Category:

Simply..Dark Eyes, tennis....

4/7/2022

..and putting on weight!

This beautiful clematis was an inexpensive supermarket buy, in a very small pot and I read that it is a good idea to grow them on in a bigger pot until they have a stronger root system before planting them out in the garden. It is doing well so far in the greenhouse.

The underside is lovely too.

The weather is awful, so I am still enjoying Wimbledon. So far with my tennis I have had scones and jam, strawberries and cream, white wine and gin and tonics. How many more days has the tournament to go?

Simply Eat..Provence....

23/6/2022

You can always tell a blogger - they photograph their food before they eat it!

It's a wonderful and relaxing treat to have such food put down in frnt of you. Leisurely breakfasts and healthy lunches..

Salads and juices with 7, 8, 9 ingredients.

A restaurant on the beach as the sun set - torches lit the beach after dark and we waded into the still warm sea.

Desserts included the best affogato ever!

All making me rethink my cooking at home..

Simply..there comes a time....

12/4/2022

..when you just have to grit your teeth and spend some money. The old chairs lasted 20 years and will now be recycled, as will the cushions which were so faded you wouldn't know they once had a pattern on them. They were sparking no joy whatsoever!

Breakfast outside on a sunny, if cold, spring morning is sparking joy! The tulips, Purissima, start out greenish, turn creamy then white. They are also one of the very few which repeat in my garden.

Have you had any meals outside yet?

Simply..comfort food!

7/4/2022

100 g each of butter, caster sugar, ground almonds and SR flour.

Beat togeher butter and sugar then work in almonds and flour. With damp hands roll into 20 or so walnut sized pieces. Bake 180C for 10 minutes. Sandwich together with Nutella.

Make on a wet and windy afternoon. Serve with good coffee and pretend you are in Italy.

Simply..why is it....

15/3/2022

..that when plans go awry, my thoughts turn immediately to chocolate?

I ate all of them...

Simply..extravagant....

3/12/2021

A big bag of apples and a box of clementines.

The extravagance I really want is a trip to Paris to see this exhibition, but it's not looking likely....

Simply..nice things....

19/11/2021

..about November.

We have had a very wet, windy and grey spell of weather and I am having to look hard to find things about Novembeer to be cheerful about!

The first sweet clementines with leaves on are irresistible, in their lovely natural basket.

They say we will have sunshine on Sunday. Can I wait that longg?

Simply..in the words of Mole....

3/9/2021

....
If at first you don't succeed...have some cake.

It's often worked in the past, but oddly , I seem to have gone off cake! Which could in fact be useful as I am still trying to lose those pandemic pounds....

Charlie Mackesey's description of mole stuffing himself with cake in The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse always makes me laugh out loud.

Simply..out to lunch....

13/7/2021

A ten minute bus ride to the next village along the shore today to meet a friend at a new cafe which has opened next to the village hall and the phone booth gallery, and across the road from the pier (the ticket office is available for holidays...) and a good view of the Waverley.

Perfect.

Simply..a little summer treat....

5/7/2021

I can recommend raspberry with white chocolate topped with fresh mint. This cute little building on the shore, not five minutes walk from my house, has just opened as an ice cream shack. Sooo tempting! And for a village without a shop it is a big event.

Simply..your blissful breakfast....

2/7/2021

What would your blissful breakfast look like?

Can you make it happen this weekend?

Kylie Flavell, pragmatic dreamer, makes her dreams come true.

You can too..

Simply..on the beach....

28/6/2021

We had our famly mid summer beach barbecue yesterday, in gorgeous sunshiine and with the beach to ourselves. My husband used to say that if the weather waas this good al the time it would be crowded here, so we savour each beautiful day and count our blessings. So happy!

Simply..a little summer..

10/6/2021

indulgence

Simply..predictable?....

3/6/2021

I have to dictate texts and answers to your comments, and while predictive text can be wonderful it can also be very annoying and make utter nonsense of my message.
.
I sent my sister a phtoto of some sunflowers I had bought and we were discussing where they might have been grown. I said 'Not in Argyll.' and the nachine sent 'Naughty naughty girl'!! She spent the afternoon wondering what she had done wrong!

It rather defeats the purpose when you have to read what you have dictated to check that it is right....

Hugs and friends at my table - that's what's been missing from life. It was so hot we had to move the table to the back of the house to have some shade. And the smell of the lilac was divine.

Simply..happily hydrated....

25/5/2021

I rarely feel thirsty. So I forget to drink water. How can I forget that when I do drink a few glasses of water a day I feel more alert, less sluggish and therefore happier? Pouring a big jug of water in the morning and leaving it sitting out in the kitchen reminds me....

Such a simple thing!

Simply..two breakfasts....

15/5/2021

Sometimes, if I waken early and the sun is out, I will have two breakfasts. Some coffee and toast, savouring the deep early morning silence. A few birds sing and the cuckoo calls further up the glen. Later I will cook something more substantial.. I love a slow start to my day.

My bithday flowers have lasted three weeks! I added the camassias from the garden.

Have a happy Sunday!

Simply..a lot of cake....

28/4/2021

Cakes, food and wine, flowers and cards, balloons. bunting, sunshine, my birthday was wonderful and the best gift of all was to have my family here Together for the firs time in a long long time.

Relaxing in the sun (Laura nd Scott went for a swim in the loch) it felt almost normal!

The gorgeous cup and saucer is a present from my sister.

I hope you have some good things to celebrate too. I am also celebrating the loss of that five pounds I was aiming to lose between the Easter cake and the birthday cake - keeping it off will be the next challenge.

The next project is an exhibition....

Simply..between cakes....

4/4/2021

Between Easter cakes and birthday cake (about three weeks) I intend to lose 5 pounds and be comfortable in my clothes again!

My sister bought me this pretty plate. It says Have your cake and eat it!

If only we could..

Simply..we must take....

15/3/2021

..our sweetness where we find it.

And if that means cake, so be it!

Simply..odd combinations....

3/3/2021

Using up what is left before the weekly shop can result in some odd combinations. I really enjoyed the sausages and red grapes though - possibly because everything tastes good if you eat it outside in the sun!

Have you eaten ourside yet this spring? It is one of my favourite things.

Simply..the diet starts....

14/2/2021

..when this box of chocolates finishes!

Simply..comfort....

7/2/2021

Well, comfort food to be precise. Bitterly cold outside with minute flakes of snow in the air, I took a notion to make pancakes...two days in a row.

Crispy and wafer thin, drenched in lemon juice and caster sugar, with a few slices of banana. Yum.

Made in minutes with 50g plain flour, one egg, 150ml milk and a good glug of olive oil whizzed together.

Raise your hand if you have not put on weight during this pandemic.

Thought so!

Simply..make sandwiches....

27/11/2020

..eat them outside I wrote on my Making It Through November list.(nearly there!).

Well after yesterday's eating outside experience I am waiting for a brighter day. A freind and I had coffee and cake in the greenhouse. It was freezing!

Simply..make time....

11/11/2020

for something you really want to do is the eighth item on my making it through list. If you are one of the millions who are still working hard to keep our countries functioning this is especially important for you! And harder I expect.

I have more time than I have had for years, but the things I really want to do that don't involve friends and family, I have rather lost sight of...

There are lots of things I ought to do, and am doing - putting my house in order is feeling good as I get many neglected jobs done. But I am finding it hard to think of what I really want to do. I want to overcome the mental and physical lethargy that threatens all the time, and my list is helping with that.

I have been wanting to finish my Desert Island Discs selection for a while, so maybe I should do that so that if I suddenly get famous and they invite me onto the programme I will be ready. :-)

What do you want to make time for?

Time for a snack, and pears are at their juicy best.

Or sweet clementines from Spain? Tree ripened and hand picked, in a wooden basket.

Simply..my madeleines

4/11/2020

Cakes and memories;

Though not quite in the Proustian manner I have been remembering cakes past...

Home made cakes to die for at Open Garden days in English villages, pasteis de Belem near Lisbon. rasberry torte in Berlin (Scottish respberries!), Mary's Pavlova at the Christmas Tree parties, ricotta lemon cheesecake from the Co-op in Venice (on the cheese counter - I didn;t realise I was buying cake!), sticky baklava in Cyprus, warm fondant fancies from Betty's on a very hot day at the races in York.

We all have our favourites and our special cake memories. I still have some coffee and walnut cake in the freezer which I made for the visitors I hoped could come. I did share some with a friend who came on a rainy day so we ate it sitting in the greenhouse.

Today I made marble cake which also freezes well.

I've had a lovely cake day and it's taken my mind off you-know-what! Thinking of our American blog friends.

Will serve with slices of kiwi fruit and whipped cream

Add cocoa to half the mixture

Dusting the greased tray with caster sugar gives a light crunchy finish

Did you make a cake?

Would love to know your special cake memories.

Don't miss Gwendoline's chocolate cake recipe in the commentson this post.