Hello Dear Readers,
It's been a busy November so far here on the Putney/Barnes border. Kew is wrapping up its IncrEdibles festival, and dismantaling their pumpkin display. Since I have quite a few friends with the inside track to what's what at Kew, I was convinced to go out and rescue some pumpkins from the compost heap. Not DIRECTLY from the compost heap, but from going there from the waterlilly house.....
12 Pumpkins. I'm taking them home two by two on my bike, here are some, and I already made one into pumpkin pie squrares, with enough left over for a pumpkin pie smoothie for breakfast and a homemade pumpkin spice latte! And there is pumpkin soup, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin pasta, pumpkin oatmeal.....good thing they last. That big blue one is apparently a New Zealand variety, and it is EXACTLY the shade I want to paint the trim on my closet!
Notice the lovely new kitchen tap? Put that in all by myself I did. When this botany thing stops working out for me, I'm totally going into plumbing, it's like solving a maze/puzzle. So cool.
We were also very lucky to have another visitor, my Dad, who stopped by on his way from Afghanistan to Colorado to see my mother, then to Boston to see my sister's family. He is very into World War II history so we went to Bletchley Park where all the code breaking went on. They have built from scratch one of the "bombs" used to crack the Enigma code,and when we were there one of the WRNS who had worked at the park during the war was talking about how they used to use them. Pretty cool.
We also took Dad to the Italian place which makes 3 foot long pizzas, and to the Lofty Turtle, which is supposed to be an American style bar based on some in New York. Here is his proudly standing under the Sam Adams sign, his favorite.Only two weeks to go until we visit my sister's family in Boston for Thanksgiving! It will be my first Thanksgiving in America in 3 years, and the first time I've been back to the US since my sister's wedding two years ago. We are most looking forward to going to the grocery store, Panera and The Olive Garden..... oh and seeing my new niece of course. And my sister. But the food also.
I've also been busy working on Chris's Sweater, already have one sleeve done, see below. I know! Nearly 13 years together, now we've bought a house, it's time he had a hand-knit sweater. I just hope he likes it, he is SOOOOOO fussy!
I also cycled into Oxford Street yesterday to meet up with Nina and Hannah, who was a Sandwich Student (kind of like an intern, she didn't sell sandwiches.....) at Kew when I started. It was really nice to see her again and catch up on what she's been doing. She traveled in Australia for a year, then Asia and Africa, and plans to go to the Middle East next. Why did I waste all that time working when I was young, I want to see all those places too!
Cheers!
