Lake District

     After the wedding we headed up to the Lake District, it was my first time in this part of the world, and was super excited to spend some time in a place that is so special to Michael and his love for England.
Unfortunately time was pretty tight, so we didn't get to explore the many walks and secrets the Lake District has to offer, but it was an amazing taster for me and has me so excited to go back and explore this beautiful unspoilt National Park...thanks in part the fabulous Beatrix Potter (when she died in 1943 she left 14 farms, sheep and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust)

This land & space seems to have inspired so many and it's easy to see why...I could lose myself for days  here...hunting out the pack horse bridges and pretty streams to dip my toes in, and breath in the spectactular views...

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

 Ullswater

We still have so much to explore of this beautiful land where my roots are so deeply nourished.

 Very pleased with our purchases made at Mill Pottery

Lancashire Love

Just got back from a fantastic 4 day break in England, it started with a wonderful family wedding in the Lancashire countryside near Clitheroe. After all the fussing and worrying about what to wear (english weather) the sun couldn't of shone brighter, the location was perfect , the ceremony perfect and so proud of my husband and how beautifully he read this Petrarch poem in church, he made me cry a little...

Il Canzoniere

Benedetto sia 'l giorno, et 'l mese, et l'anno,
et la stagione, e 'l tempo, et l'ora, e 'l punto,
e 'l bel paese, e 'l loco ov'io fui giunto
da'duo begli occhi che legato m'ànno;

et benedetto il primo dolce affanno
ch'i' ebbi ad esser con Amor congiunto,
et l'arco, et le saette ond'i' fui punto,
et le piaghe che 'nfin al cor mi vanno.
Benedette le voci tante ch'io
chiamando il nome de mia donna ò sparte,
e i sospiri, et le lagrime, e 'l desio;

et benedette sian tutte le carte
ov'io fama l'acquisto, e 'l pensier mio,
ch'è sol di lei, sí ch'altra non v'à parte.

Il Canzoniere

Blest be the year, the month, the hour, the day,

The season and the time, and point of space,

And blest the beauteous country and the place

Where first of two bright eyes I felt the sway:

 

Blest the sweet pain of which I was the prey,

When newly doomed Love’s sovereign law to embrace,

And blest the bow and shaft to which I trace

The wound that to my inmost heart found way:

 

Blest be the ceaseless accents of my tongue,

Unwearied breathing my loved lady’s name,

Blest my fond wishes, sighs, and tears, and pains:

 

Blest be the lays in which her praise I sung,

That on all sides acquired to her fair fame,

And blest my thoughts! for o’er them all she reigns.

A trip

the allotment

Saturday morning we spent 4 hours at the allotment, which I'm still feeling now...a major achievement digging out the channel for our water supply...we have Water!!!

Planted up some tomatoes, peppers, various lettuce, courgettes, leeks, onions.

The crop is well underway and now we have water...hopefully they'll survive!

Weekend

We must remember to sometimes have a weekend of doing nothing....this was discussed first thing this morning, whilst struggling to get out of bed and get going on this dreary wet Monday morning.

The house was filled with the smell of peonies all weekend, fresh flowers on a Friday start my weekend and take away all the stress of the week. I found a new treasure this week too...my new summer lounger, this amazing striped deck chair and the best part it was an absolute steal. I'm ready for my Pimms and Cucumber sandwiches now.

After a heavy morning at the allotment Saturday we headed to ours friends in Asolo...but not missing an opportunity to pick something up for the house, we stopped off at the Used Market & found a shelving unit ideal for our kitchen without having the drill more holes in the walls...

We were awoken at 4.00 am with a earthquake...never fun.

Love my new extra space

Jubilee preparation

I'm quietly very disappointed that I won't be in the UK for Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee, it's the only Diamond Jubilee I'll ever experience, we'll see at least two Kings on the throne in the next 60 years. My reasoning for my patriotism is unclear, perhaps because I don't live in the UK and such events make me homesick - the Golden Jubilee passed me by, it's strange to think about the Queen,  she's just always been in my life, whether on our coins, stamps, in an anthem or every year at Christmas - of course theres always the reason that maybe I just love to hang up some bunting, drink tea & eat scones!!

We're going to have a Jubilee celebration here in Italy...

June vacation

Vacation for June booked!

May pick-me-ups

1. Mulberry - My favorite handbag brand...I'm working towards this one though.

2. Bracelets- a great online store, love these pops of colour bracelets

3. Roquebrune - here they are again...see Paris post.

4. Super sunnies - here comes the sun, great selection of vintage inspired shades

5. Decked out - taking me back to my childhood on Goodrington Sands

6. Shower sensation- I had such any amazing shower sensation with this product in our hotel in London, it completely uplifted my senses for the day...

This months pick-me-ups are definitely warming up for the summer months...the evenings are warmer, bbq's are  sizzling, and it's time to start thinking about summer vacations and time spent with family.

Oui Oui Paris

3 days Paris

We walked, ate, shopped & slept, I wish I could say we had the energy to explore more, but alas my hotel bed was more enticing...welcome to work trips!

We did stay in a gem of a hotel, just of Rue du Louvre Hotel Crayon easy walking distance to the nearest metro, restaurants and the Louvre, will definitely stay here again the staff were great and price is great for the location. Plus there is a nice bar/cafe next door were you can get great food and a pint of Kronenbourg when you just can't face walking anymore.

Always time for cake.

I'm obsessed with Astier de Villatte enough said, I did treat myself to one of their candles...

::Roquebrune::
Dominating the sea, a 'perched village' of Provence crowned with its Carolinian castle. Wandering, lost amongst the narrow, paved streets. Resting in the shadows of Roman arches, bathed in the thousand and one aromas of The South: enigmatic wild sage, spearmint, coriander, rock rose, and bitter orange, with its decisive accent of citrus.
Quite.

Really sweet ceramics boutique in Marais le petit atelier de paris it is only open Thursday & Saturday

You can never eat too much onion soup in Paris

The simplest of things make me so happy in Paris - Croissants with Jam & Butter for breakfast.

We headed out to the Bob Dylan exhibit, which I don't have to much to say about without moaning, all I will say is that the photos were beautiful...but I don't think thats too hard to make look beautiful...and the rest...very disappointing.

What a treat my favorite store Merci has added this cafe aswell as the one still inside the store. We had a pretty good lunch, the service was slow...but this is Paris.

Canal St. Martin for a stroll around the stores,
Centre Commercial was a nicely curated store with nice accessories.
In general like London, nothing really new to report store wise
French Trotters is by far the best independent store we visited, a beautifully bought and curated collection as well as a new addition with some homeware.
Colette & Le Bon Marchè were as expected.
Sessun I need to stop going in this store.


Kiliwatch had some great vintage finds, I picked up a €20 version of Isabel Marant Etoile smock top which is retailing at €300...

Weekend

What a great weekend, just what I needed after traipsing around London & Paris.

Early Saturday was spent at the Veg Garden/ patch, Allotment, Orto, I'm still undecided what I should call it...we have plants in, the straw is covering the beds, the water supply is causing us a few problems at the moment, thankfully we've been having plenty of rain to keep us going for now, but as usual in Italy there seems to be no urgency from the council to sort it out...
I planted up some Runner Bean seeds I picked up in London, they're a heritage variety so here's hoping I also transferred my Rhubarb plant to the patch where it has plenty more space and hopefully will find it's growing groove.

A very good friend of ours was staying with us this weekend, which is always a treat and such great

company, we headed up towards Bolzano and into the Dolomites National Park, we found a great slow food Osteria in our new favorite book Osterie d'Italia Dorfnerhof...in this part of Italy the food is heavily influenced by the mountains and has a strong German influence, German is prodomenently spoken...it was a meal to remember we split all our plates to have a taste of everything.

Our menu looked a like this

:Antipasto:

Formaggi misti dell'Alto Adige

Cheese selection from the Alto Adige Region

Speck e luganega del nostro maso "Dorfnerhof"

Speck & Salami made in house

:Primo:

Canederli di spinaci con salsa al gorgonzola

Dumplings of spinach with a gorgonzola sauce

Tortelloni integrali di farro ripieni di spinaci e ricotta al burro e grana

Spinach & ricotta farro tortelloni with butter & parmesan.

Gnocchi di patate all'agnello e verdure

Potatoe gnocchi with lamb & vegetables.

:Secondo:

Stufato di spalla di bue con verdure miste e purea di sedano

Oxe served with celery puree & mixed veg

Gulasch di manzo con Canederli allo speck

Goulash served with dumplings of speck

"Bauerngröstel" (piatto tipico con patate saltate, cipolla, e manzo lesso) con cappucci allo speck 

"Bauerngrostel" a typical plate with potatoe, onions, beef.

Something to start

Trying to move and take in the view after an extra specially delicious lunch...

Our drive through the Dolomites National Park...

:The nymph of Lake Carezza:
In the lake once lived a beautiful water nymph, who often sat and sang on the shores of the lake. She was however very shy, and whenever anyone approached, she would immediately vanish into the water. Now one day, as the sorcerer of Masarè was passing by, he heard the nymph singing and fell in love with her. But not even all his magic arts were enough to capture her. Finally the witch Langwerda gave him some advice: "Stretch a rainbow from Latemar to Lake Carezza. The little nymph will become curios and want to know what it is. Disguise yourself as an old merchant and innocently tell her what the rainbow is made of and how to make jewels in the air. Once she is close, you can easily catch her" The sorcerer obeyed this advice, but forgot to change his form and was recognised by the water nymph. She promptly disappeared into the lake, never to be seem again. The sorcerer was so furious that he tore the rainbow from the sky and hurled it into the lake. The rainbow however dissolved in the water and spread out over the surface of the lake. Since this day the Ladin name for the lake has been 'Lec de Ergobardo' ( the rainbow lake)

...breathtaking.

London

3 days London

Where to start, except that I'm exhausted and now need to put my feet up for a week...6 days of shopping was too much...(I can hear the harp strings) but seriously!!

We stayed at la suite hotel it's located just off Marlyebone High Street, which is a great little spot  within easy walking distance to plenty of stores, our room was a little disappointing it was teeny weeny and we were on the ground floor. But we spent so little time there it wasn't a disaster.

As always with these trips the rest bites in between the shopping is where we get our most enjoyment...

The riding house cafe

We stopped off for lunch, to save waiting 30 mins we opted to sit at the bar, sampling a few small plates first the artichoke dip, which was delicious it definitely had a coddle feel to it and the steak tartare.

We then made the mistake of ordering a main plate each, although delicious in hindsight I would have preferred to try more of the small plates.

 Plenty of tea was consumed.

 Apple Juice at Le Comptoir 

 Lebanese breakfast at Le Comptoir it's worth going to try the Rose Jam...it's unbelievably sweet, but delicious, especially if like me, you love turkish delight... 

 We spent a good morning in and around Spitalfields and Brick Lane...stores worth a visit

Labour and Wait great for practical household treasures.

Albion Cafe great lunch spot if your in the area

Beyond retro  vintage/ used clothing, we picked up a bunch of great knitwear, at a great price and it's always good for plaids.

Mar Mar co. Great for stuff you never knew you needed.

In general there wasn't really anything new, most success was had with vintage stores, but a couple of extra spots to hit....

Merchant archive great mix of designer & vintage

Couverture and the Garbstore

Westbourne Grove was a great way to end our 3 day trip, even though the rain didn't let up, we enjoyed the tranquility of the neighbourhood as well as the stores and had a lengthy lunch (waiting for the rain) at Daylesford organic restaurant, picking up some great gifts from their store. There's a Toast store nearby too.

But there was plenty of inspiration just being the city regenerated my creativity. London is alive with the anticipation of the Jubilee and the Olympics, I'm SO excited for all the pomp and ceremony of the Jubilee it makes me SO proud to be British...time to start planning our Coronation Party here in Italy....a couple union jack treats and decorations found there way home with me.

What better way to spend the train journey from London to Paris than M&S special edition Coronation Chicken & Egg & Tomatoe sandwiches...

Yum!

Asparagus & Fava Salad

One more asparagus recipe before I head off to London, we enjoyed this last night complimented with a piece of grilled Monk Fish,  this recipe is taken from Sophie Dahls Voluptuous Delights book, I altered it slightly for a more generous portions.

:: Fava Bean & Asparagus Salad ::

1 bundle Green Aspargus (12 stalks)

2 cups of Fava (broad) beans

Handful of fresh mint chopped

3 tbl spoons olive oil

S&P

1/2 cup of pecorino or parmesan chesse,shaved.

Put the asparagus in a pan of salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes, drain & rinse under cold water.

Put the fava in a pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Place the beans & asparagus in a salad bowl add the mint.

Pour on the olive oil and season with S&P.

Add the cheese.

Took us both back to our childhoods podding the beans.