Christmas decorations

Christmas decorations, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Unsurprisingly there is a lot of glass and mirror on my Christmas tree...

It's officially nearly Christmas!

IMG_5441.JPG, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I've been neglecting my blogging a bit lately due to my job going COMPLETELY MENTAL but I'm back now.

Noticed these lovely ice patterns on my way to work this morning.

Gocco for Sale

I'm selling my trusty gocco, if you're interested...

Fun With Leaves

avatars myspace with Gickr

Kew in October II

It was only when I started writing this post that I realised I've written about Kew in October here before - I think my photography's advanced a bit since then though (I like to think!). No bad thing - it is a fantastic time of year to go, just before all the leaves, well, leave.

A maple bonsai. I didn't know that was even possible. They had an oak one too, among others.


Tiny halloween lanterns.


Deadly Nightshade. Chris thought it looked "appetising". Hmm.


Fun with algae.


Of course it's not all bright colours and fun. Some plants are feeling fairly melancholy now the nights are drawing in.

ELBOW BALLOON EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD

ELBOW BALLOON EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I couldn't help but think they released these a bit early in the song, and everyone got so over-excited by the fact there were LOTS OF BALLOONS!!!! they got completely distracted.

Colombo Street

Colombo Street, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

This has been sitting on my camera card forever. I know it's spelt wrong but it still amused my tiny little Columbo-loving brain. I also spotted a street in Dorchester called Little Britain but was too slow to get a photo :(

Fraggle 8

It's that time of year again. I'm panic-buying jumpers, the leaves are turning and it's acceptable once more to stay in of an evening and eat biscuits, so it must be Fraggle-time. This year, a week in Plush (what a great name for a place) in Dorset. We stayed in a sprawling old farmhouse on a working farm. The cows kept us company, waking us up with moo-ing at 5 in the morning and generally being smelly.




Bunty and Jo demanded more attention by trying to eat our conkers and throwing themselves at our feet for fuss.





Once we stopped pretending we had pets, we went to Weymouth for what turned out to be the last properly hot day of the year for yummy homemade ice-cream (two flavours only - 'coconut' or 'normal') and some good fish & chips. mmm.



I even went in the sea!




After an enormous restorative Sunday roast, the remaining few that hadn't had to rush back to London were left to wander around and generally fill time.




Over the course of the rest of the week we marvelled at how small Lyme Regis is...


...ate lots of scones (they went too fast to photograph), went to see the Cerne Abbas giant, and couldn't help but be drawn by Monkey World - really good it was too!

More France

A busy 4 days with lots of wine, cheese, Wii Fit, river swimming and surprisingly no headaches.

We bought some very yummy wine from 'The Wine Woman' at her beautiful vineyard, met with much approval by Ravioli, who apparently mysteriously adopted them, having already decided that yes, he would live here.


The other vineyard we visited was Monbazillac, which apparently is very highly regarded for it's desert wine. It was very nice. The Chateau was beautiful, almost ridiculously stereotypical.


Stunning views from here too...


Next day, Sarlat, with it's ginormous market-hall (ex church) doors...


Lots more on Flickr.

A Long Weekend

IMG_4719, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

...on the banks of the Dordogne. I'll write more later. Just love this picture!

See the rest on Flickr. See where we stayed here.

It's growing!

Mr Tomato, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I am notoriously good at killing plants. But this one's growing! Hooray! So is the little peony, althouh it is possibly the tiniest shoot I've ever seen, I think perhaps it's getting intimidated.

My Weekend Disappeared

I lost my weekend to Katamari, pretending to be Slash (badly), and The Book of Lost Things (funnily enough). Labyrinth was in there too but I have to say, it was a bit of a let-down, although an odd parallel to the book, as both feature the same riddle. Odd.

Summer Swirls Card

Summer Swirls Card, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Getting to grips with my gocco printer a bit more now. (By the way, if you get this for your birthday, act surprised. And happy.)

Soggy

Soggy, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I think we can safely say my new raincoat is merely shower-proof.

Moscow

I had so much fun on my whistle-stop trip to Moscow. I was with work colleagues and we only had two full days there, but wow did we cram a lot in! Lucky for us the contact we were going to meet with was happy to help us get around so we did have a guide for some of the time. She even took us to the Cafe Pushkin for a traditional Russian dinner complete with vodka. We were also lucky enough to be staying in the opulent Ritz Carlton hotel which was an experience in itself. I'm not really a fan of reproduction antiques and gilt, but when I have a shower like that in my house I'll know I've made it. I am cursed to be eternally disappointed with every bathroom I'll ever use now.

The architecture is fantastic, although you do find it interrupted by giant lit-up logos at night. On the whole though it's a very beautiful city.


Of course St Basil's Cathedral is amazing, so difficult to capture in the picture just how beautiful and colourful it is - it shines, even on the grey day we went. The walls are covered in orange and blue patterns and the domes are just so joyous. The story goes that once it was finished, Ivan the Terrible blinded the architect so that he could never design anything better for anyone else.

A quick run around the Kremlin and a visit to the beautiful armoury where we saw a whole host of royal dresses, thrones and carriages (including Catherine the Great's 16" waist - eek) and Peter the Great's throne. He was crowned jointly with an older brother to share the throne, as the older brother was 'feeble minded'. But Peter was only a child at this point, so there was a special compartment in the back where the older sister would sit, and whisper to Peter what he should say.


The bell was a replacement bell for the big tower in the Kremlin, and was still cooling in it's cast when there was a city fire - the cold fireman's water got poured all over it and it cracked.


We went to see the ballet in the Bolshoi's secondary, smaller theatre, because the main one is being refurbished. Nevertheless it's still a beautiful building and well worth seeing - even if you're not really a ballet fan (like me!) it's not difficult to appreciate it once you're there.


The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was another highlight, and one that really stuck in my mind. The building you see is what was rebuilt in the 90's, after the original was demolished to make way for a giant socialist monument, only for the site to be turned into a giant outdoor swimming pool when that project was halted.

And of course, you can't go to Moscow without buying a fantastic souvenir...

or perhaps a slightly less fantastic one (unless you still love The Scorpions)


Lots more photos on Flickr.

The Raconteurs

Well I know I've got a bit of catching-up to do here, including my trips to Russia and Croatia, but for now I just wanted to tell the world (well, all 3 of you that ever look at this) how great The Raconteurs were the other night. The new stuff sounds like a great step forward, although it seems to be less of an equal balance between Jack White's and Brendon Benson than the previous album. They had a very atmospheric, simple backdrop of tree branch silhouettes coupled with some slightly over-theatrical curtains, which I thought represented them pretty well.

There are much better written reviews here and here.

Elbow

Elbow's show last night was fantastic. The new songs sounded great live, particularly enormous, and a sprinkling of older ones went down really well. Guy Garvey's stage presence adds to a great experience too, dedicating songs like Newborn; "two of our band have recently become dads again, so to celebrate, here's a lovely song about a romantic death". It was a treat to see Richard Hawley come on to do The Fixer; a great song, really dark, and he sounded brilliant. I think Guy Garvey felt a bit inadequate with his maraca next to Richard's outfit and big red guitar though... You can see their shapeless blobs right here! The NME has it's usual incisive report; "Hawley walked on stage and played guitar and sang with the band." It's like you're actually there experiencing it with them isn't it.

Very Yummy Udon Noodles.

Method...
1. Cut up some chicken.
2. Chop some vegetables - preferably including bok choi, broccoli, onion, plus whatever's lurking in the bottom of the fridge.
3. Heat some oil in a wok.
4. Stir fry the chicken, and maybe some prawns if you have some. Or squid. mmm.
5. Add vegetables and stir fry until lightly cooked.
6. Add some udon noodles with some oyster sauce.
7. Cook.
8. Eat.

Fried Curried Chicken Legs with Sauce

Chicken legs 10
Onions 3 oz
Tomatoes 1lb
Ghee (or butter) 3 oz
Yoghurt 5 fl oz
Garlic cloves 4
Ginger 1 oz
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Cayenne Pepper 1 tsp
Fennel Powder pinch
Garam Masala 2 tsp
Juice of 1 Lemon
Coriander 1 oz
Water 5 fl oz
Salt to season

1. Finely chop onions, garlic and ginger.
2. Wash and finely chop the coriander.
3. Cut the tomatoes up, skin and de-seed.
4. Dry the chicken legs and sprinkle with salt.
5. Heat the ghee (or butter) add the chicken legs and fry until golden brown. Remove from the ghee and keep warm.
6. Heat the ghee (or butter), add the onion, garlic and ginger paste, fry until onions are soft and golden brown.
7. Reduce the heat, add the cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, cayenne pepper, fennel and a dash of water, cook for 2 minutes.
8. Stir in the tomatoes, yoghurt, and half the coriander.
9. Increase the heat to moderate, add the chicken legs and remaining water and bring to the boil. Turn the chicken legs in the sauce, sprinkle with garam masala, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Sprinkle with lemon juice and the rest of the coriander to serve.

We served it with some chopped vegetables cooked in lots of butter and garam masala, and some basmati rice. It went down pretty well when it was our turn to host Tuesday dinner :)

No Country for Old Men

Intense is not the word. I was hiding behind my scarf. It's a fantastic film, absolutely beautiful, but I found the lack of information a bit frustrating by the end. It's very matter-of-fact, and you don't feel you get to know the characters all that well. But then again they don't get to know each other all that well either. Javier Bardem is great in it, really unsettling in a grey area between cold efficiency and total psychopath.
No Country for Old Men

You haven't missed much...

Yes! I am back! No more bloggy neglect. (Promises promises...)

Anyway, quick run-down from New Year to Milk;
- bought a decent camera finally. Hooray!
- went to a very nice wedding. Ceremony at the beautiful Bhaktivedanta Manor, and afterwards a little tent in the garden.
- read Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table by Nigel Slater, which was nice, if a little repetetive in places, and made me very hungry for teacakes and scones, amongst other things...
- found some exciting milk (see post below)

Well I'm sure there's more but the list would definitely get less and less interesting so I'll leave it at that.

Happy-Cow Milk

I thought this new Calon Wen milk was a bit of a no-brainer. Happy cows, intelligent packaging, and a very cute cow drawing on the front. And if you weren't convinced then the ECO! ORGANIC! ETHICAL! RECYCLE! plastered all over it should sink in eventually. I'm feeling so smug now it's even stopped me moaning about free range chicken being sold out everywhere after all the scary TV that's been on lately. (Everyone's been buying free range eggs for ages! When did people stop associating eggs with chickens?)

Happy New Year!

All the best for 2008. I hope you've all eaten as much chocolate as I have. I've been rather busy lately working and Christmassing but things will be back to normal soon, I promise. If they're not I might explode a bit...