Cut it out - May challenge

If you're a reader of the excellent Jelssie, or know Jess G at all, you will know she is a fan of the challenge. Whether it's sampling every restaurant in a particular area, cutting down on spending or changing her approach to food, I have long been inspired by Jess's discipline in her challenges.

And so, because I have been eating huge amounts of everything lately with very little discrimination, this month I've decided to join her in her May challenge to cut out chocolate. As she says:

...it's hard to cut out all chocolate because chocolate is everywhere and in a variety of forms, but I basically mean no cadbury etc blocks or bars.

Unfortunately I already tripped up on day 1 because there were some mini Twirls in the kitchen and I ate some. But I actively resisted buying chocolate at the petrol station when I filled up yesterday so I feel like that it cancelled out the Twirl eating. Jess confirmed it as a win, so I'm gonna take it.

Further on that petrol station issue, it is very hard sometimes to avoid chocolate that you would normally not purchase. The mainstream petrol stations are always pushing their deals on you. When you pay for your petrol, the attendants are probably told they must quickly say "Would you like any chocolate bars, two for one?" as you present your money, as though you hadn't seen the signs plastered everywhere alerting you to the prospect of cheap sugar and fat.

Once this month is over, I'm planning to go back to my previous guideline of only eating a small amount of high quality chocolate (eg Haigh's) and savouring it, rather than scoffing a vast amount of inferior chocolate just because it was cheaper to buy in bulk.

moving auto-style

I know it matters little, but I've moved back to blogger. I just got fed up with my wordpress site getting hacked and not understanding or caring enough to keep on top of things. My move back wasn't entirely painless - I've lost all my comments and photos. There was probably a better way to fix it but as I said, care factor = very low. I fixed the photos on the first few posts so that it doesn't look completely rubbish  and I'll get around to the rest sometime. I'll put my craft posts up here too rather than keeping a separate site for that, because although I had some plans for the other site, I just don't have the energy to do anything with it.

I hate feeling inept about web stuff, but I have to accept that it is not a bad thing to use the tools that make life easier, instead of trying to control and modify everything! It's a bit like driving an auto versus a manual...yeah, it might give you more control and whatever driving a manual, but really, the auto gets me where I need to go with a lot less stress.

Hatter's Hope: sparkle

Hello! Happy period-between-Christmas-and-New-Year! This time is always a bit of a blur for me; I never remember what day it is, I rarely do anything before midday, I have trifle for breakfast every morning...in short, it's proper holiday time!

It also means I have time to post - I meant to do this last week but it got sucked into the Christmas vortex.

The current challenge over at Hatter's Hope is sparkle (why don't you give it a go?). For this one I got out my embossing powders, which I haven't used for a while. So I thought I'd show you how I use them!

These are my embossing powders. I've got sparkly ones, black ones, and metallic ones. The black powder is best used with stamping rubber stamps on an embossing ink pad; the finished result gives you raised lines you can colour inside and a shiny outline to your image. The metallic ones are good for outlines, or having solid blocks of gold or silver. The glitter ones are good for things like this sparkle challenge!

So first of all I coloured up Sammi's Fairy Set. The digi has her fairies, LilyRose and Charlotte Rose, in two sizes, so I did the bigger ones in foresty greens and purples, and the little one in a red dress - like a forest berry perhaps?

Then I coloured in their wings and the little one's red dress with the clear embossing ink. I have a pen for this purpose - looks a little Copic-like with the double ends. I wondered whether the ink would change the colours of the Copics I'd used, but it didn't change too drastically.

You only need a tiny amount of powder to cover the image, but it's hard to be precise. So the best way of doing it is to pour the powder over the whole image, then tip the excess onto a card and pour it back into the container. I've used these powders a lot in the past and haven't had to buy refills yet - they go a long way! Once I've shaken the excess off, I brush over the parts of the image I don't want to be embossed with a small, soft paintbrush, just to loosen any stray particles and give the embossed bits a clean edge.

Lastly, you heat up the paper to melt the powder, which sticks it onto the page and gives it a shiny finish. You can use any heat source that won't burn the paper; I used to use a toaster to heat it from underneath, which was quite effective. I do have this heat tool, which blows very hot air but a bit more directed than a hair dryer. You have to be careful if using something like a hair dryer, that the powder doesn't come unstuck and blow off the page. That would leave you with a very blotchy result.

And this is how they look after their heat setting!

Much less messy than using glitter and glue, as the glitter doesn't fall off once it's been heat set.

Then I put the card together, with the fairies sitting in a tree, daydreaming. I used some cloud stickers and sentiment from a kikki.K sticker book. Now I have it sitting on my bookshelf and I feel quite pleased when I see it as I come down the hall to my room!

Hatters Hope: the Magical Tree

There's a new release at Hatter's Hope, inspired by Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree! These were definitely my favourites of her books...I didn't really like the Famous Five or the Secret Seven or the Egregious Eight (okay I made that last one up). But The Magic Faraway Tree was somewhere I wanted to go, with its silly folk and yummy-sounding snacks and the amazing places it led to.

Sammi obviously loved those books too! Her range of stamps include the Silk Fairy, Pan Man, Mr Moonhead and assorted fairies and mushrooms. I chose the Silk Fairy with her long, golden hair to colour - mainly because she has the snacks! I decided to colour her in a bright, storybook style.

Unfortunately when I was putting the card together, I was very tired after a long week of work and carols and busyness. I just couldn't get it to look how I wanted. I wanted to do a kind of woodland-feeling card but of course hadn't used the right colours for that, the birds washi tape didn't look strong enough, and the oak leaves I punched out with my hole punch looked a bit messy and so I started pulling it apart and...well, the card actually no longer exists in this form anymore. It has been reduced to its component parts and awaits a time when I have a bit more creative energy!

PS. I came across this 2006 article talking about the 'sanitising' of Blyton's books. I agree with the article's author: "it is all palpable madness".

Hatter's Hope challenge: Bring on the bling

Here's Poppy! And as if I needed a challenge to use bling on a card. The sentiments and the snowflake paper are from a book of papers by Kaisercraft.

I think Poppy is my favourite of the Hatter's Hope Christmas gang. She has such a sweet face!

Why not join the challenge over at Hatter's Hope? You could win the very first rubber stamp produced by HH!

Hatter's Hope

So I've mentioned her a few times; Sammi is one of my (few?) readers and a close friend. As well as being the boss lady at Mad for Markers, tonight marks the launch of Sammi's own range of stamps under the label Hatter's Hope. Her drawings are whimsical and sweet (a bit like their creator) and are manga- and/or storybook-inspired. I also like that she has some more Australian-themed Christmas designs!

Congratulations Sammi! I'm really proud of you!

If you're a papercrafter, be sure to pop over to Hatter's Hope, join in the regular challenges using HH stamps (the first challenge kicks off tomorrow), and buy an image or two!

The light

Here's another Kaylee from Some Odd Girl, this time a digi (digital 'stamp' = an image you print off yourself on a printer, rather than a physical stamp you'd stamp with ink) called Bright Lights Kaylee.

I think I like her with blue hair the best (maybe because I coloured the blue better than the pink!).

I used some of the excellent washi tape I got recently at the Papercraft Festival at Penrith when I went in to help Sammi on the Mad for Markers stand. We were right across from the Papercraft Hub stand, and they one whole 'wall' of their stand was just rolls of washi tape (a kind of Japanese paper tape) in all kinds of patterns. The temptation proved too much!

I love the informal yet sweet look washi tape gives to cards (I remember first seeing washi tape in Pentimento Bookshop in Newtown years ago, and coveting it desperately but thinking "when would I ever use that? I really can't justify buying it just because it looks pretty." It was quite expensive too, but now it's far more common and much cheaper and I need less and less justification to buy pretty things!)

I printed out an appropriate Bible verse to stick on - Jesus is the light that came into the world at Christmastime (and of course it's also a lame pun because, well, fairy lights). I don't like a lot of the 'sentiment' stamps that are around at Christmas, mainly because they're so bland and generic. As a Christian I love to celebrate Jesus' birth so I am pleased to take the opportunity to say more than 'Merry Christmas' or (worse) 'happy holidays'!

 

PS - hopefully it doesn't seem too condescending if I occasionally explain a term...it's easy to just use jargon and forget that not everyone will know what things like digis and washi tape are. I mainly am aware of this because that's how I feel whenever I start exploring a new craft and I'm too scared to ask questions!

It took me SO long to feel familiar with crochet patterns, for example, and I was always thinking I was doing everything wrong. But eventually I realised that even if the way I did it wasn't 'right', it was still getting good results! Starting to get back into paper craft has been a bit of an eye opener, because there are a lot more commonly available tools and different techniques around than when I used to run Christmas card making workshops at church...I suppose the images I made up and printed out to use were digis, but I didn’t know that’s what they were called!

I think we get hung up on right and wrong ways of doing things and forget about the joy of just making stuff! A lady at the Papercraft Festival was watching one of the girls colouring and said wistfully, "I used to love colouring in with my son when he was little. We had so much fun! But I'm so not artistic, I could never do anything like this." I said, "Artistic has nothing to do with it! If you enjoy it, that's one of the biggest reasons for doing it!" That's advice I would do well to heed myself sometimes...

 

Organisation is a beautiful thing

Thank you to Virginia for dropping over my new Copic wallet. No more rummaging in a box for my pens and never being able to find the right colour! (the rummaging worked okay when I only had a few markers, but as one gets deeper into a craft, all the surrounding paraphernalia starts to make sense...)

Not quite perfect...

Another Tree Trimming Kaylee card, but this time with purple hair. Purple and red is one of my favourite combos!

[side note, I have often wished I had purple hair but have been put off by the thought that I would have to peroxide it first. Why regular toxic hair dye isn't a problem for me, I don't know. But I have visions of my peroxided hair becoming straw-like and crumbling to dust and I don't think I could rock the bald look AT ALL.]

This card didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but hey I'm not just going to post the stuff here that makes me look like I know what I'm doing. Full crafting transparency, people! I also wanted to show how just a different colour palette can transform an image; I keep forgetting this is the same stamp as the one on the last card.

The coloured baubles (a Kaisercraft clear stamp that I can't find anywhere to link to online so it must be out of 'print') are fine, but I wanted to echo their shape in the background by stamping with red ink onto the red card. As you can see, that didn't quite come out as clearly or as elegantly as I might have liked! I might try it again sometime, but I'll practice first.

But still, there's something about this card that pleases me. Must be the purple hair.

Merry and bright

I love, love, love sticking things on cards. Wait. Let me be more specific. I really like stick on gems and pearly things, which I guess are collectively referred to as bling (even though I never really liked that word...not really sure why...but I guess I have to learn to love it, it seems to be here to stay!). I found these really cheap red and green pearls at a Hot Dollar store - the reason they're cheap is because the adhesive is terrible and comes off all over the backing paper. But no matter. I still got them to stick.

I also bought a giant pack of coloured card at Costco (that's a good tongue warmer upper...try saying it several times fast if you need to do some public speaking) so I've been enjoying cutting card sizes that aren't 'standard'. This is a long narrow one that stands on its end, opening up rather than out. And I cut the edge with my crinkly scissors that I think I've only used one other time ever. What a wise purchase that one was.

But the star is, of course, is Some Odd Girl's Tree Trimming Kaylee stamp, coloured with my trusty Copics. I really like Some Odd Girl's style - the characters always look so cheerful! (Although a male friend thought Kaylee was holding a bomb...I think the wire at the top of the bauble looks like a wick because it was too hard to cut around and I thought I was using my 0.2 multiliner to redraw it but it turned out to be the 1.0. Whoops!)

May your days be merry and bright!

Colour

I've always loved coloured pencils, pens, crayons, pastels, mainly how they look all lined up. The possibility of what someone could do with all those colours.

So I was very excited when my lovely friend Sammi set up her store, Mad For Markers. A close source of colour goodness! Mad For Markers came out of Sammi's love for Copic markers, an alcohol-based, refillable marker from Japan that allows you to do a lot of fun stuff with blending and shading that you can't do with normal markers.

 

[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="491"] Me and Sam at a recent event our church, Wild St, was part of (we were colouring Christmas tags and, er, wearing silly hats)[/caption]

I coloured my comics for Kinds of Blue (Labyrinthine and Eating the Blues) with Copics, but I'd only just started playing with them and wasn't very artful in the way I used them. Looking at the pages now I wish I could do them again, but they're out there now, and c'est la vie. I just need to draw some more comics to give me a chance to do a better job, I guess!

I decided this year I would make a whole stash of Christmas cards to get some good use out of my markers, and to encourage me to do more little creative things. I'm still working on a crochet project, but it takes me longer to finish those. The nice thing about colouring and cards is I can finish something I'm reasonably happy with in a short time. Sense of accomplishment, hurrah!

Here's one I made for mum's birthday in October:



I'll be putting up Christmas ones in the next few days, to engender a sense of Christmassy spirit, despite it only being November (when you intend to make things to give at Christmas, you have to start early!).

a leetle strudel

I made up a strudel tonight for dessert, and it was extremely easy and delicious, so I thought I'd share it here. And as you can see, I don't use precise measurements - basically, add whatever you think would make it yummy.

Bec's apple and cherry strudel
5 sheets filo pastry
2 Granny Smith apples
handful dried cherries (I got them from Norton St Grocers - yum)
cinnamon / mixed spice
tablespoon or so of butter
a few spoonfuls of almond meal
a few spoonfuls of brown sugar
a couple more tablespoons of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Peel, core and chop the apples into rough chunks. Put them in a smallish saucepan with the cherries, spices, brown sugar and butter. Cover and cook over a medium heat until apples are soft.

Lay out a sheet of filo and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle on some almond meal. Lay another sheet of filo on top and repeat until you've used all the pastry. Put the apple filling in the middle of the pastry. Fold the bottom and top of the pastry in towards the middle, brush with butter, fold the sides of the pastry over, brush with butter (so it should be a neat little parcel). Sprinkle the top with almond meal and a little more brown sugar. Bake in oven until golden brown (about 20 mins).

Serve drizzled with cream. Or ice cream. Or just eat it. Any which way, it is very delicious.

Mooncakes

I'm a little early to get mooncakes for the Autumn Moon Festival (apparently falling on 14 September this year) but I'm happy I didn't miss them entirely like I usually do. My family never celebrated this festival, which is why I always forget when mooncakes are 'in season'.
I remember dad giving me a mooncake when I was in my early teens and being stunned by these wonderful morsels, and loving the whimsical name. Mooncakes are sweet and slightly salty at the same time, velvety smooth and meltingly delicious. They're about the size of a fist, but you only eat a little bit at a time (about a quarter), as they are incredibly rich - and not cheap! They can be made with all sorts of fillings, but most common are lotus seed paste or red bean paste. Sometimes they have whole egg yolks in the middle to symbolise the full moon.
You're supposed to have them at celebrations with family and friends (much like celebrating Chinese New Year), but I don't see why you shouldn't have them just because. A lot of Chinese traditions have a vague memory or sense of recognition for me, but I don't really know what they're really all about. Hooray for the internet...
The story I like most about this festival is the legend about the Chinese people organising an uprising against the Mongols in the 14th century by hiding messages inside their mooncakes. Subversive desserts!
I went into the Asian grocery at Maroubra Junction today and saw a table full of red tins and boxes that just triggered a childish delight in me. Some were as expensive as $11 a cake, but I went for a cheaper brand. Even so, as you can see, the packaging is lavish and pretty (and just a bit kitschy!). I just had a taste of one filled with red bean and an egg yolk, and it didn't disappoint.

Birthday meals

I think the best parts of birthdays are the meals with wonderful friends. Well, and the presents. But the meals are always the standouts. It's probably a throwback from childhood when you have the birthday party with all your friends, and the food you like, and a cake. Sometimes we have parties as adults, but there are always lovely birthday meals, no matter what.

In the last few days it's been a birthday for two lovely friends, Karen and Mary.

Karen's birthday was on Friday, so Ben, Guan, Elsie and I took her to the Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House on Anzac Parade for...Chinese dumplings and noodles, oddly enough. Ooh, and honey chicken (if you have given up on honey chicken as something flabby and over-sweet from those all-you-can-eat takeout places, give this honey chicken a try - it's absolutely divine). I love eating there with these people! And I think K enjoyed her birthday lunch.




Today was M's birthday. She loves breakfast and brunch, and I wanted to take my friends to Pyrama, so it was the perfect opportunity. Although grey and cloudy and a little on the chilly side compared to last time we went, Linda fixed us up with a heater and we were right on the edge of the outside area, overlooking the light rail.

The food was yum, and needless to say, enjoyed by all (yes, even G, despite his 'grumpy' face).

a completely unbiased review

I was still a bit out of it yesterday, but my brother had invited us for lunch at his girlfriend Linda's new restaurant, Pyrama, and I can always be tempted out for a good meal. It was another gorgeous, jewel-like Sydney winter day and we headed down to shop 1, 56 Harris Street, Pyrmont.

Pyrama is almost at the end of Harris Street, just as the hill slopes down to the water. It's nestled in amongst new blocks of flats and old workers' cottages and wintry trees and a glimpse of sparkling water, perched over a dramatic cutting in the sandstone for the light rail track. It's a really interesting spot, quiet but villagey. It seemed the perfect place to be on a bright winter's morning.

Nic, me and mum

It's always wonderful to hang out with Nic. But it was especially great to see Linda in her restaurant, obviously so proud and excited that Nic had brought his family. She and her brother Jim (who is the chef) have been working towards the launch for a long time, and have put a lot of effort into making it a great space with a really relaxed, friendly ambience and food that perfectly suits the setting. It's unpretentious but delicious fare, not trying to be fancy, but doing simple things well, allowing the top-notch ingredients and the expertise of its staff to shine.

Nic and Mum

We sat outside, drenched in sunlight, each of us sporting our huge sunglasses. Nic and I both need to get more sunlight (me for my depression, him for some horrid skin thing he's gotten), so it was therapeutic too. Linda's mum and sister were also there, so it felt very congenial to stroll into this slick new restaurant and already be 'regulars', knowing the other regulars. But I watched the small team of staff and although they were, of course, very friendly and chatty with us (being connected to the owner) they were pretty much the same with everyone who walked in, which is great.


Mum decided on ricotta pancakes with rhubarb and apple compote from the all-day breakfast menu.


Nic chose a wagyu beef burger with the most delicious chips.


And I had the most tender, light and melt-in-the-mouth calamari with harissa aioli I've ever had (I think I need to change my standard line from "I don't eat seafood" to "I don't eat prawns or oysters" because I quite like calamari and some shellfish. So there you go, this one dish has converted me).

Then my favourite part of any meal, dessert. It was hard to decide, so I promised Linda I'd start at the top of the menu and work my way down it each time I came to eat there. So the top of the list - 'The original' Belgian white chocolate creme brulee with passionfruit coulis.


Ohhh. Aside from the one I had in Paris recently, I can safely say this was the best creme brulee I've ever had (and the Parisian one had extra points because of its location of course). Silky smooth, rich but not heavy, with a perfectly formed and satisfying sugar crust.


Mum and Nic shared the warm chocolate fondant, also smooth and delicious from the little taste I had.

Mum, Nic and Linda

Of course Linda is the consummate perfectionist, so she's never going to be happy with the restaurant and is always going to be tweaking things to improve them, which is as it should be I think. But I think she and Jim should be very proud of what they've created so far!

Nic and Linda, showcasing the fuzzy feature wallpaper

So go on a sunny winter's morning and sit in the courtyard outside (when I go there for dinner I'll let you know how that was, but I'm pretty confident to say it'd be fantastic for dinner too). Eat well and enjoy. You won't be sorry!

assiette

I am so full. Had dinner this evening with mum and Nic at the wonderful Restaurant Assiette in Surry Hills, near Central. Well worth a visit; a beautifully simple room, quiet and not ostentatious, with friendly, knowledgeable, yet unobtrusive staff. We had the degustation menu, tiny portions of marvellous delights.

Standouts were little touches like the tender coriander on the oyster (yes, I had an oyster!), the wasabi-infused caviar on the sashimi, the parmesan ice cream on the risotto (sounds strange, but it was divine), and the sliver of chocolate mousse cake. We also drank a delicious 2004 Moss Wood cabernet. Suffice it to say, I'm very fortunate to have a brother who loves to treat us to wonderful meals because I couldn't eat like this all the time! It would be so easy to become jaded as a food critic I think, but when you only dine like this once every so often, the meal becomes a celebration in itself, something to be savoured and remembered.

Restaurant Assiette Degustation Menu

Seasonal oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander

Tuna, cucumber and avocado ‘sushi’ sashimi with wasabi-infused caviar

Carpaccio of wagyu beef with baby beetroot, port jelly, horseradish and shoestring potatoes

Pan fried scallop with onion bhaji, curried cauliflower puree and mint yoghurt

Mushroom and asparagus risotto with parmesan ice cream and parmesan crisps

Crispy skin barramundi with parsnip, smoked eel, caponata and sauce matelote

Veal fillet and shank with spiced pumpkin, almonds and gnocchi

Selected cheese with rosemary lavosh

Vanilla custard with spiced fruit compote

Chocolate mousse cake with brownie and prune Armagnac ice cream (below)

I've got to get better at surreptitious food photography with my mobile phone camera.

Fontainebleau - Jeudi

Stuart and Emma are both doing MBAs this year - Emma through correspondence with RMIT, and Stuart at INSEAD, which is why they are living in France. INSEAD calls itself the 'business school for the world', and it seems to be a fascinating place, with graduate students from all over the world. Every single person there is focused and passionate about being there. The facilities are really well-organised, very thoughtfully put together so that as a student you have absolutely everything you need. I suppose as a leading business college they have to ensure the place functions smoothly as a business, otherwise they wouldn't be practising what they preached. Since Em and Stu's broadband wasn't working at home, we went into INSEAD first thing to drop Stuart at class, so Em could check some things for her group project and so I could check my email. It felt really good being there, and reminded me of the aspects of learning that I did enjoy. Opening your mind up to new things, letting it percolate with possibilities, exploring new avenues. Just being there in the library felt...good.

The cafeteria was cool too, with lots of free coffee, fuzeball table, computer terminals, and a genial sort of buzz. The chairs were really comfortable too. I liked the way the rest of the college was very professional and minimalist and the cafe was colourful and relaxed, clearly indicating that you needed to take time out from your busy schedule when you were in that area.

Emma and I walked from INSEAD to the high street of Fontainebleau. Something that struck me was how beautiful the public spaces are in France. They make a huge effort to make things look appealing, and as its springtime there are many displays of magnificent flowers, like these tulips which were just by the side of the road.

We checked out the town, and looked in an extremely funky children's bookshop for a birthday present for our goddaughter Imogen (I've already given her the quilt, but Emma wanted to send her something). There were some spectacular picture books, but they were expensive and aren't exactly the most practical to carry. I bought two little books, one about a dragon and the other called 'A quoi revent les vaches?' - basically, what do the cows dream of?

We had lunch (pizza again!), then Emma left me to go to a French class. I set off into the Château Fontainebleau.

It is an incredible building, built and trashed and rebuilt by successive French monarchs and, later, Napoleon Bonaparte. Unlike Versailles, which mum and I visited last time we were here in 2000, I got a real sense of the life of this place. Just walking into the wide corridors and up the stairs, I could imagine being dressed in a massive 18th century gown and moving around the space (but then, any excuse for a corset and a big skirt, right?). I walked through the royal apartments, saw things like Napoleon's tiny bed and Marie Antoinette's dressing room. I find that kind of thing quite fascinating, and the scale of it all just makes it quite a dizzying experience.

There was a group of small schoolchildren on an excursion, which I passed early on, but they were very cute. French schoolchildren are almost as chic as French adults, and even better I can usually understand what they're saying because they speak much slower than adults!

Once outside, I was tempted to get in the horse drawn carriage and go for a ride around the massive grounds. But there were a few tour groups milling around and I didn't really feel like being stuck in a carriage with them, so I just wandered a little bit.

One good thing about that was as I walked through the gardens, I got to see this peacock and his peahens, all just hanging out in the underbrush. They were very tame and just so beautiful to see so close up.


I met back up with Emma and we drove to Barbizon, a small artist's village that Em thought I would love. But sadly most of the shops were shut, and it was getting very cold and grey. We walked up the main street, and looked in a couple of shops. It was a very quaint sort of place, with very old stone houses that people still live and work in. I liked the feel of it and imagine it's quite a fun place to be when it's busy.

I also bought the most delicious coffee eclair from a patisserie there. Emma isn't really into sweets, and she tried the tiniest nibble just so she could say she'd tried it. I assured her, as a sweets connoisseur, that it was a very, very good eclair. Almost bore no similarity to ones you can get in Australia, in terms of the freshness, lightness and flavour.

My legs and feet were very sore still, from all the walking I'd been doing. So we decided we'd just drive around a bit and look at the countryside, before going to Milly la Foret, which is a local place Em and Stu do a lot of their food shopping. It being Thursday, the food market was on. I was so glad to be able to see this, as it felt like a true French experience. I bought us some brie to have after dinner and Emma bought two kilos of strawberries (a boxful) for 5 euro. That's around AU$8. And they were wonderful; it certainly is a different experience eating berries in the northern hemisphere, when they've been grown in the best climate. Not at all like the pale, watery Australian equivalents.



We bought some baguettes at a boulangerie and tore chunks off to eat as we walked back to the car. I think I fitted in very well, don't you?

Em and Stu's place is about 20 minutes out of Fontainebleau, in the forest. You turn out of their driveway and the forest is at the end of the street. Their place is in the basement of this house:
The flat is a little...eccentric, to say the least. It looks like it was once the rumpus room or storage area of the main house and the owner decided to convert it into a flat. There are some windows, but they are at ground level. So we think the owner has tried to make up for this by bringing the outdoors in. There are blinds and screens on the walls to make it look like maybe there might be a window behind them. And, to my mind, the pieces de resistance are the plastic orange trees in the living room and main bedroom.

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw them. The laughter only increased when Emma opened a cupboard with a flourish to show me the armfuls of fake flowers she had removed from elsewhere in the house. A very...interesting style of decor. I declared that their new tradition should be that whenever they have a visitor come to stay, they have to have a photo on the 70s lounge setting with the orange trees. So we started off with a very serious portrait (which I totally failed at):
And then a lovely group shot. It's been so wonderful to catch up with these great friends, and to be their first Australian visitor!