Picnic

The brief spell of summery weather is over - there's a cold wind howling outside as I write this now. But while the temperatures were up, I got to enjoy the outdoors with a picnic in the park.



I got there on my new bicycle.
 

Ate in the sunshine, surrounded by clear blue skies and trees in bud...

Spring Refresh

It's been so unusually warm for this time of year, that we've pulled out our Spring clothes much earlier than usual.

Hello to sneakers again:

Still splattered with glaze from last year's pottery classes.

Hello to Spring clothes too:

I bought this light cotton one-piece in Tokyo a couple of years ago.

We also spent the weekend doing a big Spring clean of the living room, rearranging the furniture and de-cluttering. Our home feels refreshed and more spacious now. Spring renewal!

Peas

Shelling fresh peas for dinner:


Today was a bright, warm day with lots of sunshine. Took a long walk to the bookstore. The sidewalks were filled with people. People in t-shirts. People in sunglasses. People eating and drinking on patios. People out of winter hibernation. Suddenly it's a different city!

The Seeds Have Arrived

My order of seeds arrived!

Top row are veggies for my mom who rents a small plot of land every year to grow food.
Bottom row are flower seeds for my balcony.



Seeds for mom: sugar snap peas (early and mid-season varieties), lettuces, black kale (yum!), spinach and carrots (Royal Chantenay - sounds fancy, no?). She also grows lots of garlic, tomatoes, onions and Korean veggies like 무 ("moo" - radish) and herbs like 깻잎 ("ggaennip" - Korean perilla).

For myself, I got two kinds of morning glories - Heavenly Blue (mostly bright blue) and Persian Star (mostly pale blue). I think they'll look nice mixed together. Other repeat flowers from previous years are nasturtiums and sweet peas. New ones are marigold (Lemon Gem - edible!), baby's breath and summer forget-me-nots.

Pizza

Home made pizza is delicious! I can go crazy with toppings I like and make the crust as thin as I want.



The dough recipe is from Joe Pastry. He shapes his pizzas into rough circles by hand, but I roll mine out because I like a really thin crust. He also has a fancy brick oven, which I don't obviously have in my apartment, but an upside down baking sheet makes a good enough hot surface to bake the pizza on.

This one has pineapple, spicy salami, provolone, sweet onions, tomatoes and dinosaur kale.
(I love dinosaur kale. I've been putting it in everything lately!)