the fastest way to brighten up a pair of shoes: clip-on flowers


mount pleasant farmer's market: today's picks -- asparagus, lettuce, strawberries


and mint from a lovely neighbour

preparing nopales (cactus)


remove all the spines and then boil for a couple of hours to remove the gluey substance....


now the nopales are ready to be cooked/prepared....



huevos mexicanos by chef g










a wonderful blog -- sunday suppers -- great recipes, styling and photographs




the chelsea flower show opens to the public today. i am gutted i am not there. years ago i joined the royal horticultural society (i knew back then that i would turn out to be a garden dork) but never made it to chelsea. now i live 5000 miles away i am kicking myself at missed opportunities -- not to mention the fact that it's one year where the sun is shining like crazy (it's usually wiped out on at least one day with rain, hello british weather).


paris's champs-elysee was transformed this past weekend into the most amazing and gigantic farmers market. i would have loved to have experienced that. what a transformation it would have been to behold -- 6 lanes of crazy parisian traffic transformed into probably the largest stretch of market ever!  the french farmers were reminding parisian folk of the importance of their currently struggling farm industry.


i would be lost without somewhere of my own to garden. even though we have no real flower beds with soil deeper than a few inches, we have something and that is better than nothing!

i spend hours in our garden, surrounded by pots and planters full of clematis, sedum, blueberries, strawberries, wisteria, verbena, rosemary, lavender... the list goes on. we have a large maple tree that has doubled in size in three years, and a young fig tree that is almost bursting out of its pot in only its second year with us.

weeding, trimming, planting -- it all gives me an enourmous sense of peace, as well as accomplishment. to plant a tiny seed, see it germinate, plant it out and then watch it grow --that is one of the best feelings in the world for me.

i may not have much in common with my mother, but in this department, i am so much more like her than i realised.

if i am stressed, sad or even angry, being constructive in the garden irons out the wrinkles and kinks.

this writer agrees that gardening can indeed be the best form of therapy.
Ile Flottante

my first ever attempt at making ile flottante... it was surprisingly simple but next time i will make the meringues larger and the creme anglaise a little thinner.

supper with friends

scallops over a tomato compote with champagne beurre blanc, followed by roast beef and potato gratin




Lyon Bakery got a mention and some very positive reviews via Chowhound! Very happy to be mentioned in this great food blog.

If you get chance, do check out the summer stall at Union Station--it's only there until the end of the summer!

Lyon has both a Facebook and Twitter account now.

the homemade marmalade was a success!



i took my sister to Lyon Bakery today and we had a go making boules -- it was much harder than we thought!