winter time river exploring

we headed up to the cabin this weekend to enjoy three days of chilly bliss. when we arrived on friday morning it was a frigid 35 degrees *inside* the cabin! al got the fire going while i unpacked food, then he took off for his last dive of the season. i alternated between homework and adding logs to the fire, and finally got it nice a toasty inside. that evening we finally tried to the underwood bar and bistro, and our cocktails and burgers at the bar were heaven.


during our saturday walk at steelhead beach, we found a hachiya persimmon tree and filled our pockets. i'll make persimmon pudding in a week or so when they are ripe. it felt really jungly with the bamboo and overgrowth. next we headed out to hop kiln to load up on their horseradish mustard, but when the skies became dark and another set of rained rolled in we found ourselves sipping wine.


sunday we packed some lunch and went off to find the where dry creek and the russian river meet. this was harder than we thought even with our fishing hole map, so we paid a visit to lambert bridge winery for a little warm up. they gave us a tip on how to get to dry creek, and we bought a bottle of their 2008 zin. we soon found the river and creek meeting place, saw a beautiful sky and a this very sad sight.


now we're back home to work and school. tomorrow is my last day working for the next year. i've decided to increase my school load so i can get this program done! i'm really working at making myself feel at peace with this choice, it feels like such a strange time to give up a job! but alas, the decision has been made and all will be fine.

finally gave in

and bought these silk blend patterned feral childe leggings. i'd been looking at them for weeks down at curator. they were on sale and i am over my cold. that's all.

getting there

things are slowly moving along on the wedding front. we've secured our photographer and last week my dress arrived. it's from the 60s and needs some attention. there were some rust stains from the covered buttons and i was able to get them out using this magic potion mom sent. there are a few more places that could use the potion, and i'll have to replace the buttons. it also needs a new sash.
i had pictured al wearing a forage bow tie or a liberty of london tie, and jen suggested i use liberty for the sash as well. now i'm completely distracted from my digital curation project, drooling over all the possibilities. i'll head over to britex one day soon to see what they have. might have to get my local londoner leigh to do some scouting as well.

it's been a long time

dear little blog i apologize for being a bad blogger. once i came home from my visit with leigh i was just not in the mood to blog. i've had a lot on my mind. a few weeks after returning home, al proposed! i immediately became overwhelmed when school started, work got busy and i began thinking about the wedding. so i'm sorry, i have been spending so much time on my laptop that the thought of blogging just didn't sound fun. so we have a date, and a venue. that's it. so much more work to do. i'm pretty sure i'll make myself a birdcage veil, or i might pop into lovejoy's attic to look over their veiled vintage hats, i saw some really cute ones in the window recently. i need to project manage this wedding and i'm just not in the mood. i wish i either didn't have school or work, but alas i have both. and i have insomnia.

last day

today is friday and my last day in london, tomorrow morning i'll be in a taxi to heathrow at 7:30 am. wednesday morning we decided to go back to the east side because i really wanted to eat at the albion cafe, and leigh said their fish and chips were really good. since our first attempt for some didn't look so hot, we made the trek and it was definitely worth it.


we ordered a side of mushy peas with mint and lettuce hearts, and tried to stuff it all in. we were disappointed that we didn't have room for pudding after we saw the sweets in the next room.


we had lois so the morning was pretty full getting over to albion on a few trains and after strolling the streets for a little bit we decided it was time to come home. we grabbed some groceries for me and lois because leigh and andrew had a date and a babysitter for the first time in months. lois went to bed, i watched a little tv and hit the sack. i've been so pooped every day, leigh is doing a good job at wearing me out like she said she would.


thursday lois had another full day of school and leigh and i headed over to islington. i wanted to visit toast and we wanted to walk along regent's canal.

we found some great shops and both loved smug. there were a lot of things in this shop that we both wanted but my suitcase is already too full and i'll need a 2nd piece of luggage or a box to ship home.


leigh and i really loved these woolen blankets at smug, and thought they would be really expensive. lizzie, the shop owner told us they were only £18 (we thought she said £80 which still sounded like a deal to me), and were made by the afonwen woollen mills north wales from recycled wool. i snapped one up even though the thought of this wool blanket anywhere near me in the current weather sounds awful. it will look great on my bed at home.



our last stop was at the elk in the woods for lunch. this place is very cute inside with lots of interesting wall decor -- from skulls to beautiful wallpaper.




since we were without lois we decided we needed a cocktail. i ordered an elderflower martini and leigh had a grapefruit mojito, and they both sort of went with our lunch of beetroot and walnut spread, peas and leeks, and calamari with sugar cane dipping sauce.


after lunch it was time to hit the road back home, we both needed another nap. we've had many early mornings with lois, this morning she was up around 5:30 so it won't be hard to wake up tomorrow to head out for san francisco. leigh, andrew and lois, thanks for a wonderful trip. i've had more fun that i imagined i could and i'll miss you all!

back in london

my london days are coming to an end soon so leigh and i are trying to figure out our final destinations. we went back to liberty today so i could get some gifts. i needed one more stroll through the store, it's so gorgeous. next we were off to selfridges for some more gifts and window shopping.


i got a lot of beautiful chocolates but couldn't keep these english rose and violet creams in the box, we had to split one walking down the sidewalk.


our plan was to get some fish and chips for lunch, i haven't had any yet while i've been here, but we stumbled onto foxcroft and ginger in soho and we were so happy we ate there.


i had a chorizo and butternut squash sandwich (with rocket of course) and leigh chose a salted beef with cucumber mayo. they were both huge and delish. we loved how they were served on wooden boards lined with butcher paper, with a little pile of pepper and maldron salt on the side.



after lunch we each needed a coffee to wake up. they use monmouth coffee, which i hadn't heard of until today, and it was very good. mine was served in one of those porcelain cups that looks like a crushed plastic disposable cup. they remind me of lauren and derek, but maybe because leigh told me she sent them some.


it's really warm so we came home on the tube, grabbed lois from school, and sat in the garden for a bit. andrew went to milan for work and is one his way home so we're making him a nice dinner to thank him for keeping lois all weekend while we went to paris. time to get crackin!

goodbye paris, i'll miss you!

our three day weekend in paris has come to and end. sunday is a sleepy day to spend in the city as most things are closed. we ended up with some rather cool and wet weather so our plans of sitting outside in the gardens were dashed. giovanni, whom we rented the apartment from, met us early to get the key and called us a taxi. we dropped our luggage off at a locker at the train station and headed back out to walk around ille saint louis. it was too cold and early for glaces at berthillon, which was sad, but next time.


after walking around a bit with only stohrer pastry in our bellies we ducked into a restaurant for some eggs, bacon, croissant and coffee. because most stores were closed, we snapped a few photos then walked over to notre dame for a peek.


it was very windy as we headed over to the louvre. we hadn't planned on going in, but instead wanted to walk around the outside and down the jardin des tuileries. the skies were gray and cloudy and we got some great shots of the louvre looking very ominous.



next we wove our way through the streets up to the arc de triomphe, trying to stay off the touristy champs-élysées as much as possible.


the rest of the day was spent walking through the streets trying to find something yummy for lunch. we ended up at a cute little cafe near the L'église de la Madeleine where we downed some onion soup with a peitit Mâche salad and delicious potatoes. We were so warm and cozy we decided we needed one more cafe creme and a gateau au chocolat before heading back out for the train station. i didn't take many photos yesterday, i think i was so tired and...well... cold.

paris, tired but a good tired

our apartment, the richelieu

it is our second day in paris and we've continued to walk non-stop as we have done in london. katie met us friday and we all walked up to rose bakery. katie thought it was funny that our first meal in paris was at a british establishment, but she had never been and we all loved it.

my lunch

cakes at rose bakery

after lunch we walked around the marais and got ourselves a bit more oriented.

the bibliotheque historic

bon bons

katie left to meet a friend for dinner and leigh and i came back to the apartment to rest for a few minutes before my birthday dinner at le fumoir. our dinner was delicious and we had secured a reservation in the "library," which turned out to be a dark and cozy room filled with books. we didn't want to leave but two hours later we were stuffed and so tired that we were happy to have a very short walk home.


i slept badly that night so it was 8am before we woke up, and we got off to a late start. on the advice of the apartment owners, we stopped in for pastries at stohrer's.

leigh got this shot of me looking at postcards before we went inside

next we walked a few short blocks to the bilbiotheque nationale. i was a bit overwhelmed and unfortunately hadn't really made a plan so we looked into some of the reading rooms and headed off to the centre pompidou. a few hours looking at braque's, picasso's, matise's, and léger's and we needed to eat again.



after eating, our next stop was pierre herme, which entailed a walk across the siene and down to st. germain. after snagging some confiture de framboises a la violette, which i had been dreaming about since katie brought me some two years ago, and some sablés citron, we were off to the have a glass of wine then stroll through jardin du luxembourg.

the wind kicked up and the rains came in so we hopped into a taxi to come home, warm up and plan our dinner outing. we're both very tired, but in a good way. the city is beautiful and inviting and it does feel like you are walking through a movie.

chelsea

another great day today, i keep thinking that each day is better than the last. we walked through battersea park over chelsea bridge to chelsea. the neighborhood is gorgeous. we go on lots of amazing strolls every day, but the destination today was the chelsea physic garden which was on my list of things to do and on leigh's as well. we were lucky to get another sunny morning and soon stripped off our jackets and sweaters and we were still really warm.



the homes surrounding the garden are so beautiful, you can tell this neighborhood is ritzy.

lots of lavender in this section, lots of bees, too!




the dark brown building behind the greenhouse above is so stunning, i want to go inside.


old greenhouses, filled with botanicals from different parts of the world.


so many lovely poppies and aliums all over.



after a long stroll around the paths and lots of photos we were ready for lunch. we stopped at daylesford organic and had a two wine lunch - lois was a handful and we needed the juice.