them (or enough of one) around recently for me to have added their call to bird sounds that I recognise. It was enjoying sunbathing on the back wall in the intermittent sunshine yesterday.

C describes it as a little ball of feathers with a tail - but we have a little dunnock round at the moment for which the same description would be equally apt. Here it's looking somewhat windswept!

And we also have several distinct robins around at the moment, including this scruffy one which, I think, is a juvenile growing into adult plumage. I hope it's that and not diseased. I take good care to clean the feeders regularly, so I wouldn't expect it.

Knitting in the Round

My sister-in-law had bought a large (1kg) ball of wall and a pattern that came with it, to knit something for one of my nieces. Whether it was that she didn't really like the pattern (she did suggest I could try something else if I wanted), or that it was tricky to knit with, she passed it on to me - and now it's ready to head back down to her again. I put the wool brand into the search in Ravelry, and a Pinwheel Sweater was one of the hits.
I had to use different needles to get the right tension, but I really enjoyed knitting this. It was a bit bulky for carrying to work, but I got it done; and one of the best things is that there was no sewing up to do - just darning in the ends. The picot edging took a while, but I think that if I wants to add a couple of big buttons, the loops in the picot will serve as button loops. Essentially it's just a circle with sleeves set into it and knit down from the top, and the smaller part becomes a loose shawl-type collar. The front is more like an extended bolero - it's longer and swings loose at the back. I really like how it turned out! The pattern says that for a baby it can be worn the other way, with the longer part as a hood. It certainly did remind me of my favourite ever coat that I bought in Paris, which had a sort of cape edged with fur which could be left at the back as a cape over the coat, used as a hood, or draped across the front like a loose shawl. I wore it till the wool was getting bare!

Gujarati Style Aubergine  (Eggplant) and Potato (serves 4)

5 tblsp oil
large pinch asafoetida (but then do NOT reheat this in the microwave!!)
1/2 tsp each mustard and fenugreek seeds
2 cloves garlic, crushed,
1/2" ginger root peeled and grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
8 oz potato, peeled and diced
1 tblsp desiccated coconut
8 oz aubergine/eggplant diced the same size as the potato (about 1")
1 tsp each ground coriander/cilantro and ground roasted cumin seeds
1/2 tsp each garam masala, ground red chilli / cayenne, turmeric
salt
8 oz chopped tomatoes (fresh or tinned)
1 tblsp each sugar and lemon juice.

Heat the oil, fry the asafoetida with the mustard and fenugreek seeds till the mustard starts popping. Add the garlic, ginger and onion and fry till lightly browned.
Add the potato and fry till golden brown.
Add the coconut and aubergine and fry for one minute.
Stir in all the dry spices, then the tomatoes. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for twenty minutes till the vegetables are tender. I think I may have added a little water at this stage - the recipe says to add water if it gets too thick.
Add the sugar and lemon juice, then increase the heat till the liquid has reduced.
Sprinkle with garam masala and chopped fresh coriander/cilantro and green chilli to serve.

As I said, I made this purely because I had already set aubergines ready before work on the day our guests had to cancel, and since we'd just had a large dish of ratatouille and C is not over-fond of aubergines, I thought I'd try something other than the pasta dish with grilled vegetables that I had been going to do. This was more work than I would have chosen in a busy week, but he liked it and it's certainly something I'll be making again. The sweetness of the coconut went remarkably well with the aubergine.

I need to do some more research into what makes Gujarati food so typical. Is it the asafoetida? I know that the two other dishes I use it in both say they are Gujarati. I just wish that the smell was a bit less lingering!