Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Avast and ahoy!

It's international talk like a pirate day, me mateys. That's all I've got. The rest is in landlubbers' English. Hee hee.

Yes, I've been very slack with posting. I've got an impressive list of excuses if anyone would care to see them, but mainly I've just been slack.

Exciting and fun things in the last month have included: a trip to the Rhine Valley for a wedding, eating strawberries from our garden, my birthday and birthday party. I think I've been excited about all of these things in roughly equal measure.

We had a wonderful 5 days wandering around the Rhine Valley with good friends, new and old, drinking Riesling and new wine and eating fried potatoes, sausages and sauerkraut. Vaughn's self-inflicted culinary misery continued while the rest of us were in raptures. Alice and Michael's wedding, the reason for our trip, was absolutely beautiful - set in a ruined castle with ivy on the walls and vineyards all around, it was just stunning. As was the bride, who looked like a 1940s film star and was just as cool and collected. I'm sure enough of you remember me turning into Bridezilla for a few days before our wedding (days, I tell you - no arguments!). Well, Alice couldn't have been more different. Not only did she have around a dozen people drifting in and out of her room while she was getting ready, which I consider incredibly noble in itself, she and Michael also encouraged everyone at the wedding to stay around for the next few days - with Michael's parents', who are angelic to say the least - before they headed off on their honeymoon. And stay we did. We drove through little towns which looked just like those in train models, took a cruise on the Rhine and went to the Bakfischfest in a neighbouring town. We also spent countless hours soaking up and ambiance of Marianna and Manfred's home, which we've decided is the perfect grandparents' house and Alice and Michael should get onto populating it with grandchildren.

Back in England, we came home to our first ripe strawberries, which we ate straight from the garden while they were still warm from the sun. They were just delicious. I think we've now finished the first crop and I'm hoping the warm weather comes back so we get a second crop. Also because if the only memory of Summer I've got to get me through Winter is two short weeks of sunshine and 20+ temperatures, I'm gonna cry.

We also had a lovely birthday last weekend, which filled our tiny apartment just about to capacity and diminished our wine supplies, including, I was slightly mortified to notice the next day, my cooking wine - an all in collection of any left over white wine from the last few months. It must have been absolutely awful. Mortification or no, I still chuckle to think about it. I wonder who it was?

I love entertaining and enjoy the preparation at least as much as the party itself. Having slightly under catered last time, foolishly giving up control of these things and suggesting people bring a plate, I cooked enough food this time to fill everyone for the rest of the weekend. I also tried out a new ice cream on our unsuspecting guests - lavender and honey - which seemed to meet with approval and I think will now be a regular on our table. And the food extravaganza continues this weekend with a trip to Hastings' seafood and wine festival, and a belated birthday lunch at the Petersham Nurseries, which I've wanted to go to for ages.

At some stage I will endeavour to put up some photos from my York, West England and Germany trips. But probably not this week when we have 3 house guests. In the meantime if you're curious, Vaughn has posted several on Facebook.

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