White sweet rocket, my favourite daisy and Alchemilla. I have loved seeing the sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in the garden and in the vase. Have sown more for next year.

Simple but lovely.

Food and more food, oh and Buddy and more Buddy…

The most amazing chocolate cherry cake, if I do say so myself. I make this just once a year when cherries are in season, it’s from this recipe.

The first flower to bloom from the cutting patches. Calendula officinalis.

Loves me a cheese and pickle sandwich.

Porridge outside for breakfast with paraphernalia all around me.

What can I say?

A tongue-sie! That’s what my BFF calls it when pooches stick their tongue out while sleeping. We wait around for rare events like that in these parts. Then take pictures of them.

On my way to work. I picked some sweet williams for a lovely colleague who always spoils us so much. It was her turn.

And there we have it.

Okay we are officially obsessed with bagels for breakfast.

Although this one wasn’t as good. I just don’t think a fried egg works. Both Quorn sausages and Quorn bacon went into my sandwich with some gently fried tomatoes too. It was still delicious but I prefer scrambled or an omelette.

It is funny the twists and turns of this life. I have just re-read this post from January.

The answer to my soul searching and pondering of how to do this meditation thing arrived by way of my dearest husband. He said that he wanted to give it a try too so we set time aside and just did it.

How simple was that. It was the combined effort of doing something together that made it work. Alone I’d have found an excuse not to bother but with the commitment to spend ten minutes in the evenings sitting meditating the habit has begun to form.

The actual meditating is still difficult and my mind wanders all over but I know this is a slow process one to work at, to listen to the wanderings just to get a feel of where it wanders then bring it back. Over and over.

This is a commitment a worthy one I feel. I have kept reading a little bit of the book but try to keep it simple while it’s all so new. Breathing and focussing and drawing back the wandering mind and breathing again. And again. And again.

Here are a few more of the places we found to grab a bite.

Calafia Cafe – Palo Alto

Although this isn’t a wholly vegetarian restaurant the menu is split in two. One page for ‘meat eaters’ the other for ‘plant eaters.’ It was an interesting menu and the setting was perfect. We sat outside on a very hot day and enjoyed the shade of the canopy that surrounds this designer yet quirky shopping area called Town and Country Village.

Panolivo Family Bistro – Paso Robles

We stumbled upon this cafe after a whistle-stop tour of this lovely town. We weren’t even hungry and ordered a muffin to begin with but then decided to stay for an early lunch too. We had houmous wraps and they were really good.

Linns of Cambria – Cambria

This was an airy but busy place that served food all day and had a little cafe/store attached. We had lunch and breakfast here during our stay and the food was very good. Those sweet potato fried in the shot above were so good I’m going to try make them here at home.

California Pizza Kitchen – Fresno. (We also ate at this chain in Vegas.)

The restaurant in Fresno was a lovely location and we had a great waitress who loved that we were baseball fans even though we were British (they had a game on the big screen behind the bar.) Like I mention above we ate in one of these places in Vegas too. It was within our hotel so an easy option. It was so much better place to eat away from sin city……

Za Pizza – San Francisco

We have been to San Fran three times and we have been to Za Pizza three times. Yes, we love it so much we would always want to go back. It doesn’t hurt that they are Giants fans or that this tiny place is set within an amazing part of the city right up there on Russian Hill and along side the cable car route. They have local artists work on the walls and we brought home a baseball related piece this time too. The ride back to Union Square on the cable car is a wonderful finale to a great pizza experience.

Anada Fuara – San Francisco

A vegetarian cafe near City Hall. This was another busy spot, we went just before the ballet. I had neatloaf and mashed potatoes. Absolutely great. I loved mashed potatoes. Those little morsels in the photo were their version of ‘chicken’ nuggets. We shared them and they were so tasty.

Rainbow Bean Coffee Company – Cambria

Ans what better way to round of this post than with a little apricot oat slice. Lovely little coffee shop that had local ice cream too and all manner of sandwiches but we just stuck to dessert this time.

Thanks for letting me share our foodie experiences.

As the season progresses and I wander around the garden I find that the desire to cut flowers gets stronger. The more I see blooming the more I want to pick. It becomes a habit, a way.

I grabbed this jug full under just those circumstances. They were there, they were flowering, they were picked.

It’s a mix of buttercups, knautia, alchemilla, geranium, sweet rocket, chive flowers and daisy (I have forgotten which daisy plant it is but maybe it’s a leucanthemella?) Cheerful and perfect.

Allium cristophii with the macro lens. I think it looks like a cluster french castles.

We used this blog post and made our own.

All he needed was a denim neckerchief and we’d match perfectly…

Bee on knautia. Marco lens again.

Home grown radish.

Taken with my phone. I did tweak the brightness setting to bring out the blue and darken the foreground.

My version of overnight oats and bircher muesli.

There we go.

Another weekend another breakfast bagel concoction.

One of the most interesting flavour combinations we tried while over in the US was avocado with eggs. It seemed all wrong to me but tastes great so I tried it on the bagels today. I added sliced tomato on top of the avocado and then the eggs.

I topped the stack off with some Quorn bacon.

We did try one with tomato ketchup instead of the fresh tomatoes but for this combination fresh was better.

Mmm… loving this breakfast sandwich thing.

Hello pizza number twenty five.

I can’t say that just because they haven’t appeared here we haven’t been eating them. But we are creatures of habit and we have been eating the same old, same old pizzas!

But here was a new one.

Simplicity itself. Three ingredients for the topping plus seasonings. Mozzarella, Mushrooms and Asparagus. The mushrooms were lightly fried before adding onto the top. The flavours worked so well together and it was delicious and we will be making it again.

It’s hard to get an impression of the scale of this impact crater from photos. Actually it was hard while we were stood right there on the top because you can’t judge the scale.

The internet images and the wiki page are worth a look to realise the size and amazingness of this big old hole in the ground!

There was a very detailed and informative museum and you could go on a led tour of the rim which took you about a quarter of the way round the crater. The guides were very knowledgable and it was a good visit all round.

So another one can be crossed off!